Twelve years. Multiple contractors. Several audits revealing numerous cost overruns and inefficiencies. Pricetag: approximately $621 million.
Those are just some of the items associated with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation's notorious Sentinel information and case management system, which finally made its public debut yesterday -- though between 18,000 and 21,000 agency users have deployed it daily since July 1.
"The deployment of Sentinel is an important step forward for FBI' information technology," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III, in a prepared statement.
It's a step emerging from numerous stumbles: a mountain of reversals, false starts, and miscalculations that together make a classic case study in poor executive management -- one that will live in textbooks for years to come.
In 2010, blogger Simon Moore listed the many factors that went into the system's disastrous early history. They are classic: lack of clear goals, poor planning, lack of contractor control. And they all point to a central theme of poor management -- what Moore called a "lack of clear ownership":
Tellingly, a project manager was appointed only late into the project, the FBI cycled through 5 people in the CIO role in 4 years and accountability appears generally absent due to decision making by committees instead of knowledgeable individuals. In addition to a lack of accountability at the contractor level, there was a need for clearer accountability within the FBI. Lack of clear accountability structures is a clear theme in failed projects...
Moore's point about lack of ownership is supported by other studies of the project's failure, and it is clearly illustrated when you consider some of the highlights on the project's timeline:
May 2001: The FBI initiates the "Trilogy" project with three goals: to upgrade the FBI hardware and software information infrastructure; to upgrade its communications network; and to improve its case management system.
September 2001: The terrorist attacks of 9/11 call attention to the flaws in the FBI's antiquated case management system. The scope of Trilogy changes from an upgrade to a completely new case management system called the Virtual Case File (VDF) system.
October 2002: In a public posting on InfoSec News, Matthew Patton, a security team member on the Trilogy project, expresses frustration over the lack of security and failure of project participants to heed his warnings. This "whistleblowing" episode, which resulted in Patton being censured and leaving the project, is often referred to as evidence of the poor management Trilogy revealed from its outset.
April 2004: The first two objectives of the original Trilogy project are completed, but the VCF remains mired in problems. A February 2005 Department of Justice audit turns up numerous causes, including "lack of management continuity and oversight." The report sharply criticizes the FBI's inability to create the VCF, despite $170 million and 40 months of development.
April 2005: FBI Director Robert Mueller terminates work on the VCF project and announces plans for the new Sentinel case management system.
March 2010: Mueller announces that the FBI has run into problems with Sentinel and needs to add at least $30 million to the $300 million-plus already allotted to Sentinel. The DOJ slams the FBI for numerous project problems in a detailed audit.
Studying these events reveals a lack of strategic planning and overview from the outset. There was no control over the execution of the plan, either, leaving a vacuum quickly filled by expensive contractors. Staff upheaval and rebellion, high executive turnover, and repeated cost and time overruns still failed to prod the agency to establish a clear chain of command and control.
In the end, it looks as though taking this project in-house got the job done. But the enormous costs are no doubt still being counted, and not just in dollar terms.
On its own, this looks like a doozy, sure. But then compare it to the tens of trillions of dollars spent by government during that timeframe, and it's a drop in the bucket. In fact, The FAA's handling of Air Traffic Control systems and needed upgrades would relegate this story to below-the-fold. Maybe not even Page One.
Sadly, these case studies are rampant throughout federal government, and represent one of the largest reasons for my federalist/libertarian leanings.
Sometimes, government waste is so shocking that you don't know whether to laugh or cry or try to rationalize it in some fashion.
Perhaps the best approach is the one most observers are taking: This is a free and very explicit and detailed lesson in all kinds of organizational problems. It's a textbook in its own right. You might even say an MBA course in its own right, if you have the patience to plow through the documentation.
It's a doozy, all right. What surprises me is that it continued for so long -- over a decade. The audits alone are incredibly detailed, showing that there was plenty of government awareness about the situation and what was causing the trouble. But somehow, no meaningful action was taken until about two years ago.
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Almost everyone agrees that data analytics, digital marketing, apps, and APIs will greatly affect their enterprise's results in the next 12 months. But a report suggests that not all large corporations are moving quickly to adopt these enabling technologies -- and that could seriously harm their profitability, customer satisfaction, and chances for ongoing success.
Enterprises are embracing open-source to avoid vendor lock-in, get better-quality software, and gain access to larger libraries of applications. In return, they may be putting themselves at risk for higher, more complex support costs.
Whereas some businesses search externally when they need a CIO, Choice Hotels had to look only at its CTO for someone with the necessary expertise, industry knowledge, and technological know-how to continue leading the company's embrace of enabling technologies.
Local social media can be powerful marketing tools, but they can't just be add-ons. They need to be tightly integrated into the corporate culture, according to Whole Foods social marketers.
The very low-tech "scrum" project technique introduces "crowd talking" to projects and also sets the entire crowd to problem solving. So far, these new social-media-style meetings appear to have supercharged project execution.
US counterterrorism expert Richard Clarke, who came to prominence with his prescient warnings before the 9/11 attacks, tells Smithsonian Magazine the US was responsible for the Stuxnet supersmart worm that attacked parts of nuclear reactors in Iran – and in the process, has given away one of the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
New tools like laptops, tablets, smartphone, and wireless connectivity let us work from San Diego to Katmandu, and anywhere in between. But time management remains a problem.
Showing results is the best way to win over social business doubters, according to Mary Maida, Medtronic lead information solutions manager. Internet Evolution's Mitch Wagner interviewed Maida at the E2 Innovate conference.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
Wells Fargo uses social software to replace email chains and help its sales team collaborate more effectively to land deals, according to Kelli Carlson-Jagersma, VP Collaboration Strategy for Wells Fargo. Mitch Wagner spoke with Carlson-Jagersma at the E2Innovate conference
Cisco's rumored sale of Linksys suggests we may have problem with innovation and profit at the edge of our Internet, and that could be critical to the evolution of many Internet-delivered services.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
Multi-tenant clouds assure security for clients, but not necessarily for their ideas. Here's one thing you should discuss with your cloud provider before you sign on.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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