The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Essay Example

?Running Head: PROJECT ANALYSIS: FBI DATABASE Project Analysis: FBI Database The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice. This organ is responsible for investigating crimes as under the Major Crimes Act. This project was begun in 1908 with the increasing rate of crimes. The crimes were increased due to increased technology in the world. Despite the presence of the organ, US have been faced by many crimes that have not been researched on to get helpful information. Many of these crimes have been cases of terrorism. Terrorism has really threatened the security in United States. All the presidents in the country have been addressing this issue. This is evident from the efforts of Barrack Obama to capture Osama bin Laden, one of the most notorious terrorists who hit US. There are some causes of failures of the projects like inefficiency technology; lack of trained personnel; lack of funds; and lack of corporation from other organs. There are reports that are given on this agency an annual basis giving some recommendations that have to be implemented but this has not been enough since there is much information that the urgency not yet has about terrorism. There are some recommendations that may act as long-term solutions to this basing them on the ways of improving efficiency of a project as it is in project management. Contents Contents 3 Introduction 4 Analysis of FBI Database Project 4 Recommendations for the FBI database project 11 Appendix 17 Project Analysis: FBI Database Introduction The FBI as an agency of investigation on major crimes in the United States has been successful in different ways. It is the expectation of everyone that US, the most powerful country in the world, has all possible ways of ensuring security of its people. This has not been the case since security in its states has been threatened occasionally through some major crimes. They have increased their technology for instance introduction of DNA tests, fingerprint tracking, among other technologies that are used in crime investigation (Jenkins, 2005, p.13). Despite the many achievements the FBI has, it has not been able to end and get enough information on some major crimes like terrorism. Terrorism has been a challenge to the agency and this is observable from the chronology of terrorist attacks from 1995. However, they have been successful on some terrorist activities; there are some that they still lack information on. This does not mean that the agency is a failure. There is a need to find out the causes of such challenges and give recommendations. The recommendations should be different from the ones that are given at the end of each year in such a way that they give long-term solutions. The agency has been regularly financed thus it becomes a surprise what the problem could really be. Analysis of FBI Database Project FBI as an agency of investigation has not been able to get information on some major issues like terrorism. It has been faced by some challenges that are expected in any project. Terrorism is one area in which the agency has failed. They lack much information on the issue and this has seen the rise of terrorist attacks over the years. However, they have not sat back to watch this happen, most of the measures that they have put to fight this have not bore any fruits. Forensic sciences are one of the fields they have advanced in to carry out investigation. They have been able to use some forensic technologies like fingerprints to track nagging criminals. This has however been successful with minor crimes within the states like robbery and murder but it has not helped much to get adequate on some major crimes like terrorism. This is what has led to negative judgments of their performance from different parties. They cannot despair since it is connected directly with the people’s lives on this project. There are some reasons that have been highlighted in different publications, in speeches, in symposiums, and in meetings as the major causes of the fail of the project on terrorism activities. To begin with, we look at technology. Computer technology in the world has advanced greatly and federal agencies have become highly dependent on information systems to carry out different operations (Stone, Hawkins & Myers, 2003).The FBI has a computerized information system that affects most of its mission-critical activities like financial management, investigation, and security of sensitive and classified data. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has provided a number of audit reports on the FBI management of IT. They have been able to do this through the investigations and reviews that they have done on the agency. There are a number of weaknesses that have been found on the FBI’s IT. This is a major cause of the failures of the project when it comes to terrorism. Many of the terrorist from Asia and other terrorist-prone areas use high information technologies. They have challenged the FBI several times on its weak IT system. This has been more with hacking of their information by different parties. FBI database project has been faced with financial problems regularly. For any project to prosper, then there must be enough capital in place to cater for all its demands. This has not been the case with the FBI. Such an organ that incorporates much information technology needs to be highly financed. This is probably what has led to the weak information technology system the agency has. A report given by the General Accounting office showed that most of the funds that were used by the FBI were used for internal concerns of the organ. Another ITIM report that was given in March 2002 showed a number of weaknesses of the FBI IT facilities (Hamilton 2007, p.23-25). The report indicated that the FBI had not completed an enterprise architecture framework. Until then FBI had not established IT investment review committees. In