Most of us in the engineering and construction industry have a favorite project that we like to remember-usually the project with the largest budget or a high profile. Over the years, I've enjoyed pointing out sights like the expanded and remodeled San Francisco International Airport or the Port of Oakland with its huge cranes looming over the inland waterway. When the Transportation Authority in Santa Clara finally opened its new light rail line, I took my family along for the inaugural ride. After all, these projects spanned years and the cost ranged from 50 million to four billion dollars. Today, I live in Houston, and my colleagues' offices are decorated with framed prints of offshore drilling and production platforms and expansive refineries-projects of which they are rightly proud. These projects are significant and according to the Construction Industry Institute (CII) they receive the preponderance of effort. However, small projects now form up to 50 percent of the construction industry's workload.
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