Open contracting supporting successful IT procurement

This scoping note contains draft guidance for open contracting in IT procurement.

It uses the case study of the Phoenix Pay System project in Canada as a learning framework and explores how open contracting can help to ensure success.

A new project for processing pay for federal workers in Canada, named ‘Phoenix’ and initially conceived in 2009, was projected to save taxpayers about $70 million annually. So far, however, it’s estimated that the system could cost $1.2 billion by the time it is stabilized, which could take years. 

The Auditor General’s conclusion was that “the building and implementation of Phoenix was an incomprehensible failure of project management and oversight.”