projects, use of committees plays a key role in research and statement of recommendations. The report showed that the FBI had not made use of these committees not until march 2002. The report also showed that most of the systems in the agency did not use major investigative systems. In any project, proper planning is usually crucial. In planning, budgeting is the key principle and the FBI should have done this. They should have carried out a research to see how they could allocate their finances giving the major issues like terrorism the first priority (Jeston & Nelis, 2010). In another case, it was found that most of the audit reports and recommendations are not resolved in a timely manner. There is some sought of sluggishness that has been noticed between the parties who carry out the auditing and the implementers of the recommendations given. This shows that there is lack of proper communication in the agency. Communication is crucial in any project since it establishes commonness and understanding among the members involved. Lack of proper communication is therefore one of the causes of the failure of the FBI to get information on some major crimes like terrorism. There are a number of systems in the FBI that link up the different operations of the agency. The systems have poor communication means as they may take time to communicate urgency issues. This contributes to failure of the project. Poor communication can be attributed to by lack of efficient facilities or lack of trained personnel. The latter should therefore be looked into since they may have a connection with the inefficient communication in the project (Geisser, 1999). Another issue that has greatly affected performance of the FBI is interference from other organs in the country. In USA, there are a number of agencies that have been employed to investigate on different security issues. For instance, we have the CIA, which is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest; headed by the Director of Central Intelligence under the supervision of the President and National Security Council. The two agencies have been seriously criticizing each other. They also act in a way as if they are competing. This makes it hard for such a project to be unsuccessful. In funding, the government is always in conflict in funding the different security organs. Each of them feels superior to the other and calls for first attention. This has led to underperformance of the agency as waste much time solving issues of this kind. The government can however not ignore any of the agencies since each one of them has its specific goal in the USA internal and external security. FBI has been successful in a way in modernizing its infrastructure. This can be seen from the Trilogy, which is an IT modernization project designed to upgrade different infrastructure in FBI. Some of the things that the project is designed to improve are Information Presentation Component (IPC), Transportation Network Component (TNC), and Use Application Component (UAC) (Brown, 2008, p.15-18). All the latter were implemented however; the results of the same did not show full enactment of an efficient IT infrastructure. The quality of the infrastructure matters much thus they have to be keen on the kind of technological infrastructure they implement. In addition, they need to understand that technology in the world is changing at the speed of light thus they have to find ways of ensuring that their infrastructure is up to date with the latest technologies. They can do this best by having a committee to handle such issues. Another issue that has been observed for long and shown in different reports is lack of knowledge on some issues among some personnel. This is to say that the personnel have not been well trained. Leaders should serve as an example in this. Leadership is of importance in any project. They determine the quality of work or service that will be offered by their subjects. In the FBI, most of the leaders were found to lack knowledge on some major issues for instance entry of foreign names in the databases. When the personnel are not well trained or having the required information, then the project would become useless. This factor has led to the underperformance of the FBI more so when it comes to operation of IT related systems (Brown, 2008). Despite this, the FBI has tried and it has showed some efforts in training its personnel however, this has not been enough and it needs to be reviewed. Information is crucial in any project, the personnel involved are supposed to have all the information required of them but this has not been the case with the FBI. Solutions to this are required such that they have ways of updating and training the workers on the latest technologies. The FBI has showed weakness in investigating goods been imported in the country. They lack proper means of tracking the goods and knowing what the goods. This is most cases in goods that are carried in leads. They do not open up the leads to see what might be contained in them. This has still led to increased terrorism attacks in the state. They should have means of showing all the firearms that enter the country by land, water, or air. This would help to reduce some crimes that are done using such weapons (Maylor, 2002, p.14-15). The FBI databases have been faced with different problems whereby they have ended up exposing some of their secret information to intruders. When they do not secure their computers, intruders utilize these chances to get some secretive data about the agency. Terrorist have used such information to escape from arrest. There are other things that the computers of the FBI are prone to and this are hacking of information and fraud. Fraud on the internet has been used to confuse the FBI and in the process, they slow on some crucial investigations they were undertaking. Their systems have been regularly hacked by foreigners (Burke, 2006, p.13). This still has still