1-Briefly describe the background that led to the FBI initiation of the virtual
ID: 355744 • Letter: 1
Question
1-Briefly describe the background that led to the FBI initiation of the virtual case file (VCF) project.
2-What do you think were the reasons why the VCF project failed?
3- How do you relate your analysis to the elements of an information system (hint: use the System Hierarchy model).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the U.S. government, the FBI, was forced to scrap its $170 million virtual case file (VCF) management system. Official reports blamed numerous delays, cost overruns, and incompatible software. But a deep- er examination of the cause of this failure uncovered issues of control, culture, and incompatible organizational systems.
Among its many duties, the FBI is charged with the responsibility to fight crime and terrorism. To do so requires a large number of agents located within the United States and around the world. That means agents must be able to share information among themselves within the bureau and with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. But sharing information has never been standard operating procedure for this agency. According to one source, “agents are accus- tomed to holding information close to their bulletproof vests and scorn the idea of sharing information.” This turned out to be a real problem in an investigation of DarkMarket, an Internet forum that connected buyers and sellers so that they could exchange stolen information such as bank details and credit card numbers. When both the FBI and Secret Service agents were investigating each other as criminals, it took their British colleagues, who knew the secrets of both agencies, to avert a crisis.
Enter the FBI’s efforts to modernize its infrastructure, codenamed “Trilogy.” The efforts included providing agents with 30,000 desktop PCs, high?bandwidth networks to connect FBI locations around the world, and the VCF project to facilitate sharing of case information worldwide. The FBI Director explained to Congress that VCF would provide “an electronic means for agents to globally send field notes, documents, pieces of intelligence and other evidence so they could hopefully act faster on leads.” It was designed to replace a paper?intensive process with an electronic, Web?based process. With such a reasonable goal, why didn’t it work?
The CIO of the FBI offered one explanation. He claimed that the FBI needed to change its culture. “If the Bureau is ever going to get the high?tech analysis and surveillance tools it needs to. . . fight terrorism, we must move from a decentralized amalgam of 56 field offices. . . to a seamlessly integrated global intelligence operation capable of sharing information and preventing crimes in real?time.” He added that the Bureau personnel were also very distrustful of the technology, as well as others not only in other organizations but also within the FBI.
A former project manager at the FBI further explained, “They work under the idea that everything needs to be kept secret. But everything doesn’t have to be kept secret. To do this right, you have to share information.”
The VCF system has been shut down, but the CIO is working on a new approach. He is busy trying to win buy?in from agents in the field so that the next case management system will work. In addition, he is working to establish a portfolio management plan that will cover all of the FBI’s IT projects, even those begun in decentralized offices. His team has been designing an enterprise architecture that will lay out standards for a bureauwide information system. The Director of the FBI has helped too. He reorganized the governance of IT, taking its budget control away from the districts and giving total IT budget authority to the CIO.
The FBI is building a new case management system called Sentinel in four phases. The first two phases have been de- ployed and, according to the Federal IT dashboard, the project is on schedule and on budget. The new system, according to the CIO, will include workflow, document management, record management, audit trails, access control, and single sign?on. It will provide enhanced information sharing, search, and analysis capabilities to FBI agents and facilitate information sharing with members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities. To manage the expectations of the agents, the CIO plans to communicate often and significantly increase the training program for the new system. The CIO commented, “We want to automate those things that are the most manually cumbersome for the agents so they can see that technology can actually enhance their productivity. That is how to change their attitudes.”
The FBI also has a billion?dollar Next Generation Identification (NGI) system with 52 million searchable facial images and 100 million individual fingerprint records as well as millions of palm prints, DNA samples, and iris scans. NGI can scan mug shots for a match and pick out suspects from a crowd scanned by a security camera or in a photograph on the Internet. The information can be exchanged with 18,000 law enforcement agencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.33 When combined with Sentinel, NGI will further enhance the effectiveness of the FBI’s antiterror efforts.
Explanation / Answer
The FBI was in need of a centralized system through which the array of agents spread countrywide could share information and contact each other. The agents were accustomed to keeping data and information about their case as top secret. However, for referencing and knowledge sharing, they were required to share details about the cases handled by them. There was a need for a centralized system that can connect all the agents, store case information like the evidence collected, interviews conducted, wiretaps etc. for future referencing and record keeping. Thus, the need arise for the initiation of VCF project. The chief reasons behind the failure of VCF project are: Control culture among the agents that became evasive to knowledge sharing Numerous delay in processing Incompatible software Users not acquainted with the working of the software Cost overrun Incompatible organizational infrastructural system The analysis of the above case through elements of information system perspective: Hardware: For the VCF project, FBI provided almost 30,00 desktop PCs to agents. They were also provided with high bandwidth networks Software: The VCF was a centralized software to be used for information sharing in FBI Data: The most important reason for launch of this project in FBI was data sharing. FBI wanted a centralized system where data from all the agents can be stored. However, due to the inhibition of the agents for data sharing, this initiative became a flop. Procedures: The agents did not get used to working on the VCF software. Adequate training should have been given to make the users aware of how to use this system People: The major stakeholders for the VCF were the agents of the FBI. The reluctance showed by agents to share information and use a web based system, led to its failure Communication: For any change management, communication should be the pre-requisite. The switch to VCF was a huge change for FBI and needed proper communication lines for mass awareness. These communication lines were missing in VCF project.
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