THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
S U M M A R Y
DIARY: February 17, 1997 10:00 AM Monday;
Rod Welch
Visited Merry Goodenough at COE on using SDS record.
1...Summary/Objective
..............
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CONTACTS
0201 - Corps of Engineers, SFD 415 977 8400 fax 8483
020101 - Ms. Merry Goodenough, ESQ; Office of Counsel =415 977 8647
SUBJECTS
Documentation
Claim Team
Intelligence, Military, Function
Conflicts, Discover/Correct/Notify
Training in Using SDS
Orientation Comm Metrics, SDS
Goodenough Evaluation, District Counsel
1009 - ..
1010 - Summary/Objective
1011 -
101101 - Followed up work at ref SDS 18 0000, ref SDS 17 0000.
101102 -
101103 - Submitted information and discussed background on the Oakland Harbor
101104 - project, and demonstrated the SDS program.
101105 -
101106 - [On 970220 talked to Merry. ref SDS 19 8573; and further inquiry
101107 - by Max at ref SDS 20 8839.]
101108 -
101109 - [On 970224 Max asked about Merry's review of Communication Metrics
101110 - for litigation support. by Max. ref SDS 20 8839
101111 -
101112 -
101113 -
101114 - ..
1012 -
1013 -
1014 - Discussion
1015 -
101501 - Merry advised our meeting is held under attorney client privelege.
101502 -
101503 - She has spoken to a number of different people, and has read some of
101504 - the documents. She is preparing a report for the US attorney with the
101505 - Justice Department who is representing the government in Dutra's
101506 - bankruptcy filing.
101507 -
101508 - I explained that my comments today are subject to correction by the
101509 - record, and reflect requests on 970212 by Max Blodgett to visit with
101510 - Merry, ref SDS 17 9605; and Tom Keesling advised that Merry needs the
101511 - chronology on issues in dispute with the contractor. ref SDS 17 0779.
101512 - ..
101513 - Merry noted that her specialty is environmental law. She seemed
101514 - to indicate her assignment to prepare this report reflects Jim Stout's
101515 - recent retirement, since he would normally be doing this contract law
101516 - work.
101517 - ..
101518 - I explained background of Welch at COE beginning with meeting
101519 - Max on 960105, ref SDS 2 0000; Welch contract for Communication
101520 - Metrics was issued on 960913, ref SDS 3 7734, and it was terminated at
101521 - request of DE on 961226. ref SDS 7 0549
101522 -
101523 - Submitted the paper on Concurrent Discovery, ref OF 1 0000, "Claim
101524 - Support" that is part of Communication Metrics, as discussed with Tom
101525 - Keesling on 960913. ref SDS 3 7998
101526 - ..
101527 - We reviewed the meeting with Jim Stout on 961018, ref SDS 5
101528 - 0000, and that Jim earlier recommeded on 961015 to the Contracting
101529 - Officer, Tom Bonero, that the District use Communication Metrics on
101530 - the Oakland Harbor project to adequatley document the record in order
101531 - to aid the goverment in equitably resolving disputes. ref SDS 4 6118
101532 - ..
101533 - Merry asked about COE input and supervision of the SDS record on
101534 - the Oakland Harbor project?
101535 -
101536 - USACE and Port of Oakland staff examined and approved SDS work
101537 - product, and then Corps made distribution to the contractor, Dutra, as
101538 - discussed previously with Jim at ref SDS 5 8588 and as set out in the
101539 - record of the Progress Meeting on 961126. ref SDS 6 8845
101540 - ..
101541 - Merry asked for an example to illustrate the process of
101542 - government supervision of SDS content?
101543 -
101544 - Submitted a copy of the letter to Marc McGovern on 970113, ref DIP 1
101545 - 0001, issued on 970113, ref SDS 10 0001, that transmits the record
101546 - for....
101547 -
101548 - 1. proejct meeting on 970106............... ref SDS 9 0000
101549 -
101550 - 2. schedule review meeting on 970106....... ref SDS 8 0000
101551 - ..
101552 - We reviewed the record for the 970106 meeting with Dutra on the
101553 - project schedule update in order to illustrating problems posed by
101554 - Dutra's poor communication methods that are resolved using SDS. An
101555 - example is Dutra's serial letter #0206, per, ref SDS 8 8445.
101556 -
101557 - Discussed meeting with Marc on 970117 where he requested litigation
101558 - support for the Claim Team, ref SDS 11 9488.
101559 - ..
101560 - Submitted and reviewed with Merry the spreadsheet analysis that
101561 - shows significant errors in Dutra's 961213 schedule update submission,
101562 - which was given to Tom Keesling on 970206. ref SDS 14 7777
101563 - ..
101564 - Merry asked if the SDS record we reviewed today is contained in
101565 - the information provided to her by Tom Keesling?
101566 -
101567 - I confirmed this general point without noting that I have not actually
101568 - seen and did not participate in assembling the record Tom provided to
101569 - Merry nor tested its quality. However, Tom advised at our meeting on
101570 - 970212 that the record I developed on his office computer has been
101571 - provided to Merry, ref SDS 17 0779, so it should be substantially the
101572 - same thing.
