Analyzing the NHS IT Project Failure: A Project Management Perspective

This report provides a critical analysis of the failed NHS civilian IT project, exploring the reasons behind its failure from a project management perspective. The report begins with an introduction and background of the NHS, followed by a detailed overview of the project's objectives and scope. It then discusses standard criteria for project success and failure, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder involvement, clear requirements, and effective communication. The core of the report involves a critical analysis of the NHS IT project, identifying the astronomical size and lack of stakeholder engagement as primary causes of failure. The analysis includes a discussion of the project's haste, design flaws, and cultural issues. The report concludes with recommendations for future projects, emphasizing the need for proper requirement definition, stakeholder involvement, and a phased approach. The report references various academic sources to support its findings and provides a comprehensive understanding of the project's failure and lessons learned.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
National Health Service (NHS) civilian IT project of England it failed due to its
astronomical size implementation
Student Name:
University Name:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Background of the Company.......................................................................................................2
Background of the Project case...................................................................................................3
Discussion of standard criteria.........................................................................................................3
Critical identification and justification of the criteria......................................................................4
Critical analysis of the case based on the chosen criteria................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This report is based on a particular project case that has been chosen to critically analyze
the criteria to determine the success or failure of projects. The NHS (National Health Service)
civilian IT project has been chosen for this particular study which is considered to be the world’s
largest IT project. The development of the system was left upon a large central team rather than
the stakeholders who were most directly involved with the organization. The case study
illustrates that it was a major failure due to involvement of various risks as it was large in nature
(Harrison and Lock 2017). The discussions in this paper has been carried out to determine the
criteria of project failure along with justification. The analysis of the project case is also
presented in this report to demonstrate the main reasons that caused failure of the project.
Further, the suggestions has been provided for project success in case it is re-run in the near
future.
Background
Background of the Company
NHS (National Health Services) stands for the each of the services related to public
health that are being offered all over the United Kingdom. This organization is funded publicly
for England and it is oldest single payer healthcare system in the whole world. The services
being provided by the organization are comprehensive, universal and free for the citizens of
United Kingdom. The services being offered by NHS includes a wide range of health services
except dental and optical treatment (BrightWork 2016). On 5th July of 1948, NHS was born with
a motive to bring good healthcare for all where hospitals, doctors along with nurses and other
clinical personnel’s were brought together for providing healthcare services. The principle

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objective of the organization was to provide free healthcare services to all and the financing will
be done from taxation. With the rise in technological advancements, NHS has also driven
innovations in the field of patient care. NHS is rising to be more integrated and with the
application of digital technologies, it has ensured longer as well as healthier lives.
Background of the Project case
The project case that has been chosen for this study is related to IT implementation of
NHS for the civilians to integrate the various Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems into a
single system. The case is considered as the largest IT project in public sector of UK that has
been ever attempted which originally was budgeted at £6 billion approximately. The project
aimed at bringing the use of Information technology by NHS into the modern technological
world (Computerweekly.com 2018). The focus was on integration of EHR systems, online
services booking along with computerized prescription systems. The objective of NHS related to
this specific project was to develop a unified system of healthcare for the citizens of England.
The project would have served almost over 40000 GP’s as well as 300 hospitals. The major
reason being identified behind failure of this project was the astronomical size and from the
beginning only it was difficult to successfully accomplish the project (Syal 2013). This particular
case can be taken into account while determining the serious causes that lead to failure of
projects.
Discussion of standard criteria
The common theme that can be gained from the contributions to projects is people which
is considered as an important factor for determining whether a project is success or failure. The
measurement of technical or financial aspects of a project can be considered as important aspect
but only if the project is completed. The involvement of stakeholders is another essential aspect

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for success of any project (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Hence, it is important to take input from
stakeholders at every stage of a project. The success of any project lies within the interaction
being carried out with the range of stakeholders that are associated with the project but are not
directly related to the activities being undertaken to accomplish the project. There is a
requirement to acquire input from the stakeholders regarding their opinions and agendas before
proceeding with execution of a project. The characteristics of a successful project includes well
definition and proper understanding of requirements, proper scheduling along with effective use
of channels for communication (Harrison and Lock 2017). The success of a project also lies with
the clear procedures being followed for reporting, following suitable procedure for managing
changes and effective leadership.
The failure of a project may occur due to various reasons such as expectations that maybe
unrealistic, undefined requirements, improper communications, failure to manage changes, lack
of effective leadership and lack of resource management (Schwalbe 2015). Another major factor
behind the failure of any project is the size which in turn leads to greater complexity thus causing
improper handling of the project. The unavailability of adequate information leads the
Government into unsuccessful management of the IT needs. The outsourcing of projects to
various small or medium sized enterprises to avert risks and be more innovative (Kerzner 2018).
The improper integration of IT in wider policy along with change programmes related to the
business.
Critical identification and justification of the criteria
The work by Hornstein (2015), has represented that failure can happen at any phase of
the IT project development lifecycle. The author has featured a rundown of reasons for inability
to each stage of lifecycle, either by means of Strategy or Tactical. The key stage concerns the

