FBI's failed $170M project

01/13/2005

Following in the pioneering footsteps of the IRS, the FBI now has it’s own monumental software project failure.

In a USA Today article, the FBI said Thursday that it probably will scrap nearly all of a $170 million computer program that was being designed to help agents share information to stop terrorism—because it doesn’t work.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, speaking on the bureau’s technology upgrade plans, said “There were problems we did not anticipate.”

No kidding?

Reminds me of the time the Pyschic Friends Network (remember them from late-night TV?) pulled their IPO stock offering due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

Folks, if you stick to outdated project-management practices, poor build and release practices, and bad-to-nonexisting test practices, you will fail. It’s just that simple.

Maybe I should send the FBI Director a copy of The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master along with a copy of our upcoming Practices of an Agile Developer? Or perhaps we need a new title, The Pragmatic CIO: From Scapegoat to Hero.

You will always have problems you don’t anticipate. What separates the men from the boys (so to speak) is how you deal with that.

Experiencing shock and awe at simply having unanticipated problems is definitely not a good start.