8.2: Project Management Considerations

Project Management Triangle at Work

Given the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, time was of the essence to slow the spread of infections. Government health organizations pushed to accelerate the development of vaccines and therapeutics. In some countries and states, people were not allowed to physically come to work unless they were essential workers and thus needed to work from home if that option existed. Some businesses and people suffered major economic impact. Nonetheless, people still needed to be out in public for some purposes such as purchasing food, going to medical appointments, and so forth. As a result, having access to a COVID-19 contact tracing app could be beneficial.

In approaching a project to develop a COVID-19 contact tracing app, the main pressure point likely was time. The apps were generally built on behalf of government health organizations/public health authorities, so cost was not going to be a major factor in an emergency situation. The likely trade-offs would be against scope.

Choose a Framework

Since time was of the essence, leveraging COVID-19 contact tracing app development frameworks, such as the Google/Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) protocol, could save time. Making use of this framework would provide good coverage of the large number of Apple iOS and Google Android mobile devices in use worldwide. It is a decentralized approach that makes use of Bluetooth Low Energy for detecting close proximity contacts and encryption to help allay privacy concerns. It had a phased rollout:

1. Publication of the API specification
2. Rollout of tools to enable only governments (public health organizations) to create official privacy-preserving COVID-19 tracing apps
3. Integrating the functionality into the iOS and Android operating systems and distributing it via operating system updates. After the pandemic ends, the functionality could be automatically removed.

The choice of a framework is going to affect whether the approach is centralized or decentralized.

List of frameworks[1]

Scope

The following are some of the items that need to be addressed in finalizing project scope (assuming for the United States):

• Platforms to be supported: Apple iOS, Google Android devices
• Centralized versus decentralized architecture
• Technology choice: Bluetooth, GPS, cell phone location information (or hybrid approaches)
• Framework choice
• User interface
  • Obtain user consent
  • Enable/disable the app for when the user needs privacy
  • User provides notification of symptoms or of a positive COVID-19 test using a test kit
  • App provides notification alert to those exposed, with instructions about getting tested (getting a test kit or directions to a nearby test center) or seeking medical help.
  • Optionally, the app could provide information about hot spots of COVID-19 activity so the user could plan to avoid those locations if possible.
• Coverage of privacy and security considerations including data encryption
• Testing the app
  • Apple-device to Apple device; Android device to Android device, Apple device to Android device
  • Testing with phones in various positions (handheld, in purses, in backpacks, brief cases, etc.)
  • Test user upload of positive test and correct notification of contacts

Implementation in California

Since De Anza College is in California, let's look at what California did.

Since Google and Apple are located in California, an obvious choice would be to make use of the Google/Apple Exposure Notification System (GAEN) framework[2] GAEN requires that Exposure Notification apps be released only by public health authorities.[2] To that end, the operative authority in California is the California Department of Public Health.

The California Department of Public Health released the CA Notify system on December 10, 2020.[2] The CA Notify system used the GAEN framework. CA Notify uses Bluetooth Low-Energy for encounter logging to measure how close you are to other smartphones and for what duration. It did this by sending tracking messages to nearby devices containing unique identifiers that were encrypted. The smartphones saved these messages for 14 days.

If a user tests positive for COVID-19, that user provides the information about that positive COVID-19 test to CA Notify. The last 14 days of the infected user's encrypted keys were uploaded to a central server.

CA Notify, without sharing any information about the user who tested positive or the location, sends a user of the app a message if the user might have been exposed to COVID-19 because they were in close proximity for a long enough period of time with information and resources about testing, how to keep others safe, and what to expect if you are sick.[3]

As of May 11, 2023, the COVID-19 digital exposure notification systems across the U.S. were turned off, on the same date that the nation's COVID-19 State of Emergency ended. Those who had CA Notify active on their smartphone received an alert informing them that exposure notifications are turned off, with the assurance to users that their privacy would be protected, since names and locations were never collected or stored.[4]

References

1. Wikipedia - COVID-19 apps. Accessed 3/8/2026. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License(opens in new window); additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use(opens in new window) and Privacy Policy(opens in new window). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
2. Wikipedia - Exposure Notification. Accessed May 4, 2026.
3. CA Notify. Accessed May 4, 2026.
4. CA Notify is Disabled as of May 11, 2023. CA Notify Disabled. Accessed May 4, 2026.
5. Apple and Google. Exposure Notification Cryptography Specification, Preliminary — Subject to Modification and Extension, April 2020, v1.2. Accessed May 5, 2026.