5. Lessons Learned

This section describes lessons that were developed from the GLITS project management experiences from 2002 through early 2007. The lessons are written in a format based on the guidelines residing on the ITS Lessons Learned Knowledge Resource Website.

5.1 Develop a Project Champion Succession Plan

Lesson 1: Develop a project champion succession plan within participating organizations to avoid orphaning a project.²⁷

Lesson 1 is based on the Great Lakes ITS project management experience related to a change in political leadership. The lessons and suggestions touch upon issues such as leadership, project champions, and personnel management.

ITS champions are essential for providing the vision and leadership necessary for advancing ITS concepts to fruition. However, if a project loses its champion, progress may be hampered or the project may flounder due to lack of leadership. In the worst case, the project may become an "orphan" waiting to be recognized and adopted by the new leadership. Unlike projects funded through State and local budgets where funds may be reallocated to other projects, ITS Earmark projects can remain orphaned for a number of years because the projects are partially funded and required by Congressional action. Consequently, to safeguard against orphaning a project and losing implementation momentum, the lead agency should develop a project champion succession plan and work with other project stakeholders to protect projects.

The GLITS Airport ITS Integration and RIMS projects have experienced a number of challenges that have delayed the projects. One of these challenges was a change in the political leadership, which affected the leadership within the Wayne County agencies responsible for portions of the Airport and RIMS projects. In 2003, a new Wayne County Executive was elected and project leadership positions at Wayne County Roads Division and the Department of Technology changed. For the Airport project, the leadership change (in conjunction with other factors such as organizational changes) contributed to the project falling behind the original schedule and having little progress for several years. For the RIMS project, the loss of the Project Manager was less disruptive as the Assistant Project Manager moved into the leadership position.

The following are a few related leadership and staffing insights based on the discussions with the GLITS Management team.

Develop a succession plan that anticipates changes in the political environment if changes may adversely affect the project. The election of a new Wayne County Executive in 2003 resulted in a change of project management at the Wayne County Roads Division. The new management had new priorities, like managing a budget deficit. As a result, the GLITS Airport ITS project lost much of the early deployment momentum and priority. Given that changes in the political environment are likely to occur during election years, projects benefiting from politically appointed champions should consider building public support and organizational structures that will foster continued support for the project.
Build relationships with organizations that can help identify candidates to fill personnel vacancies before the project is adversely affected. The contributions of key personnel are as important to a successful project as project champions and senior management. Similarly, the loss of key personnel can be just as detrimental to a project as the loss of a project champion or senior manager. Consequently, project managers should identify and cultivate relationships with other organizations, which may be helpful in identifying qualified candidates to fill personnel vacancies.
Prepare for staffing changes and reorganizations that can disrupt project progress. Whereas changes in the political leadership likely to occur during election years, staffing changes and organizational changes may occur with little notice and can disrupt project progress. For example, prior to the spring of 2002 the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport was managed by Wayne County. However, in April 2002, the Wayne County Airport Authority became a separate agency responsible for the management and operation of DTW. The Wayne County Airport Authority also had the power to plan, promote, extend, maintain, acquire, purchase, construct, improve, repair, enlarge, and operate the airport. As a result, the Wayne County Airport Authority wanted to control the funding for the GLITS Airport ITS Integration project. However, the creation of the Wayne County Airport Authority was not foreseen at the time the 2001 Earmark funding was granted. Consequently, the formation of WCAA resulted in funding issues because WCAA was not allowed under Federal regulations to control and distribute the highway funds.

Since its inception in 2001, the GLITS project management team for the RIMS and Airport ITS Integration projects have encountered a variety of situations that have challenged the development of the projects. The loss of a project champion due to changes in the political leadership resulted in changes in project management and personnel changes. These changes contributed to delays in the deployment schedule.

This lesson suggests that the project progress can be adversely affected by the loss of key personnel at all levels. Losing a project champion, who is a political appointee, can result in a project which flounders due to a lack of leadership. The loss of key project management or personnel is also likely to slow the work necessary to complete the project. Given the importance of these individuals to the success of the project, the lead agency and other project stakeholders need to consider developing a succession plan which will minimize the effects of losing key champions, management, and personnel.

5.2 Funding Arrangement Delays Can Result in Contract Execution Delays

Lesson 2: Delays in finalizing funding arrangements can lead to delays in executing contracts.²⁸

Lesson 2 is derived from the Wayne County and the Authority's experience in securing earmarked funds and executing contracts. The subsequent lessons and suggestions apply to issues such as funding, partnership and agreements, and procurement.

The funding mechanism and its execution have enormous influence on the success of ITS projects. In the case of ITS Earmark projects, since the a portion of the funding is designated by Congressional action, State and local agencies are required to contribute matching funds or the Earmark funding will remain unspent until Congressional action rescinds the funds. Since rescinding funds is difficult and undesirable it is more likely that the project may be delayed until matching funds become available.

Wayne County and the Wayne County Airport Authority have experienced project delays to the RIMS and Airport projects due to various funding related issues. In one case the formation of the Wayne County Airport Authority into an agency separate from Wayne County resulted in funding complications.

In another case, procurement issues delayed the awarding of contracts to procure information technology services to assist in the development of the RIMS software application. The following are a few funding related suggestions based on the GLITS project management team experiences.

