Report 2015-117 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2015-117: California Department of General Services' Real Estate Services Division: To Better Serve Its Client Agencies, It Needs to Track and Analyze Project Data and Improve Its Management Practices (Release Date: March 2016)

Recommendation #3 To: General Services, Department of

To ensure long-term efficient and effective delivery of projects, the division, in its planned implementation of its new project management system in July 2017, should track the reasons that projects are pending to identify its true backlog of projects. In doing so, it should develop a process to follow up on those projects that are pending to ensure that they are not on hold unnecessarily and are appropriately moving forward.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

While PMDB continues the best practices indicated in prior responses, please see Recommendation #2 for the status of the implementation of the project management software.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021

Please see Recommendation #2 for the status of the implementation of the project management software. Until the new system is implemented, the process described in the prior years is being followed. Additionally, the branch is developing a Service Now management tool to assist in tracking the design workload. The Service Now tool is not Department of FI$Cal dependent. The tool will be integrated with the data PeopleSoft already sends to DGS for both project and financial information. The tool will have reporting capability on various project attributes to inform managers and supervisors on project status. It shall also track when milestones are completed on time or report on the number of days a milestone goes beyond its original tracking date and the reason.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

Please see Recommendation #2 for the status of the implementation of the project management software. Until the new system is implemented, the process described in the prior years is being followed.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019

Please see Recommendation #2 for the status of the implementation of the project management software. In June 2018, the Project Management and Development Branch (PMDB) centralized the decision making process for all workload assignments. Assignments are made collectively by management and incoming work is centrally tracked. Supervisory staff now meet monthly with rank and file to discuss project schedules and budgets to ensure active management. A policy bulletin and flowchart showing the appropriate assignment of work has also been published. In-house design projects are also tracked centrally, including all projects that are pending projects (with explanation and date of last action).

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2018

Please see Recommendation #2 for the status of Oracle Prime. Prime was developed with an "issue/trends log" specifically for the purposes of tracking projects and ensuring that projects are not "pending active" for lengthy durations.

As of June 2018, all workload assignments are made collectively by management and incoming work is centrally tracked. Supervisory staff now meet monthly with rank and file to discuss project schedules and budgets to ensure active management. A policy bulletin and flowchart showing the appropriate assignment of work has also been published.

For projects designed in-house, managers meet weekly with staff and then managers meet weekly to discuss staff reports. An Architectural and Engineering (A&E) Schedule document compiles the data and tracks pending projects (with reasons for pending). A dashboard has been created to show the data. As these are design schedules, which are separate from project schedules (and thus not appropriate for Prime), this will continue to be managed this way regardless of the Prime implementation.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2017

RESD is in the process of implementing a new project management system that will allow management and staff to more effectively plan, manage, and control projects. The new system is part of FI$Cal and will include provisions that allow project management to identify and follow-up on pending projects.

While PMDB works on the implementation of Oracle Prime, the branch has implemented stopgap measures intended to better track its backlog of projects. These measures include:

1. Modifying its workload assignments by ensuring that all project requests funnel through the Capital Outlay Program Managers (COPMs) assigned to a program.

2. Eliminating the COPMs ability to directly assign projects to staff persons and transition the assignment function to a committee comprised of the COPMs, PMDB Principle Architects, and the Branch Chief that meets weekly. This has resulted in the Branch being able to eliminate the practice of assigning projects to staff in lieu of noting them as unassigned (backlog).

3. Restructuring the project management section's workload tracking spreadsheet to more accurately capture workload assumptions (with additional data points being added at present).

4. Revising the monthly all-management meeting to include projects in design that are temporarily being managed by PMDB architectural/engineering staff as part of work needing reassignment for more comprehensive tracking.

a. PMDB now tracks: current project workload, work needing reassignment, new project requests, and anticipated future work (tracked as part of the budget process).

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

1-Year Agency Response

RESD is in the process of implementing a new project management system that will allow management and staff to more effectively plan, manage, and control projects. The new system (Primavera) is part of FI$Cal and will include provisions that allow project management to identify and follow-up on pending projects.

In order to expedite the implementation of the project management system, RESD's Project Management and Development Branch (PMDB) hired a consultant (Loadspring). PMDB obtained access to 70 licenses of Primavera and had Loadspring configure the system for the branch's use in phases. As of January 2017, PMDB has launched the first of two roll-outs of Primavera - six months ahead of the original schedule. The first roll-out involves the Primavera Contract Management (PCM) module, which PMDB will utilize to interact with contractors, manage budgets, track project issues and trends, etc. PMDB will conduct quarterly reviews and report the results annually to DGS' executive management. The second roll-out will involve P6, which is Primavera's resource and scheduling tool. PMDB will launch P6 in July 2017, with the rollout completed in September 2017. PMDB will utilize the system apart from FI$Cal until an interface is developed, which is anticipated to occur in July 2017.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

RESD is in the process of implementing a new project management system that will allow management and staff to more effectively plan, manage, and control projects. The new system (Primavera) is part of FI$Cal and will include provisions that allow project management to identify and follow-up on pending projects.

In order to expedite the implementation of the project management system, RESD's Project Management and Development Branch (PMDB) hired a consultant (Loadspring). DGS obtained access to 70 licenses of Primavera and is having Loadspring configure the system for the branch's use. At present, PMDB anticipates launching Primavera in January 2017 - six months ahead of schedule. PMDB will utilize the system apart from FI$CAL until an interface is developed, which is anticipated to occur in July 2017.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

RESD plans to implement a new project management system that will allow management and staff to more effectively plan, manage, and control projects. The new system (Primavera) is part of FI$Cal and will include provisions that allow project management to identify and follow-up on pending projects. Currently, FI$Cal has scheduled Primavera's statewide implementation for July 2017.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2015-117

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.