Accountability at a glance: California is harnessing the power of the Internet to provide transparency of management on a $3 billion program of transportation improvements

Public Roads, Sept-Oct, 2007 by Richard G. Chavez, Allan Kosup, Bart Desai, Donna Huey

Designed to remind users of a car's dashboard and other traffic-related images, the program denotes the status of a project's budget and schedule using gauges and stoplights. The number beside a stoplight indicates the quantity of corridors, segments, or phases whose status is good (green), cautious (yellow), or at risk (red). In this way, users can check the status of the overall Early Action Program, the six major corridors, and the 21 segments that compose the corridors.

Furthermore, each segment is divided into four phases related to project implementation: environmental planning, design engineering, right-of-way acquisition, and construction. Users can learn the status of each phase within a segment. Through the same color-coded approach used with the stoplights, the Dashboard's gauges fluctuate in color depending on the number of corridors, segments, or phases that currently are at each status.

Using an internal site not accessible to the public, transportation managers have access to additional information, including data on cost management that enable staff to evaluate budgets according to projects, segments, project estimates, and alternatives. Complete schedules, cost data, and system inputs also are available. A custom query option enables project managers and others to search for such information as item unit prices and the bids received for a given project. These queries can be conducted according to such variables as bid date, bidder, and quantity.

How the Dashboard Works

The Dashboard's core function is to incorporate data from various sources regarding budgets and expenditures, scheduling, and information related to project scope, risk, and cost estimates. SANDAG, Caltrans, and consultants employed by either agency provide the financial data and other information. Because these organizations use accounting systems that differ significantly, all financial data are channeled through and integrated in a "middleware" tool that compiles the data into a single, usable format to populate the Dashboard with meaningful information.

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Primavera 5.0, another project management software program, is used for scheduling information in four main categories: logic-based schedules, resource-loaded schedules, earning rules, and earned percent complete.

Individual project teams develop a project's logic-based schedule by determining the activities that the project will require, the duration of those activities, and the ways in which they are interdependent. The resulting baseline schedule forms the basis for tracking and reporting as the project proceeds.

Resources are assigned to various activities in a project's work plan based on the project's budget. A work plan is a tool to identify key activities, allocate resources, and track project performance. Generally provided in hours or dollars, the resources are "earned" as a project progresses. A project's resources then are summarized and attributed to the larger corridor and the total program level.