Strategic Management

Today I've been working on the only project I have at the moment that is not de facto managed by me.

"Strategic Management of Urban Road Networks" is a government project being managed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The basic idea is to examine how various highways authorities (County Councils, Metropolitan Borough Councils, Unitary Authorities etc.) go about the management of their networks with regards to such things as technology, organisational arrangements and information dissemination.

The team consists of about six people, mostly from TRL. I have to travel up to the TRL offices in Wokingham about once a fortnight for progress meetings and we've made several trips to other UK Local Authorities as part of the project.

The final outcome of the project will be the publication of some 'best practice' guidelines that will based on the findings and be made freely available to all UK authorities. The nature of the EngD allows the results to be 'stand alone' from my 6-monthly reports with the final documents forming part of my portfolio along with a covering letter from the TRL project manager detailing my involvement.

At present I'm working on a generic procedure for a "planned event" that is to say something like a known set of roadworks, big event like a county show or visiting VIP. Making this general enough to apply to most events is trickier than I first thought and am presently re-jigging the flow chart along with the accompanying guidelines.

Not only does this sort of joint project allow an insight into the operations of a large commercial research organisation (i.e. TRL) but it also presents some good opportunities for networking in the other authorities.

This needs to be ready in time for my next joint supervisor meeting in three weeks time. Every two months the academic supervisor from the University and the industrial supervisor from the host firm meet up with the student to discuss progress and next steps. Given the geographical location of my host firm this is relatively straightforward but the logistics become more complicated with the further flung employers.

This will be my last entry as guest diarist and next week Rich will be back, (hopefully) refreshed from his well-earned break. Next week will see me under canvas for the first time in six years (quite scary) on my outward bound course but it's always good to catch up with the other Research Engineers on the course and trade stories.

I hope you enjoyed a little insight into the world of the EngD – normal service will be resumed shortly.