LRRB Local Operational Research Assistance Program (OPERA) for

Local Transportation Groups Field Report

This report must include the underlined subject areas and supporting resources (i.e. photos, graphs, charts, etc.). The OPERA program will use this information in an annual report that will be shared with other local agencies within the state. We request that a short 5-10 minute demo or presentation be shared at the Spring Maintenance Training Expo, MN Fall Maintenance Expo or with a professional organization. Date: June 10, 2018 Project Title: Project Management with Brightwork Project Number: H006160102 Agency: Carver County Public Works Person Completing Report: Darin Mielke Project Leader: Darin Mielke Phone Number: 952-466-5200 Problem: Carver County Public Works uses Microsoft Project (or P6 via some consultants) to manage construction project schedules, but only for large projects. The use of Microsoft Project requires training and is cumbersome to use for smaller sized projects. We were looking for a project management software that is scalable to the project size/scope. Further, we use a traditional electronic file folder system on a shared network, which is hard to roll up reports from multiple projects to effectively and efficiently manage our construction program. Solution: Carver County Public Works purchased, installed and tested Brightwork, which is a project management add on for Microsoft Sharepoint. Also, we implemented an ArcGIS online map that displays all of our construction projects and it includes a link to each respective Brightwork project. Brightwork staff demonstrated that it can be scalable to any project size. The ability to track assigned tasks and schedule and to also provide reports to management is a key feature that we plan to utilize going forward. We also plan to migrate all of our future projects to Brightwork, as the ease of standardizing templates, finding and working on project related documents was also shown to be a great tool. Procedure: We have two internal Sharepoint experts, however we plan to procure consultant services from Brightwork and a Sharepoint Consultant to help with the customizations that we plan to implement. The GIS integration will be completed by our internal staff. Considerable internal time with Public Works and IT staff were needed to install, set up and customize Brightwork to meet the needs of our highway construction workflows. Public Works staff worked on creating

templates that will be used within the project schedules and documents and further tested the system to determine what needed further refinement. Results: (Include what worked well and what didn’t. Include any recommendations, changes or modifications you feel would improve the project. Discuss the results of the testing or evaluation; what methods were used to evaluate the project; estimates of possible or actual cost savings, reduction in materials, equipment or labor because of the use of this project.) The evaluation of Brightwork needed to satisfy the following: User Acceptance Ease of Use for Staff Ability to integrate with GIS Ability to manage all of our construction projects Ability to provide rollup reporting for management Ability to store and easily find/retrieve all of project documents and correspondence For most staff, the use of Brightwork will be similar to a traditional file folder structure; however files have attributes assigned to them instead of naming folders to organize files. It will be a different thought process when saving files for users. Brightwork (Microsoft Sharepoint) allows users to customize their own personal views of project documents and other information, which will greatly help with user acceptance and ease of use. For example, if a user only wants to see right-of-way related documents, the user can create their own view so that they only see those types of documents. Brightwork was able to satisfy all of the evaluation criteria. In particular, Brightwork was able to integrate with our GIS data, as our GIS staff developed what they have called a Project Registry map app. Instead of searching through a file folder structure to find a project folder, a user will go to an interactive ArcGIS online map, choose the project within the map app, and then click on a link to go directly to the project site. The Brightwork project site contains all of the core information about the project; the project schedule, team members and organization and all of the project documents. Further, outside the scope of this study, we have installed Harmon.ie, which is an add on for Sharepoint and Outlook, which allows users to save emails directly from Outlook to the Brightwork project document library. If an agency is planning to implement Brightwork on-premise, we would highly encourage engaging with IT staff to determine the necessary hardware and software requirements. A considerable amount of time was spent with our IT department on software upgrades, storage requirements and integration with our GIS data. For small agencies, we would highly recommend the hosted Brightwork solution. The hosted solution does require a monthly fee; however it will likely be less costly for a small agency with 10 or less users. We have spent considerable internal time with our IT staff on troubleshooting of integration, specifically with our GIS data. Implementation: The testing and customization of Brightwork are nearly complete. Carver County Public Works plans to move to production use of Brightwork on our first live project in late 2018, after this summer construction season. We anticipate some further refinements will be needed after more staff are integrated with the new system. Status:

Our staff are working on completing some template documents that will be used on most of our projects in the future. Testing and customization is nearly complete and several small refinements are being implemented and some troubleshooting with IT staff need to be completed before Brightwork is put into production use on new projects. Benefit to other Agencies: For most highway agencies, typically only complex projects are managed using Microsoft Project or P6 programs. Further, these software programs do not provide an easy avenue for roll up reporting for managers overseeing a program of projects. These software programs require a user to have considerable training in order to use them. Brightwork has shown that project templates can be scaled to the complexity of the project, and users with basic scheduling knowledge will be able to use it with only a small amount of training. Brightwork allows all of the projects in an agency to be rolled up for easy reporting to give program managers tools that they need to effectively carry out many projects at once. Total Duration of Project: Approximately 48 months (the Project Registry Map App was started first) Project End Date: June 25, 2018 Approximate Cost of Entire Project: Approximately $35,000 to date, excluding internal staff time. Total OPERA Funds used for project: $20,000 Send and Email a completed report with pictures to: Mindy Carlson, CTS - 200 TSB, 511 Washington Ave. SE, Mpls. MN 55455, email carlson@umn.edu. For questions about this report please contact Mindy Carlson at 612-625-1813.

Project Registry ArcGIS Online Map App

Project Registry ArcGIS Online Map App – Pop Up Window

Brightwork Project Site Landing Page for Example Project

Project Media Library with GIS Map Integration

Project Task List and Schedule for Example Project

My Work Report from Example Project (View by User)

Document Library from Example Project (Agreement View)