Project Management during Flooding: Sun View Elementary - Case Study Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT / Project management Name Course Instructor Institution March 7, 2011. The following is a proposed project to minimize the effect of flooding in the future as part of the Fire & Rescue Operations of Sun view Fire & Rescue Department. At the end of this presentation, the Board overseeing the operations of the Fire Department will surely approve this project in terms of the related benefits, which will outweigh the costs. This project came about as an initiative from the Sun view Community which has experienced repeated cases of flooding during the rainy season amid many attempts to repair and rehabilitate the state of the Sun view County drainage system, in order to control the flooding, which has led to several huge misfortunes which the County has had to face during the years. Moreover there arrived a strong need to improve our duty to the public to reduce loss of lives as a result of flooding. Such huge misfortunes include the severe flooding of Sun view Elementary in 2009 which led to the demise of 40 students and two teachers and the flooding of the national library the previous year where 5students died and 7employees (Dennis, 2006). With the completion of the project, there will be sound measures that will ensure that the community does not have to face the loss of any lives in the event of flooding, which is mandatory to happen during any year. This will be at started of with the Project Life Cycle stated in the below steps: Mandate This stage looks at how a project comes to life, in other words where the idea of the project came from. This may be from anywhere in the organization. As per this project, this arose from one of the staff who has been pushing for saving as many lives as we can during any natural disaster that our community faces on a regular basis, which ended up being flooding. He pushed f or this idea for a very long time, more so because he had once lost a loved one in the Elementary flooding. As such he ended up being the Project Assistant Manager to aid in developing the idea into a Project Proposal. Initiation and Implementation This is a point in the Life Cycle that has no length in terms of time. It leads to Implementation which will be the start of the Project based on the approved Project Initiation Document (PID) which will be discussed shortly to guide the Project. It will accommodate changes as a result of circumstances both within the Project and externally, which shall be documented so that auditing can be done later to keep an updated PID. Handover Whatever has been born fruit from the project must at be handed back to the top management of the organization to become part of the operations of the organization. Hence as a result of the need to minimize the effect of flooding in the future, drastic measures such as the Retrainer Programme and a Weather Forecasting Lab, is highly advised (Dennis, 2006). The Project Initiation Document The contents of the PID are as follows: 1. Aim 2. Objectives 3. Benefits 4. Costs 5. Business Case 6. Tasks 7. Precedence Chart 8. Staffing 9. Risk Management Plan 10. Documents Management Plan Aim The aim of the project is to come up with a package of ideas to reduce the number of deaths during a flood, which is a major yearly event that brings destruction and loss to the public. Objective The objective, which is much more precise, needs to reflect on the scope of the Project. As such, where the Project is limited to geographically needs to be specified. The objective should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed, (SMART). Hence in this case, the project applies to the whole force of Sun View Fire & Rescue Department. The objective is to come up with a package of ideas to be implemented by the Sun View Fire & Rescue Department which within the laws of the State and the Fire State Law will lead to a highly qualified and motivated staff to come into effect by November 2011. This objective is specific in that it sets out precisely what it aims to achieve. It is measurable because if, by November 2011, the Department has no such policy in place and being used, the objective will not have been met. It is also achievable. It is relevant because elements of the law and needs of the organization are highlighted. Finally, it is timed because it is clearly stated when the project will be completed by. Benefits and Costs The benefits that will be derived emerge in terms of more of social benefits and reduced future costs. This will be attained since the project will incorporate what is dubbed as the ‘Retrainer Programme’ which incorporates giving free swimming and diving lessons to the public plus to the staff in order to increase their diving skills and breathing skills underneath water, provision of seminars all through the year on how to handle a disaster stricken area due to flooding and the necessary fast and quick first aid to save a victim’s life in case of drowning or other injuries, such as shock due to fallen electric power lines (Harold, 2007). Moreover a Weather forecasting lab, of a unique quality which is highlighted by fact that it will be located within the premises of the Fire Department. This will give the staff quick information as to when and the particular area that the heavy rains and thunderstorms may hit in order to give early warning to the pubic to evacuate and that will give the Fire Department enough time to be prepared for anything and hence spring into action without the element of surprise. Of course, there must be costs related to this project which must be identified to come up with a cost-benefits analysis of the project. This will include costs such as materials and skilled labour for the weather forecasting lab, which will be supplied by a business partner of the Project Assistant Manger at very low prices plus costs arising from hosting training programmes with training being offered free of