Author Description

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is divided into six districts, with district offices located in LaPorte, Fort Wayne, Crawfordsville, Greenfield, Vincennes, and Seymour. Pre-contract scoping of INDOT projects is decentralized, with each district having responsibility (with support from INDOT Central Office staff) for scoping the projects being considered for their district. One month prior to the launch of this project, INDOT created a new Central Office position of Statewide Director of Scoping.At the time of the launch of this project, it was recognized that there was a need to improve the Pre-Contract Scoping Process because of inconsistency between INDOT districts, lack of coordination/synergy between projects for appropriate bundling and lack of long-range planning (Engineering without borders).The consequences of these issues/problems include: cost-overruns, time delays, and change orders.This research project was chartered to analyze Pre-Contract Scoping as a business process, identify opportunities for process improvements and help implement these process improvements.