Crowdsourcing Pattern for Project Monitoring
Gautam Hegde/Koushik H
Gautam/koushik@backend.co.in
Backend Bangalore Pvt. Ltd. , #587, KPC Layout, Kasavanahalli, Bangalore - 560035

Context
Crowdsourcing as an essential element of project monitoring could result in ensuring data veracity ofthe parameters being monitored. It would also ensure prioritizing the resource deployment given thatthe affected party would protest the most, akin to a crying baby getting the milk. In a project, sayconstruction of a road, if the project affected persons and stakeholders have a say in the reporting theprogress and a mechanism is provided within the project’s implementation unit to receive the inputs
from the stakeholders, the responses received from the persons affected persons could be safely
assumed to be the most accurate description of the situation on the ground. This pressure from thepeople would result in greater management attention towards better planning, timely completion
resulting in better quality of work being executed and a safer construction in the said case. The pattern
can be generalized to any type of project wherein the output parameters and the outcome indicators
would only differ but the resultant impact of crowdsourcing would result in improved monitoring.

ThumbnailIf

Demand aggregation of services to be delivered is necessitated in a project
Prioritizing the resource deployment in a project is an issue
Challenges exist in ensuring data veracity of the output parameters of a project

Then
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Communicate the project output parameters to project affected persons and stakeholders
Solicit inputs from the above crowd
Create mechanism within project implementing unit(PIU) to receive the inputs
Go public on how these inputs are handled within the PIU
The increased transparency and accountability will ensure better quality of deliverables

Problem
Traditional forms of project monitoring involves the PIU creating a monitoring mechanism developed inisolation based on their perception of services to be delivered and the timelines for such delivery is notchallenged in real terms. Most of the time the methods used for establishing outcome indicators, output
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parameters as well as the quality of the deliverables is debatable and beyond reasonable doubt opaque
to the persons directly affected by the project. Generally the key parameters do not go beyond
monitoring physical and financial progress of the project. At best some projects include monitoring ofwork quality based on engineering test parameters and adherence to these acceptance criteria forms
the basis for certifying the progressive payment of the work.
For example, a project involves improvement of about 7500km of state highways where the work is
spread across the state and comprises of widening, strengthening and resurfacing the existing highways
in selected reaches. The challenge is to monitor the timely completion and ensure adherence to thespecified quality standards of a project where the works are not in one continuous stretch but inselected reaches of work and geographically wide spread. The traditional methods of monitoring would
have involved a very large project implementation team stationed at various locations across the state
to monitor the 7500km of road works. Coordination of this team itself would been a major challenge inaddition to the challenge of collating all the project related data into comprehensible Management
Information System(MIS) reports. The larger problem would have been in getting real-time information
to help in timely decision making.

ForcesLack of transparency and accountability as well as corruption in execution of public works
Project affected persons being kept in the dark on the output parameters of the project
Maintaining quality of public works in order to reduce operational cost
Maintaining project schedule in order to avoid cost overrun due to delay

SolutionsUse cost effective social media channels to publicize the project information and its output parameters.
Create a complaint handling and redressal mechanism in the PIU. Solicit views, opinions and suggestions
regarding the works being implemented from the people at large. The inputs thus received from thecrowd are used to reframe or refined the output parameters iteratively until the resultant solution
mostly covers the inputs received.
In case of the example cited above, a small team of 25 could effectively managed the whole project byadopting a web based project monitoring solution integrated with specific mobile applications for work
inspection and reporting. The information about the project was published on the project web site andalso on social media website like Facebook. The public were encouraged to publish photos or postcomments. The project web site also had a complaint response system which directed the complaints tothe concerned officers within the PIU and also published the status of the complaint, number of days
the complaint is pending and the name and phone numbers of the person handling the complaint.

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Resulting Context
Monitoring of the project is enhanced by the inputs received via crowdsourcing resulting in a better
quality of the work which is closer to the requirements of the affected persons. The increased crowd
attention on the project results in best behavior being exhibited by the PIU. Overall the increasedtransparency results in greater accountability and ultimately delivers best value for the money spent in aproject. This is the positive effect of the adopting the crowdsourcing pattern.
However it is possible that on the negative side crowdsourcing can deteriorate into ‘herd’-sourcing
when crowd responses are deliberately manipulated or skewed to get a desired result. This is more
likely where issues are politicised. In some extreme situations crowdsourcing can become ‘mob’sourcing resulting in strikes, violence or destruction of public property.

Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge Prof K V Dinesha of International Institute of Information Technology –Bangalore for enlightening us on PLoP and encouraging us in the preparation of this paper by holding
the preparatory writers workshop. We also thank Mr Chin-Yun Hsieh for shepherding this paper.

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