HMM - Which problem is the worst?

This one (courtesy of WWW.CIO.com) takes your breath away, as to how many dimensions a disaster can have:

"Hiring a vendor, CNSI, that had no experience in developing Medicaid claims systems was the first mistake. And that was compounded by the decision to build a new and relatively unproven technology platform for the entire system rather than, as other states have done, integrating a Web-based portal with back-end legacy systems. Thirdly, IT switched over to the new system overnight with no backup system in case something went wrong. And making matters worse, no end-to-end testing or training was conducted before the switch over. Indeed, the story of the Maine Medicaid Claims System is a classic example of how not to develop, deploy and manage an advanced Web services system."

• But the intricacies of the Medicaid program continued to thwart progress. Thompson needed a business owner who could clarify Medicaid business processes for the IT staff. Last October, Dr. Laureen Biczak, the medical director for MaineCare, agreed to take on that responsibility.
• For example, testing the system from end to end was dismissed as an option. 10 to the nth power, as to how many times this idiocy has been repeated. Where n is greater than 5!
  
• HHS dismissed the idea of running a parallel system as too costly and complicated. This is is another common mistake
  

Fallout implications for the business folk:

• [Bad IT managmement/erroneous expectations] Cost the state of Maine close to $30 million.

hello - beginning

I'm trying to leave a record of " lessons available to be learned" to quote a past mentor. I would encourage all posts documenting bad behavior in the IT space, specifically around poor project and CIO/CTO level management. I'm would appreciate emphasizing bad behaviors, and easily recognizable mistakes. I'm a 10 year veteran at this point, and will be trying add some of my own experiences.

cheers