Know About Redistricting Technology

Transcription

1 Everything You Need to Know About Redistricting Technology John Guthrie, Staff Director Committee on Reapportionment The Florida Senate NCSL Redistricting Seminar Chicago, Illinois October 23, 2009

2 Some Things Everything You Need to Know About Redistricting Technology

3 Most important Delivering information resources to the legislature for redistricting is a BIG project.

4 What do IT projects have in common? 83.8% of IT projects fail. MC MCSE Certification Training Article 75% of IT projects fail, are late, or over budget. PricewaterhouseCoopers 68% of IT projects fail. Tech Republic 62% of IT projects fail. CNET

5 Failure is not an option. Flight Director Gene Kranz in the movie Apollo 13. when bad things happened, we just calmly laid out all the options, and failure was not one of them. We never panicked, and we never gave up on finding a solution. What Apollo 13 Flight Dynamics Officer, Jerry C. Bostick, actually said.

6 How to avoid failure? Get lucky? Project management discipline.

7 SAMPLE project management diagram (Source: Inforica)

8 Key points 1. Set unambiguous requirements AND acceptance criteria. 2. Develop a work breakdown structure and use it who does what when, and how long will it take?

9 Key points 3. Communicate with stakeholders. 4. Control scope, schedule, and budget. 5. Identify risks, prepare mitigation plans, address risks as soon as they materialize.

10 Key points (simplified) Document requirements. Set a schedule. Leadership buy in. Don t fool yourself when deliveries slip.

11 Six Phases Of A Project Enthusiasm Disillusionment Panic Search for the guilty Punishment of the innocent Praise and honors for the non-participants

12 Approach redistricting as a formal IT project Two major areas of development: applications and database. Each has 3 submodules. Even if using vendors, you are responsible for project success.

13 Your responsibilities Set unambiguous requirements and acceptance criteria. Oversee design, construction, and system testing (even with COTS). User acceptance testing (with full data load) and deployment.

14 Applying project management discipline (applications) Redistricting applications Building districts. Processing plans. Viewing/comparing plans. All 3 are critically important.

15 Applying project management discipline (database) Redistricting database Show information about areas [e.g., value ramps, data labels, identify tool] Real time information about districts as they are modeled. Detailed information about proposed plans. [e.g.,252 distinct population categories versus 5 in FREDS.]

16 In all cases Requirements determine features and design. Testing under fire is essential simulate how you will meet peek demand d for quickly modifying, i merging, g or processing multiple plans.

17 Data will be used to: Make districts of equal population that have acceptable political and demographic characteristics. Evaluate competing plans. Defend plans in the political arena and in court. Attack plans in the political arena and in court.

18 Design must consider all these uses Modeling. Evaluating. Defending. Attacking.

19 Census counts & statistics P.L (2000). P.L (2010). SF1. American Community Survey.

20 Voter & elections source data. Precinct maps (2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, and 2010) conflated with updated TIGER basemap. Voter registration and voter history by precinct and address. Election results by precinct. [Precinct labels often do not match.]

21 Census Geography TIGER Census geography. TIGER Reference layers (e.g., streets and waters, municipalities, Census designated places, congressional and legislative l districts, school districts).

22 Other official geography Districts for local offices. Precincts ( ; 2010; often different than VTDs). Parcel maps.

23 Other reference information Imagery (aerial photography). Communities of interest. Landmarks.

24 Building your database Don t underestimate how difficult it is or how much time it will take to: Gather from unrelated sources the variety and quantity of data you will need, Tie each value to the right piece of earth, and Organize it all for easy and immediate access. Senator Mike Haridopolos, Chair Florida Senate Committee on Reapportionment