Leveraging Success Though Partnerships and Process

With a tight budget and limited staff the City of Springfield took a creative approach to their 2000 Re-mapping Project. Every aspect of the project was confined to stringent time frames, and most staff support became voluntary. Only through forging strong partnerships were the project able to succeed. Presenting perspectives from both the City and their contractor, David Smith and Associates, the presentation focuses on how to build partnerships that lead to success.

Springfield is a relatively small city, (approximately 14 square miles) with a population of about 50,000. The City of Springfield sits in the middle of the Willamette Valley, in the center of the state of Oregon, USA. It abuts the City of Eugene along the West side, surrounded by rivers and mountains to the East.

David Smith and Associates Inc. (DSA) is a photogrammetric mapping company that has been in business since 1965. Portland, Oregon based DSA specializes in photogrammetric mapping and overall project management of photogrammetric projects.

2000 Aerial Project Description

In March of 2000, the City's Public Works Department contracted with DSA for digital mapping services to support AM/FM/GIS activities.

Project scope encompassed full planimetry (base maps), precise digital terrain models (DTM) and high-resolution color orthophotography. These products replaced digital topographic mapping from1990 and dated low-resolution digital photography acquired over the years.

2000 Aerial Mapping Products

These products meet daily needs to perform site plan review, design and construct new public infrastructure, maintain and operate city facilities, support crime analysis/crime prevention studies and much more. Deliverables for this project replaced our old base mapping information and went into use immediately upon arrival.

Mapping Extents

The project boundaries extend slightly past the west side of Interstate 5 on the West, 79th Street on the East, the outer banks of the McKenzie River on the North and the Coast fork of the Willamette River on the South. This boundary includes areas not previously mapped: the newly incorporated Glenwood area, the area North of a new children's sports complex and the Thurston area between Cedar Creek and the McKenzie River. For a detailed map of Springfield see the City's Standard Maps Web page.

The 2000 project boundary (in red above) significantly extends beyond the previous mapping area to include both rivers for enhanced flood and habitat analysis along the riverbanks.

Schedule

Optimizing Success

Although this paper covers the essential elements of a comprehensive re-mapping project (like project planning and design, mapping standards, data integration, and the implementation of project deliverables) these elements are presented within the context of our methodology and approach to building teams and establishing partnerships. From the initial phases of building an RFP through the meticulous tasks of Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QA/QC), cohesiveness and cooperation, above all resulted in a win-win situation for both the City and the contractor.

To benefit the reader, information has been formatted to serve as useful tools for embarking on similar projects. Throughout the paper essential factors (process, guidelines and things to remember) will be highlighted as discussed and then summarized at the end. By sharing this experience, the City hopes to increase the chance of success for others. As is common in our industry, we all have much to do in little time, so optimizing success is essential.

This paper develops four major themes in management: understanding roles, building and maintaining teams, sharing the right information, and preparing and scheduling resources. In the sections that follow, these critical elements are explored from two points of view. First a framework is established for developing successful internal teams. Then building on this framework, the critique extends to external teams and describes in context (of the mapping project) successful dynamics between the City and DSA.

Internal Teams

Building successful relationships starts at home. Internal animosity and communication break down, however well masked, surface in these types of projects. Internal teams need focus, support and confidence to succeed. They must trust you as their leader. Be cautious not to engage in vague discussions about perceived feeling or attitudes. Focus on actions, the environment and progress toward achieving project objectives. As a team leader, establish self-confidence in others and take time to maintain healthy relationships. Reward good behavior and deal with problematic behavior before it escalates.

Do little things to raise spirits and keep a positive attitude. By setting a good example and not dipping down into the lower levels (of hear-say and gossip), a team leader or project manager can save a lot of energy, keep things on track and achieve much more. Be liberal with compliments and be sure to recognize achievements. Even though it may not appear to be a major breakthrough or project benchmark to you, it very well could have been a major obstacle to your teammate. When in doubt, don't hold back; results justify the time.

Pro-Actively lead the team. A critical aspect of effective leadership is knowing your teammates. Each person reacts differently to different management styles. Be flexible and adjust your style appropriately. Address inexperience with increased direction and structure. Back off the discipline, provide moral support and vision to more experienced staff. When appropriate, empower your staff by encouraging ownership and respecting individual expertise. Think of your staff as a team, and coach them with integrity and honesty. A well-inspired team will lead you to success.

The city has found framework and process structure to be another critical component to successful project management. When looking at projects such as this one, break it down into several major steps, a few may include:

These steps can come from a work plan, action plan or other guiding document, but they need to reflect clear divisions that the whole team can understand and appreciate once completed. The list above (1-4) reflects a few that were used on our project.

Do your homework in the early stages of project initiation. Define roles and carefully pick staff to fill the roles. Pick people who have a vested interest in the project outcomes, when possible. Define the necessary commitments and discuss these commitments up-front with potential staff and their supervisors. Recruit staff and explain why they were chosen. Be sure to explain value to your candidates, project value to them, value to the organization, and why you value their participation on the team.

