1991年，南加州大都会水区开始评估其行政和商业计算能力。该评估评估了当前应用程序在实现核心业务目标方面的有效性、用于管理和开发新应用程序的流程以及应用程序运行的基础设施。该评估强调了对Metropolitan几乎所有核心业务系统进行全面检查的必要性，以及对支持新系统开发和运营的架构进行评估的必要性。Metropolitan的使命是多方面的:修改核心业务实践，使其更简单、更易于遵循，并且更符合主流业务实践；通过使用升级的应用工具，从核心业务领域提供更好的服务；降低提供服务的成本；提供集成的企业解决方案，并快速生产； 并在短时间内在整个组织内实施大量应用程序。为了实现如此规模的变革，大都会需要一个有效的项目管理战略，该战略将促进整个地区对新应用程序和组织变革的接受和支持。Metropolitan面临着统一组织中不同部分的挑战，以有效实施新的技术环境、升级的网络、新的数据库管理系统和全套业务应用程序。技术环境将进行彻底改革，用UNIX开放系统、客户机-服务器应用程序和基于Windows的工作站取代传统的IBM专有的基于主机的环境。

In 1991, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California began an assessment of its administrative and business computing capabilities. The assessment rated the effectiveness of current applications in meeting core business objectives, the process used to manage and develop new applications, and the infrastructure upon which applications operate. The assessment highlighted the need to overhaul virtually all of Metropolitan's core business systems as well as to evaluate the architecture supporting the development and operation of new systems. Metropolitan's mandate was multifold: modify core business practices to be simpler, easier to follow, and more in keeping with mainstream business practices; provide better service from the core business areas by using upgraded application tools; reduce the cost of providing services; provide an integrated corporate solution and produce it quickly; and implement a large number of applications across the organization within a short period of time. To accomplish changes of this magnitude Metropolitan needed an effective project management strategy which would facilitate acceptance and support of new applications and organizational change across the District. Metropolitan was faced with the challenge of unifying disparate parts of the organization to effectively implement a new technical environment, an upgraded network, a new database management system and a full suite of business applications. The technical environment was to be radically overhauled with UNIX open systems, client server applications, and Windows-based workstations replacing a traditional IBM proprietary host based environment.