The emphasis is shifting from finding the system that precisely matches requirements to delivery capability - finding a core system that can be implemented with the minimum of trauma. Experienced core banking project managers will tell you how each time
they complete a project they carry forward their success secrets to the next project - and their next project will be the perfect project. But the world, the banks, and the projects change and each time there are different constraints and new challenges. Each
time the project managers find themselves up against a harder backstop – increasing scale, worsening software quality, budget and resource limitations and customer expectations that are unrealistic. The stakeholders get scared and compare changing the core
banking system to performing a heart transplant, yet refuse to learn from history. There are however some enduring secrets that can guarantee failure.
- Select a system that is a poor match for your needs without extensive modification.
- Make as many changes to the software as possible (remember that each extra change increases complexity exponentially).
- Fail to get the backing of the top management of the bank.
- Be over-optimistic in your estimates of effort required (does it really matter if you miss a few deadlines?)
- Appoint a small part-time project team (with no one who has done it before in the team). Outsource critical tasks.
- Ensure that you employ a set of clones with the same technical skills and no full-time business users from each business area (and definitely no skilled accountant).
- Do not implement an industry-standard process reference model.
- Be careful to make sure that the new systems resemble the old one that you are going to throw away as much as possible.
- Keep the amount of testing to the minimum.
- Ensure that all users receive insufficient training and do not obtain their buy-in.