University of Vienna’s U:SPACE turning around a failed large project by becoming agile

Abstract

In 2012 the University of Vienna started a project, named Student Service Portal (SSP), to create a new portal for the universtiy´s students, university teachers, and administrative staff. The university signed a fixed price project with an external main contractor. Although a lot of effort was put into writing detailed requirements documents, it remained unclear what the exact scope was. Project management was lacking, technical problems arose, and finally the university and the supplier got caught up in each other’s blame instead of working together. After two years without tangible results the rectorship of the university stopped the project and ordered a restart – this time with an agile approach. The main contractor was replaced. The IT and the business department took over full responsibility for the product together.