Allegheny power's AM/FM upgrade: Exceeding user expectations
Allegheny Power;s First AM/FM System
In June of 1996, a team of eight – five engineers and three technicians – was formed to
implement the new AM/FM system. The platform had been chosen and a contract had been
negotiated with an applications vendor to provide a user-friendly Designer tool to be used by the
Lines Engineering Designer (LED). The new AM/FM system would have an interface with the
Work Management and Outage Management Systems and would automatically update the maps
with as-built information upon completion of the work.
The team had an incredible task before them to implement the system in 18 months. In June of
1996, the West Penn Power and Monongahela Power maps were still on paper. The Potomac
Edison maps were still in AutoCAD. All of the maps were out-of-date and stacks of backlog job
prints needed mapped. It was determined that the Monongahela Power maps were so far out-of-date
that they were deemed unusable and a field inventory was the only option. A data collection
vendor was hired and work began to inventory the 500,000+ locations in the mountainous -
terrain that made up Monongahela Power. This field inventory was completed by the end of
December 1997. Local mapping contractors were hired to enter backlog onto the paper maps in
preparation for data conversion. Data conversion vendors were hired to scan the paper maps into
digital format and to write data translators.
Allegheny Power completed the data conversion of the Monongahela Power and West Penn
Power maps in 1997 and the Potomac Edison maps in 1998. By December of 1998, all of
Allegheny Power’s 35+ Service Centers were using the new AM/FM system to enter jobs.
The interfaces with Work Management and Outage Management were in place and Allegheny
began reaping the benefits of its integrated technology solution.
Lessons Learned – Contract Negotiations
Allegheny Power learned the hard way that time and material contracts are not the way to go. In
working with the software applications vendor, it was difficult to get a useable product without
spending additional money for “enhancements” that should have been part of the core product.
Software contracts should be written so that the client pays for the software upon acceptance of
the tool. This ensures that the vendor adheres to their end of the agreement.
Lessons Learned – Field Data Collection
It is a good idea to notify the community that a field inventory is taking place – perhaps through
a bill insert. Customers became concerned when the field collectors were seen along their
property lines. The field collectors should carry proper ID and an informational flyer describing
the work that they are doing.
Since Allegheny was working within such a strict time frame, a penalty clause was applied to the
contract. This ensured that the field collection would be completed on time. However, since not
enough Allegheny Power resources were allocated to perform spot checks, this resulted in
missing data that was not found until years later. It is important to perform spot-checks and
apply quality assurance/quality control methods.
Lessons Learned – Data Conversion
Never underestimate the manpower needed for data conversion efforts. Make sure that your
source data is as clean and as up-to-date as possible before you begin. Make sure the maps show
the correct circuit and substation names and make sure that circuit phasing is complete. It is a
good idea to hire retired employees as contractors to do field checks – they know the area and
they know the business. College students can be trained to enter backlog and field check
information onto the paper maps.
Lessons Learned – Data Cleanup
Again – never underestimate the manpower needed. Once the data is converted, it is a good idea
to use field engineers to help you validate the connectivity of the circuits. This gives them a
chance to learn to use the new AM/FM system – and they have contacts at their local offices to
perform additional field checks if necessary. Make sure you have a Quality Assurance/Quality
Control (QA/QC) application to verify the connectivity of the circuits. This tool should check
for disparities such as loop conditions, phase mismatches, “islands” of data and duplicate
facilities at a single location. If you have an interface to an Outage Management System, this
can be used as an additional data quality check.
Outline your rollout schedule in advance and clean the data one Service Center at a time – by
circuit.
Lessons Learned – User Training
Know your audience. In 1996, Allegheny Power was just starting to put a computer on every
employee’s desk. By the time AM/FM rollout began, many users were still uncomfortable with
using a PC. It is recommended that before you begin AM/FM training, see that all users have
basic knowledge of using a computer.
Communicate your training schedule – but not too far in advance. Allegheny made the mistake
of communicating the training schedule for its 150 Lines Engineering Designers too far in
advance. When software bugs forced a delay in rollout – the training had to be rescheduled.
Changing the training schedule multiple times gave the users a bad impression of the system.
It is a good idea to wait until the data for a particular area is cleaned and ready to go before
scheduling the training. Also make sure that the software is ready to go. Ideally, you will want
your users to leave the training class and begin using the software immediately.
Have the training away from the user’s normal work location. There are too many distractions
with on-site training. Get them away from their normal work environment.
