If You’re Not Failing at ICT4D, You’re Not Trying Hard Enough

For last class, the readings focused on how to avoid ICT4D failures, but according to an ICTWorks article, failure is in fact a good sign in this field. It seems backwards – failure usually indicates a waste of effort, time, and money; but according to the ICT4D professionals behind “Fail Faire DC,” failure brings to light some glaring faults in project planning and implementation and lessons can be learned for future success.

The event, sponsored by the World Bank, Development Gateway, Inveneo, Jhpiego, and Facilitating Change, brought together individuals in ICT4D to openly discuss their failures and collaborate about ways to avoid similar setbacks in the future. Wayan Vota (who we have talked about in class) opened the conference and was followed by a series presentations of representatives from different development organizations including Plan International , the World Bank,  and Development Gateway. At the end of the night, the light-hearted nature of the event was continued with an XO laptop presented to a representative from USAID for best ICT4D failure.

The event has made failure more acceptable in the international development community and spawned a greater conversation around failure and the need to fail in order to expand in ICT4D, according to the folks at ICTWorks.

Shortly after hosting the Fail Faire, Wayan Vota posted these “10 Levels of Failure” on his website:

1) Catastrophic Failure: Failure a scale so vast as to encompass the lives and livelihoods of generations to come. Examples: the meltdowns at Fukushima Dai-1 and Chernobyl; building codes in Haiti before January 2010. Possible future catastrophic fails: asteroids, climate change.

2) Abject Failure: This failure marks you and you may not ever fully recover from it. People lose their lives, jobs, respect, or livelihoods. Examples: British Petroleum’s Gulf oil spill; mortgage-backed securities.

3) Start-Up Failure: A big bet backed by money and momentum, that wipes out both when the market shifts or the business model hits reality. Examples: Pets.com; Jumo.org; Solyndra

4) Structural Failure: It cuts – deeply – but it doesn’t permanently cripple your identity or enterprise. Examples: Apple iPhone 4′s antenna; Windows Vista.

5) Glorious Failure: Going out in a botched but beautiful blaze of glory – catastrophic but exhilarating. Example: Jamaican bobsled team.

6) Epic Failure: This is a failure that brings joy to all and perhaps even fame and stardom for the fail succeeder. Examples: Celebrity antics; Youtube videos of people falling down; FAILblog

7) Common Failure: Everyday instances of screwing up that are not too difficult to recover from. The apology was invented for this category. Examples: oversleeping and missing a meeting at work; forgetting to pick up your kids from school; overcooking the tuna.

8) Version Failure: Small failures that lead to incremental but meaningful improvements over time. Examples: Linux operating system; evolution.

9) Predicted Failure: Failure as an essential part of a process that allows you to see what it is you really need to do more clearly because of the shortcomings. Example: the prototype — only by creating imperfect early versions of it can you learn what’s necessary to refine it.

10) Opportunity Failure: The failure to take risks that leaves you wanting and is usually associated with sentences that begin with, “I should have…” Examples: Not buying Apple stock in 2006; Not selling Nokia stock in 2010; Not getting off your butt today.

These approaches to failure speak volumes about the people behind the ICT4D that are driving innovation and development across the globe today. Approaching the world’s toughest problems with a sense of humor and dose of reality is a necessity and I think it is really cool that movers and shakers in this field can acknowledge their failures while working towards success.

30% Success Rate: Pretty Impressive

ICTworks recently published an article analyzing the development efforts of the World Bank, and the success (or lack thereof) the organization has achieved thus far with the $4.2 billion it has contributed to Africa’s ICT sector during the 2003-2010 period. After this week’s readings which highlighted common causes of failure in ICT projects, “Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) – A Design Challenge?” in particular, the name of this article caught my eye. Entitled “A Great Success: World Bank has a 70% failure rate with ICT4D projects to increase universal access”, the author argues that the World Bank’s mere 30% success rate in this sector is quite an achievement.

