Chicago Public Schools Capital Improvement Program

Due to the large volume of projects each year on the CPS Capital Improvement Program, project schedules in the form of milestones are captured in a custom web application developed by Tecnológica, where users can update multiple milestones across numerous projects at the same time when assigned the proper permissions. Capturing baseline, current and actual dates for each milestone enables the application to identify the current milestone and thereby determine the current phase on all capital projects at any given time, a key element essential on all program and project level reports. 

With this information, upcoming milestones are issued to program consultants on a weekly basis enhancing coordination. For instance, the Look Ahead Schedule designed for the Independent Cost Estimator (ICE) on the program allows them to allocate their resources effectively to provide multiple estimates on hundreds of capital projects during the extremely busy and short design seasons. 

More importantly, to keep project schedules up-to-date, weekly automated email notifications are sent to team members when project milestones are overdue or missing.

Tecnológica enhanced program and project level financial reports that pull data from CPS’ financial system of record, Oracle, and deliver an additional level of detail missing from prior reports such as project cost information stored in CPS’ previous and current Project Management Information Systems (PMIS), respectively Primavera Construction Management (Primavera CM or PCM) and Trimble Unity Construct, formerly known as eBuilder.

Project and cost data from these systems are integrated with schedule information captured from the web application to report the financial status of each yearly Capital Plan along with the status of the projects funded under each plan.

The PMO team has learned the importance of preemptively identifying and monitoring risks continuously to reduce the impact on budget and schedule.

One of the primary risks identified on CPS capital projects given the short construction summer seasons are long lead items. Long lead item information, including contingency plans to address and mitigate issues, are entered on the web application by the Design Manager (DM) and Project Manager (PM) assigned to each project.  Project Controls staff then relates each long lead item with submittal item data pulled from eBuilder on the web application.   

Finally, high-level and detailed reports are issued regularly showing the status of open long lead items and automated email notifications are sent to team members requesting updates when needed.

The CPS PMO also practices mitigating project risks through lessons learned by systematically recording past project experiences, identifying the root cause, documenting the actions taken and improvements implemented and storing these in a centralized repository, the web application.  Team members are expected to search, filter, export and share applicable Lessons Learned with project vendors to avoid repeating past mistakes on future projects.

Per the client's request, Tecnológica generates cashflow projections for the program using financial information as pulled from Oracle and Trimble Unity Construct, and project schedule information from the web application.

 Cashflow projections are calculated for each project on all open and future purchase order amounts. Amounts are flowed in accordance to established fee billing percentages for each vendor type and project phase. 

Remaining balances and cashflow projections on capital projects are provided to CPS Budget separating CPS Funds from Outside Funds, to facilitate planning for cash-on-hand on their end.

Tecnológica automated and optimized  the Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and Women Business Enterprise (WBE) Diversity Participation Report for the program. A report that was previously concocted from a Primavera CM export file and manually prepared in spreadsheets on an as-needed-basis is now programmatically issued and reviewed with CPS Office of Business Diversity (OBD) on a monthly basis.

During the report development, Tecnológica identified that lower-tier MWBE participation was not being captured in the PMIS which required improving program processes to enforce lower-tier MWBE subcontractor breakdown by incorporating additional diversity reviews in existing processes.  Prime original proposed participation values also couldn't be tracked in the previous or current PMIS and therefore are now tracked and entered by project controls on the web application. 

While the monthly reports compare the original proposed MWBE participation values against the total scheduled and actuals paid-to-date per contract, the annual reports provide the MWBE actual amounts paid during the previous CPS calendar Fiscal Year.

The  Architect of Record (AOR) and Engineer of Record (EOR) Evaluations were designed to measure consultant compliance against (9) KPIs outlined in their master agreement with CPS including MWBE diversity participation, meeting project design schedules, permit durations, submittal and Requests for Information (RFI) turnaround, Error and Omission (E&O) change orders, bid addenda frequency and final project closeout. 

Tecnológica developed reports to pull numerical data for each KPI from the respective sources on the program to generate an overall weighted score for each consultant.   Subjective feedback is also gathered from team members assigned to each project through surveys posted on the web application. These surveys are compiled as part of the AOR Evaluations issued for CPS internal review only. 

After internal reviews are complete, the evaluation scores and corresponding  backup reports excluding the surveys are then shared with each consultant via automated email notifications for their review and feedback with the goal of continuously improving their performance on the program as well as  identifying areas of improvement for the program and any of its processes.

With the primary objective to track training accountability on the program, 

Tecnológica recently created a Training Platform on the web application.  

Training in the form of videos and documents as well as completion quizzes can be easily added on the platform by project controls staff and assigned to team members as needed.  

The Training Dashboard charts the status of completed and pending training along with quiz percentages by role.  Additionally, automated email notifications are issued to team members  listing outstanding training assigned. 

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) 

issues grants to cover specific scope items on projects.  Grantees are reimbursed for approved expenditures upon submission of state required periodic reporting.  

With an increasing number of grant funded projects on the program, particularly DCEO grants, it was imperative to develop automated reporting on grant funded projects. This resulted in configuring and implementing eBuilder's (now Trimble Unity Construct) Funding Module and adding a new Grants section in the web application.   

Critical changes in existing processes were also implemented to ensure that CPS Finance issues purchase orders and pays invoices in Oracle using the appropriate funds.

While change orders are tracked in CPS' PMIS, a customized Change Order Log was designed and developed by Tecnológica to accurately report the status of construction change order rates against the program's KPI target, which also coincides with the percentage used to determine the contingency allotted on construction contracts.

Another KPI closely tracked on the program is the one established for AOR/EOR Error & Omission Changes.  Automated email notifications for these are issued from the web application to Design Managers and AOR/EOR vendors on a regular basis for their review and action.