Explore alternative funding arrangements when changes within stakeholder organizations complicate funding arrangements. Inter-agency funding arrangements can lead to delays in awarding/executing project contracts. When the Wayne County Airport Authority became an independent entity and was no longer part of Wayne County, the County had no legal rights or authority at DTW. Since GLITS and CMAQ funds, which were programmed with the understanding that they would be used for ITS at DTW, are actually highway funds, under Michigan State law, the agency receiving the funds needed to be an eligible Government county, city, or village agency (per the requirements of Act 51 of Public Acts of 1951) to administer the highway funds. Consequently, the Wayne County Airport Authority and Wayne County experienced a funding dilemma which resulted in the deployment languishing until both agencies came to an agreement on two elements that:
- Wayne County will administer the project.
- Wayne County will release the CMAQ funds for the Airport ITS Project.
Utilize clearly defined proposal evaluation criteria to determine procurement awards and reduce the likelihood of contractor protests. The WCDT intended to award two contracts for RIMS hardware. After soliciting for bids and reviewing the proposals, the agency decided on two vendors. However, a non-selected bidder contested the decision and WCDT was forced to delay the procurement while the Wayne County Purchasing Department, Human Relations Division, and Corporation Counsel Department reviewed the evaluation and selection process. The protest review took about 1 year to resolve. In addition to having a clearly defined set of proposal evaluation criteria, agencies should strive to ensure bidders understand the procurement process, especially the evaluation factors, their relative importance, and the scoring and selection process.
Funding requirements from ITS Earmarks can place unexpected burdens on the recipient agencies. The requirement to provide matching funds to receive the Earmark funding can sometimes cause funds to be diverted from other planned projects. Further, ITS Earmarks can be directed toward County or local agencies that have little or no expertise in building ITS projects or managing unanticipated ITS funds. Finally, Earmark funds for ITS projects may not be as high a priority for County or local agencies which are struggling to fund much needed other improvements (e.g., maintenance and repairs).

Since its inception in 2001, the GLITS project management team for the RIMS and Airport ITS Integration projects have encountered a variety of situations that have challenged the projects' development. Delays in finalizing funding arrangements due to agency reorganizations and procurement issues have resulted in project implementation delays.

This lesson showed how project progress was hampered by issues that affected project funding. Inter-agency transfers of funding incompliance with Michigan State law required Wayne County and the Wayne County Airport Authority to establish an agreement on which agency would administer the funds. Also, this lesson described some of the burdens and responsibilities in receiving ITS Earmark funds and administering funds for procurements.

5.3 Deployment Delays Can Affect Project Deployment Progress

Lesson 3: Recognize that deployment delays can lead to a ripple effect of challenges that affect project deployment progress.²⁹

Based on the Great Lakes ITS project management experience with deployment delays associated with the Airport ITS Integration project, the subsequent lesson and suggestions relate to project management and personnel management.

Although the Federal portion of the ITS Earmark funding is nearly free from time constraints, time can be an unexpected adversary to the deployment of an ITS project. The Earmark funding is designated by Congressional action, and as such, the funds can remain unspent for many years until the funds are either expended or Congressional action rescinds the funds. While in some situations this may be beneficial, allowing State and local agencies time to make funding arrangements, procure hardware, and so forth, the passage of time can also lead to a ripple effect of challenges which can slow deployment progress.

Some of the deployment challenges experienced by those involved in the Airport ITS Integration project reveal the consequences of time passage. In FY 2001, Southeast Michigan received the ITS Earmark in the USDOT Appropriations Bill. In April 2002, the Wayne County Airport Authority became a separate agency managed by an independent, seven-member Board of Directors. The creation of a separate independent agency complicated the allocation of funding for the Airport ITS project (under Michigan State law the agency receiving the funds needed to be an eligible government county, city, or village agency to administer the highway funds). Consequently, alternative funding arrangements had to be investigated to identify a method to allow Wayne County to move funding to the Wayne County Airport Authority so that it could complete their portion of the project.

In January 2003, a new Wayne County Executive was elected, and as a result of a change in the political leadership, the Airport ITS project lost a key project leader at Wayne County. For several years, little progress was made as the project had no champion to provide leadership to overcome the funding issue. While these changes were occurring, new priorities at the Wayne County Airport Authority resulted in new projects emerging, one of the largest of which was the $418 million North Terminal Redevelopment project announced in May 2006.

The following time-related suggestions are based on the GLITS Airport ITS Integration project experience.

Keep in mind that the longer a project takes to be deployed the greater the likelihood the project will lose key personnel. In addition to leadership changes due to changes in the political environment, long delays can result in the loss of key personnel due to numerous other factors such as desire to change jobs, retirements, promotions, health considerations, etc.
Be cognizant that the longer a project takes to be deployed the more likely stakeholder agencies could reorganize. Although probably less likely to occur than the loss of key personnel, the GLITS experience has shown that the reorganization of agencies can have a detrimental effect on the project deployment.
Realize that stumbling blocks that produce long delays can put a project in competition with other high priority emerging projects. The long delay for the Airport ITS Integration project pushed the ITS-related deployment activities into the civil construction activities scheduled for building the new $418 million North Terminal. As a result, the Airport ITS Integration project will be required to share the Wayne County Airport Authority staff and coordinate time resources to avoid conflicts with the construction activities — a responsibility that was not foreseen several years ago.

This lesson suggests that deployment delays and the associated passage of time can allow the introduction of new challenges to the ITS project. In essence, the passage of time can affect more than just the deployment schedule; agencies can reorganize, people can change jobs, project priorities change, and important new projects can also compound staff and time burdens on existing agency resources.

²⁷ Lesson ID: 2006-00313 on USDOT ITS Lessons Learned Website, last accessed on January 19, 2007 at: <http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/>.

²⁸ Lesson ID: 2006-00314 on USDOT ITS Lessons Learned Website, last accessed on January 19, 2007 at <http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/>.

²⁹ Lesson ID: 2006-00315 on USDOT ITS Lessons Learned Website, last accessed on January 19, 2007 at: <http://www.itslessons.its.dot.gov/>.

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