Reclamation Coordination and Oversight Group

The Coordination and Oversight Group (COG) is a standing Reclamation workgroup whose mission is to develop and implement Reclamation’s business model for managing technical services.

Introduction

As a part of Reclamation’s Managing for Excellence (M4E) effort, which was completed in the spring of 2008, Team 12 recommended:

(1) adoption of a new business model which will provide agency-wide processes and procedures for obtaining and managing technical services in collaboration with its customers; and

(2) issuance of a new Directive and Standard (D&S) in the Reclamation Manual specifically addressing collaboration processes with customers on the engineering and other technical services required for construction work on existing Reclamation facilities.

In a March, 3, 2008 memorandum, the Commissioner approved these recommendations and assigned responsibility for their implementation to the Deputy Commissioner – Operations (DCO).

Development and Implementation of the Business Model

To address the first Team 12 recommendation, The DCO established the COG and assigned it the task of guiding the implementation of the new business model for technical services. The COG is comprised of representatives from service providers and program offices throughout Reclamation, who are listed below. This diverse representation provides the breadth of perspectives necessary to ensure successful implementation of the business model. A charter has been developed and approved for the COG, setting forth the group’s objectives, roles and responsibilities, and membership.

The actions of the COG are guided by six objectives conveyed to Reclamation by its customers and leadership

Empowerment of the Regions
Cost-effective services
Transparency and accountability
Predictability of workload
Ability to assess core capability
Strategic determination of outsourcing

Through the work of the COG, Reclamation will ensure that it maintains the technical capability to fulfill its responsibilities for delivering water and power, while executing program and project requirements within scope, budget and schedule in a manner which fosters Reclamation-wide collaboration, coordination and sharing of technical services. To meet this objective, the COG will support a business model where program responsibility is retained by regional offices and Reclamation-wide program offices. A monitoring component will be included to ensure that Reclamation maintains appropriate levels of expertise in mission-essential capabilities.

Ensuring appropriate levels of technical staff can be facilitated by having sufficient data on workload distribution. To address this, the COG has developed methods for advance planning of work, a uniform system for administering fee-for-service agreements, and procedures for gathering and analyzing cost and performance data. As a result of these processes, the data necessary to adequately assess workload distribution and organizational staffing levels will be more readily available.

In regards to the second recommendation, the full text of the recommended D&S was drafted by Team 12 and is included in its final report as an attachment. As it was being developed, it was vetted several times both internally and externally.

Current Activities

The Coordination and Oversight Group (COG) recently completed development of several Temporary Reclamation Manual Releases to help define the major elements of the new business model for technical services that will be implemented in FY 2010. A temporary Policy release CMP TRMR-24 outlines Reclamation’s framework and overall philosophy for implementing the new business model. Temporary Directives and Standards (D&S) will further define requirements for implementing major elements of the business model, as described below. The temporary Policy and D&S documents will be revised as appropriate later in FY 2010 to incorporate new understandings gained during the first year of implementation.

D&S for Advance Planning – This D&S describes the requirements for advance planning of technical services work. Advance planning will enable prospective service providers and program offices to better forecast and plan for upcoming work, integrating with the Budget Review Committee process for out-year planning three years in advance of project execution (per data call memo dated February 3, 2009). The advance planning process recognizes that technical services will always be required for unscheduled work as well, allowing for needs to be forecasted as early as possible in such situations. A list of FAQs regarding Advance Planning is available here.

D&S for Fee-for-Service Business Practices for Technical Services Work – This D&S outlines requirements for the use of Statements of Work, Service Agreements, and Completion Reports for certain levels of technical services work. The use of these standardized business instruments will add consistency to business practices and provide data for tracking, monitoring, reporting, and improving such practices. A list of FAQs regarding Fee for Service Business Practices is available here.

D&S for Workload Distribution Practices for Technical Services Work – This D&S describes how decisions will be made about where technical services work is distributed. While authority for these decisions will remain with each program office, an appeal process allows service providers to request a review of workflow management decisions they believe could jeopardize their ability to maintain Reclamation’s core technical resource capabilities. A list of FAQs regarding Workload Distribution is available here.

Electronic Service Agreement Module (ESAM) to be implemented in FY2010

A web-based software called ESAM will soon be available to select Reclamation “service provider” type offices to assist in facilitating new business practices for provision of technical services. The new software will provide the ability to create electronic service agreements and report progress on budget and schedule. ESAM has the look-and-feel of ETAS, the agency’s web-based timekeeping system installed last year. The offices that will receive ESAM this year are select technical service provider offices within each of the 5 regions, the three construction offices, and the Technical Service Center.

The ESAM software interfaces with ETAS and various Reclamation financial systems like FFS, FIRS and Impromptu to give offices the ability to electronically monitor costs as they occur, create progress reports, track schedule and cost changes, and collect completion data. Much like ETAS, ESAM will be accessed through your web browser using your agency user name and password in accordance with access rights determined by the hosting offices. Timekeeping Key Codes or Work Order I.D.s created in ESAM will be automatically activated in ETAS. A typical service agreement is the project plan for accomplishing work between a program office and a service provider office. The service agreement, which includes account number, scope, schedule, budget information and other pertinent information for running the project, will create the uniform electronic data repository for reporting budget, schedule progress and completion data for each job. Various reports will be available for users to gain immediate access to their service agreement data.

The ESAM software will be implemented in accordance with the new Reclamation Manual releases described and linked to above. ESAM was developed on the recommendation of the COG, with the goal of establishing uniform business practices for provision of technical services. Since all service agreement data will be entered in to a uniform system, the data will be available to the COG to assist Reclamation leadership in analyzing workload and utilization trends for Reclamation technical resources.

Training for ESAM will be given as the system is rolled out in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2010. There will be two levels of the training: General User Training and Administrative Control Training. The General User Training will be targeted to team leaders and project managers, while the Administrative Control Training will be targeted to budget managers and supervisors. While the software will run very much like ETAS, the biggest change for users will be the new business practices of the office. The changes to business practices will be addressed in the training.

Directive and Standard on Customer Collaboration Teams

The recommended D&S was drafted by Team 12, and was issued as a Temporary Reclamation Manual Release in January, 2009.

As a temporary release, it will expire one year from the date of issue in accordance with Reclamation Manual procedures. During this year, it will be reviewed concurrently with the development of the new business model. As the business model is finalized and implemented, the D&S will be revised, if and as necessary, and those revisions incorporated into the issuance of a final D&S. The final will be issued not later than January, 2010.

Comments and Feedback

Continued suggestions and advice from Reclamation employees to the COG is important to achieving the objectives outlined above. To provide this feedback, please contact the COG member representing your organization, as listed below:

Deputy Commissioner, Policy, Administration and Budget	Bruce Muller (bmuller@usbr.gov), Karl Stock (kstock@usbr.gov)
Technical Resources	Karen Knight (kknight@usbr.gov), Mark Boyle (mboyle@usbr.gov)
UC Region	Rick Scott (rscott@usbr.gov), Rick Ehat (Chairman)(rehat@usbr.gov)
PN Region	Bryan Horsburgh (bhorsburgh@usbr.gov), Mike Relf (mrelf@usbr.gov)
MP Region	David Gore (dgore@usbr.gov), Richard Welsh (rwelsh@usbr.gov)
LC Region	Ed Virden(evirden@usbr.gov), Rich Dent (rdent@usbr.gov)
GP Region	James Allard (jallard@usbr.gov) Roxanne Peterson (REPeterson@usbr.gov)

Last updated: 11/2/09