The Census Bureau’s mission is to collect and provide comprehensive data about the nation’s people and economy. Core activities include conducting decennial, economic, and government censuses; conducting demographic and economic surveys; managing international demographic and socioeconomic databases; providing technical advisory services to foreign governments; and performing other activities such as producing official population estimates and projections. The Census Bureau is part of the Department of Commerce and is in the department’s Economics and Statistics Administration, led by the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs. The Census Bureau is headed by a Director and is organized into directorates corresponding to key programmatic and administrative functions as depicted in figure 1. According to the bureau, while planning, taking, processing, and publishing the results of censuses and surveys still requires the work of thousands of people, advances over the years have been made in the speed of collection, analysis, and publication of data through the development of mechanical and electronic tools. For nearly 100 years, census data were tabulated by clerks who made tally marks or added columns of figures with a pen or a pencil. As the nation grew and there were more people, items, and characteristics to count, speedier tabulation methods had to be invented or the results of one census would not be processed before it was time for the next one. In 1880, the bureau used a “tabulating machine”—a wooden box in which a roll of paper was threaded past an opening where a clerk marked the tallies in various columns and then added up the marks when the roll was full—that made tabulating at least twice as fast as the previous manual process. By 1950, mechanical tabulating improved; its speed had increased to 2,000 items per minute. In 1951, the first large-scale electronic computer, UNIVAC I, was designed and built specifically for the Census Bureau. This machine was able to tabulate 4,000 items per minute. From 1970 on, the bureau took advantage of new high-speed composers that converted the data on computer tape directly to words and numbers on off-set negative film used in publishing. Beginning in the mid-1980s, some statistics were made available on diskettes for use in microcomputers and users began to obtain statistics online. In the later 1980s, the bureau began testing CD-ROM (compact disk/read-only memory) laser disks as a medium for releasing data. The 2000 Census demonstrated probably the biggest leap forward in the use of technology for collecting and disseminating data. According to the bureau, its previous response scanning system (which dated to the 1950s) was replaced with optical character recognition technology, allowing the bureau to design a respondent-friendly (instead of machine- friendly) questionnaire in which write-in responses could also be captured electronically. In addition, the bureau’s previous online data system from the 1990s evolved into online data available through the Census Bureau’s website. Further technological advances were made in the 2010 census through the use of handheld computers for certain parts of Census operations and integration of Global Positioning System information into Census Bureau maps. Although specific technical decisions for the 2020 Census remain to be made, both ongoing Census operations and the next decennial census will be highly reliant on the effective use of information technology. The 2010 Decennial Census cost $13 billion and was the costliest U.S. census in history. One reason for the high cost was the increased use of paper-based processing over what was originally intended due to performance issues with key IT systems, which increased the cost of the census by up to $3 billion. The total cost of the census was 56 percent more than the $8.1 billion 2000 Decennial Census (in constant 2010 dollars). Based on past trends, if the growth rate continues unchecked, For 2020, the the census could cost approximately $25 billion in 2020.bureau intends to focus on several measures to reduce costs, including better use of IT, but still is planning to spend roughly $12 to $18 billion to conduct the census. To support its IT operations for all of its activities, including those related to decennial censuses, the Census Bureau reported that it plans to spend $384 million on major IT investments in fiscal year 2012. Of this, $130 million is to be spent on systems managed by the IT Directorate and $254 million is to be spent on systems managed in other directorates. To support these efforts, a bureau official from the Human Resource Division reported that as of July 2012, the bureau employed 1,148 IT staff among its approximately 14,000 employees. IT staff are spread throughout the bureau: the IT Directorate has 256 staff, Economic Programs has 262 staff, the Decennial Census has 156 staff, Field Operations has 185 staff, and Demographic Programs has 123 staff. GAO’s Information Technology Investment Management (ITIM) framework can be used by agencies to improve their organizational A central tenet of processes and measure progress in attaining them.this framework is the select/control/evaluate model. Figure 2 illustrates the central components of this model. During the select phase the organization (1) identifies and analyzes each project’s risks and returns before committing significant funds to any project and (2) selects those IT