. What is meant by the term project objective? What might happen if a project objective is not clearly written? Give three examples of clearly written project objectives.
- What is a work breakdown structure? What is a responsibility assignment matrix? How are they related?
- Why is creating a plan for quality important? From your experience, give an example of how having and monitoring a quality plan could have prevented (or did prevent) quality problems in a project.
- What is an activity? Does it always require human effort? Refer to Figure 4.1. Provide a detailed list of activities needed to accomplish work package 3.3. Do the same for work package 4.2.
- Why would you recommend project management software to someone involved in project management? What features and benefits does it provide?
- Draw a network diagram representing the following logic: as the project starts, activities A and B can be performed concurrently. When activity A is finished, activities C and D can start. When activity B is finished, activities E and F can start. When activities D and E are finished, activity G can start. The project is complete when activities C, F, and G are finished.
Project Scopes for Weather Variability Risk Mitigation
In 1954, Hurricane Hazel caused over US$1 billion in damage in Canada. In 2012, 27 million gallons of water from the storm surges as a result of Hurricane Sandy flooded the subway lines in New York, New York, USA. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction estimated that between 2006 and 2016 damage due to weather-related disasters was valued to be US$1 trillion, including over 900 weather-related events in 2014 that caused US$100 billion of damage globally. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated a cost of US$1 billion caused by drought conditions in 2015 in western United States.
Disasters have occurred in the forms of storms, floods, and droughts as a result of changes in weather patterns and the variability in the water cycle. Bhutan has experienced flooding and Pakistan has experienced long periods of storms that cause flooding and long periods of drought. What were extreme events that occurred every 100 years are now projected to occur twice as often.
Project managers worldwide are considering weather variability when determining the scope of projects. Andrew Losos, transport specialist at the World Bank, commented that project managers need to incorporate a wider range of conditions within their project plans, For instance, where a project to construct a highway might typically design its structures to withstand a 100-year statistical flood, project managers might need to prepare for even greater variability.
Floods and droughts have caused much financial hardship in Pakistan due to the
dependence on agricultural products that have been devastated. The Pakistani government has developed educational programs to teach people how to install water harvesting tanks on rooftops and parking lots to collect rainwater and runoff. Pakistan snew construction plans require the inclusion of the tanks as a means to store water. Collected rain water can be used to water gardens or other daily water-use tasks. GhulamMartaza, drainage engineer, Mouchel Middle East, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, stated, Projects are needed to store water and also control floodwaters, but these projects are very long and take time, more than 10 or 15 years. They are in the initial stages. To restore the water source at the basin level, I think the most important thing is getting the
community involved. Most communities are not educated, so the loss of water is very high.
In other areas of the world, projects are being planned and implemented to mitigate the risks of weather variability. The World Bank has spent over US$30.3 billion from 2010 through 2015 on 330 transportation projects in developing countries. Each of these projects by the World Bank and projects by developed countries is prioritizing project options based upon risks and data analysis. Some projects are a revitalization of aging infrastructure. Others are new construction. A major flood protection and revitalization project is planned for the lower Don River in southern Ontario, Canada. A multi-outlet valley system with new channels and modifications to existing infrastructure is expected to control the flow of water by inflating a weir to divert water into the hardened dockwalls in the channel and away from the three natural valley outlets. The project scope and sequence include adaptive management techniques to allow for modifications to the project under changing circumstances.
The expansion of the Yolo Bypass in the Sacramento River Basin, California, USA,
is a flood control system that integrates levees, weirs, and a natural bypass. Determination of the scope of the work for the project was informed by gathering information from stakeholders and past projects lessons learned. Darren Suen, PMP, chief of FloodSafe information and advocacy, California Department of Water Resources, Sacramento, California, USA, stated,
Project managers also must be ready to course-correct when the assumptions that informed their requirements are proven wrong. During planning of the project s objectives, Suen uses a communication policy with stakeholders that helps to build trust by communicating early and often. There are perceived impacts to the ecosystem and recreation and farmland, commented Suen. When you re proposing to change an environment that people live in every day, you have to be transparent in your decision-making. Clear and consistent communication establishes trust in the expertise of the organization.
The European Commission s joint Research Center scientists project that extreme river floods are twice as likely to occur in Europe over the next 30 years. Latin America and the Caribbean expect to spend between 1.5 percent and 5 percent of their gross domestic product on weather-related projects by 2050. Southeast Asia is projected to experience annual floods with significant effects on its economic conditions. Many projects are expected to be planned to help mitigate these expected weather-related risks. Each will need to have a defined scope, quality management plan, responsibility matrix, and activity sequence.
This chapter discusses the project scope document, quality, how to define what activities need to be done, who will be responsible for them, and in what sequence they will be performed. It describes techniques and tools used to plan the work and activities that need to be performed in order to accomplish the project objective successfully. The project scope defines what work needs to be done and what deliverables need to be produced. Then, specific activities are defined and arranged in a sequence of dependent relationships to determine how the work will be performed. You will become familiar with
• Clearly defining the project objective
• Preparing a project scope document
• Understanding the importance of planning for quality
• Creating a work breakdown structure
• Assigning responsibility for work items
• Defining specific activities
• Creating a network diagram
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