Application of Conflict Scoping Process to Transportation Projects

Abstract

The conflict scoping process (CSP) is a formalized, proactive project management tool for identifying, predicting, assessing, managing, and resolving conflict that has been introduced to project managers at the Minnesota Department of Transportation (DOT) over the course of the past year. In a transportation project, conflict escalation can cost an agency and project valuable time and money and thus potentially lead to cancellation. The CSP tool is designed to increase accountability, transparency, and trust with stakeholders while reducing project cost and time delays. The CSP approach has been applied to 25 first-phase implementation projects at the Minnesota DOT, which ranged from early planning, predesign, and environmental impact to final design and construction stages. The CSP tool brings visibility to the importance of managing interpersonal relationships, the potential and real effects of conflict, and the value of earlier conflict resolution. Project managers are trained in CSP techniques, work through many of the nine steps, and then use their training and skills and resources in the agency to work toward conflict resolution. Key preliminary findings indicate that project managers are establishing more robust internal and external stakeholder lists, have raised their awareness of elected officials and the value of establishing good relationships, have realized instances when relationships must be improved, and have discovered opportunities for using key alliances to reduce future workload. Five implementation projects are discussed in this paper for process illustration. A second CSP implementation phase is being conducted, and application to all projects at the Minnesota DOT is planned to occur in a scalable manner by 2015.