Rail/Transit Experience
At Intergraph Corporation (1992-1993), due my systematic approach to evaluating "new discipline" software and my organized documentation, management had me certify much of the "roadway-adjacent" software: Site (InSite), Drainage (InFlow), Sanitary (InSewer), Bridge (InSpan), and Rail (InRail). My first overseas trip was three weeks in England as sole US representative among a multinational team to certify InRail. The primary InRail/InRoads superset at that time as alternative transitional curves, cant, switches and turnouts, and regression analysis.
During my 10+ years at Bentley, I did not directly support OpenRail, but kept abreast with how the software was progressing with respect to InRail.
I worked on Edmonton's LRT Valley Line West in Subsurface Utility modeling (existing) using OpenRoads and a lot of BIM to tame the chaos (and View Display Rules to streamline the feedback cycle). That work inspires me in promoting the greatest immediate new technology ROI available right now in the OpenRoads/OpenRail ecosystem: Tomorrow's Tech, Today's Profit. I also spent time designing and modeling proposed Electrical Duct Banks for the project.
BIM Experience
Asphalt isn't particularly BIMmy, although DOT-level Digital Deliver efforts are becoming much more so. Drainage and Utilities clearly benefit from BIM. I've been using Item Types (Bentley BIM) and Property Sets (Autodesk BIM) extensions for years to streamline workflows and improve communication (which improves quality).
Leadership and Strategic Vision
My overriding tenets:
- have a growth plan based on best practices and opportunities
- lead centrally as appropriate
- fully-leverage distributed expertise.
- ensure that your platforms work effectively to support your goals.
Infrastructure Industry Growth is in Digital Integration today and Digital Twins tomorrow - particularly for Owner Operators and those serving them.
Have a Growth Plan Ready
Be ready now; execute quickly upon approval
While execution times and levels are highly dependent on business vision, income forecasts, and growth strategy, it is absolutely critical to have a technology and business practice Adoption Plan in place immediately, so that actions when greenlighted are executed quickly, effectively, and consistent with the long-term vision.
Keys in Success Strategic Adoption include:
- Prove the Value: show the specific benefits to what the teams do (general generics do not inspire action).
- Detail the Risk and Cost: Rosy promises of easy adoption are simply not credible. Clearly understanding risk - throughout the entire adoption process (including to ongoing projects and existing clients) - is essentially to ensuring trust in the Innovation and Adoption team and effective project and team advancement.
- Investment Strategies: to distribute the adoption investment costs. Some technology adoption or process change - the learning curve - can significantly impact smaller projects or for pathfinder projects for a particular client. Having the Early Adopters bear the costs of staff uplift actually punishes the early adopters and stifles innovation.
- Lean, Focused Support: Engineers don't fear change, and they certainly don't fear learning; they fear uncertainty and the inefficiency and costs of chasedowns outside of their expertise. Minimize the uncertainty, minimize troubleshooting, minimize filler. Just Enough, Just In Time.
Design for Scalability
Little of what we do is unique. Design for scalability. If you design for scale, then it is easy to scale. It's also easy to "one-off". But if you do not design for scale, then everything is harder, slower, more expensive, less effective.
It is not expensive to design for effective and scalable communications to drive collaboration, synergy and innovation.
Design for Collaboration
One direct immediate benefit of having well-designed, scalable (findable, accessible) communication and documentation in one department, project, or scope is that it greatly facilitates communication to external groups and management.
Coordination and Collaboration with adjacent and extended disciplines (Digital Delivery and other Sector leads) shall be intentional, systematic, and supported to ensure synergy among colleagues - it's too important to leave to chance and "winging it". There is readily available technology built for this; it just takes some leadership and energy.
Adoption Methodology
Adoption, Innovation, and Synergy are products of excellent communication. Dialog, not monolog.
Broad effective continuous two-way communication is the cornerstone of adoption. My three decades of experience in design technology, training design, and communication systems support provide an agility to predict, plan and adapt. While I am energetic (and at times bold), I do possess a wisened (and wizened) humility where my primary goal is to serve and enable. Our greatest expertise and ability to serve clients are distributed across the organization.
My goal is to inspire colleague participation and leadership and to ensure we have a system that fully leverages their talent. I think my greatest leadership is in maximizing theirs.
