Baltimore County’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides leadership, technical expertise, training, infrastructure, services and technical support to Baltimore County agencies including the Department of Public Works. The County Executive and the County Administrator identified the Department of Public Works for a high level Business Process Analysis (BPA). For this project, RNR consulting partnered with GTSI Corp.

The Department of Public Works, which provides and maintains the public infrastructure systems, is comprised of six Bureaus which report to the Director’s Office. For the purposes of this project, the following Bureaus were covered:
(1) Bureau of Highways
(2) Bureau of Building & Equipment Services
(3) Bureau of Engineering & Construction
(4) Bureau of Utilities
(5) Bureau of Traffic Engineering & Transportation Planning
(6) Bureau of Solid Waste Management
(7) Director’s Office (Metropolitan Financing & Petitions)

This project includes, (a) the creation of current and proposed organization charts for each of the Bureaus, (b) identification of the responsibilities associated with each position in the organization chart and (c) identification of specific services provided by each Bureau including how often these services are performed and how they relate to the mission of the Bureau. Furthermore, since most of the Bureaus have separate administrative groups, their administrative functions will also be assessed to identify any redundancies and/or inefficiencies.

The project is approached in 3 phases:
• Phase I - Project Initiation and Data Gathering
• Phase II - Business Process Mapping / Analysis of Public Works
• Phase III - Business Process Re-engineering Recommendations

During Phase I, RNR Consulting will prepare a detailed project plan to track and facilitate project execution. Data gathering will also be conducted during this initial phase. Our team will collaborate with the Department of Public Works to identify and define core business processes for all the Bureaus. A business process discovery questionnaire will be prepared in conjunction with OIT and the County Administrator and administered across the Bureaus by order of priority. Data collected from the survey will also be supplemented with interviews and focus groups with key personnel and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Review of existing documentation will happen during this phase.

During Phase II, the team will perform document and employee shadowing, in preparation for a high level mapping and analysis of the Bureaus’ business processes and develop swim lane diagrams for these processes. While developing the process maps, the team will conduct input validation sessions with selected agency personnel who participate in this project. Additionally, a benchmark study with counties similar in size, demographics, budgets, etc. will be conducted with the assistance of Baltimore County in determining appropriate counties for comparison.

During Phase III, the team will perform several analysis to arrive at its recommendations and action steps for business process reengineering. These activities include analysis of job descriptions and creation of organization charts, a cost-benefit analysis, development of key performance indicators (KPIs), and presentation to the County administration. Moreover, the team will apply change management throughout business process mapping and analysis in its project management approach. This will ensure the success of change initiatives following recommendations for process realignment. The expected outcome of this change management approach is a consensus amongst the Bureaus regarding how product or service delivery will be conducted within a new business environment.