CASE STUDY 1: REQUIREMENTS CREEP AT THE IRS

1. CASE STUDY 1: REQUIREMENTS CREEP AT THE IRS WAHYU HIDAYAH MOHD SHAFIEI (803578) NOORINA ABD HAMID (805015)

2. UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE SERVES MORE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THAN ANY OTHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE INSTITUTION PROCESS 200 MILLION TAX RETURNS FROM MORE THAN 180 MILLION INDIVIDUALS & MORE THAN 45 MILLION BUSINESSES ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP EMPLOYERS WITH OVER 100,000 PEOPLE IN OVER 1,000 DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ADAPTS TO MORE THAN 200 TAX LAW CHANGES & SERVICES MORE THAN 23 MILLION TELEPHONE CALS

3. SERVES MORE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES THAN ANY OTHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE INSTITUTION PROCESS 200 MILLION TAX RETURNS FROM MORE THAN 180 MILLION INDIVIDUALS & MORE THAN 45 MILLION BUSINESSES ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP EMPLOYERS WITH OVER 100,000 PEOPLE IN OVER 1,000 DIFFERENT LOCATIONS ADAPTS TO MORE THAN 200 TAX LAW CHANGES & SERVICES MORE THAN 23 MILLION TELEPHONE CALLS

4. IRS ACCOMPLISHES ITS GOALS WITH THE WORK OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS THAT WERE ORGINALLY DESIGNED IN THE 1960s IN THE MID-1990s, THE IRS SET OUT ON A BUSINESS SYSTEM MODERNIZATION PROJECT THAT WOULD REPLACE THIS ANTIQUATED SYSTEM WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND CAPABILITIES THE PROJECT WAS A DISASTER BY 2003 BILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAD BEEN SPENT ON THE PROJECT, AND ALL THE MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE NEW SYSTEM WERE MONTHS, POSSIBILIY YEARS BEHIND SCHEDULE

5. QUESTIONS 1. Why did the Oversight Board place leadership and ownership of the Modernization program on the business units? Why did it not place these responsibilities on the ITS organization? 2. Why did the Oversight Board place the responsibility for the controlling scope change on the business units? Why was the responsibility not given to the BSM? To ITS? To the Computer Science Corporation? 3. The second recommendation is a difficult assignment, especially considering the size of the IRS and the complexity of the project. How does one go about creating “an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork?” Now assume that you have been given the responsibility of creating “an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork” among the faculty, staff, other users, the computer support department, and the vendor. How would you proceed? 4. The problem in number 3 involves at most a few hundred people and a few sites. The IRS problem involves 100,000 people and over 1,000 sites. How would your answer to question 3 for a project as large as the IRS’s? 5. If the existing system works (which apparently it does), why is the BSM needed? Why fix a system that works?

6. 1. Why did the Oversight Board place leadership and ownership of the Modernization program on the business units? Why did it not place these responsibilities on the ITS organization? The IRS business units must take control of the modernization program and each of its projects. In particular, this must include defining the scope of each project, preparing realistic and attainable business cases, and controlling scope changes throughout each project’s life cycle. THE OVERSIGHT BOARD NEVER PLACED RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ITS ORGANIZATIONS BECAUSE THE BMS PROGRAM WAS WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE AND WAY OVER ITS BUDGET. THE BOARD FELT THAT THE ITS ORGANIZATION LACKED THE capability, TRUST, AND cooperation TO COMPLETE THE PROGRAM.

7. 2. Why did the Oversight Board place the responsibility for the controlling scope change on the business units? Why was the responsibility not given to the BSM? To ITS? To the Computer Science Corporation? The new IRS Commissioner placed the responsibility on the following because there was two causes of failure as Mark Everson explained: 1. The BSM developed the new system which did not work because it did not have the acceptance, understanding, or the support for the new system from either the existing IRS business units and the form the existing ITS staff. 2. The team did not really understand what they need to accomplish under this system. As, a misunderstanding it resulted in many changes to the project requirements, and changes to occurred after the system was designed and developed. This “CREEP” is a sure sign that they did not know what they need to do. Even the Computer Science Corporation had the opposite true meaning and they also resulted in failure.

8. 3. The second recommendation is a difficult assignment, especially considering the size of the IRS and the complexity of the project. How does one go about creating “an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork?” • We feel that the best way to create an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork would be to : • Get an overall overview on what is expected at each division of the IRS. Once certain guidelines and expectations were set than during the hiring process you could see which people would fulfill the requirements. • Knowing exactly what is expected of them employees would be more part of the team because nothing is of a shock to them. When employees do things right they become confident with their level of work. • Being part of team just comes to a group the more they are together. As long as the workers stay happy and content with their jobs the longer they will stay around for which means teamwork will most likely increase.

9. Now assume that you have been given the responsibility of creating “an environment of trust, confidence, and teamwork” among the faculty, staff, other users, the computer support department, and the vendor. How would you proceed? • We would proceed by first taking a survey of the students in seeing what they would want as their computer lab. Many different types of design ideas would be evolved from this. • Giving the students a chance to voice their opinion we feel would be the best way to make the student body feel as part of our team. • We would simply get the department heads of the faculty to sit down with their departments to get their ideas and than have one big meeting. This meeting would include department heads and the computer support department. • Finally We would set up the meeting with the vendor and tell him precisely everything that was agreed upon at the meetings that took place.

10. 4. The problem in number 3 involves at most a few hundred people and a few sites. The IRS problem involves 100,000 people and over 1,000 sites. How would your answer to question 3 for a project as large as the IRS’s? . • In this instance, since it not just a couple of sites and it a much bigger picture you have to look at building codes for those sites. • Come up with a general computer room that will fit all your needs as well as that it will configure to all codes in all the states that you would be building in. This would be a huge job on you as a designer and developer of this system. • Take into affect the cost of doing something this large might not benefit you in the end. • Test out the new lab in a couple of areas before doing all 1,000 sites.

11. 5. If the existing system works (which apparently it does), why is the BSM needed? Why fix a system that works? 1. From 1960 to 1990 technology had expanded greatly and the IRS was looking for a more modern system with more capabilities. 2. Enhancement of the system