101573 -
101574 - [On 970417 this record was still on Tom's computer and also put on
101575 - "Paul's" computer. ref SDS 21 8033
101576 - ..
101577 - Merry asked about getting access to references in the record to
101578 - related information and authority in the contract and regulations?
101579 -
101580 - We used the notebook computer so Merry could observe the process of
101581 - creating and accessing citations and links with the SDS program.
101582 -
101583 - We reviewed SDS subjects to organize information according to context,
101584 - such as contract specs, schedule activities, regulations, change
101585 - orders, claims, action items, etc. We did a few subject reports to
101586 - demonstrate the speed for assembling the chronology of different
101587 - subjects on the Oakland Harbor project.
101588 -
101589 - [On 970417 assembled and issued report in 10 minutes on particular
101590 - issue that Merry needed for a meeting. ref SDS 21 0001
101591 -
101592 - [On 970702 claim team swamped, needs help assembling the record.
101593 - ref SDS 22 J15H
101594 -
101595 - [On 981027 SDS report created in 10 minutes saved government
101596 - $200K. ref SDS 23 7315
101597 - ..
101598 - Merry examined the SDS document log that inventories project
101599 - correspondence assembled within SDS, so that formal communication can
101600 - be linked to relevant project history showing the context that led to
101601 - creation of a document and consequences following distribution.
101602 - ..
101603 - Merry said SDS methods for organizing information based on
101604 - context, for flexible outlining using line numbers to make references
101605 - fast and easy, for accessing citations and assembling the record are
101606 - helpful for legal analysis of causation that requires assembling
101607 - chronologies showing the sequence of events. She said that it is hard
101608 - for people to remember the sequence of events over long time spans
101609 - that eventually cause problems, and documentation is usually
101610 - incomplete and difficult to assemble.
101611 -
101612 - Merry asked if any legal scholars or other lawyers have looked at
101613 - SDS?
101614 -
101615 - I mentioned Jim Stout, whom we discussed earlier. ref SDS 0 UW4M
101616 -
101617 - Merry asked if anyone else in the legal field has looked at SDS?
101618 - ..
101619 - We reviewed briefly at Justice Stanley Mosk's comments on
101620 - 911130. Merry concurred with Justice Mosk that SDS works better than
101621 - traditional documentation. ref SDS 1 P15J
101622 -
101623 - [On 990105 Merry asks about the Subject Index. ref SDS 24 5551]
101624 - ..
101625 - Merry commented that it is hard to grasp all of the SDS features
101626 - because everything happens so fast, and the program is complex.
101627 -
101628 - We discussed the complexity of SDS reflects the complexity of managing
101629 - that integrates a number of tasks into a single cognitive resource
101630 - commonly called "intelligence." Improving traditional documentation,
101631 - as Merry has noted today, ref SDS 0 HK5J, requires a critical mass of
101632 - tasks, similar to a pilot who is skilled at managing a lot of levers
101633 - and guages for flying a lot of passengers faster, easier and cheaper
101634 - than the passengers could reach their destination without the plan and
101635 - the pilot. We looked at the NWO paper on this point. ref OF 5 6369
101636 -
101637 - [On 970220 discussed this again with Merry. ref SDS 19 8573]
101638 -
101639 - [On 970224 Max asked about results of Merry's review. ref SDS 20
101640 - 8839]
101641 -
101642 - [On 970417 assembled and issued report on particular issue in 10
101643 - minutes for Merry. ref SDS 21 0001
101644 -
101645 - [On 981027 SDS report created in 10 minutes saved government
101646 - $200K. ref SDS 23 7315
101647 - ..
101648 - Merry asked why serial letter #0014 was issued 2 years into a
101649 - 2.5 year contract where normally it would be expected that more of
101650 - such letters would have been issued?
101651 - ..
101652 - I explained dual serial letter sequencing arose as a result of
101653 - the Contracting Officer becoming more involved in the project after an
101654 - unsatisfactory evaluation of the contractor was issued using form
101655 - 2626. Later this was corrected so that a single serial letter
101656 - sequence is now being generated by the RE's office, as discussed at
101657 - the weekly Progress Meeting on 961126. ref SDS 6 7559
101658 - ..
101659 - Merry said it is amazing that SDS tracks so many details, which
101660 - turn out to be very important under various circumstances that often
101661 - cannot be anticipated at the time.
101662 -
101663 - [On 970417 assembled and issued report on particular issue in 10
101664 - minutes for Merry. ref SDS 21 0001
101665 -
101666 - [On 970702 claim team swamped, needs help assembling the record.
101667 - ref SDS 22 J15H
101668 -
101669 - [On 981027 SDS report created in 10 minutes saved government
101670 - $200K. ref SDS 23 7315
101671 -
101672 -
101673 -
101674 -
101675 -
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101680 -
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1017 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"