How to Streamline water main failure and condition assessment using Geospatial Technology
The following information is redundant between the WSI and the WMFR:
- Throttle date and time
- Date water off
- Work Order number
- Number of services affected
- Number of hydrants out of service
- Hydrant number (Out of Service)
- Location of water wagon(s)
In addition, the following information is redundant between the IWMC and the WMFR:
- Type of soil
- Pipe condition
- Groundwater encountered
HBWS initiated a project with EMA, Inc., a specialized utility consultant, to improve the
processes for collecting and documenting information regarding a main break and pipe
condition, through the use of software technology. This paper describes a businessdriven
methodology used by HBWS and EMA to define a geospatial application
solution.
Application vision and goals
The vision for the Main Failure and Condition Assessment Application is to provide an
efficient method for capturing, storing, retrieving, and analyzing data and information
about a water main break incident and pipe condition. The goal for the implementation
of this application is to improve the processes for collecting and documenting
information regarding a main break incident and pipe condition. HBWS envisions that
these processes can be automated using laptop and/or handheld devices with
electronic forms to replace the paper based reports. The electronic forms will provide
ways of collecting this critical information using pick lists and standard input reducing
data entry errors, minimizing data redundancy, and preserving data integrity. In addition,
Global Positing System (GPS) technology can be introduced to capture the location
coordinate of the main break or pipe to be included in the database. Collecting the
location of the incident using GPS will offer easy integration with the HBWS’s
Geographic Information System (GIS).
Methodology
A business-driven approach was used to identify the drivers and validate the needs to
automate the processes relating to water main failure and pipe-condition assessment.
The following are the high-level steps of the methodology.
- Identify stakeholders and core user group
- Define the problems and vision for a successful solution
- Business-process modeling
- Develop functional requirements
- Develop conceptual solution
1. Identify Stakeholders and Core User Group
The project sponsors include the managers of the maintenance, engineering, and field
operations units. Together, the managers selected the group of people from the affected
business units to participate in the project. This group became the “core team,” or core
user group.
The following table shows the roles and responsibilities that these people have within
their respective business units:
2. Define Problems and Vision for a Successful Solution
Workshops were conducted with the project sponsors to identify the problems and
vision for a potential solution. The following were determined to be main problems with
the current processes:
- The current data collection process is manual and cumbersome.
- The WSI and WMFR data collection and review process takes too long to
complete.
- Redundant and inaccurate data being collected.
- Not taking the opportunity to collect information regarding a main’s condition
during exposure.
- Inaccurate information regarding the location of a main break or pipe.
- Analyzing and retrieving data regarding main breaks and condition is difficult.
The problems were further discussed and analyzed to identify who are affected by the
problems and the impacts. From this, characteristics for a successful solution were
identified. These characteristics include the following:
- Automate the data-entry process by providing electronic data-entry forms
within an easy-to-use environment.
- Streamline the review process, standardize the data collection and entry
methods, and maintain the data in a centralized database.
- Standardize data input through electronic forms, trap errors, incorporate pull
down menus and pick lists, automate data input, and establish data stewards.
- Provide processes and technology for inspectors to collect data and
information about the condition of water mains.
- Acquire the GPS coordinate location for main breaks, and provide a standard
for describing the location of facilities.
- Provide customized reports and map creation capabilities.
3. Business Process Modeling
Before any new system or technology can be designed and developed, an
understanding of current business processes must exist. Therefore, it is essential to
make a model of the business.
A model is a means of creating an abstraction that eliminates irrelevant details and
allows all stakeholders to focus on one or more important aspects of the business at a
time. Both an “as-is” business-process model, representing the current situation, and a
“to-be” model were developed.
We used a process-focused, workflow-driven approach to understand the business and
define the requirements for the technology solution.
The business modeling activity began by facilitating a series of work sessions with the
application stakeholders and core user groups to document their current business
process and work activities relating to the water main failure and water main condition
reports. This information was documented as business use cases and activity diagrams
using Rational Rose, a business-modeling software tool from Rational Software
Corporation. The business use cases will represent the “as-is” situation.
