Custom «CTEP SOP Manual» Essay Paper

The Kessler Company (Company) will provide services to the Department to develop the Community Transportation Enhancement Projects Standard Operating Procedures Manual (CTEP SOP Manual) pursuant to the Project Scope of Work in Section Three. The National Federal Highway Administration National (FHWA) Office reviewed the CTEP guidelines and made recommendations for state agency's to develop or enhance their CTEP procedures.

The Company will fulfill the responsibilities of the Project Scope of Work. The CTEP SOP Manual will be developed according to the objectives stated in Section Three. FHWA performed several reviews of the CTEP program and operations. Based on the review of the FHWA Report, the Company will develop the CTEP SOP Manual to assist the CTEP Section staff in the administration, quality control and communication in the performance of their day-to-day duties. Tentatively, the CTEP SOP Manual will include four chapters. The final number of chapters and their content will be determined during the review of the Project Implementation Report PIR) with the Department.

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The Department will fulfill its responsibilities as defined in the Project Work Plan (Section Three) and based on all information received to the Company for FHWA comments and recommendations, including any electronic files the Department may have with respect to the update and development the CTEP SOP Manual.

The Company's Project Manager will provide the necessary project administration from the Company's main office. This includes preparing monthly invoices, coordinating activities (e.g., meetings with the Department), preparing monthly progress reports, monitoring project progress, directing the project staff, and responding to other administrative needs of the project.

The Company must identify a realistic, step-by-step process to advance the project from the initial Department goals and objectives to a finished, professional product. One overriding objective of the Work Plan controls the project - ensuring that the Company performs the work but that the Department has full control over the CTEP SOP Manual contents. Other key elements of a successful Work Plan include a strategy to gather information from the Department, to evaluate the information, to provide technical input, and to ultimately document the information in a user-oriented, practical Manual. If the Work Plan does not reflect these elements, project implementation will inevitably waste project resources and detract from the quality of the final product.

The Company will conduct the necessary research to gather the needed information and conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the FHWA review. This will include:

• reviewing recent national publications to identify the needed revisions for the CTEP SOP Manual to be consistent with these publications;
• evaluating any existing CTEP Application Forms for possible changes.

Based on these evaluations, the Company will prepare a Project Implementation Report (PIR). This report will:

• document the Company's understanding of the content to the CTEP SOP Manual as generated by the Department and discuss a strategy for communicating these changes;
• document who will be responsible for determining the content to each chapter; and
• document the potential revisions to the Manual's content based on the Company's review of the current national literature (e.g., 2010 FHWA Review).

A portion of the PIR will likely be in Questionnaire format to elicit responses from the Department.

The Company will develop a detailed outline for each chapter in the CTEP SOP Manual, which will be included as part of the PIR. These outlines will address the following:

• list of topics that will be addressed in each chapter,
• the issues that will be addressed by the topic,
• the level detailed on the topic desired by the Department; and/or
• the source for the new material.

The Company recommends the Department use sequence for the review of the PIR and each draft chapter (Task 5):

• At the time of distribution to the Department CTEP Review Committee and/or Specialists, the Project Coordinator will set a response due date for comments on the PIR/draft chapter.
• The Project Coordinator will set a date to meet to discuss the PIR/draft chapters. In advance of the review meeting, the Project Coordinator will compile the data and comments from the Department responses.
• The Department will develop a consensus view on any changes needed in the chapter.
• The Project Coordinator will document the changes in the Word file for the PIR/draft chapters and note where revisions are needed and where the Department has questions on the material. The electronic file of the "record" copy will be sent to the Company and all applicable Department personnel.

Once the Company has received the record copy, the Company must prepare for the upcoming meeting. This will include:

• reviewing and evaluating all comments in the record copy;
• preparing, where needed, special discussions for the meeting with the Department; and
• gathering all needed information to properly discuss the issues in the preliminary draft section.

After evaluating the consensus PIR response, the Company will meet with the Department to discuss the Department's comments to the PIR. The overall objective of the meeting will be to agree on enough specifics to allow the Company to initiate the process to prepare the CTEP SOP Manual.

After the meeting to review the PIR, the Company will prepare the drafts for each chapter. This may include some or all of the following tasks:

• preparing and writing sections for which the Company is responsible;
• writing and incorporating the FHWA comments and other material provided by the Department to match the writing style of the Manual;
• incorporating other content changes as suggested by the Company in the PIR and agreed to during the review of the PIR with the Department;
• ensuring the text is formatted using Word's template and styles;
• ensuring all new content changes in the CTEP SOP Manual are noted in the margins with change lines;
• proofing and ensuring all changes are correct.

The Department will review the drafts and develop a consensus response on any changes needed in the submission; see Task 2 for the recommended internal Department procedures. The Department's Project Coordinator will provide an electronic marked-up copy or a hand marked-up copy of the draft chapters to the Company. It is recommended that the Department retain a copy of the consensus draft.

The Company anticipates that the scope of the needed revisions in the Draft versions will necessitate an on-site meeting with the Department to discuss the Department's comments. The Company estimates that the following will be necessary for this Task:

• one on-site visit by the Company to review the Department's comments to the draft chapters; and
• one day for travel and preparation plus two days for the meeting.

Prior to each meeting, the Company will need to:

• review and evaluate all comments in the record copy;
• prepare, where needed, special discussions for the meeting with the Department; and
• gather all needed information to properly discuss the issues in the draft chapters.

The Company will incorporate the Department's revisions to the drafts and prepare the camera-ready copy. The Company will submit an electronic copy for the Manual to the Department for review. The Department will review the camera-ready copies to ensure that the changes from the Draft reviews have been incorporated. The Department's review should only consist of final editorial changes (e.g., misspelled words, punctuation, format corrections). The Department's Project Coordinator will markup and/or identify any necessary corrections and forward them to the Company.

The Company will incorporate the Department's final revisions to the camera-ready copies. Unless the Department deems it necessary to review a revised camera-ready chapter, the Department's markup of the camera-ready copy will be the Company's approval to begin work on the electronic document in Task 9.

Once the Department has provided its approval to all final documents, the Company will begin the process of preparing the Manuals electronic files. This will require the Company to perform the following sub-Tasks:

• convert each Word file to an Adobe Acrobat PDF file;
• perform a view test of each file using Adobe Acrobat Reader;
• merge all chapter files together, as applicable; and
• make corrections as necessary.

Once the Company has completed the electronic files, the Company will prepare and submit a master CD with the Word, graphics, and PDF files for the CTEP SOP Manual.

A 12-month schedule is provided to prepare the CTEP SOP Manual. The schedule will primarily depend on the time it takes the Department to review the Project Implementation Report and the draft chapters. The bar chart in Figure 3-1 illustrates the proposed schedule for the CTEP SOP Manual. The following assumptions have been made to estimate this time frame:

• The Department will need 10 calendar days to review the Project Implementation Report.
• The Department will need an average of 10 calendar days in its internal review of each draft submission.
• The Department will almost always have something to review at any given moment and will typically have more than one item to review (e.g., several draft chapters).
• As practical, the Company will overlap its work on much of the Manuals production (e.g., several draft chapters will be in production simultaneously).
• The schedule assumes that there are 20 work days available per month.