# Presentation: 882864

## Lessons Learned Preparing for a SCAMPI Appraisal

- Charlene Leggieri & Danielle Lessard
- Geography Division

- 2005 Census Software Engineering
- Process Group Conference
- November 8, 2005

## Presentation Outline

- Project Background
- Implementation of CMMI Process Areas
- Preparation for SCAMPI Appraisal
- Lessons Learned from Appraisal

## What is TIGER?Topologically Integrated Geocoding and Referencing System

**Street center-lines and their names**
**Lakes, streams, and their names**
**Railroads**
**Geographic entity boundaries, names, and codes (for governmental units, census tracts, census blocks, etc.)**
**Housing unit locations (selected areas)**
**Key geographic locations ****(for airports, schools, etc.)**
**ZIP Codes and address ranges****(for streets with city-style addresses)**

**A street center-line “digital map” (geographic data base) of the entire United States, Puerto Rico, and the associated Island Areas**

- What is TIGER?Topologically Integrated Geocoding and Referencing System

**Notes:**
TIGER – TIGER is an acronym for Topologically Integrated Geographic Endcoding and Referencing.  Basically, TIGER is a “digital map” (geographic data base) of the entire United States, Puerto Rico, and the associated Island Areas.  It documents the locations, names (and address ranges and ZIP Codes, where they exist) of all streets, rivers, railroads, and other map features used to orient field staff.  It also documents the boundaries, names, and geographic codes for all entities  (governments, census tracts, census blocks, and so forth) used to tabulate census and household survey data for the entire United States, Puerto Rico, and the associated Island Areas.  And it documents – explicitly or implicitly, depending on the type of address – the location of every housing unit in these areas. 

What distinguishes TIGER from virtually all commercial map files and state/local/tribal GIS files is that all geographic information and relationships in TIGER are updated simultaneously, on-the-fly; boundaries are stored implicitly rather than in a separate layer.  This is a critical distinction that allows TIGER to maintain the relationships between streets, addresses, and data tabulation entities as the locations of the underlying features change.

(Speaker note:  if time permits, you can cover the following, in addition to the above)

TIGER was developed at the Census Bureau – using base data provided through a highly successful partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey – to support the mapping and related geographic activities required for the 1990 census.  It has since been used to support the 1992 and 1997 economic censuses, and several household survey programs managed by the Census Bureau, the population estimates program, the administrative records research program, the early testing for the ACS and related Long-Form Transitional Database, and Census 2000.  In addition, it currently is being used to support preparations for full implementation of the ACS, the Community Address Updating System (that we will discuss further in a few minutes), redesign of the household survey samples, and the 2002 economic census.

## What is the MAF?Master Address File

- An accurate and up to date inventory of all known living quarters in the United States and Puerto Rico

**The content of the MAF is:**
-   Mailing address, if one exists
-   Descriptive address, when no
-     city-style address exists
-   Census geographic location
-   Source and history data

**Title 13 requires that all addresses/locations be kept confidential**

- What is the MAF?Master Address File

**Notes:**
From 1790 through the early twentieth century, enumerators visited every housing unit on a county by county basis and interviewed the occupants.  For the 1960 census, the Census Bureau experimentally mailed questionnaires to many housing units. For the 1970 through 1990 censuses, increasing proportions of households received their questionnaire in the mail.  But the address lists were error prone, difficult to build, and harder to assign to correct census blocks.  To overcome this serious problem, the Census Bureau developed a second major database for Census 2000.

MAF – MAF is an acronym for Master Address File.  Basically, the MAF is a gigantic “mailing list” – an accurate and up-to-date inventory of all known living quarters, and most institutional, business, and industrial addresses, in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the associated Island Areas.  Several characteristics distinguish the MAF from all commercial address and mailing lists, including the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS’s) Delivery Sequence File (DSF). 

First, the vast majority of addresses in the MAF have been geocoded; that is, each is assigned to a census block generally by, and always linked with, a census block number/census tract/county/state in the TIGER data base.  Having both the MAF and TIGER “in sync” is critical to support field data collection and later data tabulation efforts.

he MAF was built using a “controlled collection” of sources.  To ensure the existence and correct geographic location of each address, virtually all “census eligible” addresses have been verified in the field one or more times, and each address record contains extensive source and history data.
*  A third distinguishing characteristic – shared to some extent with other lists – is that all addresses in the MAF must, by law, be kept confidential.

In addition to supporting Census 2000, the MAF has supported the administrative records research program, the early testing for the ACS, and the related Long-Form Transitional Database.  In addition, it currently is being used to support preparations for full implementation of the ACS and redesign of the household survey samples.

(Speaker note:  if time permits, and it seems appropriate for the audience, you can cover the following, in addition to the above)

For areas using predominantly city-style addresses for mail delivery – in which most housing units have a house number and street name, which includes less than 15 percent of the land area in the United States but more than 80 percent of all addresses – the initial MAF started with the 1990 census address list, and has been updated at regular intervals using more recent address information provided by the USPS’s DSF.  Field staff later visited all these blocks (in an operation called Block Canvassing) to validate the completeness of the address list, the geographic assignment of each address, and to update the information.  Additional updates came from several DSF “refreshes,” as well as the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) and New Construction programs, and from operations such as the Be Counted program, the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance program, the Nonresponse Followup operation, and so forth, all of which had their addresses validated by field staff. 

