Project Description
CENSUS CQA DEVSECOPS
Project Details
The 2020 Decennial Census performed by the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) was the first U.S. census to be completed primarily through web-based responses. To support the monumental task of collecting personal information from more than 143 million households, the Census Questionnaire Assistance (CQA) program was created to provide respondents with a way to contact USCB for census-related help and promote the maximum number of responses.
The US Census Bureau needed support for its web-based Decennial Census. Softek was there to provide validation and information exchange with key systems outside the CCaaS.
The Challenge:
A Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) is more than just a recording, it is a complex operation requiring automation, data validation and reporting, and communication with databases and USCB agents. CQA needed all these functions to run smoothly and without error to be able to accurately enumerate the entire U.S. population.
The CQA program established a two-tier Call Center as a Service (CCaaS) designed to answer the questions of census respondents and provide aid. Tier 1 provided telephone assistance through an interactive voice response (IVR), and Tier 2 provided real-time assistance through CQA agents.
To deliver the required functionality, the CQA Program had to combine system capabilities with infrastructure, personnel, and processes to deliver:
- A multi-site contact center infrastructure and operations,
- Inbound operations to aid callers and facilitate responses to the census,
- Technologies and tools to measure, optimize, and report program performance, and
- Outbound operations to verify respondent information.
Softek’s Solution
Softek was responsible for the design, development, integration, and operation of the CQA systems that validated and exchanged information with key USCB systems outside of the CCaaS.
Using our Agile development and proven DevSecOps approach, we created a single, scalable solution that was implemented using IBM Rational Suite and UrbanCode Deploy. This approach enabled program-wide continuous delivery by automating the complex build and deployment processes of CQA applications that were developed by six vendors.
Softek tailored the resulting platform to the unique needs of each CQA team. We coordinated deployment activities across multiple environments, including development, test, and FedRAMP-compliant production cloud infrastructures. Softek also designed and developed custom applications using Java and Spring Boot for data validation, transformation, and exchange.
Functional and Reliable CQA Operations
Softek reported on CQA calls and related events throughout the Census campaign, which allowed USCB to accurately measure CQA progress and correlate CQA enumerations with other operational areas. We published paradata for 32,660,572 calls at a rate of up to 500,000 records per day.
Softek provided seamless data integration and validation of data that resulted in error-free transfer of data between CQA and Census operations.
