Client: City of San Diego

Primary Collaborators: Phyllis Chapin (San Diego); Sophia Bhatia,  (SDDPC)

Work Scope:  Intergraph Software Acceptance, Training Program Development, Software Implementation and Rollout

1995 - 2000

Technical Lead & Project Management for Intergraph Software Acceptance, Training Development and Staff Training

My responsibilities and titles varied over my five years working to support the City of San Diego.  One thing was consistent: my time was spent on the floor amongst the primary production team rather than at the distant SDDPC office.  Better faster service.  

I moved here from Orlando, FL for two projects:  InSewer/GIS Integration and Storm&Sanitary Initial Implementation.

The InSewer/GIS Integration was mandated by the EPA as part of their permission for San Diego to perform Advanced Primary Wastewater Treatment rather than full-scale Secondary Treatment.  Brad Lind was technical lead directly from Intergraph.  I worked with him to intergrate the database-based InSewer design package with the City's GIS systems (where we explored the gap between "in theory" and "in practice").  Brad became my manager at San Diego Data Processing around four years later.

One lesson that I learned about this: government has a reputation for being, um, slow and inefficient, but it does have the capability to do Big Things without an immediate ROI.  

The Storm&Sanitary Initial Implementation is significant enough to me that I wrote a detailed article about it.

The InRoads Storm&Sanitary rollout was exciting because it was a full rewrite for the InSewer and InFlow packages into a "modern" architecture:  no need to run an external runtime database engine to run the CAD. Easier setup, actually achievable troubleshooting, and a whole new interface. 

Because the code was new, I worked closely with my old boss at Intergraph, Steve Stanfill, in certifying the software.  I love it when goodbyes become "it's great working with you again!"

This was the last major project I performed for the City prior to starting my own InRoads and Storm&Sanitary consulting business.  I committed to developing the training and "training the trainers" prior to departure (giving several months "notice" to my management at SDDPC as well as City Management).