Learning From Failed IT Projects: 2016 Australian Census

Written By Bobby Arvanitakis

The Australian Census, which is compulsory for every Australian to complete every five years, “provides an important statistical snapshot of [the Australian] nation” (ABS, 2015). This data is extremely vital, as it is used to assist government planning on a national and local scale, public funding, electoral boundaries, and other future policies that provide long term benefits to the Australian population.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) contracted IBM to support them with the new eCensus project, based on their good rapport with previous projects. However, on census night on 9th August 2016, the census website experienced several Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. According to the Conduct of 2016 Census Report, DDoS is a “malicious attempt to make a system unavailable to its intended audience by overloading servers with requests… causing it to shut down” (APH, 2017). This in turn, as well as the large volume of the Australian public simultaneously trying to complete the eCensus, caused core network hardware to fail. Additional network issues and performance of the census form was affected. As a precautionary measure, the eCensus was shut down for further investigation under intense public backlash of the form’s slow performance. The eCensus was resumed over a day later with a higher participation rate, due to the risk of fines if it was not completed.

Background

Figure 1. Sample of Australian Census form (ABS, 2011)

Figure 1. Sample of Australian Census form (ABS, 2011)

Until 2011, the Australian Government and ABS, used conventional paper methods to conduct their Census within Australia. An example of the traditional form is shown in Figure 1.

The paper form method proved to be a very costly, laborious, and problematic process. It involved hiring “50,000 temporary staff as Census collectors” (Lessons Learned, ABS, 2016) to physically obtain and collate these forms from “nine million front doors in Australia with less than 50 per cent being answered” (Independent Assurance Panel, 2016). The ABS wanted to ensure the shift to the digital format would be a long term solution and played into the statistical trend of “a[n Australian] society with an increasing uptake of technology and expectations toward giving and receiving information digitally” (IAP, 2016) and that “the change was consistent with the Government’s digital transformation agenda” (ABS, 2016). Apart from providing a eco-friendly alternative, the potential and the ideal result of the eCensus would have reinforced “making the Census form easier to complete, increased efficiencies, better quality data, a reduced overall cost to the taxpayer” (IAP, 2016) as well as the collection of data instantly. Traditional forms were also made available to parts of the demographic such as the elderly, people in regional areas that had low internet connectivity, and on request.

In the ABS media release of the Census in August 2015, the head of ABS David Kalisch, stated “We anticipate that more than 65 percent of households will complete the Census online in 2016, positioning Australia as a world leader” (ABS, 2015). IBM were the primary contractors for the 2016 eCensus, as “Following on from their initial success, the ABS and IBM collaborated on enhancements to the original 2006 eCensus solution to create the 2011 eCensus” (ABS, 2015), which was also successful, but this was only aimed towards Australians not in Australia when the census took place. Even though “the 2016 Census scope met its brief” their innovative venture, which was first viewed as “Australia’s first predominantly digital Census” (IAP, 2016) proved to be a major national failure, especially regarding its execution. This was also later highlighted by Kalisch that “The ABS underestimated the nature, complexity and risk of the change process”.

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If you’d like to read more about the 2016 Australian eCensus Project, reach out to our consultants at contact@hba.consulting.

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References & Further Reading

Bobby Arvanitakis https://hba.consulting
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