TECS is an information technology (IT) and data management system that supports DHS’s core border enforcement mission. According to CBP, it is one of the largest, most important law enforcement systems currently in use, and is the primary system available to CBP officers and agents from other departments for use in determining the admissibility of persons wishing to enter the country. In addition, it provides an investigative case management function for activities carried out by ICE agents, including money-laundering tracking and reporting; telephone data analysis; and intelligence reporting and dissemination. Over time, TECS has evolved into a multifaceted computing platform that CBP describes as a system of systems. This mainframe-based system dates back to the 1980s and interfaces with over 80 other systems from within DHS, other federal departments and their component agencies, as well as state, local, and foreign governments. It contains over 350 database tables, queries and reports (e.g., querying law enforcement records to determine if a traveler appears on a terrorist watch list), and multiple applications (e.g., ICE’s existing investigative case management system). CBP agents and other users access TECS via dedicated terminals. The system is managed by CBP’s Office of Passenger Systems Program Office and is currently hosted at CBP’s datacenter. On a daily basis, the system is used by over 70,000 users and handles more than 2 million transactions—including the screening of over 900,000 visitors and approximately 465,000 vehicles every day. In addition, federal, state, local, and international law enforcement entities use TECS to create and disseminate alerts and other law enforcement information about “persons of interest.” Ten federal departments and their numerous component agencies access the system to perform a part of their missions. The current TECS system uses obsolete technology, which combined with expanding mission requirements, have posed operational challenges for CBP and others. For example, users may need to access and navigate among several different systems to investigate, resolve, and document an encounter with a passenger. In addition, CBP identified that TECS’s search algorithms do not adequately match names from foreign alphabets. TECS’s obsolescence also makes it difficult and expensive to maintain and support. Specifically, DHS estimates that TECS’s licensing and maintenance costs are expected to be $40 million to $60 million per year in 2015. In 2008, DHS initiated efforts to modernize TECS by replacing the mainframe technology, developing new applications and enhancing existing applications to address expanding traveler screening mission needs, improving data integration to provide enhanced search and case management capabilities, and improving user interface and data access. DHS’s plan was to migrate away from the existing TECS mainframe by September 2015 to avoid significantly escalating support costs. The modernization effort is managed by two program offices—one at CBP and the other at ICE—working in parallel, with each having assumed responsibility for modernizing the parts of the system aligned with their respective missions. CBP expects that its modernization efforts will yield certain improvements over the existing system, including the following. Enhancements to TECS’s search algorithms to better match names from foreign alphabets; address gaps in current processes that could result in missing a person of interest. This includes an improved ability for inspectors to update information on travelers at air and sea borders at the time of encounter. Improvements in the flow and integration of data between CBP and its partner agencies and organizations. This is intended to aid the agency’s inspectors by providing timely, complete, and accurate information about a traveler during the secondary inspection process. CBP planned to develop, deploy, and implement these capabilities incrementally across five projects from 2008 to 2015. Secondary Inspection: This project is to support processing of travelers referred from primary inspection for either enforcement or administrative reasons. According to CBP, this project’s functionality was fully deployed to all air and sea ports of entry in 2011, and was fully deployed to all land ports of entry in 2013. High Performance Primary Query and Manifest Processing: This project is intended to improve TECS data search results in order to expedite the processing of manifests from individuals traveling to the United States on commercial or private aircraft, and commercial vessels. It is to be fully operational by March 2015. Travel Document and Encounter Data: This project is intended to improve CBP’s ability to query and validate travel documentation for both passengers and their means of conveyance. It is to be fully operational by March 2015. Lookout Record Data and Services: This project is intended to improve the efficiency of existing data screening and analyses capabilities. It is to be fully operational by March 2015. Primary Inspection Processes: This project is intended to modernize the overall inspection process and provide support for additional or random screening and communication functions. It is to be fully operational by March 2015. As part of each of these projects, CBP is also developing an online