FBI case study solved in terms of project management

1. FBI Case Study VCF solved
Executive Overview
According to the article by Harry Goldstein, The story of the Virtual Case File (VCF) project
failure in FBI began in the early 1990’s, When Larry Depew, FBI Special Agent identified the
need for a database program that would help him and other agents of FBI to organize the
information i.e. the reams of evidence collected during their investigations from wiretaps,
interviews, and financial transactions over the course of two and a half years investigating
Russian Mobsters with Italian mafia involvement in skimming off millions of dollars in federal
and New Jersey state gasoline and diesel taxes. The inability of FBI Special Agents to use a
software component to connect the dots, both on Agent Depew’s case specifically, and any new
dots that might come along was the problem found by Depew.
There was an extreme need to replace the existing system, the obsolete Automated Case
Support (ACS) system, as it was extremely cumbersome, inefficient, and limited in its
capabilities, and did not manage, link, research, analyze and share information as effectively or
timely as needed. Therefore Depew ended up writing a database program on his own, that he
used to trace relationships between telephone calls, meetings, surveillance, and interviews; but
he still could not import information from other investigations that would help him in his
investigation. This ended up the need to upgrade the IT infrastructure which would result in the
creation of the FBI’s Virtual Case File (VCF) project.
The VCF was supposed to automate the FBI’s paper-based work environment, allow agents
and intelligence analysts to share vital investigative information, and replace the obsolete
Automated Case Support (ACS) system. Instead, the FBI claims that the project went so
terribly wrong that the bureau had to scrap the US $170 million project, including $105 million
worth of unusable code. The project was completely scrapped in 2005 and the FBI started out
again with a new project called “Sentinel”

2. Project Overview
The FBI’s Virtual Case file (VCF) project began in the year 2000 when the bureau began to deal
with its outdated IT systems infrastructure. On 17th July 2000, the FBI hired Bob E. Dies as
Assistant Director in charge of the FBI Information Resources Division to create a plan for this
IT transformation. Dies, who was a former executive with IBM, replaced Louis J. Freeh, who did
not have the competencies required to complete this task. The FBI’s lack of IT competencies,
and technical inexpertise, combined with their incompetence in delivering IT systems
infrastructure, is a common problem that lead to this unnecessary and epic IT project failure.
And Dies was just the first of five officials who would struggled over four years to lead the FBI’s
sprawling and antiquated information systems, and get the VCF project under way.
In September 2000, Congress approved $379.8 million over three years for what was then called
the FBI Information Technology Upgrade Program. As it was divided into three parts, the
program became known as the Trilogy.
In May and June 2001, the FBI awarded a contract to DynCorp, for Hardware and network
projects and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), for developing software
projects for a period of three years. DynCorp committed to delivering its two components by
July 2002. SAIC agreed to deliver the initial version of the VCF in December 2003 instead of
June 2004.
In August 2002, the only early warning sign came from Matthew Patton, a security expert
working for SAIC on the VCF development team. Patton blamed the lack of technical expertise
on the side of the FBI, as well as SAIC management practices, declaring both organization’s
incompetent. In the end, Patton was not granted top-secret clearance with the FBI. Also he could
not take a position with SAIC due to their inability to base him in Chicago, and most
importantly, Patton’s declarations and objections were ignored.
In 2005, Glenn A. Fine, the U.S Department of Justice’s inspector general, submitted an 81-page
audit of the FBI’s VCF project. In it he described eight factors that contributed to the VCF’s
failure. Among the factors included were poorly defined and slowly evolving design
requirements; overly ambitious schedules; and the lack of a strategic plan to guide hardware
purchases, network deployments, and software development for the bureau. Fine concluded that
four years after 9/11 terrorist attack, the FBI still did not have the software it needed to connect
the dots with the data in their case files.

3. In May 2005, The project was abandoned before completion. The FBI spent $170 million on the
VCF project, and in the end they are going with a customizable, off the shelf system. The
solution is not to keep throwing money at the project, but to recognize the serious issues of the
project’s failure. The real killers were significant management turbulence and the ever-shifting
nature of the requirements.
In the end, Trilogy project, like so many IT projects, was a total confusion for the FBI on how
to define and implement Enterprise architecture, based upon user expectations. Had every
step of this project be organized, it would be a successful project.

