WCW26

The Saskatoon Waterworks Program is a group of Saskatoon Water capital projects including several upgrades at the existing Avenue H Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and the addition of a second Water Treatment Plant.  The challenge for the Waterworks Program is taking the conceptual level master planning work, existing capital plans, and the decision to build a second WTP, to develop an actionable 500 million dollar capital program that is expected to span over a decade. Starting in 2023 the team worked through their Program Definition phase; a more detailed set of plans to determine and document the program’s governance, scope, funding, sequencing, delivery model, and overall philosophy.    
One of the pillars of the Program was the use of decision science methods to make decisions in a systematic way.  Several different methods were used in order for the tool to fit the decision and not the other way around.  Decision Quality (DQ) is a framework which ties together not just decision tools but also an overall philosophy of what makes a good decision and how to integrate uncertainty and risk into making long term decisions.  DQ was developed out of Ron Howard’s research at Stanford University and has been the benchmark for making good decisions since the 1960s.   Companies such as Eli Lilly and Exxon Mobil have integrated DQ into their standard business practices.   Saskatoon Water has utilized DQ for several years including for the decision to build a second WTP.  Tools such as Choosing by Advantages, monetary equivalents, multi-criteria analysis, and decision tree analysis were used to examine project delivery methodology, process improvements, technology selection, site planning, and forecasting scenarios.  Each of these decisions were unique and required the correct tool for the situation.  
An important early component of the Program Definition phase was the identification of key decisions that needed to be made and the order in which they needed to be made.  After finalizing major decisions, the Program Definition Phase progressed to producing Design Intent Documents; a combination of design philosophy, conceptual level design, and project requirement documents for the future projects.  These documents gave a technical foundation for moving to the execution phase of the Program.  Collaborative delivery was identified as being important to Saskatoon Water to get the best project outcomes possible from the Waterworks Program.   Construction Management at Risk (CMAR) was chosen as the delivery model because it was found to fit best with the expectations of the City of Saskatoon.  The Program has progressed to the design phase for the first set of projects with construction anticipated to begin in 2027.
The presentation will explore the journey of the Waterworks Program from choosing a direction to creating a coherent vision of what the Program hopes to accomplish over a ten year period.  There will be a focus specifically on lessons learned related to applying decision science, governance items, and organizational change management as it relates to selecting and implementing a new project delivery framework.