Never underestimate the number of days needed for training. Yes – four days is a long time for
an employee to be away from the office – but if four days are necessary to complete a thorough
training class, then this is what should be done. Shortening the class to one or two days will only
force you to schedule refresher-training classes and spend more time at the Service Centers
during rollout.
Lessons Learned – Service Center Rollout
If at all possible, roll out your Work Management System and your AM/FM System as close
together as possible. If this is not an option, then it is best to rollout AM/FM first.
At Allegheny Power, the Work Management System was implemented one year prior to the
AM/FM system. Users got very comfortable with completing a hand-drawn sketch and
designing all of their jobs in Work Management. Once AM/FM was rolled out, specific rules
were outlined that specified which jobs should be done in AM/FM and which could still be done
in the WMS. For example, any job requiring a new pole location would need to be designed in
AM/FM and passed to the WMS for estimating. If not, then the automated As-Built completions
process would fail because the new location designed in the WMS would not be found in
AM/FM. The rules were changed just when the user began to get comfortable with the Work
Management System. These rule changes reflected badly on the AM/FM system – it was
causing the user “more work”.
Rollout of the AM/FM system should immediately follow training. Ideally, the user would leave
the training class and begin using it the next day. If there is too much of a time delay, the user
will forget the basic functions learned in training.
Provide on-site support during rollout. Have members of the AM/FM team be on location during
the first week of rollout. Communicate to the users the days that you are planning to attend and
make sure they have some work to be entered into the system.
If possible, resolve any network issues before rollout. Work with the network group at your
company and arrange for them to test the network as far in advance as possible.
The AM/FM Upgrade - Exceeding User Expectations
In 1999, Allegheny had been using their new AM/FM system for more than one year. The team
had met the goal that was established after the reengineering to implement an AM/FM system.
Users were beginning to get familiar with the Design Tools and requests for enhancements were
rolling in. The AM/FM platform software was in need of upgrading, but custom data model
changes in Allegheny’s model made it a risk to attempt an upgrade. Software support issues
from the applications vendor made this risk even more severe. Upgrading the platform software
would require additional work from the vendor to ensure the stability of the Design Tool. The
existing time and material contract that was in place would make this task very costly and time
consuming. This forced Allegheny to consider a Design Tool and Data Model upgrade with a
different vendor.
User attitudes toward the AM/FM system were negative due to the time delay in implementing
bug fixes and enhancements. Users also felt that their ideas and opinions were not considered
during the planning phase of the original project. These issues led to client dissatisfaction with
an already difficult technology implementation.
System upgrades to the Work Management System would break the interface applications and
users would see the errors when using the AM/FM system. In order to move Allegheny Power
forward, Allegheny Power needed to take a step back and reevaluate the direction in which they
were heading.
A vendor was chosen to evaluate Allegheny Power’s AM/FM System and make
recommendations on what step to take next. Is it best to pay the existing vendor to upgrade the
software and take the risk of future software support issues? Should Allegheny Power write their
own software in house? Or contract with another applications vendor to perform the work?
Allegheny Power began working with their new applications vendor in late 1999. In this project,
the contract was written so that Allegheny Power paid for the applications upon acceptance. The
user community was involved in the project from the start in hopes of achieving user
commitment. Detailed specifications of the applications were outlined and agreed upon before
development began. Payment was made after Allegheny accepted the delivered software.
This is how Allegheny Power exceeded user expectations. The new software rollout will be
completed in December of 2001. So far, the users are accepting the software with more faith
than before. Additional lessons were learned with this most recent rollout.
Lessons Learned – User Commitment
This time, an AM/FM Upgrade team was created. It was made up of the AM/FM team,
representatives from WMS and OMS and members of the user community. Two team leaders
were named – a technical lead who had AM/FM knowledge and a business lead who had field
knowledge. Lines Engineering Designers and Planning Engineers were also involved in the
team.
The team was involved with the project from start to finish. The vendor held “Gap Workshops”
at Allegheny Power to discuss the differences between the “off-the-shelf” software and
Allegheny’s needs. All team members participated in these discussions.
Software testing took place at the software vendor’s site and at Allegheny. A Lines Engineering
Designer was utilized to assist with the testing.
This accomplished the main item that was lacking with the initial rollout – User Commitment.
More Lessons Learned – Data Model Development
It is crucial that the data model is finalized before data conversion begins. Allegheny Power and
the software vendor did a good job of ensuring this. Also, Allegheny Power contracted the
writing of the data translator to the vendor and completed the migration on their own with
assistance from the vendor.
Detailed specifications are very important. Even though more attention was given to
specifications this time, some things were still missed. It is crucial that you outline in great
detail exactly what you are expecting in the specs. Do not assume anything.
