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?
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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?



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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
A) 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