Should modern IT projects really take longer than Victorian feats of engineering? This was the question posed by the veteran observer of the government IT scene, Tony Collins, after reading Adrian Stevens’ interview about the development of Lorenzo on the E-Health Insider website. Stevens said that most IT projects take 10-15 years, so people should take a more realistic view of NPfIT, which has only been going for eight so far.
On his blog, Collins noted that "Brunel’s Great Western Railway took only six years to complete, despite major technical and legislative hurdles." Which is true. Although it’s also true that because it adopted a singular technology (the 7ft 0.25in gauge) in the absence of agreed standards, problems with interoperability meant the work had to be completely redone (as other lines adopted the 4ft 8.5in gauge). History has many lessons. The problem is working out which ones to learn.