THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700



January 15, 1997                                                                     04 00065 97011502



Mr. Marc McGovern
Construction Manager
Construction Operations Division
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
San Francisco District
333 Market Street; Room 806A
San Francisco, CA  94105 1905

Subject:  Communication Metrics Scope of Service
References:

  1. Meeting Marc/Rod Jan 15, 1997
  2. Welch letter re Oakland Project Staffing, Jan 10, 1997
  3. Welch letter re Comm Metrics Applications, Jan 8, 1997

Dear Marc,

Attached is a draft of how a scope of service might appear in an advertisement for bids, or possibly in a detailed bid package. It provides support for the RE in Sausalito and at the Oakland Project Office, and more generalized support in the District, as discussed with Max and in the Welch letter to Max dated January 8, 1997, ref c. It gains control of the project record, discussed with Max, letter dated January 10, 1997, ref b, and our meeting this morning. It accomplishes your objective for Construction Management and Claims Team support. This draft suggests showing examples of "records" to illustrate the level of effort and what is described as "linking" so bidders can estimate cost and assess the talent needed to perform the work.

This scope has been performed from the inception of the Welch contract in September 1996. Added staffing incorporates the prior job record and enables more thorough management of daily activity that impacts project success which occurs at multiple locations. It also permits transitioning of Communication Metrics skills to COE staff more rapidly.

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch


Copy to:

  1. Max Blodgett
  2. Tom Keesling







   1
   2                                       D  R  A  F  T
   3
   4
   5   January 16, 1997
   6
   7   Request for Bids
   8
   9   Scope of Services for Communication Metrics
  10
  11
  12   Contractor shall provide Communication Metrics for daily decision support by
  13   the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) on the Oakland Harbor project, an
  14   approximate $50M public works job begun in 1995 and scheduled to be completed
  15   in November 1997. Services are to be provided at the Oakland Project office, at
  16   the Resident Engineer's office in Sausalito, CA, at the Corps of Engineer's
  17   District office in San Francisco, and at the Contractor's offices.
  18
  19   Contractor shall furnish all hardware, software and professional communication
  20   specialists to provide automated management support as follows:
  21
  22        •  re and maintain in an electronic data base daily diary records of
  23           communications from events and documents so the chronology of daily
  24           understandings is clear, see Appendix A for level of effort.
  25
  26        •  se alignment of communications and electronically link to prior
  27           events and requirements in contracts, laws, regulations, policies,
  28           procedures and commitments, Appendix B
  29
  30        •  ate and track Action Items linked to diary context, Appendix C
  31
  32        •  ule daily tasks to accomplish required actions; tasks must be
  33           electronically linked to daily diary history, see Appendix D
  34
  35        •  op and maintain in conjunction with COE management an organic
  36           subject structure, and apply it to organize and retrieve the project
  37           record from the electronic data base.
  38
  39        •  ain record of correspondence issued and received, and status of
  40           documents pending response, for on-line access.
  41
  42        •  ain record of publications impacting project by chronology, by
  43           author, by publication and by subject content, for on-line access.
  44
  45        •  t in crafting correspondence and link to project record, contract
  46           requirements, laws, regulations, policies, procedures and commitments.
  47
  48        •  re Corps personnel for meetings, based on project record
  49
  50        •  itate meetings, based on project record
  51
  52        •  r COE in acquiring Communication Metrics capability
  53
  54        •  de and configure software to COE manager responsible for
  55           supervising this contract; train and support COE manager in applying
  56           software.
  57
  58   The aim of this contract is to aid and to show in the record Corps performance
  59   of requirements for the Oakland Harbor project in an orderly, timely manner,
  60   and to identify deviations through a continual process of "aligning
  61   communications" so that timely corrective action can be taken before mistakes
  62   occur that cost money and delay the work.  These services support Construction
  63   Management to avoid claims, and support Claims analysis, if necessary.
  64
  65   This contract requires "automated integration" of time, information, people,
  66   and documents using an organic subject structure to capture the record,
  67   organize it, link it backward and forward in time to identify cause and effect,
  68   and assemble portions of the record on a daily basis for COE decision support.
  69
  70   The "record" includes daily dialog from meetings, calls, discussions,
  71   correspondence, email, memos, reports, spreadsheets, magazine articles, books,
  72   specifications, drawings and all other "documents" that impact the work.  The
  73   "record" shall be stored on computers so it can be accessed and assembled to
  74   show chronology of events by each organic subject element.  The "record" shall
  75   be susceptible of being viewed in Executive Summaries for major events where


