Management analysis of wastewater capital improvement programs in large cities

Abstract

Major environmental engineering programs are typically organized into a large number of individual projects grouped into one or more higher levels of classification. Managing such programs is challenging because of their sizes, long duration, diffuse activities, and vulnerability to change due to unforeseen conditions. Often, individual projects are canceled, delayed, or changed in scope, so that assessing the progress and efficiency of the overall program is not easy with conventional project-oriented software. In many cases current economic trends make raising additional revenues difficult, and regulatory agencies often set deadlines that are not likely to change, so that there is increasing pressure to control the costs and schedule of a program. Also, in many places important facilities are already years past their planned dates for repair or replacement, because of past neglect. This paper describes methods of aggregating, transforming, and displaying information about program progress that potentially have value for managers of a wide range of programs. These methods are demonstrated by a hypothetical example that contains simulated statistics for a major city wastewater system improvement program. The paper also considers some issues of data storage and communication between offices that would increase the convenience of performing such analyses and of other tasks of managing large programs.