Mueller: Sentinel by 2011

Sentinel, the FBI's web-based investigative case management system, should be completed in 2011, said FBI Director Robert Mueller on April 15.

"My expectation is it will be completed in 2011," Mueller said, while testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee on commerce, justice, science and related agencies.

The project, which is meant to replace the Automated Case File, the current system based on an old ADABAS database, has lately been troubled by delays. In March, Mueller said that work on Sentinel's second of four phases needed additional time and that the bureau would postpone starting most of the third and all of the fourth phases. The project's current estimated cost is $451 million and the prime contractor is Lockheed Martin.

Mueller told the committee that problems began last fall and outside consultants from Mitre, Aerospace Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton determined the problems stemmed from "coding defects."

"I've been in the process in the last several weeks of clarifying those problems, addressing those problems," Mueller added. He said he is "cautiously optimistic" that phase 2 should be complete by this summer and ready for agent use by the fall. A four-week phase 2 pilot should commence this summer, he added.

"When you have a program where the requirements were laid down in concrete four or five years ago, both technology changes, business practice changes, complexity changes--and one can expect some minor--I would say minor delays," Mueller said.

Mueller also said the bureau has been successful in integrating technology into its operations. As many as 27,000 bureau employees have Blackberrys and 30,000 of them have access to the Internet, he said.

For More:
- see an video recording of the hearing

Related Articles:
Justice IG casts further doubts on FBI's Sentinel
FBI puts Sentinel on hold 
Editor's Corner: Warning signs on FBI's Sentinel