 This program provides guidance on starting up and operating a PMS. It is based on experiences of other agencies as well as good management practice. A PMS must satisfy expectations of both management and technical people. It must serve as a strategic planning and management tool for upper management. And as an engineering tool for technical decision makers. Before spending agency money, managers should address four issues. Agency objectives, management attitudes, funding, and skills. What are the agency's objectives for a PMS? What problems can it help reduce? Do top managers really support the idea? It will take management time for planning, programming, design, traffic, materials, and maintenance. Are they prepared to commit sufficient resources in the form of people, equipment, and funds? And will they use PMS recommendations when programming road improvement projects? Are funds committed or available to support a major multi-year systems development project, including planning, design, development, installation of computer hardware and software and field equipment, training, and day-to-day operations? Does the agency have in-house expertise in functional areas like pavement evaluation and technical areas like computer systems development? Has the agency ever undertaken and successfully completed a major systems development effort with in-house staff? Is the agency prepared to hire consultants if necessary? If the answer to many of these questions is no, then the agency should resolve them before proceeding. PMS development is more than simply installing an off-the-shelf software package. This program will address these questions and point out some of the pitfalls common to PMS development projects. There are four phases to development and implementation of a PMS. Project initiation, requirements analysis, development, and implementation. Let's look at each. Project initiation starts with a project plan. The plan should include a statement of objectives and benefits. It should cover all phases and tasks. And it should have timelines for accomplishing tasks as well as an estimate of resources and costs. Managers will use the plan to sell the idea to top management. Before writing the plan, managers must do some background research. They should visit peer agencies, find out what they did right and wrong. They should learn all about a PMS, including types available, how they are used, and with what results. Next, planners should review the plan with key managers likely to be involved in development and then revise the plan. Now they can present it to top management and request approval. They may still have to follow up answering questions or providing additional information. It may be best to request approval for only the analysis phase. That's because there is no way to know the full scope and cost of a PMS until after the analysis. The next task is assembling a project team. The project team should have a PMS executive steering committee, a technical steering committee, a project manager, and team members. An executive steering committee meets about once a month. It is composed of the managers representing primary users of the PMS. The technical committee is a working group with subject matter experts from each functional area. They provide technical input for system design and development. Their involvement will result in a better system and help achieve better acceptance of the finished product. The project manager and team members should also be future users. The project manager position is full-time. The team members should be full-time if no outside assistance is available. If some or all development work will be contracted out, their effort can be part-time. The team size will vary depending on staff availability and amount of outside assistance. Each team member should have a clear assignment. As the last step in initiating a project, most agencies engage a consultant. Usually, agencies cannot spare several experienced full-time personnel for 18 to 24 months. A consultant can handle the extra workload and provide experience needed to develop an effective system and avoid common pitfalls. The process involves drafting a request for proposals, assigning a selection committee, probably the same as the steering committee, evaluating proposals, making a selection, and negotiating a contract. The next phase is analyzing requirements. The analysis consists of assessing user requirements, reviewing available systems, developing a conceptual design, and refining the project work plan and schedule. Let's look at each. The team first identifies and interviews potential PMS users, including unit leaders responsible for various PMS functions. The team should consider users' needs, their expectations, and find out how they can benefit from a PMS. The result of the interviews will be a list of user requirements and expected uses. Next, the team should review commercial PMS hardware and software. There are many systems available, and most continue to be updated. Demonstrations and visits to other agencies are the best ways to gain familiarity. The team will not find the perfect solution. However, systems, comprehensive and modular in design, with enough flexibility to accommodate additional user needs, such as additional data elements and management reports, will be good candidates. Now, team members are ready to describe a conceptual design. Starting with a minimal configuration. They should add functions and features based on added value and cost. This may mean modifications to commercial systems. After weighing various approaches, they must settle on their final design and submit it as a report. The report goes to the Staring Committee for review and approval. Now it's time for team members to look back at what they have done, review