Sunday, December 6, 2009

Software Implementation Gone Awry—As Depicted in These 15 Oscar-nominated Films for Best Picture

As a research analyst for TEC and a contributor to its Blog, I sometimes get the opportunity to mix business-related issues with common everyday pleasures. This past weekend (that incidentally turned out to be a complete write-off weather-wise), and being the movie buff that I am, I decided to sit back and watch a few classic films. After having done so, I was curious about what some of the past Oscar winners were for Best Picture. So I sauntered over to my computer and printed out the list. Reading through it, I just had to laugh, because many of the titles struck a chord with me in terms of some of my experiences with software implementation projects.
So, to add a little humor to your day—especially if you’re from the upper northeast of the United States or eastern Canada where the rain may be finally “getting to you”—I’ve added a little of my own take on what these movies would be about if they were written with enterprise software implementations in mind.
Even if you’re not a movie buff, but know a little about the trials and tribulations of software deployments, I’m sure you’ll get a kick outta these! For true movie fans, I’ve even added the years these films won.1) All Quiet on the Western Front (1929-1930) – the hopeful outcome of your enterprise software implementation.2) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) – users, users everywhere, and not a computer in the place working properly!3) It Happened One Night (1934) – yeah, the evening of “Go Live”.4) Gone with the Wind (1939) – that’s what happened to the money that we spent on this “piece-of-crap” system.5) The Lost Weekend (1945) – that’s how long it took for us to recover the data and get the system up and running again.6) From Here to Eternity (1953) – the hope for our future with our new 1.6-million-dollar enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.7) In the Heat of the Night (1967) – as the servers overheated and the smoke thickened, I decided if I made it to the airport fast enough, I could get out of the city before sunrise!8) One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – yeah, the project implementation manager! He’s spending some time at Betty Ford.9) Rocky (1976) – need I say more?10) Dances with Wolves (1990) – really more of what happens prior to implementing the software whilst whittling your long list down to a mere few.11) Unforgiven (1992) – this is what’s going to happen if we don’t get this working soon.12) Titanic (1997) – the ship is sinking, but as captain of this ship, I will make sure it goes all the way to the bottom.13) Million Dollar Baby (2004) – that’s how much we spent on the new system!14) Crash (2005) – not necessarily the way I wanted “Go Live” day to end.15) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – the vendor from whom we purchased this wonderful application is laughing all the way to the bank.

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