Question

The U.S Census launched an IT project to arm its census takers in the field with high-tech handheld devices that would save taxpayer money by directly beaming population data to headquarters from census takers in the field. Census officials signed a $600 million contract with Harris Corporation in 2006 to build 500,000 devices but still weren’t sure which features they wanted included in the units. Census officials did not specify the testing process to measure the performance of the handheld devices. As the project progressed, 400 change requests to project requirements were added. Two years and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars later, the handhelds were far too slow and unreliable to be used for the 2010 U.S. census. What could Census Bureau management and the Harris Corporation have done to prevent this outcome?

Answer 1

Census Bureau management and the Harris Corporation must have planned the project before starting to build the devices. They could have taken the project in a following manner to make it more effective.

1. Create and Analyze design as per requirement - First most step to be taken by Census Bureau management should be to analyse and create a design as per their requirement, They should create a blue print of the features they want in the devices.
2. Design Review - After the final plan or blueprint is ready, Bureau should review the features, if anything is required to be amended in the design.
3. Communication of plan to developer - After design has been finalized a proper communication of the planned design should be done .
4. Technical Feasibility - Developer must perform a technical feasibility, for the features required by the bureau.
5. Amendments - After, technical feasibility amendments should be done to the designed features, if any required.
6. Development - Harris corporation must start developing the devices, once all the features have been approved and tested for feasibility.
7. Continuous Monitoring - Continuous monitoring should be done by Bureau to ensure production is being done as per the design finalized and to suggest any improvement, if required.