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From: tv@praxis.co.uk (Tony Voss)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: US Federal Software Projects - request for reference
Message-ID: <4021@newton.praxis.co.uk>
Date: 9 May 89 19:19:12 GMT
Sender: news@praxis.co.uk
Reply-To: tv@praxis.co.uk (Tony Voss)
Organization: Praxis Systems plc, Bath, UK
Lines: 19

There are some figures in popular circulation in the UK reportedly
originating from the US GAO concerning a survey of 'some US Federal
Software Projects'.  These figures (at least the version I have) claim
to show that, of the projects surveyed:

47%   $3.2M    delivered but were never used
29%   $2.0M    were paid for but never delivered
19%   $1.3M    had to be abandoned or reworked
3%    $0.2M    were used after change
<2%   $0.1M    were used as delivered

This is startling stuff, and excellent to drive home the need to
improve things.  But no one I know has been able to attribute the
figures to a source I would trust.  Everyone got them from somewhere
else.

Please can anyone give me a source?

Tony Voss