CAD Audit Provides Lessons For Others

An audit of Portland’s (Ore.) five-year project to update its computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software determined that it was completed on-time and under-budget. But a just-released city audit found that three other public safety projects are now over-budget and almost three year beyond schedule, mostly because of poor management practices. “An ineffective governance structure hindered the (project) from meeting basic goals and objectives and contributed to delays and cost overruns,” the report states. The city began a major update public safety systems in 2006, including an upgraded CAD and radio system, new inter-agency data network and fire information system (FIS). The CAD project was completed in April 2011 for $14.3 million, about 10 percent under-budget and within two weeks of its scheduled go-live date. But the remaining projects, the audit notes, are now $4.5 million over their original budget and up to four years beyond the estimated completion date. The 48-page report noted that the radio project has had four managers since 2008, and the FIS has had three managers. Even now, the radio project has two separate managers leading the upgrade effort. Another complication—In 2011 the city began negotiations with a company for the data network, only to have that company acquired by another firm, delaying the entire project. The auditor recommends stabilizing the projects’ management teams, improving management of project changes, and testing systems appropriately before deploying them. Download (pdf) the audit for more details.