Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Virtual Case File Project Failure
Estimated impact: $170M in taxpayer funds with zero usable output
The FBI's Virtual Case File (VCF) project to modernize its case management system was abandoned after spending $170M over three years. The software was deemed unusable. Requirements changed 36 times during development, and the FBI lacked technical expertise to manage the contractor (SAIC).
Decision context
Whether to continue developing a custom case management system with constantly changing requirements, or adopt commercial off-the-shelf solutions.
Decision anatomy
Red = risk factor present · Green = protective factor present
Biases present in the decision
★ Primary driver · Severity estimated from bias type and decision outcome
Toxic combinations
Reference class base rates
Across all 143 curated case studies in our library:
Lessons learned
- Planning fallacy: the FBI assumed custom software could be built in the same timeline as commercial products despite 36 requirements changes
- Sunk cost: each milestone payment made abandonment harder, even as the project fell further behind
- Government agencies without internal technical expertise cannot effectively manage large custom software projects
Source: DOJ Office of Inspector General Report 05-07 (2005) (Post Mortem)
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