promoted exposure of secretive information for the agency. Some foreigners have also used hacking of the systems to change some information stored in the computers. This has led to confusion and the personnel lack a way of responding to this. (Project, Lock 2003) The different parties who are linked with the FBI have high expectations for it. This is a problem that is usually associated with soft systems. There are many solutions and challenges as the problems cannot be quantified. On the other hand, within the project the hard systems have few problems as their problems can be quantified thus justified. The two systems therefore have impact on the project. The stakeholders, the government at large and the public in general have high expectations for the FBI. They have put all their trust on the agency thinking that their country will be secure through it. Different projects have failed due to over expectations of the people. Some scholars according to Maylor (2002) say that a project may be successful but the expectations of the people make it a failure. Just like machines, Lock (2003, p.42) says that no project can be 100 percent efficient. Does this mean that the FBI database project is a failure on some things because of the high expectations of the people? Such questions make it hard to conclude whether the project has failed. In most cases we will end up saying that, they have done their best. Since the government and other stakeholders of the FBI database project have high expectations for it, they make to be a failure since they find it to achieve such expectations. It is not easy for the leaders in the FBI to wake up in a day and find that the government and the stakeholders have been satisfied by what they are doing (Meredith & Mantel, 2003). Due to this, claims will always rise on the project some claiming that it has failed while other supporting its work. In such a case, the issue of intelligence comes out. People who are intelligent play a crucial role in a project. People who understand the FBI database project well can lead to its prosperity (Peykaros, 2005). This agency has lacked intelligent people since most of who are incorporated provides only short-term solutions. This could be achieved by bettering on the training that is done to the personnel. The personnel should be taken through a comprehensive study to test their intelligence since at the end of the day this is what will make operations in the agency to be efficient (Pinto, 2007, p.28). They therefore need to be selective on the people they enroll for trading so that they may get intellectuals. Recommendations for the FBI database project There are different solutions that have been offered on some issues concerning the FBI. Some of them have been implemented however the implementation of the same has been regularly faced by challenges and this has made some of them to bring no positive change to the agency. In the annual reports that are given on the different systems in the FBI database have always come with some recommendations (Kaster, 2010, p.45). However most of the recommendations have been worthy, implementation of the same has made such recommendations ineffective. In addition, most of the recommendations have been short-term. This arises the need for long-term solutions to the issue. Despite the different recommendations that will be given, it is important to understand that stakeholders of the FBI database should make realistic judgments. At most, times they claim that the project is not successful basing their judgment on their expectations (Lock, 2003). Since they have high expectations for the project, then this makes them in most cases to argue that the project is not successful. Recommendation 1: Proper and long-term training – most of the trainings that have been done on the different personnel in the different systems in the FBI have been short-term. They are trained only on the latest technologies that they need to make use of to make their operations more efficient. It is important that they should make training a long-term need for the personnel. They should be trained throughout so that they can have varied knowledge. This will also help to enhance intelligence of the personnel. In the different institutions where the personnel are trained before joining the FBI, training should be both qualitative and quantitative. Training should be perfected so that when the personnel come to the field is not affected by some minor issues. The people who train the personnel should have high intelligence. In any project, training of the personnel involved plays a crucial role. When the personnel is given the right and timely training, then this will be fundamental for the success of the project. Training of personnel will help to prevent some mistakes that have been done regularly (Kerzener, 2001, p.32). For instance, they will be able to understand different ways of keeping their information in secret. They should be totally out of use of paper in their work. This is to say that they should make everything about their operations computerized. They will also learn different ways of preventing their data from some crime activities like hacking of data. Hacking has been a real problem that has made it uneasy for the project to be successful in solving terrorist related crimes (Koletar, 2006, p.42). Recommendation 2: Need for provision of efficient funds and well distribution of the same among the different systems in the agency – security organs in any state need to be well funded. This should be given the first priority since without security other things in the country will not be run efficiently. Although there have been recommendations to allocate more funds to the FBI database, they have been not been enough. They need to get enough capital to install all the technologies required for exemplary performance of the agency. The government should take issues of this organ with the seriousness deserved so that they