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US Spends $1bn Over a Decade Trying To Digitize Immigration Forms, Just 1 Is Online (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the barely-better-than-nothing dept.

Bruce66423 writes: A government project to digitize immigration forms succeeded in enabling exactly one application to be completed and submitted after 10 years of work because of the botched software and implementation. The Washington Post reports: "This project, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was originally supposed to cost a half-billion dollars and be finished in 2013. Instead, it’s now projected to reach up to $3.1 billion and be done nearly four years from now, putting in jeopardy efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, handle immigrants already seeking citizenship and detect national security threats, according to documents and interviews with former and current federal officials."

6 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by AntronArgaiv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is there ANY government IT project that has been completed on time, under budget and exceeds specifications?

    1. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Hoover Dam. It may not seem IT related, but it supplies electricity to lots of computers.

    2. Re: I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know, on behalf of those of us who have been on many successful projects which used Waterfall, I find myself thinking "no wonder that clown didn't want his name used".

      Anybody who says it doesn't/can't work literally has no experience in running projects, and is so utterly unqualified to talk about it as to defy belief.

      This is finger pointing, and claiming how your new methodology is going to be so much better. Right up until the replacement project fails as well.

      But to say it hasn't been successful in 40 years? Sorry, you immediately lose all credibility and can't be taken seriously.

      Go ahead, build a bridge or a house without Waterfall. Let's see what you end up with.

      A bunch of people randomly doing some subset of what you need for completion and then trying again next week? That's no guarantee of anything, it's just smaller tasks to almost get right.

      Agile is no magic bullet, and Waterfall isn't some method which has been so badly discredited that nobody uses it.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:I'm beginning to see a pattern here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of course not, the existing one is in the way.

  2. Wrong end of the telescope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't think there should be limits on contributions private property and the disposition there of it, is the very corner stone of liberty. Once you start telling people how they can spend their own money,

    We don't want to tell private individuals how they can spend their money. We do want to tell public servants what kinds of gifts they can accept.

  3. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    How much would it cost to digitize a 1040 and all the dependent schedules from scratch today? I think that's an apt comparison.

    In 2012 a co-worker of mine was assigned to a project to work on his company's bid to be part of this fiasco. They finally decided there was no way they were going to get involved. It's not just a handful of forms. It was dozens of large complex forms with intricate underlying business rules driven by volatile legislation and ICE policy.