CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
COE Evaluation Communication Metrics
Higher Savings for Operations than Projects
Peer Review
Calculate Risk Management Exposure NPV
Higher Percent Savings than on Projects
Cost/Benefit of Better Communications
Money, Improving Earnings
External management, Internal management

1210 -    ..
1211 - Summary/Objective
1212 -
121201 - Follow up ref SDS 9 0000, ref SDS 7 0000.
121202 -
121203 - Developed new analysis indicating the percentage of savings on
121204 - District Operations budgets should be comparable to that for Projects,
121205 - rather than less, as was initially calculated.
121206 - ..
121207 - Requested comments from Morris Jones, ref DIT 1 0000, and Bill
121208 - Benkavitch, ref DIT 2 0000.
121209 -
121210 -    [See review with Tom on 971007, ref SDS 10 3994.]
121211 -
121212 -    [Called Morris on 971019, ref SDS 11 0000.]
121213 -
121214 -
1213 -
1214 -
1215 - Progress
1216 -
121601 -  ..
121602 - Savings on District Operations Higher Percentage than for Projects
121603 -
121604 - On 970926 I developed analysis indicating the percentage of cost
121605 - savings on District operations would be less than that calculated for
121606 - projects, ref SDS 2 line 279.
121607 -
121608 -          Projects are unique, complex, staffing is dynamic and
121609 -          learning curves occur for all organizational functions This
121610 -          makes daily supervision and administration of projects more
121611 -          susceptible to communication breakdowns than occur for
121612 -          operations which entail repetitive tasks, relatively constant
121613 -          staffing, with less impact from learning curves.
121614 -
121615 - This led to a 4% estimate for District Operations, 2% less than for
121616 - projects, on 971001, ref SDS 3 line 289.
121617 - ..
121618 - Further consideration today indicates the above factors may be
121619 - offset by others that result in greater percentage of savings for
121620 - operations management.  I talked to Max Blodgett about this point
121621 - today at ref SDS 9 line 165.
121622 -
121623 - This afternoon, I sent Morris a letter via internet, ref DIT 1 line 30
121624 - which supplements request at ref SDS 6 line 137.  The letter today
121625 - asks for his comments on following analysis that suggests savings from
121626 - Communication Metrics should be a higher percentage of the District
121627 - Operations budget than for projects, because...
121628 -
121629 -            [See call to Morris on 971019, ref SDS 11 line 82.]
121630 -
121631 -      1.  External communications on projects have less impact on total
121632 -          cost than for internal operations, since there is a lot of
121633 -          work that is not communication, per se, like digging a ditch,
121634 -          designing or wiring a circuit, unloading a truck, writing
121635 -          some code, etc.  Such non-communication work is not subject
121636 -          to "miss-communication" which Communication Metrics is aimed
121637 -          at reducing.  However, District operations (i.e., overhead,
121638 -          internal management) is almost all communication.  So the
121639 -          impact of adding metrics should be larger as a percentage of
121640 -          such costs than for project cost since there is a larger
121641 -          target of opportunity for making improvement.
121642 -          ..
121643 -          Total savings will still be much greater on projects,
121644 -          because the budget is much larger, but the percentage of
121645 -          savings should be larger for Operations mangement than for
121646 -          projects.
121647 -
121648 -          This is evident from the figures on Oakland.  The original
121649 -          Construction Management budget was about $3M.  It had to be
121650 -          supplemented by about $2M using District Office staff, which
121651 -          is the amount projected to be saved by Communication Metrics.
121652 -          So the total is about $5M.  Since $2M is about 40% that
121653 -          reflects the real potential to save on District Operations
121654 -          budgets by improving work performance with Communication
121655 -          Metrics.  A 6% savings therefore seems to be a conservative
121656 -          estimate.
121657 -
121658 -          The potential for savings on Operations Budgets is supported
121659 -          by the Associated Press report on a study that managers waste
121660 -          70% of the day in unproductive meetings, ref SDS 1 line 118.
121661 -          ..
121662 -          A key component to realizing these savings is
121663 -          leadership, as discussed with LTC Thompson.
121664 -
121665 -      2.  Projects have specific communication classifications (SDS
121666 -          subjects) like schedules, specs, requirements, objects,
121667 -          regulations. Internal management has far less structure and
121668 -          so has greater potential for individual minds to spawn a
121669 -          wider range of meaning and thus drift away from objectives.
121670 -          This presents a bigger advantage for Communication Metrics to
121671 -          contribute by maintaining the focus, reducing meaning drift,
121672 -          etc.  Therefore, the pool of errors to be corrected is a
121673 -          larger percentage of total communiation than on projects.
121674 -
121675 -      3.  Anecdotal oberservation has revealed a near "school recess"
121676 -          atmosphere of constant chatter (communication) among internal
121677 -          management staff, which, according to Landauer, presents a
121678 -          bigger pool of potential meanings to become commingled and
121679 -          misapplied, than for projects, which have relatively less
121680 -          chatter.  This potential for savings is supported by the
121681 -          Associated Press report on a study that managers waste 70% of
121682 -          the day in unproductive meetings, ref SDS 1 line 118.
121683 - ..
121684 - As a result of these considerations, it may be more correct to
121685 - call for an operations budget reduction of 6% rather than 4%,
121686 - ref OF 1 line 70.
121687 -
121688 -
121689 -  ..
1217 -
1218 -
1219 - 2343 submitted similar query to Bill Benkavitch
1220 -
122001 - Received a letter from Bill via Internet indicating he has reviewed
122002 - the initial submission, ref DIP 1 line 40, issued at ref SDS 6 line
122003 - 154, and seemed to feel it reads well.  He is doing further analysis
122004 - of premises.
122005 -
122006 - Sent Bill similar letter asking for comment on above issue.
122007 -
122008 -
122009 -
122010 -
1221 -
1222 -