Field Data Collection Case Study

The U.S. Census Bureau attempted to employ a Field Data Collection Automation (FDCA) program to expedite the collection of information. The FDCA project is important to the Census Bureau for many reasons. The first reason is the reduction of costs associated with the collection of information. Going door to door with paper forms is costly. The actual forms that are used cost the government mass amounts of money to produce. These forms are then peddled door to door by people who are paid wages and completed in ink by residents. The forms then need to be submitted to a local office where another worker who also needs to be paid for their time then keys the information in manually. These numbers and data are influential in allocating federal monies …show more content…
On the federal level, lack of oversight posed the largest issue. The federal sector suffers from lack of oversight because in the private sector incentives are offered for the successful, timely and cost effective rollout of similar programs. Because no one was to receive bonuses or other incentives on the federal level a lack of oversight was easily achieved. The Harris Corporation was contracted to build and test the handheld devices including the software. The federal government did not effectively convey information about the census program to Harris. This poor communication made the development of the handheld devices extremely difficult. Harris was also at fault for not providing updates on progress. The program was also plagued with technology issues caused by miscommunication. Risk management was not adequately studied to show potential issues with the handheld devices. The devices were plagued with slow speeds while transmitting information to a central office. Once the information was received other bugs and flaws within the system made the information inaccurate. The government and Harris both share the blame for the conundrum that ended up costing taxpayers billions of