Project initiation should include a kick-off meeting. Get the team together with their supervisors, the project sponsor (director or department head who is funding the project) and layout the commitments, discuss schedules, layout project objectives and clearly define the goals/project outputs. Make sure everyone knows what he or she is getting into and why he or she is there. Time spent in the early stages of any project will pay off in the long run.

For our project the RFP and the selection process were key pieces. Great care was taken to explain the evaluative criteria, integrate the team's feedback, and discuss why these criteria had been chosen and the logic behind how to insure project outputs. Forms and other instruments were developed to focus the team on these criteria, standardize the evaluation and save time. Everyone sees things a little bit differently so do not assume they think the same as you. During the selection process apply some structure and assist others in following the rules.

Throughout the project several teams were formed. The QA/QC team had different folks than the RFP team. In addition to the team-building and leadership points mentioned above, remember the following:

Lastly, regarding internal teams, be sure to acknowledge project closure. Even if it's an un-successful completion, list the problems, develop solutions and be sure to recognize accomplishments.

Upon successful completion, celebrate. Your team has been through a lot, and they deserve credit for their efforts and hard work. If it's been a good team, you may need them again in the future. I have found that food, especially pizza, and some awards can make the event a lot of fun. See Address Gals, Survey Guys, Swale Guy, and Traffic Guys for sample awards.

External Teams

Just as a successful project requires careful structuring of the internal teams in order to get a clear definition of the project goals, equally careful structuring of the external teams make sure that technical aspects of the project implementation meet the goals.

Optimal success comes from fostering a relationship with the consultant that allows this "external team" to function as an extension of your internal team. You have selected the consultants that make up your "external teams" because you feel these people can provide the level of expertise and quality you require for the best overall value to the project. By forging a relationship that allows the external team to act as an extension of your own internal team capabilities (rather than as a completely independent entity), you can take better advantage of the expertise and value the consultant can lend to your project.

Developing this kind of relationship with the external team requires thinking of your consultants not as just data providers, but as a professionals with unique capabilities and experience that can benefit your project. From that standpoint, you can take several pro-active steps to get the most out of the services provided by the consultant and their external teams.

In defining roles, recognize that more interaction with the consultant equates to more value

Projects that require more expertise from the "external team" also require a different level of interaction with the consultants. Purchasing "off the shelf" imagery, or data layers derived from existing maps, is a different process than planning and designing a project to create new base mapping. When purchasing existing data or contracting for conversion of data from existing sources, there are somewhat limited options with regards to accuracy and formatting and there is a limited amount of input that you can provide that will affect the quality of the final product. When designing a project to create new base mapping data, there is almost unlimited potential to customize accuracy, formatting and overall data design. Consequently, by working closely with the consultant and through on-going communication with the external teams, you can create the opportunity to insure the project achieves its full potential to meet the goals and needs defined by your internal teams.

In the case of Springfield's re-mapping project, the data products created not only needed to support GIS and planning applications, they also needed to support critical City engineering and surveying activities as well. The updated data needed to maintain compatibility with existing activities and uses, but also allow the City to take advantage of new technologies to expand their ability to use this information for new applications. The diverse needs for a project of this scope added considerable complexity to issues such as accuracy, data formats and overall project design and structure. The City could not meet their goals without on-going communication with DSA throughout all project phases.

Recognize that the Consultant does have specialized expertise and don't be afraid to ask for changes or recommendations

Photogrammetric mapping, as well as many other specialized consulting fields, is a highly technical process and very few GIS Coordinators have the day-to-day experience with this technology that is needed to fully understand all the complex issues that affect the project. As such, do not be afraid to ask the consultant what would be involved in revising a project specification or in changing a specific element of the project if it would better suit your needs. When it comes to aerial mapping for City GIS programs, every project differs as each City puts their own twist on the end uses and has specialized applications for the data. Just because one process worked best for another project does not mean that it is the best approach for your project. Many times a change in the approach will not have any affect on the consultant's cost or level of effort, but it could result in significant savings in time and money for the final specific application.

When it comes to technical processes like photogrammetric mapping, your consultant's expertise is a key element of success.

Timing is everything: allow for several stages of review, from an initial "Pilot Project" through final approval

Interaction through the intermediate review process is critical. In any complex project, opportunities to improve the project occur when you actually see and use the products. Without a well integrated review process you may miss opportunities to refine products and make changes that can save you cost down the road.

Success hinges not only on your initial approach and specifications, but also on your ability to identify and incorporate improvements at key phases in the project. While it is important to resolve as many issues up front as possible, it is equally important to include a benchmark for review of an initial "Pilot Project" or "First Sheet Review," before the consultant has committed to a final approach. This will allow you the opportunity to ensure that the project is meeting all goals and needs prior to full production and will also provide the opportunity to potentially identify additional value that could be added to the project.

For Springfield's re-mapping, the City had the advantage of working with photogrammetric mapping data over the past ten years. Many of the enhancements to the data were based on those years of experience. However, the City also conducted a careful review of the initial data. This allowed them to further assess how well the data met their goals. Several additional enhancements were added based on the City's review of the initial sheet. Since these issues were addressed before full production of the data collection, the changes were easily incorporated into the process without affecting the overall cost.

