U.S. Census Bureau – Under the R&D2007 and  R&D2014 contracts, Gunnison has been providing senior-level consultants to protoype, develop or advise on applications, methods and processes for over 17 years:

• For the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications (CARRA), Gunnison is working on four separate projects, two involving improvements to the Person Identification Validation System (PVS), one supporting the 2010 Census Match Study, and one to determine the feasibility of simulating the NRFU workload using admin. records. Gunnison has developed several different record linkage systems and applications over the years, all based on complex statistical evaluations of the likelihood that records from disparate sources refer to the same entity, such as a person or housing unit. Gunnison is investigating new ways to link data to increase the number of matches as well as the quality of the results, and investigating the use of new administrative and commercial datasets. These results will eventually feed into plans for the next Decennial Census, enabling Census to reduce the costs of field work.

• For the American Community Survey Data Processing Branch (DPB), Gunnison is working with Census ACS experts to identify improvements to the ACS implementation of system interfaces and test environments through the research, design, documentation, test decks and testing of new methods, tools and processes. Our partner in the imaging and printing sciences, ADI LLC, also will be producing paper test decks for the provision of paper channel test materials and data.

• In support of the 2010 Census DRIS Program, Gunnison performed technology assessments related to data capture; assisted in developing the high-level system requirements; assisted in writing the Request for Proposals; assisted in evaluating the bids; and performed technical monitoring and oversight of the DRIS contractor, Lockheed Martin. We contributed expert-level oversight in the areas of telephony, workflow, control and management (WCM), interfaces, systems architecture, security plans and procedures, and data capture via optical mark recognition (OCR) and intelligent character recognition (ICR), and quality measurement and control for paper data capture. Gunnison used several partners for this effort with specific technical and subject matter expertise, to include world-famous survey methodologists, proving our ability to bring the most highly qualified staff to the benefit of any effort. Following are some representative examples of our work supporting Census missions and visions.

• For the Print 2010 program, Gunnison performed technology assessments; assisted in developing the high-level requirements; assisted in writing the Request for Proposals; evaluated bids for Print 2010; helped establish a technical oversight program; and developed and implemented the Quality Information for Successful Printing (QUISP) II web portal used to monitor QC/QA data for all printing sites.

• For the 2010 Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) program, Gunnison developed a Housing Unit Matching, Review and Coding System, a Person Matching, Review and Coding System, and several variants. We provided similar clerical matching systems for the Non-Response Followup operations - the web-based NRFU Matching, Review and Coding System and the Person Interview Reinterview (PI RI) Matching, Review and Coding System, which matched and linked results from different censuses and operations and evaluated the quality of field work for the nonresponse followup and the update/enumerate field operations. These clerical matching systems are crucial in evaluating the accuracy of the population numbers produced by the Census.

• Gunnison and its partner, MapText Inc., designed and developed complex software for producing maps of Census results for the Geography Division, automatically labeling map features. In 2009 we also developed a Text Editor for manual editing of text on maps.

• For the Technologies Management Office, Gunnison provided support for requirements definition and management, system specifications, design, and documentation of the Coverage Measurement Operations Control System (CMOCS) and Field Verification Operations Control System (FVOCS). These two control systems support data collection, tracking, and progress and performance reporting for six of the main Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) field operations and one Decennial operation in the 2010 Census.  This effort incorporates managing both paper and multi-faceted Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) operations. Besides requirements elicitation and development, Gunnison is also developing test plans and is performing systems, integration and user acceptance testing. Additional related efforts include developing training plans and materials, performing lessons learned evaluations of system versions, consulting with the software design and development group on all aspects of the project, participating in overall program management functions, and providing periodic presentations to CB stakeholders.

• Also for the Technologies Management Office, Gunnison is now part of a team designing, developing and implementing mobile applications for Field Representatives (FRs).

• For the Economic Planning and Coordination Division, Gunnison is utilizing system engineering best practices, project management best practices, techniques found in the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) model, and tools and methods we have developed over the many years of working with the U.S. Census Bureau to gather and document requirements for the Economic Divisions internet survey applications, starting with a prototype in late 2010 for the Annual Survey of Manufactures, and leading up to the 2012 Economic Census. Gunnison is also developing test plans and is performing systems, integration and user acceptance testing. Additional related efforts include developing training plans and materials, performing lessons learned evaluations of system versions, consulting with the software design and development group on all aspects of the project, participating in overall program management functions, and providing periodic presentations to Census stakeholders. 

For more information on Gunnison’s Census work, please contact Gunnison’s Project Director for Census Programs, Christine Krahulec: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .