News
ICC-ES Moves to Reduce Backlog
ICC-ES management is well aware that delayed review of data can cause consternation
among report applicants. ICC-ES is therefore actively taking steps to reduce
the backlog. These include the following.
- First, we are tracking the time between our receipt of data and response
to the applicant. (To improve our response time, we need to measure what
we do). We are also tracking the number of reports assigned to each member
of the technical staff.
- We are hiring additional staff. New engineers have been hired in both
Birmingham and Los Angeles, and we continue our efforts to fill other new
positions.
- We have internal requirements that all letters and drafts be reviewed
by at least two staff members and that all reports for approval be reviewed
by all staff. However, when the subject of the report has been covered by
other published reports, the full staff review will be waived. (The purpose
of the review is to ensure we are consistent in our evaluations between
engineers and between reports.)
- We are using an alternate agenda to get criteria out for public comment
without using the limited time of the Evaluation Committee. Some criteria
can be developed without the public hearings of the Evaluation Committee.
Some criteria are not ready for committee approval but need further input
from interested parties.
- We have created a staff intranet site to share technical, editorial and
administrative information. The intent is to speed product evaluations while
improving our consistency.
- We have created a working group of technical staff to process reports
requiring only limited technical review. The intent is to process those
reports quickly and not let them get caught in the workload of staff members
who have big backlogs.
