Jan Kachelmaier 
Systemic Effects of Information Systems. Analysis of FBI’s Virtual Case File Failure [PDF ebook] 

Academic Paper from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics – Information Management, grade: 18 (90%), Grenoble Ecole de Management, language: English, abstract: This paper trouble shoots the Information System design of the FBI Virtual Case File. In September 2000, the FBI announced an Information Technology Upgrade Project (Trilogy Program). It includes three parts: The Information Presentation Component, the Transportation Network Component and the User Applications Component. The first two goals are generally successful. The third one which ultimately became the Virtual Case File project is an enormous failure. It was originally intended to be little more than a web front-end to the existing Automated Case Support system data. After the attack on the 11th of September in 2001, the FBI was under great pressure to modernize. They changed the goal of the project to replace the whole ACS system. However, the project was officially abandoned in April 2005, while still in development stage and cost the federal government nearly $170 million. The VCF’s contractor, Science Applications International Corp. shares the blame for the project’s failure. Analysis of this project’s failure and recommendations such as applying an agile software development strategy, better change and communication management, and a greater cooperation of all people involved will be given.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the United States’ prime domestic federal law enforcement agency as well as the government’s largest counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency in American soil. It is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice and a full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The FBI is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. It has 56 field offices centrally located in major cities across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Within these field offices are a total of about 380 resident agencies located in smaller cities and towns. Its global offices—called legal attachés or legats—are located in U.S. embassies. For fiscal year 2017, FBI has requested a budget which includes a total of $8.7 billion for salaries and expenses of 34, 768 positions (12, 892 special agents, 2, 999 intelligence analysts, and 18, 877 professional staff), and $783.5 million for construction.