] After five years, a project to replace the Internal
] Revenue Service's aging file-keeping computer system with
] modern technology is so far behind schedule that the
] I.R.S. has told the prime contractor that unless it
] improves its performance by the end of the month, the
] government may have no choice but to fire it.

This is going to become one of those "anti-patterns" case studies. Apparently, the FBI is having the same trouble. Computer Sciences Corp is the contractor in both cases. How is CSC more qualified to do this stuff than IBM or Oracle? Aren't they just another (incompetant,corrupt,ineffecient) government contractor?

At I.R.S., a Systems Update Gone Awry