Technology Employed In Different Locations Is Not Compatible

People in one location take their technology for granted. Because they are unfamiliar with the systems and technology in other regions, they assume it must be same. After all, everyone has computers and cellular telephones, don’t they? This feeling is sometimes spawned by vendors who tell customers that their technology is in wider use than it really is.

Impact

With different technology, the project scope tends to grow. There must be either an effort to establish interfaces or work to implement the same technology in each location. In one example, there were different and incompatible e-mail systems. Messages were lost before people became aware of the problem. Another impact is that the project must now change the infrastructure or at least address infrastructure issues that were not envisioned when the schedule and budget were established.

Prevention

A technology assessment must be undertaken at the start of the project prior to setting the budget and schedule. Interface issues should be identified and addressed.

Action

If this problem surfaces, it may be necessary to scale back the technology in use. In one case, most locations used Lotus Notes. However, because some locations did not have this software, it was decided to resort to e-mail and to database management systems. Simplification of the technology is often an essential part of the early work on a project.