As the Canadian government embarked on its payroll transformation project, IBM was tasked with customizing software for a complex public service pay system. Pressure to stay on budget led the government to defer or eliminate important functions and cancel a planned pilot test. In the months before the launch in 2016, there were many warnings that the Phoenix pay system wasn’t ready—but the government pressed on anyway.

Phoenixed: Inside Canada’s Payroll Disaster is produced by the GPA and Storythings.

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Time stamps

(00.00) Intro

(03:28) IBM/PeopleSoft

(06:24) The sole bidder

(07:37) Senate hearing

(09:14) Justin Trudeau

(13:56) Failure rates

(18:34) Phoenix goes live

(20:36) Complaints pour in