Trillions Spent, Still Failing: Why IT Needs Human-Centered Thinking
Despite decades of methodological advances and trillions of dollars in global investment, IT system developments, operations and modernizations continue to fail at remarkably consistent rates. This talk argues that these failures are not primarily technical, but systemic, arising from a persistent neglect of human-centered engineering. Risk increases as software systems grow in complexity. Humans lose insight into their operation, their ability to control them decreases, as does the time to react relative to system behavior. Automation, while reducing routine workload, often exacerbates this problem by magnifying rare, but high-consequence failures. AI will exacerbate the inherent automation paradox problem in novel ways. The presentation calls for an honest, professional reassessment of how we design, evaluate, and govern IT systems—treating human cognitive limits as priority engineering constraints rather than afterthoughts.
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- Starts 04 January 2026 05:00 AM UTC
- Ends 05 February 2026 01:00 AM UTC
- No Admission Charge
Speakers
Robert N. Charette
Trillions Spent, Still Failing: Why IT Needs Human-Centered Thinking
Despite decades of methodological advances and trillions of dollars in global investment, IT system developments, operations and modernizations continue to fail at remarkably consistent rates. This talk argues that these failures are not primarily technical, but systemic, arising from a persistent neglect of human-centered engineering. Risk increases as software systems grow in complexity. Humans lose insight into their operation, their ability to control them decreases, as does the time to react relative to system behavior. Automation, while reducing routine workload, often exacerbates this problem by magnifying rare, but high-consequence failures. AI will exacerbate the inherent automation paradox problem in novel ways. The presentation calls for an honest, professional reassessment of how we design, evaluate, and govern IT systems—treating human cognitive limits as priority engineering constraints rather than afterthoughts.
Biography:
Robert N. Charette is a Life Senior Member of IEEE’s Computer Society and Society on Social Implications of Technology, among others. A recently retired ECE engineer, Charette is recognized as a pioneer in computing systems engineering and risk management. In addition to being a long-time contributing editor to IEEE Spectrum and Computer magazines, he has written numerous ground-breaking articles and books on understanding and managing the intersection of computing’s technical, financial, political and social risks. Charette is a U.S. Air Force veteran, an HKN Delta Eta Chapter Member since 1976, Computer Society Golden Core member, and a founding member of the Richmond Computer Society Chapter.
Address:Virginia, United States