For the balance of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas, which has a mixture of city-style addresses (often assigned for E-911 purposes, but not mail delivery) and other types of addresses (rural route, P.O. Box, general delivery, and so forth) the address information in the initial MAF was compiled by temporary Census Bureau workers who used maps generated from the TIGER data base to guide them as they address listed (that is, walked or drove around) every block in most of those portions of the United States and Puerto Rico during the summer and fall of 1998.  They placed a “spot” (map spot) and sequence number (map spot number) on their map, and entered, in a blank address register, that same map spot number and the address (city-style, E-911, or a street/road name and a descriptive phrase, such as “brick hse w/2-car garage, on right 1/10 mile N of Pothole Rd.”) of every housing unit where people lived or could live. 

The initial list of addresses in this portion of the MAF received early review by LUCA program participants, major updates and validation from the Census 2000 questionnaire delivery operation (called Update/Leave) and census enumeration operations (called Update/Enumerate and List/Enumerate), and updates from other Census 2000 operations, such as the Be Counted program, the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance program, the Nonresponse Followup operation, and so forth.  In each case, field staff validated the information. 

## MAF/TIGER:Mission Critical Corporate Resource

- System provides storage, processing, products and services that support agency’s statistical programs.
- Geocoding
- Maps
- Residential Address Lists
- Continually updated with new address and geographic information.
- Wide public use of geographic information.

## MAF/TIGER Redesign

- The MAF/TIGER Redesign is Objective 2 of the MAF/TIGER Enhancements Program. The system redesign will:
- Replace the existing home-grown databases with a commercial relational database.
- Replace the application software that utilizes these databases.
- Integrate MAF and TIGER into a seamless national database.

## Project Background

- Five year project impacting 90% of GEO’s legacy software
- Commitment to implement at CMM Level 2
- Plan to transition to CMMI Level 2 in 2005

## MAF/TIGER RedesignHigh Level Project Plan

**Planning & Requirements**
**System**
**Design**
**Software**
**Development**
**System**
**Testing**
**Data Migration**
**& Deployment**

**FY 2002               FY 2003                  FY 2004                  FY 2005                  FY 2006**

## MAF/TIGER Redesign Project Team

## Project Planning

- Project Plan and Software Development Plan
- WBS
- Schedule
- Project re-scoping based on formal software estimates

## Project Monitoring and Control

- Commerce IG and CIO
- Steering Committee
- Project Management
- Earned Value Monthly
- Schedule Variance Bi-Weekly
- Work Activities Weekly

## Requirements Management

- Elicitation and Documentation
- Commitment to Requirements
- Requirements Management
- DOORS
- Traceability
- Changes through CCB

## Process & Product Quality Assurance

- PPQA Plan and Procedures
- Independent Reporting
- MOU for Independent SQA
- Audits completed for 6 process areas

## Configuration Management

- CM Plan and Procedures
- Identification of Configuration Items
- Document Repository
- Controlling Change through CCB
- Initially documentation, now starting code
- Source Code Repository

## Risk Management

- Risk Management Plan
- Risk Register
- Risk Management Working Group meets quarterly
- Mitigation activities for priority risks tracked

## Verification

- Project Test Plan
- Individual Software Test Plans
- Peer Review on documents, some code
- System Testing to start 12/05
- Traceability from requirements through testing (DOORS)

## Measurement & Analysis

- New Process Area (CMMI Level 2)
- Metrics Plan
- Cost and Schedule Metrics
- Other Process Area Metrics

## SCAMPI 

- Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement
- Appraisal may use Continuous or Staged Representation of CMMI Model
- Uses direct and indirect evidence to determine project implementation of specific and generic practices

## GAO Study

- GAO Study of Census Bureau IT Management
- IT Investment Management
- System Development/Management
- DSCMO DMAF Project
- MAF/TIGER Redesign Project
- Enterprise Architecture Management
- Information Security
- IT Human Capital

## SCAMPI Appraisal by GAO

- October 2004:     Entry Meeting
- Appraisal of 8 Process Areas
- Continuous Representation (Modified)
- December 2004:  Documentation
- January 2005:      Onsite Visit
- February 2005:    Preliminary Results

## Preparations for Audit

- Collection of Direct Evidence
- Plans and Procedures
- Training Records
- Meeting Notes
- Reports
- Strengthen Team Awareness of Processes
- Mock Interviews

## Process Area Worksheet

| Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) | The purpose of Process and Product Quality Assurance is to provide staff and management with objective insight into process and associated work products. |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Description | Typical Work Products | Direct Artifacts | Indirect Artifacts |
| SP 1.1-1  Objectively Evaluate Processes
       Objectively evaluate the designated performed processes against the applicable process descriptions, standards, and procedures. | Evaluation reports
Noncompliance reports
Corrective actions | 1.  Requirements Management Process Audit Report #39
2.  Project Planning & Project Tracking and Oversight Audit Report #38 | MIS Activities:                                                                           02-01A1910                                                                   02-01A1920                                                                     02-01A1950 #34 |
| ... |  |  |  |

## Appraisal Results

## Lessons Learned from Appraisal

- Expand Measurement and Analysis
- As a unique process area (M & A)
- For each process area (GP 2.8)
- Update Policy
- CMMI
- Level 3 Process Areas

## Lessons Learned from Appraisal (cont.)

- Integrate Configuration Management Processes
- PPQA Audits (Plans/Processes not CMMI)
- Tracking of Issues
- Importance of Documentation to show planning
- Within plans
- MIS

## Questions

- ?

## Contact Information

- Charlene Leggieri
- Geography Division
- (301)763-1648

- Danielle Lessard
- Geography Division
- (301)763-5623