The Oxford University researchers examined 1,471 information technology projects, in private and public sectors, comparing budgets and estimated performance benefits with actual costs and results.
The "90/90 Rule" of project schedules goes like this: the first 90 percent of a project takes 90 percent of the time and effort; the remaining 10 percent of the project takes the other 90 percent of the time and effort.
"We are seeing more and more failures," Robert Schware, the bank's lead information technology specialist told delegates at a seminar on e-governance in the Indian technology hub of Bangalore.
It was the kind of assessment that no government organization would have hoped for. After reviewing IT spending and control structures at the Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), in 2001 the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) identified $75 million of IT overspending during the department's five-year outsourcing contract with IBM Global Services. This included $47 million worth of work that was not initially included in the scope of the contract, but was performed with other suppliers.
Read more: Australia: Reviving the Art of the IT Business Case
"It is estimated that approximately 35 per cent of e-government projects in developing countries are total failures, approximately 50 per cent are partial failures -- only some 15 per cent can be fully seen as successes", a senior World Bank official told a seminar on e-governance here today.