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2006-03-21 Home Front: WoT

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Posted by Steve 2006-03-21 11:04|| || Front Page|| [11136 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Yep, smellz like BS.

Posted by 6 2006-03-21 12:17|| 2006-03-21 12:17|| Front Page Top

#2 Might be BS but it might be a political stunt.

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2006-03-21 12:51|| 2006-03-21 12:51|| Front Page Top

#3 I dunno, how does this differ from any IT SAP style project in the private sector I have been subjected to? It's only by a matter of degree.

Posted by capsu78 2006-03-21 13:42|| 2006-03-21 13:42|| Front Page Top

#4 C78

Would you mind translating your
...differ from any IT SAP style project ...
for me. I've been in IT so long that there's no such thing as a single translation for any acronym and SAP has special meaning to me.
Thanks

Posted by AlanC">AlanC 2006-03-21 14:43|| 2006-03-21 14:43|| Front Page Top

#5 Damn it, man, if the FBI can't get spam like the rest of us, where is this post-9/11 world going?

Chucky Schumer = puke

Posted by Captain America 2006-03-21 14:44|| 2006-03-21 14:44|| Front Page Top

#6 how does this differ from any IT SAP style project in the private sector

Trust me, nobody can spend more money, burn more manyears and show less for it than the Federal government. I lost count of how many IT programs were going to be ready "any day now" during my AF career that crashed and burned. Most common cause is trying to code it in-house instead of buying something off the shelf. Next is they keep changing requirements and adding stuff. For example: Troubled AF systems are kept alive by 'generous' lawmakers
(From 1995) Congressional meddling and slow Air Force progress on a new aircraft maintenance system have left the service's wing units with a trio of old, unreliable systems that will not be replaced before 1997. Evidence of the ongoing support for the problem-plagued systems is buried in the House and Senate fiscal 1996 Defense appropriations bills. Both the House and Senate added roughly $28 million in unrequested funds to the bills for the three old systems and a new one, the Integrated Maintenance Data System (IMDS), that is intended to replace them.
Both houses have passed their versions of the bill and are scheduled to meet for conference negotiations any day.

The old systems are the Core Automated Maintenance System (CAMS), the Reliability and Maintainability Information System (REMIS) and Tactical Interim CAMS/REMIS Reporting System (TICARRS). Eventually, the service plans to replace all three with IMDS. In 1982, the Standard Systems Group at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., began developing CAMS, which gathers maintenance data on aircraft, electronic equipment and other assets at 109 Air Force bases. REMIS, which is designed to process, store and retrieve performance and readiness information based on data generated by CAMS, was built under a contract awarded to Litton Computer Systems in Dayton, Ohio, in 1986. The management of both programs was consolidated by the Air Force in December 1991.
TICARRS, a standalone system that predates CAMS and REMIS, was designed by Dynamics Research Corp. in Andover, Mass., and is limited to tracking maintenance and parts data for F-16, F-15 and F-117 combat aircraft.

This one crashed so bad the AF deleted all mention of it. Next:
Bowthorpe wins significant aerospace software contract from US Air Force - 10 February 2000

Bowthorpe plc, the international electronics company, today announces that its aerospace business has won a significant contract for its GOLD software system in support of the United States Air Force ('USAF'). The USAF has selected GOLD for the next development stage of its new Integrated Maintenance Data System ('IMDS'), which, when fully developed and deployed, will centralise the management of maintenance and parts inventory for the entire USAF global fleet of 6,800 aircraft. The new licence agreement expands the role of GOLD within IMDS and builds upon its utilisation at the initial design stage of the programme. Further significant GOLD licences have been agreed and are expected upon successful completion of operational tests and evaluation

Flash forward to Dec 2002:

NEEDHAM, Mass. The U.S. Air Force has awarded General Dynamics Network Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), a contract to support the Integrated Maintenance Data System (IMDS) Functional Baseline at Maxwell AFB Gunter Annex, in Montgomery, Ala. The base award is valued at $2.7 million with options that could total $9.8 million. The IMDS task order calls for General Dynamics to support the Air Force in developing a single functional baseline for five maintenance information systems as a new IMDS architecture is developed. The new architecture will integrate existing legacy systems supporting Air Force maintenance management and reporting activities into a single, modern open system, supporting nearly 150,000 Air Force personnel worldwide.

It looks like someone finally got it working, far as I can tell. God, I hated CAMS.

Posted by Steve">Steve 2006-03-21 15:05|| 2006-03-21 15:05|| Front Page Top

#7 I went to a panel discussion for alumni of my business school a bit over a year ago. The topic was using your business background in government service as many of us were interested in seeing how we could 'do something' post 9/11.

The most impressive speaker (in terms of career accomplishments, bearing, intelligence, etc.) was a guy who had been a major exec at IBM when it was turned around. He was retired by 9/11 and asked to come to the FBI to help modernize their systems after the 9/11 post mortem revealed agents were not sharing across offices, etc.

He was by far the most frustrated, negative speaker of the lot. He said the FBI people were smart, but the system was dysfunctional. He said he had to wait in a congressional office and get dissed by a 20-something staffer over $500k decisions that wound up taking 6 months. He contrasted this with his time turning around IBM where he could make multi million dollar moves on the spot and tell the board later.

