FBI and Program Management: The Contractor Made Me Do It

It started when the FBI decided they needed to upgrade their computer system. After all, the old system was using 1980s technology. It was old and clunky: users had to go through 12 steps just to upload a file. The system didn't work in disconnected mode. Users were frustrated. The system didn't work half of the time. Especially after 9-11 (and even before) the FBI was getting heat over having a crappy enterprise system.

So the FBI went shopping. They decided to buy computers, network infrastructure, and oh yes, do something about their case file system. SAIC lowballed the bid and started in June 2001 with a $14 Million system to update the agency case management system.

One thing to another, as these things do, and pretty soon the FBI was in it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. SAIC had a shop with over 200 people working on the system, and nothing worked and nothing was deployed. The FBI kept asking for stuff, and SAIC kept making that "cha-ching" sound when they got back to their offices.

Now, after five years, they've decided to scrap the whole thing. Yes. The whole thing. Hundreds of smart people working on a big old piece of nothing. Over $600 Million dropped.That's gotta be a special feeling. I know, because I've been on programs like that. I've seen them from both sides of the desk.

I'd like to offer here and now that for $100 million, I will also work for five years and produce nothing. Heck, for $100 I could replace their system. I have the skills to do it. Somehow I don't think my phone is going to be ringing, though.

These failures always boil down to poor management on the part of the government and nobody on the contractor's side wanting to rock the boat. Making a large systems means making tough choices! There are no magic bullets. FBI management should have been engaged and prepared to go through as much pain as possible early on in the development cycle. They weren't. Did I mention that they planned a Big Bang approach to roll-out? And that there was no Plan B if the rollout failed?

The FBI says the contractor made them do it. The contractor sees things a little differently. As for me, I think there is enough blame to go around for everybody. One quote in the article caught my eye:

Daniel Guttman, a fellow at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in government contracting law, said: "This case just shows the government doesn't have a clue. Yet the legal fiction is that the government knows what it's doing and is capable of taking charge. The contractors are taking advantage of that legal fiction."

I'm of the opinion that SAIC wanted the same thing the FBI wanted: a new case management system.

I always tell people, computers and technology is the easy part! The hard part is people, organizational change, and business processes and culture.

The FBI has moved on to another contractor, Lockheed Martin, and is still plugging away at the tune of over $400 million for ANOTHER case file system to be deployed in 2009. Good luck, Lockheed! You're going to need it.

The hundred mil offer still stands, though.