Use logical and technical infrastructure modeling to its fullest extent. Reengineering to understand, simplify, and minimize inefficiencies and redundancies (both informational and functional) in census systems is essential to break up stovepipe systems and promote integration in census planning.

Adapt testing of portable computing devices to anticipate future requirements. In particular, testing should be done on current high-end devices of the form that are certain to be available, and less expensive, by the time of procurement. In approaching PCDs, the Census Bureau should seek to exploit technology to guide new and better enumeration processes, rather than simply replicating old processes on new tools.

Make research and evaluation a centerpiece of census operations, not a peripheral component. In addition to making better use of extant data resources, the Census Bureau should design its hardware and software systems to facilitate research and allow quick evaluation. In its architecture redesign efforts, the Census Bureau’s objective should be an integrated system that provides information for evaluation routinely and in real time—that is, a Master Trace System, rather than only a Sample.