4. Project Management Knowledge Areas
Project Scope Management:
Project scope management includes the process of defining and documenting all the work that is
required to successfully complete a project. To define a project scope, we must first identify
Project objectives, Goals, Sub-phases, Tasks, Resources, Budget, and Schedule. The scope of the
project helps to find the objectives of the project and the goals that need to be met to achieve a
satisfactory result which was not defined by VCF venture. The resources and the budget were not
planned properly and they failed to complete the project in given time as the schedules were
overly ambitious. Also, There were uncontrolled changes made in the project and there was no
scope change control which lead to the epic failure of the project.
Human Resource Management
Human resource management (HRM) in Project Management consists of all the processes that
helps a project manager in organizing, managing and leading the project team. The success of
any project depends on the Project Manager’s ability to a great extent to bring individuals from
different backgrounds together to build a team that is very productive. In Virtual case file
project, Larry Depew was appointed as project manager even without having any prior
experience in IT. It is the duty of the Project Manager to effectively assemble, cultivate and
manage the team which Depew failed to do.
Project communication Management
Communication is the most important part of project management. Effective communication is
an essential competency that helps the Project Manager to keep the team informed about the
different aspects of a project. It is essential for a Project Manager to develop this competency to
successfully utilize it as part of the Project Communications Management knowledge area. Larry
Depew lacked this competency. Ineffective and unclear communication leads to
misunderstanding and this is what happened in VCF.

5. Key Issues
There was a continuous disconnection between the FBI and SAIC from the beginning. Also, The
FBI’s understanding of the requirements for the VCF project was not strong. Adding to these
problems, there was a constant turnover of FBI Directors, the FBI’s lack of technical expertise,
and lack of IT management. Of course the results would be disastrous for the VCF project.
There was no proper scope management. VCF had unrealistic scheduling of tasks, overly
ambitious schedules. The requirements were defined as “How” certain things should be done or
look like instead of “What” the system should do. The project lacked management continuity and
oversight. There was repeated changes in specifications. The project had scope creep as the
requirements were continuously added to the system. There was code bloat and at one point of
time the software had 700,000 lines of massive code. There was no enterprise architecture to
describe how it wants to operate in the future, and VCF did not had a transition plan to achieve
the goals.
Human Resource Management involves the process of evaluating individual team member
performance, providing feedback, resolving conflicts, and managing changes efficiently.
There was inclusion of many FBI Personnel who had little or no formal training in (IT)
projects as managers and even engineers assigned on the project lacked the technical
knowledge required to complete it. Also, too many people were involved in this project and it
created an environment of confusion.
Communication is an inevitable part of project management. There was lack of proper
communication between FBI and SAIC. SAIC engineers had to rework due to constantly
changing blueprints. For example, the FBI told SAIC engineers to add a “page crumb”
capability to all the systems after the eight teams had completed about 25 percent of the VCF
project. This added complexity to the project and it delayed the development. No effective
communication was carried out to solve this issue.

6. Resolution
Had they made a proper scope for this project, it would be a great success. Firstly, Enterprise
Architecture i.e. Blueprint is very important before starting any project. Blueprint at FBI could
possibly make the project successful. There was no realistic planning as there was high pressure.
The balance between their ambition and the available resources would have made the project
successful. Huge size of code and limited flexibility made the changes in the
software extremely difficult and time consuming. There were many software programmers
involved in this case. Few programmers and flexibility in the coding system would have
completed the project on time and made it less tedious. There would have been certain steps
taken to avoid scope creep. The project would have been successful if Scope change control
process had been used.
There should be people with right knowledge on the job. In VCF project, Larry Depew lacked
project management skills. Hiring an experienced project Manager would have led to successful
completion of the project. Few people would have been appointed to do this project to avoid
confusions.
The FBI would have discussed the requirements with the internal members of the organization
before having a word with SAIC members. The Communication of the VISION i.e the reason for
the project, how to successfully deliver it, and what new benefits it will provide would have been
openly discussed between FBI and SAIC. They would have appointed a Supervisor or Team
leader in those eight teams which would handle the team and report to the project manager.

