The INCIS Fiasco and a Compact Information System Solution - Assignment Example

? Project Analysis of the INCIS Fiasco in NZ Police Force s of College Project Management of Information Systems Development and Deployment is a very strenuous task and becomes difficult when it is managed solely by business users and non-technical users of that proposed system. This report is based on the project analysis of the INCIS Fiasco, the idea of which was proposed by the New Zealand Police Force. The idea was to implement a compact Information System solution that would revolutionise the working mechanism of the police force. Although, the idea coined initially was fair enough to be turned into reality, however, the managerial flaws and inappropriate decision making led to jeopardy. The organisation (NZ Police Force) bore the loss of millions of dollars, human efforts, time and, of course the opportunity cost which is a hidden expense. Keywords: Project Management, INCIS Fiasco, Information Systems Project Analysis of INCIS Fiasco in NZ Police Force Integrated National Crime Investigation System (INCIS) was an idea of developing a compact information system that would provide complete solution to all the needs of Police Force of New Zealand. Initially, the system was supposed to do functions like integrating all information systems of Police Force (around 3200 systems) via intranet, replacement of Wanganui Systems with new Suspect and Offence Information System and providing tools on the same interface like Crime Trend Analysis, Intelligence Analysis, Mail Facilities and a Case and Investigation System (Gauld & Goldfinch, 2006). Description of Existing System and why a change was required The system which existed at the time of the development of INCIS Fiasco was a mainframe-based Law Enforcement System (LES) which was more commonly referred as ‘Wanganui Computer’. It was considered as a powerful record keeping system that was prevalent at that time and was growing rapidly through various upgrades since its implementation in December 1976. The existing system of Wanganui was not enough to fulfil the needs of the Police Force of New Zealand. Therefore, considering the needs and in order to fulfil them, several additional systems were also introduced like SICA (Serious Incident Computer Applications). These applications were like add-ons for the Wanganui Computers and were partly fulfiling the Information System needs of the Police Force. Apart from this, the Wanganui Computer system was more focused towards ‘Backdoor Intelligence’ tools rather than fulfiling the ‘Core Business’ needs of the Police Force. Wanganui Computers were more like a record keeping system that was not offering any analytical and all-in-one solution required by the Police Force. In the very beginning, when this system was first installed, technological restrictions were restraining Police Force to get the desired Information System. Police Force was more in need of a decision support system rather than a record keeping system like Wanganui Computers. Thus, the needs and requirements of the Police Force from the Information Systems laid the foundation stone for a new information system. Therefore, the idea of developing a new, highly advanced and fully compact information system was first coined by the police officials. New System and its Proposed Functionalities Soon after the identification that there was a need to develop a new Information System, the officials of the Police Force with other higher authorities of New Zealand Government proposed the idea for this new system. This proposed system was conceived to provide solutions to all the operational needs of the Police Force. This system was deemed to focus on both ‘Core Business’ functionalities as well as ‘Backdoor Intelligence’. The idea of this new system was highly appreciated by the Police Force as well as the other intelligence and law enforcing agencies. In order to develop this giant information system, a large number of international vendors were invited to send their proposals for developing such a large information system with the following proposed functionalities: The new Information System should integrate all the legacy systems of the Police Force (around 3200 manual and automatic sub-systems) to a central database, enabling them to access and retrieve information and records of the police force To enable police officers to access information from distant locations with the help of their portable PCs (Laptop Computers) To be able to download required information from the database within ten seconds (This was an unrealistic functionality denied by the contractor later) To be able to provide officers with tools like Suspect and Offence IS, Intelligence Analysis, Mailing Facilities and Crime Trend Analysis These are the functionalities that were proposed at the time when the idea of developing a new information system was coined. The new IS, according to the NZ police force official, was going to revolutionise the working mechanism of the police force and other interconnected departments. Problems Experienced by the Project Development and deployment of an Information System is most likely to face difficulties than other smaller non-customised solutions. This is what exactly happened with the project of INCIS which later led to jeopardy. The project faced a number of problems that were due to mismanagement, lack of funds and lack of expertise. Let us discuss these problems with reference to the nine knowledge areas of Project Management Book of Knowledge. 1. Project Integration Management Project Management plays a vital role in the successful completion of a project especially when working on a project of INCIS’s magnitude. In order to complete the project successfully and in accordance with the project plan, it was imperative to stick with the principles of Project Management. Project Integration Management is the first knowledge area according to PMBOK. The project integration management is basically the integration of all processes that are directly or indirectly related to the project. In short, it is responsible for the overall supervision of the project. In case of INCIS, it was clearly observed that there was no one looking after Project Integration Management. The steering committees were only working on paper. The requirement managers who were assigned to look after the project (from 1994 to 1999) were not qualified project managers and were lacking technical expertise required to look after the INCIS project. 2. Project Scope Management After analyzing the case of INCIS, it is obvious that the main problem of the project was fallacious Project Scope Management. The higher authorities of NZ Government and the concerned Police Force were ambiguous about their requirements. The initially proposed requirements of the development of Information System were changing continuously from the client side, making it difficult for Mr. Crewdson (Project Director INCIS) to make sound strategies for Project Scope Management. The most evident example of mismanagement of project scope is, that initially it was signed between the contractor and customer, that the Operating System of the PC’s would be IBM’s OS/2, however, in May 1996, the Police Force requested that Windows NT should be installed on the client’s computer. These time to time changes in the initial requirements was indeed an evident flaw in the Project Scope Management that lead the development towards an unending development process which was hard to attain within such scarce resources. The budget exceeded far from what it was initially reported resulting in the death of the INCIS development project. 