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76 each "talking point" in a summary is linked for instant access its detailed 77 history. Bidders shall demonstrate use of proposed software in comparable 78 business settings. Bidders' price shall include the cost of hardware and 79 software for the automated support described herein. 80 81 This contract requires Communication Manager skills in Construction Management, 82 Litigation Support, writing clear, concise and complete records of meetings, 83 calls and analysis, writing business correspondence, facilitating meetings at 84 all levels of organizational structure, e.g., executives, commanders, senior 85 managers, engineers. The skill set shall include use of software and hardware 86 to capture, link and apply the record for daily, real-time, support of COE 87 management. Bidders shall demonstrate ability to develop an organic subject 88 structure, and prepare meaningful headnotes summarizing detailed records of 89 major events into Executive Summaries. 90 91 The Oakland Harbor project has been underway for approximately 2 years. For 92 bidding purposes this record is assumed to approximate 2,000 documents and 93 about 2 GB of data. This includes contract specifications and FAR regulations. 94 The Contractor must incorporate this record by scanning or other means into the 95 continuing daily stream of documents, so that the full job record is on-line, 96 and available to be integrated into decision making analysis of the daily diary 97 through automated linking. COE will maintain a conventional record set of 98 project documents. The Contractor shall support COE in managing the work using 99 the electronic data base created and maintained as prescribed in this contract. 100 101 Contractor shall furnish following minimum staffing: 102 103 Communication Manager 104 105 Responsible manager for Contractor's activities. Provides primary 106 Communication Metrics support described in this request for bids. 107 108 There is a major meeting each week which lasts from 1 - 3 hours, and 109 another hour for travel. It requires about an hour of preparation, and 110 2 hours of debriefing, more time may be needed occasionally to prepare 111 COE managers in advance of meetings and to verify understandings 112 following meetings. From 2 - 4 people require post meeting consultation 113 of from 10 - 30 minutes each. From 3 - 6 hours are needed to prepare 4 114 - 10 pages of notes that measure understandings against prior events and 115 documents, identify and assign new subjects, if needed, craft headnotes 116 and assemble into an Executive Summary, and make distribution via 117 Internet and printed copy to about 15 COE staff for review and edits. 118 From 2 - 3 hours are needed to acquire edits by phone, hard copy or by 119 email, discuss and determine the most agreeable alignment of conflicting 120 recollections and language, incorporate these edits and distribute to 121 COE management as the official job record. The edit history is 122 maintained in the diary, linked to the official record published for 123 distribution. 124 125 This major weekly meeting typically spawns 1 to 3 other meetings during 126 the week which require a lessor but similar range of actions by the 127 Communication Manager. 128 129 Action Items are reviewed daily, at the major weekly meeting and once a 130 month in a formal review meeting with the prime contractor. This formal 131 Action Item review with the prime contractor is preceded by an internal 132 review meeting by COE management. These meetings fall within the 1 to 3 133 meetings spawned by the major meeting and so generally do not increase 134 the work of the Communication Manager. 135 136 Meetings and receipt of correspondence result in the need to prepare 137 drafts of correspondence for COE consideration that reflect the project 138 record. From 2 to 4 documents a week require this support; each take 139 about 3 hours to research, prepare, consult and finalize for COE action. 140 141 This totals approximately 33 hours per week. The remaining 7 hours per 142 week should be allocated to oversight of team members and integration 143 with COE daily management instructions. 144 145 146 Communication Agent 147 148 Assists Communication Manager responsible for performance of this 149 contract. 150 - 2 -
151 Ensures daily record developed by Communication Manager and 152 Communication Aides and information from all COE sources impacting the 153 project is captured in the electronic data base so it is available to 154 the Communication Manager to analyse and advise COE on alignment of 155 understandings, status of Action Items, and issuing correspondence. This 156 position will coordinate to ensure a full record set of documents is 157 maintained and that efforts are not duplicated in accomplishing that 158 objective. Automated storage and transfer will be used to avoid the 159 proliferation of printed documents. 160 161 The project is currently experiencing increased management demands due 162 to contract and other conditions. It is expected there will be increased 163 Communication Metrics support required, an example is updating the 164 project schedule and responding to claims and other contract variables. 165 166 This position will be full time and will perform work from increased 167 management demands for meetings and related activity under supervision 168 of the Communication Manager. 169 170 171 Communication Aide for Oakland Project Office 172 173 Supports COE Project Engineer in capturing the record from the past two 174 years into the computer data base, and maintaining current record of 175 daily dialog and documents exchanged in the Oakland Project office. 176 Assists in preparing responses to correspondence. 177 178 179 Communication Aide Resident Engineer's Office 180 181 Supports Construction Service Branch in managing the contract record and 182 assists Resident Engineer in communicating between the Oakland Project 183 Office and the District office in San Francisco, to implement COE 184 Contract Administration procedures. 185 186 187 188 - 3 -