7. Relevance to IT project Management
From a project management perspective, the lessons of the VCF cautionary tool are many. In
the light of day, the role of project manager from both sides of the project, was not integrated
into the project with any kind of authority.
o System design - The system design process was well under way prior to the expansion
of the intelligence mission, and the requirements for the processes supporting the
intelligence mission were not included in the VCF design. For this reason, and because
of the significant differences in IT requirements the FBI refrain from using the VCF as
the foundation on which to build its analytical and data management capabilities for the
intelligence processes supporting the counterterrorism mission.
o Executive Support: Executive support can keep the project on track and help gather the
appropriate resources needed to complete the project on time and in scope.
o Enterprise architecture – The FBI’s efforts and results in the area of enterprise
architecture were limited, and fell far short of what was required.
o Program management - Program management emphasizes the coordinating and
prioritizing of resources across projects, managing links between the projects and the
overall costs and risks of the program. Internal development plans, and the development
contracts with supporting organizations, should call for an approach that is based on a
process of extensive prototyping and usability testing with real users.
o Skills, resources, and external factors - the FBI lacks a human resource and skill base
adequate to deal with the bureau’s IT modernization program. Specifically, the FBI is
extremely short on experienced program managers and senior IT management team
members with good communications skills.

8. Key Takeaways
o Organizing - Lack of strategic processes lead to failures. It’s necessary to take a closer
look at project organization and make a new strategy that will ensure successful
execution.
o Project Budgeting - Poor budgeting of a project can affect it’s execution. Therefore, a
proper assessment is needed for figuring out if the project had incurred more costs than
those possible within the approved budget and how to use them in future. Similarly, it
should be checked if there was any lack of funding that led to project failure. In either
case, proper budgeting is a must and should be done in advance for all future projects.
o Scrutinize each Project Stage - Every stage of the project should be re-examined. This
will help in determining those aspects of the project that were successful and the same
can be applied in future ones as well. At most times, employees learn new skills or tactics
from a failed project and implement them in their new assignments to gain enhanced
levels of efficiency.
At the time of the next project execution, the lessons learnt from a previous failed project
should be communicated to all team members. The analysis made by project managers
from their recent failures should become a part of enterprise knowledge, and help team
members overcome similar issues in future.
o Select Team Members carefully - Many a times, a project’s failure can be attributed to
the shortcomings of certain team members. If one or more team members do not possess
some essential characteristics, then a project might not achieve its desired goals. Thus, an
in-depth evaluation of team members and their re-appointment to create a new team with
specific skills is crucial for the success of a project.

9. o Setting Realistic Milestones - It’s good to evaluate specific project goals that were left
unachieved. This will enable the project manager to assess those particular project
objectives that acted as restraints in making the project attain desired results. For
instance, if timeline issues were the cause of failure, then from the next project onwards,
realistic project milestones should be set to give the team members enough time to
perform efficiently.
o Last Minute Requirements - A project may fail if additional features or changes are asked
for in their completion stage. It is important to understand that new project features affect
the scope, cost and timelines of the entire project. Attending to last-moment
requirements/changes might lead to over-exceeding budgets and require employees to
work over-time. However, none of these additions guarantee desired results and may lead
to further disappointments. The key lesson to be learnt here is that change management
should be implemented in the early stages of project development, and not towards its fag
end.

10. Research Approach
All case studies have limitations and this case is no different. This study provided a single case
study of a failed U.S. Government project. It appears that the VCF project had many of the
warning signs and characteristics associated with failed projects described in empirical studies
over the past fifteen years. However, this is one case study, so future research should include
other projects in order to provide a rich qualitative understanding of why and how projects fail.
However, this projects leads to our understanding of project failure, or, rather, the ability to
improve the likelihood of project success.
I found that this report is actually the most comprehensive report that I found on the failure of
the VCF project. It details the issues across the board, and puts forth detailed recommendations
for the project based on their exhaustive analysis.

11. References
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/who-killed-the-virtual-case-file
http://sebokwiki.org/wiki/FBI_Virtual_Case_File_System_Case_Study
http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=1964
http://bobstly.blogspot.in/2011/05/journal-exercise-1.html
https://www.fbi.gov/news/testimony/fbis-virtual-case-file-system
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/17/AR2006081701485_5.html