Overview
Users
Government officials in charge of public infrastructure management in Georgia and Serbia
Key problems
Difficulty to identify and prioritize high-impact infrastructure projects
Inefficient project management
Fragmented data across various tools
Lack of data driven approach
Why is it important
Without consolidated data and evidence-based priorities, governments risk funding low-impact projects causing economic losses and service gaps.
Research
Research methods
User interviews and contextual inquiries were conducted with key stakeholders: Project owners, project evaluators, Ministry of Finance staff, and external consultants to understand workflows, key pain points and user needs.
Synthesis of research
Research findings were grouped into 4 themes:
General issues
Location
Cost-benefit analysis
Appraisal
General Issues
Defined problems
Fragmented project data
Project data is fragmented across Word, Excel, emails, and other tools, forcing users to manually compile information.
Project owner: "I waste my time digging through emails and Excel files just to find the latest project version"
Difficulty Tracking Project Progress Across Stages
Stakeholders struggle to monitor where a project is in the pipeline (screening, appraisal, review)
Project owner: "I need to call multiple departments just to check a project’s status."
Solutions
Unified platform
A unified platform that centralizes all documents, comments, and versions—with a timeline showing who edited what and when.
Dashboard of projects
A centralized dashboard with real-time status updates
Location
Defined problems
Project Overlaps
Closely related infrastructure projects (e.g., road renovation and adjacent sewer pipeline replacement) currently lack visible spatial relationships, making construction planning and project sequencing difficult.
Urban Planner: "Sometimes When we're rebuilding a road, we need to know if there are water or sewer projects planned for the same area - otherwise we end up digging up the same street twice"
Mapping location
Project locations are usually mapped by outsourced domain experts and for project owners it can take some time, e.g. to map a road accurately.
Project owners sometimes use different locations for different CBA variants, e.g., comparing highway routes
Single projects may span multiple locations, e.g., a hospital + connecting road.
Solutions
A geospatial visualization system that:
Identifies and displays physically adjacent/interdependent projects
Highlights potential construction conflicts
Allows cross-project coordination between departments
Mapping functionality
A comprehensive mapping toolbox will allow users to map locations by drawing on map, uploading a shape file or adding longitude, latitude.
Project owners can add several locations, which they can use in different CBA variants or as a part of large projects.
Cost-benefit Analysis
Defined problems
Excel template for Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA)
Cost-Benefit analysis was conducted filling in an Excel template, and sometimes the formulas were modified intentionally or accidently.
Complex and time consuming process
The template’s length and complexity lead to errors and frustration.
Project owner: "The Excel template has so many tabs and fields. I don’t even know which fields are mandatory."
Solutions
A CBA functionality
Replace Excel with a step-by-step CBA functionality, that auto-calculates NPV, IRR, and economic metrics.
Progressive discosure
The CBA module will show fields using progressive disclosure principle, i.e. gradually showing additional input fields, based on the answers provided by the user.
Some key information, like Macroeconomic Assumptions, Depreciation factors, etc. will be inputted into the system by MoF and not be visible to Project Owners.
Appraisal
Defined problem
Unclear Decision-Making in Final Selection
Budgeting decisions lack transparency, leading to disputes.
Project Owner: "We need transparency for why some projects get funded over others."
Solution
Transparent evaluation and selection
The system should log evaluation scores, reviewer comments, and final justifications.
