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

   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


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 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.
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 186
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