It's more relevant to look at what a median tech company would end up doing, if they had to launch at scale without organic growth but had unlimited funding.
Facebook, Amazon, and Google are collecting info that is willingly passed their way.
We are probably talking about buying data entry and management bloatware from a big mediocre enterprise contractor and then integrating the monstrosity.
These are all structural issues with solving the problem, before we even get to a procurement process that picks a mediocre LPTA contractor instead of Google.
Fair point. All the companies I pointed out are flush with cash, making the annual budget of the census comically small.
So if we want large publicly visible government software projects to start going well consistently, what would it take? Recent poorly run projects have included the failed launch of healthcare.gov which was "rescued" by SV techies and this project which is way over budget. There are many more which are smaller, less visible to the public, and I'm sure there are a set of projects which get done on time and on or below budget.