The Fbi Virtual Case File----Case Study Report

Project Management individual case report

-------The FBI Virtual Case File

ZHANG Yimiao--------52738667

This case report is going to research FBI’s Virtual Case File (VCF) project which turned out to be a failure in the end, discuss the reasons of its failure and put forward some advises to this case and other IT projects to avoid failure.

Background of the VCF case

FBI had an out of date information system to support its daily work and used a paper- based system to record and management its documents. The old information system consisted of over 50 independent applications and information sharing between different platforms and agencies was difficult and inefficient.

FBI wanted to upgrade its system by developing a new and complicated system which integrates all the agencies and its workflows. The project was called FBI Information Technology Upgrade project and was allocated $379.8 million at the beginning planned to be completed in three years. This project was divided into three parts and renamed Trilogy, which included a Virtual Case File (VCF) system. The VCF system was designed to provide FBI agents efficient case data sharing platform and enable agents search various case information no matter where they were in US. Besides, the VCF system would include a case management system, an evidence management system, and a records management system.

In June 2001, development of the VCF software was outsourced to Science Application International Corporation (SAIC), and contracted to be finished in three years. After 911 terrorist attacks, the project was pushed by political pressure and more money was invested in to achieve the aim in advance.

Unfortunately, this VCF project was abandoned in April 2005, by costing over $170 million and over four years. There existed a lot of mistakes and improper operation during the project life cycle from initial planning to later executing.

Reasons for the failure of the VCF project

Improper scope...