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general point of the project. This is largely done in the opening phases of an IT lifecycle, for
example, in analysis of requirements. The strategic stage refers to how the goal is met, including
the assignments and exercises to be executed to meet the general system. As indicated by Serra
and Kunc (2015), failure rates of large IT projects are higher than small IT projects. It is evident
that large projects have a high risk to be failure since there may be increase in complexity when
the size of task becomes bigger. An IT project with a long lifecycle is liable to changes of
objective which is viewed as a significant factor for failure of a project.
It is evident from analysis of various large IT projects that they often fail however, there
is still debates going between academics and scholars to find out the precise reason (Mir and
Pinnington 2014). In both public as well as private sectors, there is evidence that IT projects fail
due to size. The causes of failure of public IT projects that has been identified are listed as
below:
 Unavailability of adequate information that leads the Government into
unsuccessful management of the IT needs.
 The outsourcing of projects to various small or medium sized enterprises to avert
risks and be more innovative (Kerzner 2018).
 Improper integration of IT in wider policy along with change programmes related
to the business.
 The Government intends to commission large and complex projects for increased
profitability however those strive to survive under changing circumstances
(Kendrick 2015).
 The lack of skills or leadership to manage the IT requirements in the Civil service
leads to failure of projects.

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The lack of skills related to IT and over reliance on contracting the projects to other
enterprises are considered to be the major reason behind failure of IT projects.
Critical analysis of the case based on the chosen criteria
The NHS civilian IT project has been chosen as the case for this study which was
undertaken by NHS to develop a central unified Electronic Health Records system. The project
was a big failure and the major reason being identified is the astronomical size. The system of
systems was developed by a central team which was done by outsourcing the project and there
was no involvement of the stakeholders (Joslin and Muller 2015). The four major stakeholders of
those system is presented as below:
Patients – They use those system for viewing their own test results sitting right at their
home. They feel it easier to access those system for diagnosis rather than visiting the clinic every
time to get their test reports.
Healthcare professionals – They use the system for gaining fast access to the
information about the patients such that those are reliable and accurate.
NHS managers and planners – They use secondary data from those systems for gaining
access to information of high-quality that eventually assists them to target as well as utilize
resources (Computerweekly.com 2018).
Public – They are able to access secondary data such systems for assessment of the
services provided by local hospitals as well as other healthcare service providers and their
performance (BrightWork 2016).
The reasons in context to the failure of NHS civilian IT project is illustrated as below:

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Haste – The rush to progress with the project and gain the benefits that will be delivered
from the project has been the major cause of failure (Syal 2013). The Government has pushed far
to put the project running which has not provided enough time for consultation with the
stakeholders as well as failed to deal with the concerns of confidentiality.
Design – With an end goal to decrease costs and guarantee quick take-up at the local
levels, the administration sought after an overambitious and awkward central model, without
considering the impact upon the satisfaction of users and issues related to confidentiality.
Culture and skills – There was lack of clear direction, application of project management
methodology and an exit strategy. Thus, the pursuing of such an ambitious within a short time
led to system-wide failures (ul Musawir et al. 2017). Moreover, the way of life inside the
Department of Health and government was not helpful for quick recognizable proof and
correction of vital or specialized errors.
Inevitably, new information technologies come up against restriction, both from inside
the segment they affect or without. The most harming feedback of the proposed national EPR
from the mid-1990s onwards was that such a framework undermines to make private medicinal
services data accessible for abuse. Kendrick (2015), cautioned that central databases of
healthcare data would be a target for organizations and governments, while Kerzner (2017),
additionally opines against aggregation of data, referring to various cases of risks postured by the
military and banking areas, and blames the NHS for the season of surging quick down through
wide and dangerous slope.

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Conclusion
From the analysis, it can be said that failure of a project does not depends only on the
complexity or size of a project. There are various other factors associated with failure of a
project such as involvement of stakeholders. In context to the particular case of NHS civilian IT
project, it has been identified that the major reason behind the failure was size and the
stakeholder involvement was not given priority. The development of the system was left upon a
large central team rather than the stakeholders who were most directly involved with the
organization. It has been identified that the stakeholders should have been given the opportunity
to choose their suitable IT systems to meet their requirements and ensure success of the project.
Hence, it can be concluded that there is a requirement to involve the stakeholders at every point
for ensuring success of that project.
Recommendations
The suggestions that can be provided in case the NHS civilian project has to re-run in the
future are presented as below:
Proper definition of requirements – The requirements must be identified and defined
properly prior to starting execution of the project. Proper procedures must be followed to acquire
the requirements from the stakeholders.
Proper involvement of stakeholders – The stakeholders must be aware of deliverable that
will be offered upon completion of the project and the steps that are being taken to conduct the
project. The feedback from the stakeholders must be acquired at every stage of the project so that
they are able to express their concerns and opinions.

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Implementation of proper communication channels – The communication channels
play an important role in demonstrating awareness on the project. The communication during
conduction of the project is an essential aspect for success hence it is important that proper
procedures are followed for communication purposes.

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