A Case Study on Software Requirements Engineering using the FBI Virtual Case File Project Report

Virtual Case File (VCF) was a case management software to be developed by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to replace the existing Automated Case Support (ACS) software system. The goal of the project was to modernize FBI's suite of investigative software applications; the ACS system was developed in-house consisting of several layers of applications that were outdated and difficult to use. Based on the Goldstein's [1] report it was identified that the VCF system did not adhere to the requirements of the project and was fragmented. This case study identifies the critical problems from requirements engineering perspective that contributed to VCF project failure and discusses software engineering methods that would assist in requirements gathering.