A Project a Dedicated Team of Fire Investigators - Article Example

Running heading: A project to create a dedicated team of fire investigators A project to create a dedicated team of fire investigators Name Course Date Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Life cycle 2.1 Mandate 2.2 Initiation 2.3 Implementation 2.4 Handover 3. Project initiation document 3.1. Aim 3.2 Objectives 3. 3 Benefits 3.4. Costs 3.5. Business case 3.6. Tasks 3.7. Precedence chart 3.7.1 critical path analysis 3.8. Staffing 3.9. Risk management plan 3.10. Document management plan 1. Introduction Although Provo municipal council is a public institution, it has an obligation to carry out its responsibilities in a valuable and proficient way. The council is planning to create a team of dedicated fire investigators who will help in conducting fire related cases in a timely, effective, and efficient manner. Throughout the years, major accidents involving fires are on the increase leading to injuries, loss of lives and property. The complexity relating to these cases increase as the accidents increase as well. To be able to handle these losses efficiently and effectively, it is paramount to develop a team of dedicated investigators. 2. Project life cycle 2.1 Mandate The idea to develop a dedicated team of investigators came from chief fire investigator from the Provo municipal council. He appointed me as the project coordinator to develop a project proposal from the idea. Previous attempts to develop the team were futile and did not last for long. This program will ensure that the investigators work as a team and collaborate in the course of their investigations. Collaboration with the police will be sought to encourage sharing of information; this will lead to timely and complete investigations. The human resource department will recruit new investigators to ensure there is enough staff to handle the ever-increasing number of fire related cases. This will also help to clear the backlog of cases that have taken long before completion (Kerzner, 2009, p.54). Below is the final draft of the project initiation document and after approval by the board, the initiation process starts. 2.2 Initiation Once the board approves the project initiation document, then the project will start immediately. This stage will involve establishing a project office, starting the project, stating terms of reference, conducting feasibility studies and documenting the business case. This process leads to implantation of the project. 2.3 Implementation This stage involves the putting into action the identified activities in the project initiation document. The council will recruit specialists like the recruitment specialists, the fire investigator specialist, and the diversity specialist. This process is flexible and any changes should be provided for. Any changes should be documented so that they will help to update the project initiation document. 2.4 Handover On completion of the project, the team will become a permanent resource to the service, and business will be back as usual. 3. Project initiation document 3.1. Aim 3.2 Objectives 3. 3 Benefits 3.4. Costs 3.5. Business case 3.6. Tasks 3.7. Precedence chart 3.8. Staffing 3.9. Risk management plan 3.10. Document management plan 3.1 Aim To develop a dedicated team of fire investigators to ensure efficient and timely fire investigations. 3.2 Objective 1. To recruit new fire investigators to increase the number of fire investigators in eight days after the start of the project. 2. To train the new and existing fire investigators to improve efficiency in the fire investigations in three weeks. 3. To introduce a team of competent fire investigators to encourage them to work hard by the end of the project. 4. To create a team of fire investigators, that will uphold the spirit of teamwork by the end of the project. 5. To be able to handle fire related crimes by the end of the third week. 6. To develop collaboration between fire investigators and police to ensure speedy completion of the cases. 7. To select a team leader who will manage the other investigators and the investigation process in twenty-three days. 3.3 Benefits 1. Improved performance by the fire investigators. This is because; the existing investigators will be trained afresh on the new methods of handling the cases. This will improve the speed for handling such cases. 2. Increase efficiency and effectiveness in fire investigations. Increased number of investigators will improve effectiveness of handling cases. Motivating the investigators will also ensure that the workers investigate effectively (Turner, 2007, p.98). 3. Reduce losses related to fire. When the investigators are many, cases relating to the fire related crimes will be held faster and the victims compensated. This will mean that the victims will be compensated in time and the losses will be reduced. Fire losses account 2.5% the council $138billion revenue. A team of dedicated fire investigators will help reduce this loss by at least 0.12%. This translates to a savings of $0.16billion. 4. Having a dedicated team will ensure that fire investigators get crucial information that will help solve the cases easily. When there is a dedicated team, they will be able to be among the first people to arrive at the fire scenes. This way, they are able to collect crucial information and evidence relating to the fire case (Lock, 2007, p.34). 5. Having a team of dedicated workers will ensure that timely actions are taken to avoid destruction of evidence that would be very crucial to the investigations. They will also ensure that the evidence is not lost or moved. 6. The information gathered by the team of dedicated investigators provide basis to compile statistics, research and findings. This information will assist the council to initiate and develop safety strategies to prevent future fire-related crimes. 7. The dedicated team of dedicated fire investigators can provide training for crime scene investigators, police officers, fire fighters, and forensic science students. This means that the council can generate more income by providing training to these groups of people (Portman, 2009, p.54). 