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FBI Conducts Feasibility Study on Project Sentinel
leave-no-trace writes "CNN reports that "FBI officials hope to award a contract by the year's end for a complex new software program (dubbed Sentinel) to replace a failed project that was canceled this year at a cost of more than $100 million to taxpayers." The system is supposed to include search capabilities, protocols for processing and handling FBI reports, security issues and a new system for records management. FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers he is unable yet to place a price tag on the Sentinel project."
I think whoever the FBI allows to prime on the contract, they damn well better know a thing or two about project management. I think SAIC's failure to execute is in small part due to the underpinning technology, in large part due to an FBI leadership that was not on the same page, but mostly due to the fact that the management of this project was mishandled.
It is economically unsound to invest into a project that does not have a well defined budget,
While normally I would agree wholeheartedly, how do you define all of the costs associated with something that has never been done before and has extremely difficult engineering problems that have to be solved at various interim steps in your process. Add to that the lack of basic science supporting your engineering decisions.
it will end up costing more than it has to,
See the above statement.
since no one will keep track of how well the money is spent.
Actually, the government has very good financial controls on some of its projects. They can tell you how much is being spent and what they have left to meet their current obligations. What often happens is that unanticipated costs hit one project, which has a higher priority than other projects, so must take resources from less important tasks. Now the less important tasks are either cancelled or put on hold.
As I said, they do know where the money is and how much is being spent, but sometimes things come up and screw with the machinery.
This is one of the major reasons why the private sector ends up doing things cheaper.
All of the work performed at the DOE site I work at are private firms. They do the work with only marginal oversight from the DOE (cost tracking).
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
That one hundred million dollars can be thrown away (well, sure, a lot of people profited by this malfeasance but the taxpayers didn't get what was paid for) and nobody goes to prison for thirty years ... incredible. Nowadays, it just seems like the worse the crime, the less the time. You would just think that the news media would be all over this but Noooooo! it's just glossed over. And, of course, it's the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There'as a reason taxes are so high my friends, and it has less to do with the services with which we are provided than those which we are not (like this project.) And I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the "new and improved" project will be run by the same people that screwed up the last one.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Maybe they should make me Director of the FBI.
[o]_O
No...
The government only uses Access for unimportant things...like voting machines.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
they really can't decide on what they want.
which is understandable, it is a massive project. the constantly evolving requirements don't help to nail down a prototype to get to teh final project.
It's got a nice Orwellian ring to it, doesn't it...
"We are... Watching you..." -- Tim Curry, Congo
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
I know that many who have not worked either for or around the US government before are shocked at how money is spent (squandered) on projects that never finish or are dead the day they are deployed.
Hey, look what I can do just by changing a couple of words!
I know that many who have not worked either for or around A LARG CORPORATION before are shocked at how money is spent (squandered) on projects that never finish or are dead the day they are deployed.
I am working in the private sector for a large company on a project that should have been shelved. However, the project is still planed to carry through over the next few years. This isn't the first time I have seen a failure nor will it be the last.
I don't like to see money wasted either. However, it does no good to complain about the government without providing a solution as to how the Government can provide us solutions in a more efficient matter. When you get down to it the problem is people. To err is human.
I for one enjoy the roads and highways on which I drive, The power and water from the TVA project, etc. Compared to other countries we live in a very organized way.
First off, this was supposed to be a PILOT project. It was designed as such because there was a myriad of problems to be overcome. The largest one was undoubtedly document/case info handling. I could just imagine the nightmares of the folks that were trying to design this one. Some folks here thought this was a free for all and that google search would do the job, not so. There are two concepts at work here- clearance level and need to know. Both work quite well at a human level. But at a computer level, automating these concepts are anything but easy to define, create, route, track, and enforce. Big deal. They scrapped the project. But at least they learned a lot for the next project and are incorporating what they can. Hopefully, the next one will come close to what they were hoping for.