"It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system." Machiavelli
There continues to be optimism regarding the extent to which technical novelty (uniqueness, innovation and utilisation new technologies) can be delivered. This is a major source of optimism bias in terms of time, cost and benefits delivery. Advancements in technology (e.g. information and equipment technology) are a form of innovation along with new methodologies (techniques) and systems.
Ideally technology should aid in the delivery of a project, rather than change its requirements. However, this may not be the case for equipment/development projects where the main benefit involves the application of technology to support an existing business. In these types of projects the chosen technology may dictate the requirements, design, limitations, length of development operation and maintenance regime for the project.
New systems should be designed around the current and future needs of a business. Appropriate technologies should be utilised to support the business processes required to address the needs of the business. By developing effective ways of working and making these standard throughout the business it should be possible to gain the full benefit of the supporting technology.
It should be noted that a project that requires the research and development of new technologies to deliver its benefits has no guarantee of delivery and therefore has a high risk of abandonment.6
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
6 The guidance within this paper should not be directly applied for projects involving a large element of research.