3. Project Time Management The timely completion of any project is chiefly based on the project scope management. As discussed earlier, the scope of the project was not defined clearly. Ambiguous initial development requirements were a big flaw at the customer’s end. The project managers from both ends were unable to agree on a timeframe for the whole project. Initially, it was decided that the first of the three iterations would be completed by the end of April 1995; however, this was not the case in reality. The ‘INCIS Liaison Update Newsletter’ which was being published to let authorities know about the progress of the development reported that the expected date of the delivery of first iteration will be shifted to the end of year 1996. This clearly shows that because of unclear requirements, it became difficult for the project supervisors to manage timeliness of the INCIS Development Project. 4. Project Cost Management Project Cost Management (PCM) is an important tool of Project Management that helps the manager to evaluate the total estimated cost of the enterprise level projects. INCIS was indeed the biggest system development project ever ventured by the NZ authorities. The PCM of any project depends on several variable and fixed factors like accounting and design, field data collection, job control and estimation. These factors are to be studied deeply and thoroughly in order to manage the project cost. In case of INCIS, it was analyzed that the initial feasibility report contained evidences based on inferences that the estimated cost of the INCIS project would not exceed by $85 million. Nevertheless, by the end of the development of first iteration, it was visible that the cost would exceed way beyond than what was estimated initially. 5. Project Quality Management Quality Management is the most important factor when it comes to the development of an Information System. INCIS project was facing a great deal of trouble from the perspective of Project Quality Management. The project director Mr. Crewdson was an able technologist having fair knowledge about Information Systems. He was facing a great deal of trouble for his internal team because firstly the department was not sticking with the initial requirements and secondly, he was facing opposition on his methods of management from the internal authorities. In addition to this, in 1997, the project director was changed and the new director was a non-technical person, proved to be the biggest threat to the development project of INCIS. The project quality was going from bad to worse because of the reasons like changes in requirements, proposition of unrealistic requirements and handing over of the project charge to a non-technical person. 6. Project Human Resource Management Because of the poor Project HR Management, the development project of INCIS failed gravely. IBM (the contractor) was indeed a big resource at that time, having ample technical resources. However, these resources were not utilised to their potent. The project director being a semi-technical and non-technical fellow did not know whom to assign and for what task. On the other hand, the project manager of IBM managed human resources poorly. The IBM personnel who were assigned for the development project were having a communication problem with the police force. Communication between IBM and police force was an ongoing problem because of the psychological barriers of communication. This lack of communication deteriorated the relationships of IBM and police force and IBM personnel because of this situation were not able to perform the way they could have performed. This communication flaw became problematic and was the reason for poor HR Management that leaded the project towards more problems. 7. Project Communications Management At start, the project INCIS was going on smoothly as per the expectations of the feasibility report. However, it soon started to face hitches because of the miscommunication between IBM and NZ Police Force. To prevent this situation and for the sake of betterment of this development project, several executive teams were made including the IBM personnel and Police Officials, however, it was all in vain. The report of PWC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) in 1997 clearly stated that the deterioration of the relationships of IBM and NZ Police Force was because of the lack of Communication. IBM was unable or unwilling to answer questions asked by the Police Force and the officials of Police Force had no direct access to the IBM personnel who were deployed for the development project. The hierarchy was so intricate that it prevented direct contact of IBM personnel with Police Officials. This mismanagement of communication raised a number of problems and tensions in the development project. 8. Project Risk Management This is a vital knowledge area of Project Management; however, neither IBM nor the NZ Police Force was ready for Project Risk Management. There were many risks involved in the development project of INCIS; some of them were mentioned in the feasibility reports. The first and the most evident risk factor was the technological barrier but no such measures were taken to prevent the risk or to manage it properly. The risks were not evaluated probabilistically; hence, the project faced innumerable difficulties that might have been prevented if there would have been a proper emphasis on Project Risk Management. 9. Project Procurement Management In case of INCIS, procurement management was an important issue too. It was signed between both parties that the development of Information System would be on OS/2 of IBM but this requirement was changed from the client side insisting on providing them Windows NT. Although, it seemed a minor change but it became an issue on part of the Project Procurement Management. IBM had already procured 3000 machines in accordance with the initial requirements but the sudden change ruined the whole effort and made them go again through the whole process. Conclusion After going through the case of INCIS Fiasco and assessing it thoroughly from every dimension, it is analyzed that the main reason of the project failure was budget constraint and technological barriers. The project of INCIS Fiasco was a highly advanced one considering the technology of early 90s. The requirements of the project were to develop such an advance information system that would utilise Artificial Intelligence algorithms to the highest extent. The information system which the NZ police force wanted to develop was not yet introduced or even thought about in any other part of the world. It was so advanced that according to the initial report of NZ Police Force, after the development of INCIS Fiasco the NZ Police Force would enjoy this Information System for around 50 years (with minor updates and tweak) and there will be no competitor the next 10 years. This system was also to help NZ Police Force in obtaining benefits of around $200 Million. The tools that were proposed by NZ Police Force were difficult to make with the technological restrictions of that time and the budget constraint worked as icing on berg. The IBM personnel were indeed highly qualified and were capable enough to develop such a system; however, these two things were not the only barriers. There were many other hitches as well that contributed towards failure of development project of INCIS and that were as follows: 1. Mismanagement of time, scope and HR by the project Managers and project directors at both ends 2. Project Directors assigned by the NZ police department were lacking technical knowledge about such a complex information system 3. Exceeding expectations from the new Information Systems made the requirements unrealistic 4. Internal skirmishes in the Police department between high officials 5. Lack of communication between the contractor and the Police Officials 6. No strict adherence to the initially proposed plan References Gauld, R., Goldfinch, S. (2006). Dangerous Enthusiasms. E-government, Computer Failure and Information Systems Development. Dunedin, New Zealand: Otago University Press. Read More