CASE STUDY: Boeing$$s Virtual Fence

The Virtual Fence project, cancelled in early $2011$ by the Federal Government, is a true story of a project that sounded better than it could ever be due to technical problems, unreasonable or overly optimistic projections, and a general lack of understanding of the sheer size of the effort that would be required. Boeing was also given carte blanche to run the project, with governmental oversight notably absent from the decisions regarding vendor selection, technical requirements, and first phase development. In short, the Federal Government signed a blank check to Boeing for initial development and then discovered that $$real$$ costs were projected to be much higher. The project was cancelled when Boeing began failing technical capability tests on initial sections of the virtual fence.

Questions

$1.$ What problems do you see emerging from a project such as SBInet where the government allows the contractor to determine scope, manage all contractor relations, and decide how to share project status information with oversight bodies?

$2.$ Consider the following two arguments: $$The failure of SBInet is due to poor scope management,$$ versus $$SBInet failed because of poor oversight and project controls.$$ Take one side or the other in this argument, and justify your response.

$3.$ With the current publicity surrounding the intentions of the Trump administration to begin building a wall along the border with Mexico, identify three lessons from this case that could help with that development process. In other words, if you were to advise the Trump White House on major lessons to absorb as it considers beginning its own fence, what would they be$?$