Hope they have better luck than the FBI did with this project:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/05/AR2005060501213.html
(And I hope they find an equal to Alan Turing.)
The Brits should buy TV time in Arab land and let them all know our next project.
How pathetic is this?
I interviewed for a testing position on this project, in 1995. No joke. The documentation then was 10' in length and some jerk from the FBI "contracting authority" asked me how I could possibly learn what I needed from that much documentation, to start testing 4 months from the interview date.
First, I was tempted to tell him that I was obviously smarter than he, as I would know where to begin to write test cases.
Second, I was tempted to ask why on earth they waited to interview for testing positions, until it was 4 months before testing was due to commence.
Third, I was tempted to tell him that I was smart enough to stay away from anything having to do with the FBI - when all of the contractor personnel knew that the biggest problem was getting enough information out of people who are busy protecting their fannies, and not interested in helping to design a system that really did what it was supposed to do.
The "system" underwent a major overhaul a year or so later, when some birdbrain finally figured out that they weren't designing, programming and testing a system that the FBI thought they had contracted for.
I know people - both at the FBI and with the "engineering oversight companies" - Mitre, Booz Allen, who have ridden this project right into retirement. I know contractors, who have been doing whatever programming, re-architecture, redesign, and testing and evaluation can be done on an ever-evolving system, who have ridden this project right into retirement.
At $170 Million, this is the biggest WPA project I've ever read of.
If I'd been smart, I should have kept my mouth shut, taken the job, sat around and read books and been employed right up until I wanted to retire - as that's what everyone else connected with this fiasco has done.
This entire project affects Homeland Security and defense or our nation in ways that most people don't understand.
The FBI has mandated that LEO's and Fire engine companies around the US be able to "talk" to them, the FBI, but within each locale, a Police guy still can't talk to a Fireman, much less have the FBI call and ask what's going on.
If that doesn't disgust the readers here, who understand what 9/11 was "supposed to mean" in terms of interagency communication, then I don't know what will. The pathetic truth is - that Police Officers in NYC still can't talk with Firemen, and if another large emergency event were to occur, they wouldn't be any better off than they were on 9/11/2001.
As for the FBI project? As a taxpayer, I want my money back and I'd like to see all those inept Mathematicians, system designers, system architects, programmers, and every darn one of the supposed "FBI liaison team" fired.
I know. I'm not holding my breath.
Lastly, here's the killer quote from the same article.
The system was part of Trilogy, a $581 million FBI program that includes a new computer network and thousands of new high-speed personal computers for agents and analysts.
$581 million flushed down the drain.