I heard soon thereafter that he left the FBI. It was a depressing revelation to me. I decided to stay in the private sector.

No doubt Chucky's staff contributes to the problem as they, and their esteemed colleagues, politicize every dime of government spending.

Posted by JAB 2006-03-21 15:16|| 2006-03-21 15:16|| Front Page Top

#8 In another bill from CSC to the FBI, all but $44,000 of a $1.95 million invoice was listed as "other direct costs" with no additional explanation provided.

That'll be for the hookers and booze..... Another training essential :)

Posted by CrazyFool 2006-03-21 15:21|| 2006-03-21 15:21|| Front Page Top

#9 A roundtable for ideas.

An apolitical dictator for results.

Posted by Angack Sperong2266 2006-03-21 15:22|| 2006-03-21 15:22|| Front Page Top

#10 I don't know, but speaking from multiple experiences, any large scale top teir ERP/MRP project like an SAP implementation is huge risk. It all comes down to project management, but most/many companies that implement fail to understand the tool they are buying but more over how to implement the tool. The project manager is key in this.

And yes, SAP has a special meaning for most of us in the biz, usually of pure evil - though a cash cow from some!

For those not in the biz, SAP represents the largest, most complex 'commercially' availaibe ERP system on the planet. Enterprise Resource Planning / Manufacturing Resource Planning - large, complex, often fully integrated system which you use to plan and execute your business functions; such as: Purchasing, Inventory Control, Order Management, Accounting, etc

Often implementations of SAP (and others) fail. Large ones, esp SAP, tend to run 18, 36 even 48+ months with never a payback or full implementation.

Posted by bombay">bombay 2006-03-21 16:28|| 2006-03-21 16:28|| Front Page Top

#11 Alan,

I am pretty sure he meant the SAP product given the context of the FBI installing the equivalent of an executive information system.

Posted by DanNY 2006-03-21 16:31|| 2006-03-21 16:31|| Front Page Top

#12 Heh, Bombay, not only did you beat me to the draw but you gave a pretty good overall clarification for those not in the business.

Posted by DanNY 2006-03-21 16:32|| 2006-03-21 16:32|| Front Page Top

#13 Why can't FBI agents use Google or Yahoo mail until the Government gets through its BS mode? The problem with most Government people is that they can't think outside their own tiny bit of the program. They have no concept of what goes on elsewhere, and the majority of them have so little curiousity they won't even look out the window to see if it's raining. IT isn't rocket science, but trying to reproduce paper systems online doesn't work. Trying to explain that to someone who's done the paperwork for 30 years is like trying to explain color to a man blind from birth - they just don't have a reference system they can use. It's amazing how quickly the military adapted to computer technology at the lower levels, and how long it took "upper management" to get on board.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-03-21 16:49|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-03-21 16:49|| Front Page Top

#14 O.P. Personally I wouldn't want the FBI relying on Google (of all people) for their email - you never know who might be looking at it. They are a ~~lot~~ little too LLL for my tastes.

OTOH what's wrong with MS Outlook or Lotus Notes? Heck even IMAP using SSL.... Giving people email isn't that difficult.

Posted by CrazyFool 2006-03-21 17:31|| 2006-03-21 17:31|| Front Page Top

#15 Steve-
Gawd, a fellow CAMS vet. I helped implement it at Langley AFB in the late 80s - we were ORDERED to throw out every piece of paper that we used in the old scheduling system, finding one in the section would be an IMMEDIATE write-up. On the Monday morning they first lit CAMS up, it crashed about three hours into the day and stayed that way for nearly four months.
Fortunately, this little Staff Sergeant had the smarts to stash several boxes of forms at his residence, and had them in the trunk that morning. The result was that two squadrons out of three couldn't even schedule a paper-clip changeout much less fix anything.
CAMS sucked swampwater when it DID work.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2006-03-21 19:40|| 2006-03-21 19:40|| Front Page Top

#16 Pathetic. I'd always envisioned (and hoped) that these guys had the best, or close to it. As a DOD logistics drone, looks like NMCI all over again. God Bless You All.

at

Posted by Asymmetrical Triangulation 2006-03-21 19:47|| 2006-03-21 19:47|| Front Page Top

#17 As an American-taxer, I'm embarassed and very dissapointed, period.

Posted by Spinens Snesh1941 2006-03-21 20:24|| 2006-03-21 20:24|| Front Page Top

23:34 Ulaigum Angailet7896
23:32 3dc
23:29 Barbara Skolaut
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23:25 Barbara Skolaut
23:24 Old Patriot
23:20 Old Patriot
23:18 eltoroverde
23:16 Old Patriot
23:13 RD worm
22:50 IT Insider
22:50 Duh!
22:38 RWV
22:38 Angack Sperong2266
22:37 xbalanke
22:33 CrazyFool
22:27 RWV
22:25 Darrell
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22:13 RWV
22:12 Captain America
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22:09 Eric Jablow
22:05 DMFD