Electronic research administration strategies often become mired in the "features wish list" syndrome. In this scenario, large complex system development projects attempt to satisfy every requirement on insanely long lists. The resulting project is invariably expensive, requiring additions of staff, years of development, and an open-ended commitment to maintenance. Sadly, many of these projects fail to deliver even a portion of the original "wish list," despite the effort and expense.
This phenomenon is well known in both higher education and government IT, as illustrated in this artlcle on Veterans Administration CIO Roger Baker in Federal Computer Week.
Baker recalled one incident when he found a commercial package that could meet 80 percent of the stated requirements for a project, but the manager in charge insisted the solution must meet all the requirements.
"I said, well that was your requirement last time and you got zero percent of your requirements over the past 10 years," Baker said. "Would you rather have zero percent or 80 percent?"
The Cayuse approach has been so successful because we focus on a tight set of requirements that are standard across the research industry. We deliver an out-of-the-box solution that satisfies 80 - 90% of common pre-award requirements. We deploy the solution within 6 - 8 weeks. Customers of Cayuse 424 love the system.
Devising a strategy for electronic research success requires making trade-offs between "need to have" and "want to have."
