The Universe Control and Management system was developed to control and track the enumeration activities of the 2010 Census. The core of the Universe Control and Management is a database containing characteristics and operational status indicators for each of the addresses in the 2010 Census universe. The primary benefit of the Universe Control and Management system is that it provides a centralized source and reference point for multiple systems that are external to decennial processing systems. The system is primarily divided into two subsystems: The Universe Control and Management Operations system which is designed to track all actions related to a specific address, and the Universe Control and Management Address system which contains address specific information.

The purpose of the Response Processing System is to collect the decennial census response data and prepare it for Congressional Apportionment and decennial census data product usage. The Response Processing System is composed of nine distinct modules that capture the collected 2010 Census responses and the results of systems, including imputing missing data elements, selecting a return amongst all available returns and/or persons to represent the unit, appending tabulation geography information and adding recode variables. The combination of the operational data from the Universe Control and Management system and the response data from the Response Processing System, through the use of a unique Master Address File ID number for each record, permits a complete picture of the 2010 Census universe and response processing to emerge from this assessment.

The Universe Control and Management /Response Processing Systems assume that they completely and accurately reflect the specifications of the 2010 Census sponsors. During the 2010 Census, there were two committees formed to develop, test, and provide feedback on the quality of the system processing. The first group, internal to the Decennial Systems and Contracts Management Office, was tasked with developing the system based upon user supplied specifications. The second group, external to Decennial System and Contracts Management Office but inside the Census Bureau, was comprised of Decennial Statistical Studies Division and Population Division management and technical staff. This second group met regularly to oversee the implementation of the system specifications, and to assess the accuracy of the output based on those specifications.