Project Libra: To Terminate or not to Terminate
After reading the case study and visiting the Website reference below, help with the following questions.
https://itweek.co.uk/News/11329438 to see the string of news stories related to Project Libra.
1. Identify some of the sources of the problems the project faces.
2. If you were to make the decision on whether or not to terminate this project, what would it be? Justify this position.
Case Study:
The UK government has insisted that it will spend no more money on the troubled Libra project at the Lord Chancellor's department.
Libra combines office infrastructure and a new casework system linking magistrates courts, but the software application was not delivered in July 2001 as planned, and is still delayed.
Libra IT system courts controversy Magistrates' IT system soars to £390m
In response to a parliamentary question Michael Wills, parliamentary secretary at the Lord Chancellor's department, said that the office infrastructure part of the project is now in place at 70 per cent of the magistrates courts.
But he explained that the contract with Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) is currently under re-negotiation and that "it is not yet possible to indicate the outcome".
When asked by Labour MP Derek Wyatt if anything in the Libra contract required the department to fund an overspend, Wills responded: "There is no obligation within the current contract with Fujitsu Services that would require the department to fund an overspend."
The department said that it has so far paid £33m to Fujitsu Services. The cost of the contract has already increased from £183m to £319m due to additional work that the Lord Chancellor's department requested.
Although two companies started bidding for the project in 1997, only one formal bid was received.