FBI's Troubled Sentinel Project Delayed Again 96
gManZboy writes "The FBI's Sentinel project, a digital case-management system meant to replace outdated, paper-based processes, has been delayed again. The FBI's CIO and CTO bet big on using agile development to hasten the project's completion. But now performance issues have arisen in testing and deployment has been pushed out to May. It's the latest in a series of delays to build a replacement for the FBI's 17-year-old Automated Case Support system. In 2006, the FBI awarded Lockheed Martin a $305 million contract to lead development of Sentinel, but it took back control of the project in September 2010 amid delays and cost overruns. At the time, the FBI said it would finish Sentinel within 12 months, using agile development strategies."
Reasons for failure (Score:5, Informative)
From Wikipedia on software development projects.
analysis of software project management failures has shown that the following are the most common causes:
Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals
Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
Badly defined system requirements
Poor reporting of the project's status
Unmanaged risks
Poor communication among customers, developers, and users
Use of immature technology
Inability to handle the project's complexity
Sloppy development practices
Poor project management
Stakeholder politics
Commercial pressures
Re:Agile strikes again! (Score:5, Informative)
Kind of missing the point of agile if you're 15 months in and haven't delivered anything. I mean, you can call it agile (you could also call it waterfall), but if you're not following agile practices, don't blame agile for the failure.
I can't see that changing (Score:5, Informative)