On-going review by the internal teams of data provided by the external teams is also critical. The City may have access to information that the consultant does not have. In the case of photogrammetric mapping, on-going review typically includes road name verification, verification of utility features and other issues.

Final approval will be a smooth process with no surprises if the initial review phases were implemented. It is much easier to catch problems and avoid delays if issues are raised up-front, instead of at the end of a project.

Net Results: More Value for Less Cost

Through active project management and teaming, the City was able able to move beyond the RFP specifications and the minimum base mapping requirements typical for City mapping. By implementing the management and teaming practices presented in this paper, the City was able to incorporate many changes in the technical processes that will allow them to save significant cost when developing the applications that are being built on top of the base mapping data. Many of these applications may not be unique (impervious surface studies, 3D modeling, maintaining compatibility with existing hardcopy map needs, maintaining compatibility with existing engineering CAD uses, etc.). Unique though, is the fact that the City will be able to implement these applications quickly and with significantly less cost than if they had not implemented the aggressive up-front planning, timely review and team oriented effort that formed the cornerstone of this project.

Here are a few examples of some of the added value the City was able to achieve through its efforts and process:

Typically, photogrammetric data represents visible features as vector line work. There is no database link that identifies lines as belonging to a specific polygon. Polygon coverages then have to be built later using GIS software. This can be automated to some extent, but this requires significant manual effort to resolve ambiguities.

For Springfield's project, the City and DSA were able to develop a strategy that would allow a specific ID tag to be digitized during data collection. DSA also implemented a "double-pass" check of the end point snaps for key line work. This ID tag and clean-up procedure eliminated nearly all-ambiguous polygons and allowed for a nearly completely automated polygon build. This strategy was developed during the City's review of the First Sheet sample data. By implementing it up-front, before full production, there was no impact on the project cost. Had this task been required after the initial data collection was completed, it would have been very costly.

This approach will not work in every situation. In this case it was successful only as a result of careful review and assessment of initial data by the City and good communication between the City and DSA to determine what possible modifications to the technical processes could be implemented to best accommodate the City's in-house capabilities and goals.

The City knew from its experience with the existing 1990 mapping data that building elevations would be very useful for 3D modeling and extrusions. Typically, buildings are collected as 2D entities with an elevation attribute at the gutter. Requiring true 3D to pick up all elevation changes on the building is costly. The final strategy was a compromise: Buildings were digitized as 2D polylines at gutter elevation, and then moved in height so that the elevation attribute represents the peak.

Existing City data is at NAD `27 datum. Future plans are to convert to NAD `83. Typically, a base mapping project is tied to control at a single datum. Often, "out of the box" regional datum conversions are then used for GIS purposed to work in multiple datums. These regional conversions would not meet the City's accuracy needs for many of the engineering uses that were also driving this project.

DSA and the City worked out a strategy to develop a robust datum conversion which incorporates the existing NAD `27 control points and ties the existing data to the new NAD `83 control network. Separate sets of the final map files and orthophotography were delivered in each datum, but more importantly DSA was able to provide the City with the final conversion data and automated scripts which would allow the City to perform an identical conversion on other data layers. It was essential that the details of the datum issues be worked out up front, during the premarking and control stage. It would have been very costly to develop as accurate a conversion later in the project.

Even in a digital world, many of the City's users rely on hard copy maps to make decisions. The existing hard copy maps met cartographic standards that are easy to obtain with current photogrammetric software, but that are sometimes difficult to duplicate using typical CAD and GIS packages. The City and DSA developed a detailed strategy for the final data formats that will allow the City to use their in-house resources to duplicate the quality of hardcopy plot that users are used to seeing.

Through review and communication with the Consultant, the final digital map file formatting and structure not only allow the data to be easily pulled into the GIS, but also allow the City flexibility to maintain its hardcopy map file.

While GIS uses and ARC-INFO/ArcView applications were a major driving force for this base mapping project, a portion of the City's engineering staff also relies heavily on CAD for many of its activities. DSA and the City worked closely to develop layer standards and formatting standards that would facilitate both ARC-INFO and ArcView GIS uses, but also support an engineering staff which is used to working in a CAD environment. By getting feedback from users in all areas early in the project, the City and DSA were able to develop base mapping data that can be easily integrated into both environments. To convert the data between environments after the project was complete would have entailed considerably more effort.

Conclusion

Building and maintaining the critical relationships described above is no simple task. It requires insight, flexibility, persistent interaction and dedication to achieving healthy communication between all team members. The key to optimizing success is a collaborative work environment.

If the City of Springfield's project success is any indication, then the time and effort spent building solid project teams throughout the project will be rewarded many times over with quality products and added value upon project completion.

Acknowledgments

Internal project teams from the Public Works Department and Development Services Department at City of Springfield: External project teams from David C. Smith & Associates, Inc.: City of Springfield Leadership Program 2001, The Mardac Justis Group

Doug Smith, P.E., C.P.
Vice President, David C. Smith & Associates, Inc.
Portland, OR USA