Welcome to the Iamdata Solutions Asset Management Monthly Newsletter - April 2022
As well as the obvious reasons for developing a Data Collection Plan, one of the main takeaways for me is that a good Data Collection Plan can then help inform your tender request documents. You know exactly what you need, and you can ensure the contractor understands exactly what they need to provide to you. The tender submissions will be easier to assess ensuring you engage the best candidate for the job.
So, what are the main components of a Data Collection Plan and what is its purpose? A Data Collection Plan is the best way to organise your thoughts and engage with other stakeholders. The Data Collection Plan establishes the:
Project purpose
Business and project goals and objectives
Scope and expectations
Roles and responsibilities
Assumptions and constraints
Project management approach
Project budget
Project timeline
The conceptual design of new technology
The first steps will be to identify the project scope, identify the objectives, and define the steps you need to take to achieve them. Scoping the project is the most important part of the Data Collection Plan. This is the place where you can establish if there is the potential to collaborate with others within your organisation and areas where you can save money is identified. Every aspect of the project should be explored here right at the beginning.
My Five Tips for a Great Data Collection Plan
1. Engage with other departments within your organisation and identify all possible stakeholders before you begin.
Engage with all Stakeholders – including other departments to ascertain if there is any element of the data collection that may benefit them. This is a good opportunity to work together to get the data everyone needs.
I can share an example where the Infrastructure Services Department teamed up with OPAL (A Community based healthy lifestyle program), to deliver the Drinking Fountains Data Collection and Condition Audit Project. All it needed was for us to include a few extra fields which allowed for the one data collection to provide information required by the Infrastructure Services to manage and maintain the assets lifecycle, and the additional fields allowed for the collection of water quality, etc that provided valuable information for the OPAL group.
There are many data collection projects that could be modified slightly to provide valuable information to other departments within your organisation. It's such an easy way to save time and money.
2. Identify the data you need to collect - Identify the outputs the business will be requiring from the data.
If you’ve engaged with all possible stakeholders, you should have a very good idea of the project scope and what the data will be used for. Some examples here:
Condition and attribute data used to manage and maintain infrastructure assets?
Defect Reporting to manage Maintenance Planning?
Valuation purposes? Condition or Age, Useful Lives and Unit Rates will be required.
Specific reports (Asset Management Plans, Budget and Capital Works Forecasting, Maintenance Planning, etc)?
Componentisation of an Asset, (e.g Bridge Asset)
What level will the data collection go down to? It makes sense to break some assets up into their individual components, making it easier to manage the accounting aspects of asset renewal where different components have different useful lives and different unit rates.
For example, a footbridge could be broken down into these components:
Superstructure
Bridge Type
Deck
Barrier / Railings
Beams
Substructure
Abutment
Pier
Wing Walls
Bearings
Each component will have a different useful life and different unit rate.
3. Ensure you have included all the data fields you need.
a. If the data is going to be used for valuation purposes, make sure you include the relevant dimensions with which to calculate the value, depreciation, expiry date, remaining life, standard life, etc. Usually the Standard Life and Unit Rates will already be determined and will not be part of the data collection, but it’s worthwhile bearing them in mind when preparing the Plan.
b. Condition Data – The condition matrix should already be established before the data collection begins. The surveyors must have a good understanding of what each condition rating means.
I have found photographic representation to be useful in establishing a benchmark for collecting conditions and defects on assets.
Also, recording the size / percentage of the defect in relation to the road segment is important if you are using these parameters to calculate an overall condition for each segment.
These Condition Parameters below are often used in visual road condition audits.
c. Collecting Defects – Depending on the Asset Class, and how your Asset Management system is set up, you may collect defect data to calculate the Asset’s condition. Alternatively, with some Asset Classes, the defects will not have any bearing on the condition of the Asset but will be used to help plan future maintenance projects. This is another aspect of the Data Collection Plan that should be established at the project scoping stage.
d. Spatial Element – most council owned assets will require location information, especially Stormwater, or Open Space Assets.
4. Post Processing - How easy will it be to prepare the data for upload into the corporate systems?
The Data Collection Plan should detail how the steps required to prepare the raw data, configure the system (if it hasn’t already been set up), and import the data.
Do you have the required resources, knowledge, and expertise for this in-house? If not, who will you engage to do this work? Consider the additional costs involved and include it in the Plan.
5. Is there an opportunity to explore new technology?
The advances in technology, especially mobile technology provides us with a greater choice than ever before at competitive prices. It is worthwhile investigating all possibilities, bearing in mind all the above, especially the points raised in point 4 regarding post processing.
I have worked on many different projects with my Local Government clients, from designing and developing Power BI Reports, to building SQL Server databases for spatial data, to managing and maintaining the GIS and the Asset Management systems. If you'd like to discuss how we might work together, then please email me at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions
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