Read the case study given below carefully and then answer the following five questions given.

FBI Virtual Case File

In 2000, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began developing the Virtual Case File, a case management system, as part of a wider FBI information technology upgrade project called Trilogy. The project was intended to help FBI agents share data about cases in progress, especially terrorist investigations. However, it went through significant management and implementation problems and cost overruns, which culminated in the cancellation of the project in 2005, with little to show for the USD170 million investment.

The initiative

The FBI began developing a case management software system called the Virtual Case File (VCF) in 2000, as part of a wider IT upgrade project called Trilogy. The Trilogy project centred on upgrading the agency's 56 field offices and 22,000 agents and support staff with new desktops and servers, web-enabling a number of the most important investigative database systems, and, most importantly, a VCF system that would automate the antiquated paper-based Automated Case Support (ACS) system.[4]

The new case file system was essential to improve the efficiency of the agency's information management. The VCF was envisioned to help FBI agents efficiently share data about cases in progress, especially terrorist investigations. The system would also enable agents anywhere in the United States quickly to search various documents and allow them to connect possible leads from different sources. In addition, the VCF would include a case management system, an evidence management system, and a records management system. The intention was to eliminate the need for FBI employees to scan hard-copy documents into computer files."[5]

The FBI's estimates for completing the full Trilogy infrastructure were revised several times. The first delivery of VCF was targeted for completion in December 2003. The second and third deliveries, which were intended to upgrade and add additional investigative applications to the VCF, were targeted for completion in June 2004.[6] The VCF contractor, Science Applications International Corp (SAIC), provided the first delivery in December 2003. However, the application was not fully functional and the FBI did not accept it. At this time, the FBI revised the VCF deployment schedule again. Rather than having the VCF implemented and enhanced in three deliveries, the FBI Director announced in June 2004 that development of the project would be split into two parallel tracks, Initial Operational Capability (IOC) and Full Operational Capability (FOC). [7] The project was eventually abandoned in April 2005, after costs estimated at over USD170 million.[8]

Clarity of objectives

The objectives of the VCF project were very high level at its inception, and there is no evidence that measurable targets were set to accompany the project's goals.

The FBI did not have a set of defined VCF requirements when the original contract was signed in 2001. The development of the VCF application started with a very simple concept - the FBI's need for a modern case management system. As the FBI's mission evolved over the past several years, so did our technological needs. As a result of these changes and other issues, the FBI faced obstacles in a number of key areas relating to the VCF programme. [16]

The VCF was intended to:

Help FBI agents efficiently share data about cases in progress, especially terrorist investigations

Enable agents anywhere in the US quickly to search various documents and allow them to connect

possible leads from different sources

Provide a case management system, an evidence management system, and a records management system to eliminate the need for FBI employees to scan hard-copy documents into computer

files.[17]

The overall Trilogy project was in a similar situation. During the initial years of the project, the FBI had no firm design baseline or road map for Trilogy. According to one FBI Trilogy project manager, Trilogy's scope grew by about 80 percent [from the] initiation of the project. Such large changes in the requirements meant that the specific detailed guidance for the project was not established, and as a result a final cost and schedule was not established.[18]

A lack of clarity regarding the project's specific objectives and timelines led to several disagreements between the FBI personnel leading the project and the contractors. This eventually led to both parties blaming each other for the issues with the project.

Alignment issues:

Initially, the FBI did not have a clear vision of what the FBI's Trilogy project should achieve or of specific design requirements, and the contractors were not held to a firm series of achievable milestones. The FBI's investment management process also left it ill-equipped to ensure that all three components of Trilogy were developed in an integrated fashion. Moreover, at the outset, the FBI and others did not provide consistent or effective management of Trilogy, leading to technical and scheduling problems.[30]

The tensions between SAIC developers and the FBI increased over the winter and spring of 2003, as the first part of the VCF project was being delivered. A number of problems were blamed on the contractors but were also compounded by the FBI's "sloppy inventories" of existing networks and an underestimation of the difficulties of such a complex implementation.

The acting CIO for the FBI made the decision to reject the deliverable, and the FBI documented 17 functional deficiencies that SAIC would have to fix before the system could be accepted. SAIC argued that many of these deficiencies were caused by requirements changes from the FBI team, so an arbitrator had to be called in. In March 2004, the arbitrator released a report that found fault with both the FBI and SAIC. According to the report, 59 issues and sub-issues were derived from the original 17 deficiencies - 19 were due to requirements changes and the FBI's fault, while the remaining 40 were SAIC problems. SAIC offered to make all the changes if given one more year and USD56 million. [The FBI's CIO] rejected the offer."[31]

QUESTION: Can you highlight the importance of communication to avoid scope management issues?

SUBJECT: IT Project Management