February 2022
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APOST INFO LINK: Are you new to receiving the APOST Newsletters or maybe need a refresher on what the APOST project is? Check out this simple table that explains what the project is, why we are doing the project, what the project is changing, and who is impacted by this project.
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AGENCY VIEWS: Has your subcommittee created agency views (AV) for your roles? If so, the AV Subcommittee is here to help! If you are ready to have your AVs reviewed, contact Kim Free.
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APOST WEBSITE: Visit the APOST website to learn more about AASHTOWare Project at ODOT.
As we settle into our AP routines, we are changing our newsletter publication to every other month. We’ll still share what’s happening with people and subcommittees as well as keep you up to date on the overall progress.
Watch your email for bulletins where we’ll share important, single-subject information with you that needs more immediate attention.
Do you have anything you’d like to add to a future newsletter, to promote for your subcommittee or to share your experience with AP? Send it to us at odoteconstruction@odot.Oregon.gov.
The APOST Excellence Award is our way of saying "we really appreciate you!” We celebrate APOST project staff who work positively and respectfully with others. When we see someone improve a work process or system, we want to say “thanks” and share with everyone! At the February steering committee meeting, we presented the APOST Excellence Award to James Myers. |
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From the start, James was a champion, training OCR staff and designing the AP CRL. He continues to go above and beyond supporting multiple interfaces with a variety of government agency partners, providing coding support and report design assistance throughout.
On the APOST project, James participates in over six subcommittees and takes the time to attend each one while still staying on top of his other important responsibilities. He is eager and willing to help in any situation and serves as a leader for the CRL AP implementation team. He encourages and leads the OCR staff to become more comfortable in AP and transfers knowledge to others to help support the overall effort.
Thank you, James, for all the great work you are doing and for being a champion for the project!
Still too busy or too shy to try the Dev site for AP?
You’re busy, we get it. Or, you’ve had so many new programs to learn, it seems a bit overwhelming to try out another when “go live” in AP isn’t until fall 2022 for CRL or spring 2023 for Construction and Materials.
Don’t wait! We really do need you to get into the Dev site and start working around. We need to know what works (or doesn’t) before AP goes live while it’s still easy to fix. To make it even more convenient for you, we’re going to email you bulletins with links to specific activities. Click the link that matches your functionality: Civil Rights & Labor, Construction or Materials. Or, check out the Global choice that applies to everyone. Look around and test things out.
In addition, watch for upcoming dates to join us for live 1-hour Teams meetings coming at the end of February. The OCR project team has had great success with their variety and activity hours. Our training meet-up will be a great place to ask questions and get answers. Follow along as we do the exercises with you, or just watch and learn about AP.
If you need assistance getting into the Dev site for AP or if you have any access related questions, contact the Sys Admin group at AWPAdmin@odot.Oregon.gov or contact your subcommittee lead.
Pay Estimates & Funding Subcommittee: We’re working on the SFO and EWO process within AP. Steven (ITI) gave the team a demo of a possible solution. Digital signatures on pay notes are in discussion with financial services and DOJ. The steering committee approved adding the interface of TEAMs to AP in order to make automatic contractor payments.
Subcontracts Subcommittee: The team is making minor revisions to documentation and working with the CRL team on the verification of the subcontract submission and review processes verification. Configurations are in the test environment. The team is now reviewing the requirements of the subcontract report to clean it up and submit to the reports subcommittee.
Reports Subcommittee: No additional reports were received since the previous meeting. Reports previously submitted are in the development process (see technical workbook). QAD dashboard is in development and should be in a ready state by March. There is a meeting scheduled with CRL to set the priority and to determine reports that are needed for go-live.
CCO Subcommittee: Kick-off meeting held with DOJ on the requirements for digital signatures on CCOs. Another conversation with additional attorneys to occur. All REs invited to a meeting to review the CCO in its current state. After the initial meeting, there will be a monthly meeting that will include the REs to review updates to the process. We’re also working on signature authority in AP. The system recognizes the levels, but we may need to change to the sum of the absolute value of the items.
Contract Admin Subcommittee: Our team added OPO staff to work though the contract award process and contract transition, identifying who does what and when. This process will be documented for the system and contract admin teams to add to their documentation. Contract admin Dev configurations are close to completion.
DWR and Diaries Subcommittee: The team is identifying agency views and going through the data reference tables to determine how to populate. Work is also occurring on the weather and equipment defaults for the inspectors to use. They have solidified the weather drop down programming and the generic equipment list. In addition, we are reviewing available canned reports in AP and looking at the custom reports needed. Roles are completed.
Materials Subcommittee: We are reviewing the contract validation process. One process is waiting for agency view (stat spec) to be completed. Spending some time getting members hands on use in AP. The processes are complete and validated.
Quals and Labs: Our team is validating processes, answering questions on reports, and going through processes.