offer timely and appropriate funds to support different programs in the agency. To enhance training in the organ, they will need to be well financed. The government should employ a committee that will be concerned with the finance for the FBI database. When they expect the FBI to forward its needs, they may fail since the agency has kept quiet on some important things. When they employ a financial committee, this will offer a long-term solution. The committee will also be concerned with the distribution of the funds allocated for the organ within the different systems. There are some organs that need to be given the first priority thus they should be catered for through the committee. When all financial problems are settled down in a timely manner, then it is expected that the project will be successful (Larson & Gray, 2011, p.14-25). This will be the same case with the FBI thus, a committee will make to a reality. Recommendation 3: need for technologies to check all imports- in most cases, imports have been used as a way of smuggling different things in the country. This can be seen from the different cases of the different containers that have been caught packed with illegal drugs and firearms. They need to increase their technologies in inspecting the goods that are coming in the country by water, air, or land. This will need them to do extensive research to understand how they can use technology to improve on such an important issue. This should be done with perfection to offer a long-term solution since in most cases they have employed poor technologies that have not settled the issue wholly (Rhodri, 2007). Recommendation 4: need to improve on communication - Communication is crucial in any project since it establishes commonness and understanding among the members involved. Lack of proper communication is therefore one of the causes of the failure of the FBI to get information on some major crimes like terrorism. There are a number of systems in the FBI that link up the different operations of the agency. The systems have poor communication means as they may take time to communicate urgency issues. This contributes to failure of the project. Poor communication can be attributed to by lack of efficient facilities or lack of trained personnel. The latter should therefore be looked into since they may have a connection with the inefficient communication in the project. They need to incorporate the latest technologies in communication. To make this realistic they will need to computerize all their operations (Theoharis, 1999). Recommendation 5: need to make use of commissions – commissions play a curial role in any project. One of the roles is handling a different issue in the project, and then it becomes easy to find weaknesses and work on them perfectly. The FBI should have different organs to cater for its different issues. For instance, there is the need of a technological committee. This will be working to ensure that infrastructure in the organ is up to date. They will be involved in extensive research to ensure that they use high technologies in all they do (Jeston & Nelis, 2010, p.52). The commissions should be different from the systems. They should be the overall in carrying out internal investigations and providing recommendations. They should also budget to help the government in funding the organ. Stakeholder Diagram References Brown, K, 2008, The FBI, New Jersey: Capstone press. Burke, R, 2006, Project Management Planning and Control Techniques, British Library: John Wiley & Sons. Geisser, SH, 1999, Statistics in genetics, New York: Springer. Hamilton, J, 2007, The FBI, New York: ABDO. Jenkins, D, 2005, FBI: the fit body initiative, New Jersey: Cabal group limited. Jeston, J & Nelis, J, 2010, Business process management: practical guidelines to successful implementations. Butterworth-Heinemann, USA 1 - 437. Kerzner, H, 2001, Project Management: A Systems approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Koletar, WJ, 2006, The FBI Career Guide: Inside Information on Getting Chosen for and Succeeding in One of the Toughest, Most Prestigious Jobs in the World, Washington, DC: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Koster, K, 2010, International Project Management, London: Sage Publications. Larson, WE & Gray, FC, 2011, Project Management, The Managerial Process, Gray: McGraw Hill. Lock, D, 2003, Project Management, Aldershot: Gower. Maylor, H, 2002, Project Management, London: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Meredith, J & Mantel, S, 2003, Project Management - a managerial approach, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Peykar, VE, 2005, The FBI: past, present, and future, Boston: Cengage publishing. Pinto, KJ, 2007, Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Rhodri, JJ, 2007, The FBI: a history, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. Stone, RN, Hawkins, FD & Myers, SL, 2003, Crime control and social justice: the delicate balance, London: Greenwood publishing group. Theoharis, AG, 1999, The FBI: a comprehensive reference guide, London: Greenwood publishing group. Appendix No. Stakeholder Title Interest and their power 1 The USA federal Government The want the best for their own motivation. They are the overall in the project as they have all the power to do any changes and implementations without any consultation. 2 Internal organs like OIG They cannot be involved with project decision but they can be part of it. They carry out research and come up with the decisions although they are not part of the implementing team 3 Media Is to keep the local and the international people knowledge up to date regard the project taking into since they are the people who are affected directly. They have limited power to do that since there are some issues they will not be allowed to. 4 Internal systems Each of them has its own tasks. This is to ensure that there is specialization in tasks within the project. Read More