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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program

James C. McGroddy and Herbert S. Lin, Editors

Committee on the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program

Computer Science and Telecommunications Board

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at its request under Award Number A3D0316801. However, in accordance with NRC policy, the FBI did not review this report before publication, and the opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FBI.

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Suggested citation: National Research Council, A Review of the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., 2004.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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COMMITTEE ON THE FBI’S TRILOGY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZATION PROGRAM

JAMES C. McGRODDY,

IBM (retired),

Chair

EDWARD BALKOVICH,

RAND

RICHARD BASEIL,

Holmdel, New Jersey

MATT BLAZE,

University of Pennsylvania

W. EARL BOEBERT,

Sandia National Laboratories

MARC DONNER,

Morgan Stanley

MICHAEL McGILL,

Columbus, Ohio

JAMES NOGA,

Massachusetts General Hospital

CARL O’BERRY,

The Boeing Company

KEN ORR,

The Ken Orr Institute

JAMES PATTON,

The MITRE Corporation

MARK SEIDEN,

MSB Associates

GEORGE SPIX,

Microsoft Corporation

CHARLES E. STUART,

Competitive Enterprise Solutions, LLC

GIO WIEDERHOLD,

Stanford University

HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Scientist and Study Director

KRISTEN BATCH, Research Associate

DAVID DRAKE, Senior Project Assistant (until November 2003)

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD

DAVID D. CLARK,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Chair

ERIC BENHAMOU,

3Com Corporation

ELAINE COHEN,

University of Utah

THOMAS E. DARCIE,

University of Victoria

MARK E. DEAN,

IBM Research

JOSEPH FARRELL,

University of California, Berkeley

JOAN FEIGENBAUM,

Yale University

HECTOR GARCIA-MOLINA,

Stanford University

RANDY H. KATZ,

University of California, Berkeley

WENDY A. KELLOGG,

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

SARA KIESLER,

Carnegie Mellon University

BUTLER W. LAMPSON,

Microsoft Corporation, CSTB member emeritus

DAVID LIDDLE,

U.S. Venture Partners

TERESA H. MENG,

Stanford University

TOM M. MITCHELL,

Carnegie Mellon University

DANIEL PIKE,

GCI Cable and Entertainment

ERIC SCHMIDT,

Google, Inc.

FRED B. SCHNEIDER,

Cornell University

BURTON SMITH,

Cray, Inc.

WILLIAM STEAD,

Vanderbilt University

ANDREW J. VITERBI,

Viterbi Group, LLC

JEANNETTE M. WING,

Carnegie Mellon University

CHARLES BROWNSTEIN, Director

KRISTEN BATCH, Research Associate

JENNIFER M. BISHOP, Program Associate

JANET BRISCOE, Administrative Officer

JON EISENBERG, Senior Program Officer

RENEE HAWKINS, Financial Associate

PHIL HILLIARD, Research Associate

MARGARET MARSH HUYNH, Senior Project Assistant

ALAN S. INOUYE, Senior Program Officer

HERBERT S. LIN, Senior Scientist

LYNETTE I. MILLETT, Program Officer

DAVID PADGHAM, Research Associate

CYNTHIA A. PATTERSON, Program Officer

JANICE SABUDA, Senior Project Assistant

BRANDYE WILLIAMS, Staff Assistant

STEVEN WOO, Dissemination Officer

For more information on CSTB, see its Web site at <http://www.cstb.org>, write to CSTB, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001, call at (202) 334-2605, or e-mail at cstb@nas.edu.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
×

Preface

In September 2002, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested the assistance of the National Research Council (NRC) in providing expertise to assist it in its review of the Trilogy information technology (IT) modernization program. In response, the NRC convened a number of experts who met with the FBI. The FBI briefed these experts on various aspects of the program, and these experts responded to the FBI as individuals to those briefings. (In hindsight, many of these individually provided comments presaged the more formal findings and conclusions presented in this report.)

In July 2003, the FBI again requested the assistance of the NRC on the same topic, after having made progress in its IT modernization efforts. The committee’s charge was to provide a more thorough review and set of recommendations on the FBI’s information technology modernization efforts, focusing primarily on the Trilogy program but addressing related issues as necessary.

In this second request, the FBI asked for a written report, thus invoking the regular NRC report process. To minimize the time needed to respond to the FBI, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the NRC selected a committee composed largely but not exclusively of the experts convened for the September 2002 meeting.

The committee’s charge was to review the FBI’s efforts on the Trilogy IT modernization program, based on input provided to the committee by the FBI. The FBI also requested a review that could be done quickly and relatively inexpensively. Accordingly, the committee did not systematically develop information from non-FBI sources, nor did it undertake a comprehensive review of all FBI IT systems or plans for such systems. Furthermore, the committee was only able to sample the programs of interest, and thus it did not achieve a comprehensive picture even of those programs. Except as explicitly noted otherwise, the briefings to the committee on October 27-28, 2003, and December 15-16, 2003, constitute the factual base for this effort. The committee’s conclusions and recommendations reflect its collective experience with large-scale IT system deployments.

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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The committee wishes to thank Herbert Lin, the CSTB study director, for his efforts in developing coherent drafts from assorted e-mails and brief notes from committee meetings, and for being the prime driver of the early completion of this report. We also thank the CSTB staff, particularly Kristen Batch for research support, and D.C. Drake for administrative support.

James C. McGroddy, Chair

Committee on the FBI’s Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers

This report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:


Steven Bellovin, AT&T Research

Ed Feigenbaum, Stanford University

Stuart Feldman, IBM

Robert Grossman, Open Data Partners, LLC

Beryl Howell, Stroz Friedberg, LLC

Sidney Karin, University of California, San Diego

Kenneth Laudon, New York University

Michael Miravalle, Dolphin Technology, Inc.

Joseph Smialowski, Fleet Bank

Robert Spinrad, Palo Alto, California

Howard Wactlar, Carnegie Mellon University

Patrick Webb, Consultant

Todd White, Emerio, Inc.


Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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Gerry Dinneen (Lexington, Massachusetts). Appointed by the NRC, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2004. A Review of the FBI's Trilogy Information Technology Modernization Program. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10991.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in the process of developing a modern information technology (IT) system—the Trilogy program— that is designed to provide a high-speed network, modern workstations and software, and an application—the Virtual Case File (VCF)—to enhance the ability of agents to organize, access, and analyze information. Implementation of this system has encountered substantial difficulties, however, and has been the subject of much investigation and congressional concern. To help address these problems, the FBI asked the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake a quick review of the program and the progress that has been made to date. This report presents that review. The current status of four major aspects of the program—the enterprise architecture, system design, program management, and human resources—are discussed, and recommendations are presented to address the problems.

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