SCI/TECH: MI5 IT upgrade costs skyrocket, page 1

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 07:09 AM

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The security service's new computer system looks set to cost 50 percent more than originally estimated, arrive three years late and have less functionality than was planned.

news.zdnet.co.uk
The cost of the project was deleted from the report for security reasons, according to MI5, but the committee said the project has "given rise to a number of problems over the past couple of years" and that the management team within the MI5 has been changed.

The ISC said: "We are concerned that the Security Service [MI5] does not yet have sufficient project managers or expertise to manage all their IT and capital projects at the same time."

The committee also said it was concerned that Scope, a secure Web-based information system to link the 10 main producers and consumers of intelligence, was running three years late. "Scope is now over three years late but the delay has allowed a significantly more robust programme, with better risk management, to be developed. However, the committee remains concerned that Scope has yet to deliver any usable benefits to the UK intelligence community as a whole," it said.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

How come the UK government is stuggling with its IT system while the Americans got it right years ago?

As cited by the ICS: "the Security Service [MI5] does not yet have sufficient project managers or expertise to manage all their IT".

We really need some outside help, perhaps from Microsoft (who I am sure would love to get a government deal) or take a leaf out of the CIA's book and copy their system.

thematrix

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 08:45 AM

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This isn't really new is it? More like history repeating itself.

If I'm not mistaken, the same happend within the last few years with a computer system the FBI or CIA ordered, at the end, it cost multiple times as much as planed, had only a fraction of the features planed and at botomline, they dumped the system even.

I'm starting to wonder, isn't this a great way to make a couple billion $$ disapear into the black budget project pool?

subz

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 10:36 AM

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That was the FBI's latest attempt at a new computer system Thematrix.

I'd say that this was intentional just to get more money from the taxpayer. Places like MI5 do not make mistakes. They have the best minds in the country and do not buy something that will come 3 years late for twice the price and for lower specs than asked for.

Who writes this stuff?

KiwiDave

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 12:13 PM

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I'll tell you what the problem is, it's programmers underestimating the time things will take and the amount of work they will need to do.

As a commercial webdesigner / programmer I have these problems from time to time - # looks so easy on the paper, you think "no worries" I'll get it done easily in a few weeks... few months later you have just touched the surface and the client is getting real pissed...

I notice this problem becomes more apparent when I get paid in advance...

Ambient Sound

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 12:18 PM

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Any project will take three times as long and cost at least twice as much as originally planned. Any plan that doesn't take this rule into account from the start is sure to dissappoint someone.

Phugedaboudet

posted on Apr, 8 2005 @ 03:36 PM

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Al I can say is, to my British brethren, is please, please, PLEASE don't let EDS or any of it's tentacle branches work on your new system!

Let Crazy Mike's Computers down the way try it, even if they screw it up, it'll be a lot less than the $200-$500 Million we wasted on the US Navy's intranet, that never got deployed.

EDS-Just Say No!