The project has to provide sufficient definition to do that and has to use a methodology that is reproducible. It's very much like in basic science. You need someone with a background that has its roots in a structured discipline. It doesn't necessarily have to be technology, but it has to be a discipline that has a sense of structure. A lot of it has to do with the absence of the necessary skill sets.
Project management is a relatively new concept.
Government tends to be decentralized in its approach to project development and only in the last five years has there been recognition of its complexity. Probably most importantly, technology projects have not been viewed as having any need or providing the need for management to be able to interact and make decisions. Y2K demonstrated the need for management involvement on a different level and really reinforced the need for project management. Leigh Middleditch Leigh Middleditch is chief of the Management Information Systems Division at the Baltimore City State Attorney General's Office. He teaches a class in project management at Johns Hopkins University.