Information Systems Failures : Can we make professionals more responsible ? 1

Information Systems (IS) fail with alarming regularity despite the many efforts by the Software Engineering community over the last 40 years to understand and to minimise failures. The impact of Information Systems failure results in financial losses but more importantly in loss of life. As modern society depends increasingly on Information and Communication technologies it is imperative that systems are reliable, accurate, timely and cost-effective. These qualities are often recognised by their absence. When things go wrong it is normal to look for the causes of failure but it is also necessary to identify who is responsible. Apportioning blame and responsibility has become a norm, and the culture of litigation has been permeating many societies in the past decades. It is therefore surprising that no one was found personally responsible (liable) for past failures of some safety critical systems (London Ambulance Disaster) or systems leading to huge financial loss (Arianne 5, Tokyo Stock Exchange). This is of concern, especially if future IS professionals become insensitive to failure, and if they develop a culture of not taking personal responsibility for their actions. In this paper we explore some of the main reasons for systems and project failures, reported by researchers and practitioners with the view to contributing to the discussions surrounding the need for professional responsibility. We discuss the concept of responsibility in a legal context, examining how the law is applied to establish liability for one’s behaviour. We argue that the increasing importance of IS professionals may merit the need for regulatory bodies similar to what obtains for some established professions like medicine and law. We further discuss the difficulty of applying such regulatory mechanisms to IS professionals. Finally, we conclude that the need for IS professionals to become more responsible and accountable to society, as IS plays an increasingly critical role in our lives, may justify IS professional regulatory bodies in the future. 1 Georgiadou, E. and George, C. (2006), Information Systems Failures: Can we make professionals more responsible? In R Dawson, E Georgiadou, P Linecar, M Ross and S Staples (Eds), Software Quality Management XIV, Perspectives in Software Quality, Proceedings of the 14th International Software Quality Management (SQM) conference, 10-12th April 2006, Southampton Solent University, Southampton UK, (British Computer Society), pp 257-266. Software Quality Management XIV, 2006 258