PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

While failures in software are perhaps one of the more quickly excused types of defects (after all, it is surely much easier to forget to free memory than it is to miscalculate the amount of weight a bridge can hold), they are not immune to causing immense amount of damage. The integration of software into millions of modern electromechanical devices, combined with the fallibility of its developers allows room for a wide margin of error. The London Ambulance Service's (LAS) 1992 computer aided dispatch (CAD) software system failure is one instance of the considerable negative effect that a small error in software can have on a large population of people. A careful examination of the events surrounding the incident, however, suggests that there was more to the issue than just an error in the software. Rather, the overall carelessness with which the application's development was approached from its conception set the stage for such a grand failure. ("London Ambulance Service, 65-88)

The London Ambulance Service

In 1992, the LAS provided ambulance service to 6.8 million people living in a 600 square mile area. Of its 318 emergency ambulances, an average of 212 were in service at any given time, in addition to 445 transport ambulances, one helicopter, and a motorcycle response unit. A total of 70 ambulance stations which employed 2746 staff members housed these vehicles. The entire system was managed from a central location at the LAS Headquarters in Waterloo. On average, between 2000 and 2500 calls were received daily, 60% of which requests for emergency services. The LAS devoted 55% of its staff and 76% of its budget specifically to emergency response. The LAS remains the "largest ambulance service in the world that does not directly charge its patients for its services".

Existing System

In the mid-1980s, the LAS emergency dispatch system was run completely manually and consisted of three main tasks: (London Ambulance Service, 65-88)

Call Taking

When a call requesting emergency ambulance service was received, the call taker filled out a paper form, found the caller's location on a map, and then put the form on a conveyor belt

Resource Identification

The conveyor belt took the forms to another LAS employee who analyzed the locations and statuses of ambulances in the call's region. He then assigned the call to an available unit and wrote the assignment on the form. : (London Ambulance Service, 65-88)

Resource Mobilization

Finally, a dispatcher made contact with the ambulance to which the call was assigned and provided the operator(s) with the details of the call.

Looking back on this system from the perspective of 2006, in which computers dominate everyday life, a manual system that relies on people's memories, paper, and human reasoning for optimal resource utilization seems silly. Indeed, even at the time, some of these inefficiencies were acknowledged and a new, computer-based system was proposed.

London Stock Exchange Taurus System, 1993

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