IT is not the only area where projects are in trouble according to an article in the January 2009 edition of Scientific American that arrived in my mailbox.
NASA also seems to have trouble with the Mars Science Laboratory project. According to the story costs were underestimated and unrealistic, and there seems to have been a lack of will to keep costs under control. In contrast to normal projects where you calculate a return of investment and you can find a limit to how much you should invest, i don't think it matters what the cost is in the case of the Mars mission.
With IT projects there is often no abort button easily at hand for projects going over budget. In NASA however i would guess that the situation is a bit different. When promising the moon, or Mars as in this case you may end up having to deliver at any cost. Wherther it will succeed to deliver on the promise or not we will have to wait and see.