He explains the difficult circumstances World Bank must operate under, including challenging environments for implementation, almost negligible private sectors and local opposition to any type of reform. He goes on to commend World Bank leaders for having the bravery and humility to accurately and truthfully assess the organizations successes and failures, setting the foundation and taking the necessary steps to improve for the future.

The perspective of this author, though unexpected, was a good learning experience for me. World Bank, such a renowned and widely supported organization, undoubtedly implements most, if not all of the 10 sections of Plan International’s Checklist for successful ICT programs. I never would have imagined that, despite all of these precautions, research and effort, the potential for failure is still so high.  After reading it, I found myself agreeing with the author in finding a 30% success rate an impressive achievement.

 

Organization Profile: ICTWorks

ICTWorks is an Information, Communications, and Technology company located in South Africa that is owned solely by women.  In fact, according to ICTWorks, the staff represents the demographics of South Africa and encompasses over 70% of the previously disadvantaged population.  The organization began in 1999 when Xoliswa Kakana decided to create a new organization that would give IT services to the population.  Currently, she serves as the Chairperson for the organization.  The rest of the highly qualified executive team includes Sindile Ncala (Chief Executive Officer), Margaret Sibiya (Executive Director), and Maretha Britz (Executive Director).  While these consist of paid positions, the company offers their employees and family members free access to their services through the ICT-Cares Welbeing Programme.  The executive team and the employees work together to achieve the goals of the company — “to use extensive skills and experience to create wealth for clients, business partners, and employees and to lift the profile of women and PDI’s [previously disadvantaged individuals] in the world of IT” (ICTWorks).  Overall, the company hopes to make a great impact by increasing the livelihoods of the population of South Africa.

The company is partnered with many other organizations world-wide including Oracle, HP, Fujitsu, Deloitte, Vixerg, Software, Belay, ICAS, Ordained IT Solutions, Eon Consulting, and Maternaips.  These organizations allow the company to expand their horizons and offer more resources to the population.  For example, through an alliance with Oracle and its partners, the company was able to set up an internship program that gives students the opportunity to learn skills necessary in today’s IT industry through specific training and hands on experiences in various businesses.  In this way, the organization is not only helpful for providing funding, but also is committed to training individuals about IT.  Ultimately, with the support of this many partners, ICTWorks is able to make an even greater impact on the South African communities.  Furthermore, since it’s beginning, the company has also connected with a long list of clients, some of which include Sasol, South African Department of Defence, Post Office, MTN, South African Department of Land Affairs, National Research Foundation, FIFA, South African National Treasury Department, etc.

The company provides these clients with various consulting services to help with development and implementation of projects.  One of these includes change management services through which the company performs a “change readiness assessment” of your organization and then develops a “change management plan” to ensure sustainability of an initiative.  The plan targets all issues including leadership coaching, communication planning, stakeholder management, etc.  Beyond the initial planning, ICTWorks provides “project management services” which look more closely at the objectives and make sure they are clearly linked to the goals of the project.  Furthermore, the service looks closely at the framework of the project and tracks its status over time through evaluations.  On a more broad spectrum, the company also offers “ICT strategy services” to look at the overall vision of a business.  Some of ICTWorks business solutions include systems providing vehicle scheduling for public transport companies and applications for their business partner Oracle.  Also, some of their ITs include SMS services, web and portal development services, security solutions, architecture development applications, software services, and sensor-based ITs such as radio frequency identification.

From my assessment of this company, I believe it is a good resource for ICT projects that are just getting started or are having trouble with the sustainability of their project in the long-run.  When searching for ICTWorks current projects, many were linked with Inveneo, an enterprise dedicated to providing ICTs to those who need it.  The difficulty in finding specific ICTWorks administered projects lead me to believe that the company worked mainly with other organizations.  In this way, the company is largely dedicated to providing the behind-the-scenes services necessary for a project!

Source: ICTWorks Website