3.4 Staff Costs and other costs. Cost per day Number of days Total costs Human resource manager 400 10 4000 Recruitment specialist 500 10 5000 Fire investigator specialists 500 10 5000 Project coordinator 500 23 11500 Diversity specialist 500 10 5000 Other costs 53500 printing 6000 Sub total 90000 Contingency 10% of sub total 9000 Total 99000 3.5 Business case The municipal council has embarked on a program to create a dedicated team of fire investigators that will ensure effectiveness and efficiency in fire investigations. To attain this, the existing staff should be equipped with all the skills for the new technologies in fire investigations. The council will also have to employ new fire investigators to tackle the deficiency of fire investigations in the council. Part of the staff needed in this programme is already in place but there is need to recruit ten investigators to be able to handle the ever-increasing number of fire related crimes. This will increase costs by $100,000 but this will be worth because cases will be handled more effectively and in a timely manner. This will also reduce fatigue for the existing workers and in turn, this will increase efficiency (Sodipo, 2008, p.62). The team to be created can act as a source of revenue for the council; this is because, this team can provide training to the police, fire fighters, and crime scene investigators. The returns generated from this will be high to offset the initials costs of creating the team. Investing in the programme will also entail investing in new equipment, and this will require money. However, the investigators will be able to conduct investigations in a faster and more efficient ways. When this dedicated team is created, investigators will respond to fire cases promptly. This ensures that they preserve the evidence from the fire scene. They will also stop movement and further contamination of the evidence by the fire fighters (Thomsett, 2002, p.54). The main other option is to do nothing about the current state of fire investigators. We believe that such a position is not acceptable because the actions will lead to efficient, effective, and timely investigations. Moreover, the increase in the costs represents a small percentage of the council revenues (Heerkens, 2007, p.54). The total increase in costs relating to the new staff and equipments will lead to an increase of just 0.03% of the total revenue. This far below compared to the savings of 0.12% after introducing the team. This proves that it is worth to invest in the creation of the team. 3.6 Tasks It is important to identify all the tasks required to be able determine the staff and costs for the whole project up to the point of implementation. Below are the tasks to be undertaken to assist set up a dedicated team of investigators. A 1 Write and agree on the project initiation document 2days B 2 Hire the recruitment specialist 1day 3 Advertise for the posts of ten fire investigators and analysing the applications 3days 4 Conduct interviews for the applicants and select the successful applicants 2days C1 5 Recruitment of the successful applicants 2days 6 Induction courses for the new staff 2days C2 7 Select the existing staff to take part in the training 2days D 8 Hire the fire fighter specialist 1day 9 Hire the diversity specialist 1day 10 Receive the training manuals for the training process 1day E 11 Launch the training 1day 12 Train the new and the existing staff 8days F 13 Evaluation of the training process 1day 14 Award certificates for the successful trainee 1day 15 Divide the staff into different teams 1day G 16 Select team leaders for each team 1day 17 Define duties and responsibilities 1day 18 Allocate cases to investigate 1day 19 Allocate tools and equipment needed by the investigators 1day 20 Dispatch different teams to start their investigations 1day H 21 Monitoring and evaluation of the investigation process 3days I 22 Report writing on the progress of the investigation and the completed 2days 3.7 Precedence table Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Preparing PID Hire recruitment specialist advertisement interviews recruitment induction Selecting existing staff Hire fire investigations specialist Hire diversity specialist Receive training manuals launch training evaluation Certificates, Allocation of duties, equipments Monitoring and evaluation Report writing 3.7.1 Critical path 3.8 Staffing To be able to create the dedicated team of fire fighters, the following staff will be required; i. The human resources manager ii. Recruitment specialist iii. Fire investigations specialist iv. Diversity specialist v. Project coordinator 3.9 Risk management plan Lack of interest by the management- The management may lack interest in recruiting new investigators. This will hamper the operations of the existing investigators. The management have the right to accept or reject the project initiation document. The management may also feel that they do not want to commit more funds for the programme and this may hamper implementation of the tasks in the project initiation document (Frigenti & Comninos, 2002, p.63). Resistance by the existing fire investigators. The existing investigators may feel that the recruitment may make them lose their jobs. There can be the thinking of a plot to displace them and they may resist any new recruitment. Lack of equipments for the new staff. When the number of staff increases, there is need for more equipment. The management may lack the funds to invest in the new equipment and this means that the employees hired will not be effective. There may be no funds also to meet the increased costs (Chandler, 2009, p.43). The following tasks needs to be undertaken. 1. Hold meetings with the management and explain the need to train the existing staff. It is important to meet the management and discuss all the issues relating to training of the existing staff and recruitment of new staff. 2. To hold meetings with the existing fire investigators and explain why they need to work as a team. It also necessary for them to understand why it is important for new staff to be hired. 3. Meet with the finance manager to address the issue of lack of equipments. To have a successful and a dedicated team of investigators, more funds will be needed. It is important to meet with the finance manager and explain the need to avail funds for the programme Burnett, 1998, p.65). 3.10 Document management plan The document will be numbered and titled as per Provo municipal council’s project management system. Any amendment will first be agreed during the team meetings then they will be entered into the system. References Burnett, K 1998, The Paradigm-projects, Springer, New York. Chandler, RK 2009, Fire Investigations Florence: Cengage Learning. Frigenti, E 2002, The Project practice, Kogan Page Publishers, London. Heerkens, GR 2007, Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project, McGraw-Hill Professional, Columbus. Kerzner, H 2009, Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. John Wiley and Sons, New York. Lock, D 2007, Project management, Gower Publishing Ltd, London. Portman, H 2009, Practical Approach PM Documents, Van Haren Publishing, Hogeweg. Sodipo, E 2008, Project Management Explained, Lulu.com, New York. Thomsett, R 2002, Radical Project Management, Prentice Hill PTR, New Jersey. Turner, R 2007, Gower handbook of project management, Gower Publishing, London. Read More