Time for a Handheld Project Post Mortem

Government Executive had an interesting article on the Census Bureau handheld project problem. In an interview with Government Executive, agency director Steven Murdock said that there was a "combination of events" that contributed to the problems, and he spread the blame among the Census Bureau as well as the contractors.

Director Murdock also said in the interview that he didn't want to dwell on past problems, which I can fully understand. Right now, the agency has to make certain that the 2010 census can be properly conducted, so all efforts need to be focused forward.

However, this also is the best time to really do a comprehensive post mortem on why the handheld project went south, especially focusing on the decision making process that took place along the way and how it addressed (or didn't) the various technical, contractual, political, managerial, etc. sources of risk.