projects that will best support its mission needs. This process should be repeated each time funds are allocated to projects, reselecting even ongoing investments as described below. During the control phase the organization ensures that, as projects develop and investment expenditures continue, the project continues to meet mission needs at the expected levels of cost and risk. If the project is not meeting expectations or if problems have arisen, steps are quickly taken to address the deficiencies. If mission needs have changed, the organization is able to adjust its objectives for the project and appropriately modify expected project outcomes. During the evaluate phase, actual versus expected results are compared after a project has been fully implemented. This is done to (1) assess the project’s impact on mission performance, (2) identify any changes or modifications to the project that may be needed, and (3) revise the investment management process based on lessons learned. The ITIM framework consists of five progressive stages of maturity that an agency can achieve in its investment management capabilities. The maturity stages are cumulative; that is, in order to attain a higher stage, an agency must institutionalize all of the critical processes at the lower stages, in addition to the higher stage critical processes. The framework’s five maturity stages (see fig. 3) represent steps toward achieving stable and mature processes for managing IT investments. The successful attainment of each stage leads to improvement in the organization’s ability to manage its investments. With the exception of the first stage, each maturity stage is composed of critical processes that must be implemented and institutionalized. These critical processes are further broken down into key practices that describe the types of activities that an organization should be performing to successfully implement each critical process. It is not unusual for an organization to be performing key practices from more than one maturity stage at the same time. However, our research shows that agency efforts to improve investment management capabilities should focus on implementing all the lower- stage practices before addressing the higher-stage practices. Stage 2 critical processes lay the foundation by establishing successful, predictable, and repeatable investment control processes at the project level. Stage 3 is where the agency moves from project-centric processes to portfolio-based processes and evaluates potential investments according to how well they support the agency’s missions, strategies, and goals. Organizations implementing these Stage 2 and 3 practices have in place selection, control, and evaluation processes that are consistent with the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996.evaluation techniques to continuously improve both investment processes and portfolios in order to achieve strategic outcomes. Stages 4 and 5 require the use of The ITIM framework can be used to assess the maturity of an agency’s investment management processes and as a tool for organizational improvement. The overriding purpose of the framework is to encourage investment processes that promote business value and mission performance, reduce risk, and increase accountability and transparency in the decision-making process. We have used the framework in several of our evaluations and a number of agencies have adopted it.agencies have used ITIM for purposes ranging from self-assessment to redesign of their IT investment management processes. Effective management of federal IT investments remains an ongoing challenge. In December 2010, the White House released a plan to reform federal IT management that includes greater attention to several of the management processes described in ITIM. The plan includes efforts to increase accountability for IT investments, strengthen IT program management, increase the authority of agency chief information officers, and strengthen the ability of agency investment review boards to oversee agency IT investments. The decision to invest in IT often leads to the acquisition or development of IT systems. To manage that development, organizations often employ a system development methodology. There are several different methodologies that can be used to develop IT systems, which range from the traditional waterfall model to the spiral model and to iterative models such as the Agile model. The waterfall model begins with requirements development and continues sequentially through other phases—design, build, and test—using the output of one phase as the input to the next to develop a finished product at the end. This model allows the status of a development project to be easily identified and tracked based on the current phase of the project. The spiral model uses a risk-based approach to incrementally build a system by cycling through the four development phases. Using this model, each spiral, or incremental cycle, typically starts by determining the development objectives and scope for the increment. Next, alternative solutions are evaluated and risk management techniques are employed to identify and reduce risks. Then, a product for the increment (such as a prototype) is developed. Finally, the product is evaluated to determine whether the increment’s initial objectives have been met. The Agile model focuses on short-duration, small-scope development phases that produce segments of a functional product.