So many exciting things that are happening with drones in civil engineering.

Last week I talked for almost an hour with the co-founder and COO of Sky-futures, Chris Blackford.  Sky-futures has built a data and analytics platform that takes imagery from drone inspections, engineer inspections, and ground-based surveying;  applies machine learning to it; then reveals anomalies and patterns that would otherwise have taken dozens of hours of human eyeball scanning to reveal.

The result is that engineers get to spend more time doing what they are supposed to be doing - making decisions and managing valuable assets.  Not being data  technicians and imagery analysts.

The result for companies is that now they can move to risk-based inspections rather than time-based inspections.  

The results for clients of Sky-futures are reduced operating expenses of 10-15%.  Service life extensions of up to 20 years beyond original plans are projected, based on results in the first 8 years that Sky-futures has been in business. 

This is great success, thanks to drones and the companies that are learning how to use the additional data they collect into more intelligent engineering decision making.

Starting with a specific scope for your initial drone deployment or evaluation is key. You will probably get pressure or feel your own desire to say, "gee, since we are going to have a drone, let's do this too..."

That's the sweet song of scope creep whispering in your ear.   

Know when to say no!  If and when the most valuable results have been proven, you can pursue the "nice to haves" later.   

Establishing an innovative capability like bringing a drone into an organization when none has been used before is already a risky and uncertain process.  The more requirements, stakeholders, or expectations you add, the more risk and complexity you add into the full system.  Watch out for this danger and fight against it or it will bite you.

I'm battling my own fight right now with the scope of the book you are waiting for.  And I'm here to let you know, Friend, that the scope has increased a respectable amount.

To adequately address the major questions and lessons of using a drone in civil engineering, the book is going to be organized into 3 sections:

1. Systems Engineering
   
2. Project Management
   
3. Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship
   

Systems Engineering will answer questions like

The Project Management section will step through all 10 of the knowledge areas within project management as defined by The Project Management Institute, the world's foremost authority and certification body on project management.  

With a chapter on each of the 10 knowledge areas, they include

Each of these chapters gives you an accelerated lesson on the most important concepts, tools, and strategies from the PMI body of knowledge. Plus specific lessons, recommendations, and examples from actual commercial drone operations as they pertain to each chapter.

A lot of people I've talked with or heard from have said that the business side of drone operations is where they have their biggest challenge.  This is true for the Drone Service Providers (DSPs) who want to work with civil engineering firms, as well as engineers within firms who are trying to get more senior support for their business case and resource needs.

So the third section will cover:

This is more than I expected to include in the book when I launched the project. But it's what I believe is absolutely necessary for success with drones in civil engineering.

As you might be expecting, this increased scope means the target publication date is going to be later than first advertised.  The new date is now May 15th, 2018.

There are portions of the book in the hands of trusted drone pilots or civil engineers right now to get their valuable feedback.  Gaining this input and giving me time to incorporate it is another reason we need to move our release date out a couple of weeks. 

It's a tough balance to manage scope, schedule, cost, and quality all together, as I'm sure you know Friend.  I hope you'll agree that a little change in the release date is a fine compromise for the large scope and greater quality of the final result.

Speaking of which, here's a sneak preview of the final title and cover design.  Looks great, do you agree?

If you want to share your impression, I'll be grateful to hear from you.

While we're at it, any last-minute requests or suggestions from you with the book, Friend?