and refine the original work plan. They may need to adjust task schedules and the cost estimate. The Staring Committee should approve revisions before going further. The third phase is development. For this phase, there are five steps. Developing a detailed design. Acquiring or developing software. Acquiring hardware. Installing and testing the system. And developing the documentation. The detailed design is really based on the conceptual design report. The team must add specific types of information the PMS will provide. Data requirements. And processing functions. The result might be hardware and software specifications for development of a completely customized system. More likely, the result will be specifications for enhancements to commercially available systems. The next task is acquiring or developing software. There are several options. Develop customized software. Acquire software and customize it at the agency. Or acquire software which the vendor modifies. The third option is preferred. It produces a fully integrated vendor supported package. The team should acquire hardware at the same time. Computer hardware and PMS data collection equipment can affect software acquisition and customization. Which brings us to acquiring hardware. The team should make sure a vendor's price includes installation, testing, maintenance service agreements and critical spare parts. Workers subject field equipment to rough roads, dust, extreme temperatures, precipitation and more. A maintenance service agreement will help ensure the equipment is kept in good working order. The installation step is critical. A system not properly installed may cause problems later. The vendor should provide assistance with installation and testing. Plus initial training to the project team. Later the team will train users. Some agencies may first install and test the PMS as a demonstration project. Limiting it to one district or one road class. The project team then checks out the system and fine tunes it. Naturally this delays full implementation from several months to one year. All aspects of the PMS including any custom additions should have complete documentation. Vendors usually provide user manuals, system reference manuals and maintenance and service manuals. They should be in plain English with good cross indexing and glossaries. The last phase is implementation. It includes training users, collecting and loading data, providing operational assistance and evaluating system performance. User training is essential. The team should time training so users can apply instruction immediately. A long delay between training and system availability means training benefits are lost. Without data the PMS is unusable. Some data may already exist in other agency databases. And the team may have designed the PMS to access that data directly. Or it could arrange for an electronic transfer. Some road inventory data will come from maps or data sheets. Then workers will have to input it to the database. Other workers will collect data like pavement condition in the field. It will take time, perhaps many months, for a large road network. Data collection should begin as soon as the project team and steering committee feel comfortable with system design and no data requirements. The team should organize data collection so workers collect all data for a particular area like a road district before moving to another area. That way the agency can use the PMS sooner for at least part of the network. The PMS project manager should spot check the collection process very frequently at first. This prevents data collectors from developing bad habits. At first the project team and consultant should work closely with users. They'll have to help with various PMS functions for a few months. They'll answer questions, solve problems. They must act quickly and knowledgeably to maintain user confidence. As the users become familiar with the PMS and settle into routine operations, the team can eliminate operational support. The team should review and evaluate the PMS annually. They should correct any problems immediately. After several years managers will be able to compare actual pavement conditions to PMS predictions. Then they'll adjust PMS models to produce more accurate results. They should not make changes too frequently. Accuracy depends on consistency over a period of several years. In this program we have seen how to develop and implement a pavement management system. There are four phases to development and implementation of a PMS. Project initiation, requirements analysis, development and implementation. Project initiation starts with a project plan. The next phase is analyzing requirements. The analysis consists of assessing user requirements, reviewing available systems, developing a conceptual design and refining the project work plan and schedule. The third phase is development. For this phase there are five steps. Developing a detailed design, acquiring or developing software, acquiring hardware, installing and testing the system and developing the documentation. The last phase is implementation. It includes training users, collecting and loading data, providing operational assistance and evaluating system performance. User training is essential. The team should time training so users can apply instruction immediately. Without data the PMS is unusable. Some data may already exist in other agency databases. At first the project team and consultant should work closely with users. They'll have to help with various PMS functions for a few months. Finally the team should review and evaluate the PMS annually. They should correct any problems immediately. For more information on this or other IRF videotapes contact the International Road Federation or call the numbers on your screen.