access portal, called TECS Portal, for authorized users to access information remotely using a modern web browser, along with security and infrastructure improvements, and the migration of data from the current system to databases in the new environment at the DHS datacenter. Ultimately, TECS Mod functionality is to be deployed to over 340 ports of entry across the United States. ICE’s TECS Mod effort is to focus on specific law enforcement and criminal justice functions; tools to support ICE officers’ collection of information, data analysis, and management operations; enhanced capabilities to access and create data linkages with information resources from elsewhere in DHS and other law enforcement agencies; and capabilities to better enable investigative and intelligence operations, corresponding management activities, and information sharing. Similar to CBP, ICE intended to deliver functionality in multiple phases: Phase 1: Core Case Management: This phase was to encompass all case management functions currently residing in the existing TECS system. ICE planned to develop and deploy these functions in three releases beginning in 2009, and was scheduled to deploy Release 1 by December 2013, with additional releases following about every 12 months, in order to achieve independence from the existing TECS platform by September 2015. Specific capabilities that were to be provided include: basic electronic case management functions, including opening cases, performing supervisory review of cases, and closing cases within the system; development of reports for use as evidentiary material in court proceedings arising from ICE agents’ investigations; maintenance of records relating to the subjects of ICE audit capabilities to monitor system usage. Phase 2: Comprehensive Case Management: This phase was to expand on the features delivered as part of phase one and to be delivered in four increments starting in 2016, with an estimated completion date in fiscal year 2017. DHS’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the Office of the Under Secretary for Management are to play key roles in overseeing major acquisition programs like TECS Mod. For example, the CIO’s responsibilities include setting departmental IT policies, processes, and standards; and ensuring that IT acquisitions comply with DHS IT management processes, technical requirements, and approved enterprise architecture, among other things. Within the Office of the CIO, the Enterprise Business Management Office has been given primary responsibility for ensuring that the department’s IT investments align with its missions and objectives. As part of its responsibilities, this office periodically assesses IT investments like TECS Mod to gauge how well they are performing through a review of program risk, human capital, cost and schedule, and requirements. In October 2011, DHS’s Under Secretary for Management established the Office of Program Accountability and Risk Management. This office is to ensure the effectiveness of the overall program execution governance process and has the responsibility for developing and maintaining DHS’s It is also responsible for periodically Acquisition Management Directive.providing independent assessments of major investment programs— called Quarterly Program Accountability Reports—as well as identifying emerging risks and issues that DHS needs to address. In December 2011, DHS introduced a new initiative to improve and streamline the department’s IT program governance. This initiative established a tiered governance structure for program execution. Among other things, this new structure includes a series of governance bodies, each chartered with specific decision-making responsibilities for each major investment. Among these are executive steering committees, which serve as the primary decision-making authorities for DHS’s major acquisition programs. ICE chartered its steering committee in September 2011 and it has been meeting since December of that year. CBP established its steering committee in early 2013 and it held its first meeting in February. CBP has begun delivering functionality to its users; however, its schedule and cost commitments continue to change and are still being revised. Specifically, CBP intends to modernize the functionality, data, and aging infrastructure of legacy TECS and move it to DHS’s data centers. CBP plans call for developing, deploying, and implementing these capabilities in five distinct projects that are to be delivered by 2015. To date, CBP has completed one of these five projects, having completed its deployment of functionality to improve its secondary inspection processes to air, sea, and land ports of entry in 2013. CBP is in the process of revising its schedule baseline for the second time in under a year, making it unclear when the program ultimately intends to deliver needed functionality. Exacerbating this situation is the fact that CBP has not developed its master schedule sufficiently to effectively manage work activities or monitor the program’s progress. Specifically, the program has not linked all the work activities in the individual project schedules, nor has it defined dependencies that exist between projects in the master schedule: approximately 65 percent of CBP’s remaining work activities were not linked with other associated work activities.