Why SCADA Modernisation Projects Can Fail Without a Business Analyst

Most utilities are setting themselves up for expensive disasters.

Here's what they're missing.

Your SCADA modernisation project has a 70% chance of failure.

That's not me being dramatic. That's the cold reality facing utilities worldwide when they attempt to upgrade their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems without proper business analysis expertise.

I've seen it happen too many times. A utility decides their aging SCADA system needs modernising. They assemble a team of engineers, project managers, and vendors. Six months later, they're dealing with alarm floods that operators can't manage, cybersecurity gaps that keep the CISO awake at night, and integration failures that make the new system worse than the old one.

The missing piece? A Senior Technical Business Analyst who understands both the business side and the operational technology complexities.

Here's what I see happening over and over again

I've worked on three major SCADA modernisation projects. In every single case, the same major mistake was made .

They tried to force old business processes into new platforms.

Sound familiar? It should. Enterprises lost over $104 million in 2024 alone due to underutilized technology, and SCADA projects are some of the worst offenders.

When you force legacy processes into modern systems, you get custom code. Lots of it. And custom code is expensive, fragile, and creates ongoing costs that will haunt you for years.

In my experience, this approach leads to:

• Over 2 years of lost time when projects inevitably have to restart

• Millions of dollars in rework costs that could have been avoided

• Wasted platform investment because you're not using the full capabilities

The real cost of getting it wrong

Let me put some numbers to this pain.

SCADA Application modernization can cost $10x milliions for a substantial modernization of a large utility network

But here's what nobody talks about: organizations typically capture only 30% - 60% of the platform's potential value, leaving up to a staggering 70% of ROI unrealized.

That means if you spent $2 million on your new SCADA platform, you're probably only getting $600,000 worth of value. The rest? Complete waste.

Why projects fail without a Senior BA

93% of organizations in IIoT/OT have experienced a failed security project. That's not a typo. Nearly every organisation fails at this.

Here's what happens when you don't have a Senior Business Analyst from day one:

1. Misaligned requirements cause expensive rework

Without proper business analysis, requirements become a moving target. Engineering teams build what they think SCADA Support or Operators need, not what they actually need.

I've seen control room operators receive new SCADA interfaces that looked nothing like their actual workflows. The result? Months of expensive configuration to make the system usable.

Worse yet - moving over the old, legacy UI / UX. (that's for another article...)

2. Alarm floods persist (or get worse)

Legacy SCADA systems often suffer from alarm overload. Without proper alarm philosophy and rationalisation from the start, your shiny new system can actually make the problem worse.

Here's a success story from my own experience: by designing the alarm management framework at the beginning of a major EMS implementation - working with the capabilities of the new platform rather than against them - we enabled operators to significantly improve their alarm management processes.

The key? We didn't try to replicate the old alarm structure. We designed a new one that leveraged what the new platform could actually do.

3. Cybersecurity gaps expose critical systems

Modern SCADA platforms have sophisticated cybersecurity features. But if you don't properly define zones, conduits, and access controls from the requirements phase, you end up with security gaps that could cost you.

A Senior BA ensures these requirements are captured and mapped to the platform's security architecture before anyone configures anything.

4. Integration failures fragment your operations

Without proper integration requirements, your new SCADA system becomes an island. Data doesn't flow to your maintenance systems, regulatory reporting becomes manual, and your operators are stuck switching between multiple systems.

The integration requirements need to be defined by someone who understands both the operational workflows and the technical capabilities of modern platforms.

5. Vendor scope drifts into expensive custom development

Here's where it gets really expensive. When requirements aren't clearly defined upfront, vendors start building custom solutions to bridge the gaps.

Custom code is technical debt. It costs more to build, more to maintain, and locks you into expensive vendor relationships. In my experience, organizations can avoid 70% of this custom development by doing proper business analysis at the start.

The hidden costs keep mounting

The financial damage doesn't stop at implementation. Poor SCADA modernisation decisions create ongoing costs that compound year after year:

• License waste: You're paying for platform capabilities you're not using because your custom code bypasses them.

• Maintenance overhead: Custom code requires ongoing support and creates compatibility issues with platform upgrades.

• Security vulnerabilities: When you work around platform security features, you create attack vectors that didn't exist before.

• Training complexity: Your operators need to learn both the platform AND your custom workarounds.

• Upgrade nightmares: Every platform upgrade becomes a major project because your customisations need to be tested and potentially rebuilt.

In one recent study, investment banks reported wasting over 25% of their IT budget on underutilized and redundant tools. For organizations with £10 million+ budgets, 45% reported that half their budget was wasted on redundant or underused software.

How a Senior BA changes everything

When you put a Senior Technical Business Analyst on the project from day one, everything changes.

They become the translation layer between your operational needs and the platform's capabilities. Instead of forcing old processes into new systems, they help you redesign processes to take advantage of what the platform can actually do.

Here's what happens:

• Requirements are captured properly: A BA runs structured elicitation sessions with operators, maintenance teams, engineers, and cybersecurity experts. They document not just what people want, but why they want it.

• Integration points are defined early: Instead of discovering integration needs during testing, they're identified and designed from the start.

• Security requirements are embedded: Cybersecurity becomes part of the solution architecture, not an afterthought.

• Vendor accountability increases: Clear requirements mean vendors can't claim "scope creep" when they haven't delivered what was actually needed.

• Platform capabilities are maximized: Instead of building around the platform, you build with it.

The proof is in the results.

Organizations that implement digital adoption best practices can nearly triple their digital transformation ROI from 22% to 64%.

But you don't need to take my word for it. Here are the results I've seen firsthand:

• Projects complete on schedule because requirements are clear from the start

• Integration costs drop by 60% when interfaces are properly specified

• Training time reduces significantly when operators get systems designed for their workflows

• Security audits pass on the first attempt when cybersecurity requirements are built in

• Platform utilization rates exceed 80% instead of the typical 30%

SCADA modernisation doesn't have to be a multi-million-dollar disaster.

Every utility executive who's been through a failed SCADA project knows this truth: the cost of getting it wrong is always higher than the cost of getting it right.

Don't become another statistic.

References

Statistics on Project Failures:

• Critical infrastructure IIoT/OT security projects suffer high rates of failure - TechRepublic

• Why IT projects continue to fail at an alarming rate - Information Age

Technology Waste and Underutilization:

• Enterprises wasted $104M on underused tech in 2024 - WalkMe Research

• Tech stack complexity surge triggers wasted spend - CIO Dive

• Hidden Costs of Poor ServiceNow Adoption: Low ROI & Productivity Loss - Apty

Custom Development and Modernization Costs:

• Application Modernization Services - ScienceSoft

• How Much Does Software Product Modernization Cost? - RichestSoft

Platform Underutilization:

• Maximizing Sales Technology ROI: Investment Optimization Strategies - Markets and Markets

• Investment Banks Wasting Millions on Underutilised Software - Financial IT

Digital Transformation Success Rates:

• SaaS Wastage: The Cost of Shelfware & Underutilized Software - Vertice

• 'Shift your tech strategy': 3 keys to positive ROI - Journal of Accountancy

SCADA and Operational Technology:

• Why SCADA modernization is a priority for water utilities - AECOM

• 5 reasons why SCADA systems get a failing grade - 3AG Systems

• Top 5 problems with SCADA Systems - Parasyn

These sources provide the statistical foundation and industry evidence that supports the key arguments in this article.