Sources and Facilities: Shout out to the leads on this team. They are fantastic and attendance is awesome! Also, a special shout out to Jaclyn Elmes on the materials side. Our team has completed role identification! In process of listing on the technical tracker. All details out and design for final scope document. Thanks, Brian and Jaclyn for helping with details. SMFMI is going well. Congratulations to the team!
Mix Design: The team finalized roles. AVs are live and ready for validation for PCC and ACP mix designs. We’re working on system events – one-pagers describing when, how, and who will be notified.
Global Acceptance: The team is 77,7% complete on acceptance actions with 96.9% of materials assigned to people to work on. This is far above where we planned on being for data population at this time. Big thank you to all the volunteers that assisted. Our team continues weekly data gathering meetings. Shout out to Jim Gunter who has populated over 10,000 rows of data. Our material sets are now 32% complete. Agency views will be submitted after material sets are completed.
Sample Process Flow: Our team is working on what the external roles will look like for contractors in AP for samples. Primes will have the ability to review samples submitted by technicians prior to transitioning to ODOT review. A bug ticket was submitted to AASHTOWare for a visual glitch. Mike Lippsmeyer is tracking.
Agency Views: ITI developers have completed and provided a demo of several agency views. A couple issues were noted and feedback provided back to ITI. They are working on how a screen reader can be incorporated for ADA compliance. Staff really liked seeing how the views are used.
System Admin: We are working on the support plan for the next couple of weeks. Business processes will be developed based off the plan. It includes initial support for contractors submitting payrolls into AP.
Interfaces: (see Technical Workbook)
- Testing: Wage, BOLI, and SMC.
- In Progress: CLP and COBID.
The steering team approved the Teams to AP interface for automating contractor payments. ITI is reviewing the current Precon and Estimation interfaces and preparing an estimate for cost and schedule to move to the cloud.
Testing: The first round of functional testing completed 12/24/21. Business functional testing will be occurring for CRL through the first week of February. Quick Reference Guides (QRGs) – we are verifying that they are complete and ready. Material testing scripts development to begin. We’ll keep an eye out for cheat sheet one-pagers that will help staff as they get used to AP.
Training: We’re working with ITI to develop the training plan. ITI provided draft QRGs for testing subcommittee to review. ODOT will develop one-pagers/cheat sheets for staff to have on hand for specific processes.
CRL: We’re working on business functional testing, report development, and interfaces. UAT testing starts in March.
Labor: Darcy and Christie are working on getting subcontract information into test as well as payrolls. Meeting scheduled to work through the processes live and look at possible issues.
You may hear us talk about QRGs in different subcommittee and leadership meetings. That’s the Infotech abbreviation for a Quick Reference Guide. A QRG is equivalent to what we would call a “job aid” in ODOT. It is a written process used in AP that has been broken down into step by step instructions with screenshots and links.
QRGs are designed to make it easy for you to try a new process. Or, you can refresh yourself on a process you may have learned but haven’t used in a while. QRGs will be available online when AP goes live.
A BIG thank you to everyone who took the time to complete the quick APOST survey last month! This provided us valuable information that helps us target our communications and outreach. Look for more quick surveys in the coming months as we gauge how outreach is going and where we need to focus so that everyone impacted by the project is provided all of the tools they need to transition quickly and with ease.
Shout out to the Resident Engineers, their staff and other volunteers: Because of the help provided by the various RE offices and other volunteers, The data population status is at 77.7% for the materials functionality. According to Infotech, this is remarkably farther than most other states have been at this stage. Congratulations to Dave Dobson and Eric Burns in their oversight of this work.
Shout out to James Sealy, ODOT Contract Administration: Despite his very busy schedule and commitment to several subcommittees, James Sealy has given his valuable knowledge and experience to assist the CCO subcommittee regarding paying vendors. Thanks, James!
Shout out to Tessa Iverson, ODOT Information Systems Unit: Tessa has provided extremely valuable guidance and insight on the current and future environment variables. She has been a great asset to have on the project volunteering her knowledge and experience outside of her usual work group.
We celebrate when project staff working on APOST goes above and beyond. If you see someone doing something good in AP or on the project, let us know! Send us an email and tell us about it. We want to say, “thanks!”
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When I have a civil rights issue or concern during a construction phase, who can I contact in OCR?
Prior to Go-Live, contact odoteconstruction@odot.oregon.gov. We will make sure that you get connected to the right person.
After Go-Live, you will contact the AP System Admin group at AWPAdmin@odot.oregon.gov. AP System Admin will review your question and then reach out to the OCR Lead. This allows us to keep track of questions and answers to help other users who may have the same question.
Questions? Comments? Interested in becoming a team member?
Check out our website at
https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Construction/Pages/AW-Construction.aspx
Want to know more about APOST?
Subscribe to The APOST Times.
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