Requirements Creep at the IRS

Requirements Creep at the IRS By Group A

Introduction • Accomplishes work using information systems designed in the 60’s • New BSM project in the 90’s – turned to disaster • Mismanaged project - Now behind schedule and billions lost • After problems identified, Oversight Board recommended further actions

QUESTION #1 • Why did the Oversight Board place leadership of the program on business units? • They were the future users of the project • They should have known about the project • Poor teamwork and communication • Inadequate ownership/sponsorship

Question #1 continue • Why not place responsibilities on the ITS organization? • • ITS just maintains and operates the information systems • Business units should have taken leadership/ownership of each of their projects

2. Why did the oversight board place the responsibility for controlling scope changes on the business units and not the BSM or ITS or Computer sciences Corp.? • Because the business units will be the future users of the new system, they need to be the ones making the guidelines to what they need. The ITS is already currently working on a system so it would be harder for them to contribute. • On the last project, the BSM put the system together on their own and misunderstood the IRS’s needs and therefore the system had to keep being changed after it was already created. This caused delays and money loss.

QUESTION #3: How does one go about creating an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork? • Scenario : in a University • Modernize its computing facilities • Dean creates committee to hire a vendor to do this • Committee decides to do everything without involving faculty or students • Project is 1 yr late, spent $400,000 and not finished • Vendor is complaining that the requirements keep changing

Confidence • When employees believe they “can’t do it,” they tend to give up. That attitude typically develops when performance expectations are unrealistic and workloads are impossibly high so to gain the vendor’s confidence we must give him specifics to what is wanted and make sure he can do it and not make his job harder. • To gain confidence of the staff and students we must show them the benefits that lie ahead and that all this work will benefit them

Trust • The vendor must feel that his efforts are being appreciated and must not feel like its being wasted because of the countless number of changes to their hard work. • The staff and students trust can be gained by showing results of a successful project

Teamwork • The vender and staff and students’ can feel like they are part of a team if they work together in forming all major decisions. This way everyone is on top of what is happening and everyone is on the same page. It’ll be less mess and confusion which will save money and time.

Now assume you must create an “environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork among faculty, students, and vendor. How do you do it • I would have the already established committee to get all faculty and students interested in getting involved to form a group. • As a team we must all decide once and for all exactly what we want out of the new computing systems because they are for us. • We must make blueprints and guidelines for the vendor to go by. • To create the sense of Confidence, one must take charge and put together the exact outline of what is wanted. • To establish trust everyone will be informed of every action that occurs. • The vendor will also be at meeting and until all details are set in stone he won’t start anything. • Once all plans and arrangements are made then the vendor can give us exactly what we want.

Question #4 • How would you modify your answer for question 3 for a project as large as the IRS's? • - there would not be very many changes made to question 3, however they key again is creating an enviorment of trust, confidence, and teamwork. • - there also must be representatives of each unit (BMS, ITS, and the Prime) working together as one. these seperate units must feel as though they are one unit. • - Lastly the IRS business units must take direct leadership and ownership of the modernazation program and all of its projects. this must consist of setting realistic goals and, and controlling scope changes throughout the project

Question 5 • If the existing system works (which apparently it does), why is the BSM needed? B) Why fix a system that works?

ANSWER FOR A)? • Positive side: The old system that the IRS used “were designed and developed in the 1960’s . • They wanted to replace this old system with modern technology and capabilities. • Negative side: It was a disaster, they actually wasted a lot of billions of dollars on this project alone.

Answer B) • The IRS were in need of a more updated system that would be suitable to them • Too be honest, I would of done the same thing but would made some research of what we need in order to make the transition quickly and smoothly as possible.

Conclusion • Through the lack of owernship,trust of the employees, leadership and a planned out plan, the IRS made the BSM fail. • If they had planned it well, the BSM would have had a better outcome than it should have. • Heed this words…… “Such requirements creep is a sure sign of a mismanaged project…. • Lesson learned: have a plan, manage it well and have the support and trust of your team behind you

Requirements Creep at the IRS