When I wrote volume 3 of my Digital Hand (OUP 2008) I included a chapter on the history of IRS's IT. As part of the research for that book I interviewed IRS folks, and others, and concluded that (a) the IRS knew what needed to be changed/upgraded and it seems this GAO report confirms that IRS still has that capability, (b) that it did not have enough resources to keep up, (c) that it had to do this without stopping even for a few days any application, in other words be able to change all 4 tires on a car while it was still going 50 miles an hour, and (d) that the IRS needed to stop fearing Congress and instead be tough, demanding, and publicly noisy about being supplied more IT staff and revenue collectors. Looks like those 4 circumstances have yet to change.
the challenges of big system updating (it's not just Southwest Airlines)
Stay sane,
Jonathan
Jonathan Coopersmith
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Professor (retired)
Department of History
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4236
979.739.4708 (cell)
979.862.4314 (fax)
FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine (Johns Hopkins University Press)
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James W. Cortada
Senior Research Fellow
Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
608-274-6382