charge by an NGO, Precise Training Institute and refreshments and food catered to by the Fire Department cooking staff. Another cost that can’t be quite quantified ii the time spent by all staff in the project but this can’t be compared to the benefit that will be received in the near future to the community of Sun View. Cost estimate Material 400 Labor 300 Training cost 350 The handover of the project will be simple once the Project is complete as the people taking over will be those that have developed the programme in the first place so no costs will arrive as a result of that. The costs may roughly look as follows: Costs per week 1 2 3 4 Total Raw materials 300 1200 Food and beverages during training programmes 500 2000 Total 3200 This example of costing through tasks is very simple and is a summary of tasks required over that one month period. Before we can know what is required when, we need to know which tasks are to be completed when. Business Case Since the benefits and the costs have already been identified, we can address the business case, which looks into why this Project is important. This is the central issue upon which the Board will decide whether to authorize the Project or not. It arises directly from the connection between costs and benefits. This project is crucial in light of the Fire Department achieving their higher potential and utilizing the available resources in giving service to the public. Also this links the society together as the community gets together aside from times of dilemma. The business case must also consider the consequences of not undertaking the Project. In our project, there is a necessity to reduce the effect of flooding in terms of loss of lives since this leads to the loss of valuable people in the society that can be avoided and which is an overall loss to the society. Tasks In order to identify costs, it will be necessary to identify the tasks that have to be completed, how long they will take and how many staff will be required to carry them out. As such this project will need around 6 skilled workers to build and equip the lab, 4training consultants from Precise Training Institute, 2 cooking staff from the Fire Department, in total there would be the need of 12 staff. In addition, there will be the Project manager and his Assistant. There is however need to justify the need for the number of staff as stated. As for the 6skilled workers, there will be 4workers involved in the construction of the lab but this is done with limited staff as per the required number since there was need to partially rehabilitate an old building within the premises of the Fire department hence more of a renovation to make use of unutilized and idle resources while the other four will be involved in equipping the lab with the necessary equipment for the operation of the weather equipments(Phillips, 2010). 4consultants from the Precise Training Institute will be needed being split to do different duties; 2 of them will be involved in the swimming and diving classes and the other two being involved in the first aid classes and crisis management. Two are being needed in each of these activities since it is not only the Fire Department that will be in the training programme; some selected individuals of the society will be selected for various areas of the Sun View society such as one individual from the women’s association, the men’s association, the local SACCO, the local bank, the Catholic Church, the Protestant church, the local mosque, the local temple, the local butchery, the local construction company, the local public hospital, the local mayor office and the local bakery; this was a crucial random selection process that needed to be taken into consideration as Sun View is a close knit society (Phillips, 2010). As for the cooking staff, the two are the ones who handle the cooking for the Fire Department and hence will not have any difficulty in handling extra capacity in the Fire Department. As for the Project manager, there is need to have one who can oversee all the activities of the project and ensure that every party keeps to his duties and responsibilities. There will be need of his Assistant who will help the Project Manager oversee the activities to ensure proper flow of activities since it is evident that the Project Manager cannot really handle all the activities himself. The Precedence Chart TIME ASIGNED Week one Week two Week three Week four TASK Purchase of all necessary raw material and equipment for the laboratory Renovation of the weather forecasting lab First aid training Swimming and diving training The precedence chart as shown above shows a list of the tasks in the order that they need to be completed. The precedence chart allows us to know what needs to be completed before another task can begin. This allows planning the most efficient use of available resources at our dispose. The project may face some risks such as failure of the 6 skilled staff not to complete the construction of the Weather Forecasting Lab by the November 2011, which will commence in October due to the time limit of four weeks assigned to the tasks within the time. This has been mitigated by strategically having the Chief Construction Officer of the local construction company as one our guests during the training exercise which can come in, if there is the possibility that the work won’t be completed within that time frame. If this risk occurs then there will need to add up some costs in terms of additional staff, however it should be noted that the local company offers almost the same fee on what the current offered. This is assessment that was carried out by the proposed Assistant Project Manager, who cited that the ratings were just slightly high. Another risk is that of unexpected coming of the rains before the project can be completed, this however was taken into account due studied weather patterns of the Fire Department which notes that heavy rains are received during at the beginning of the year, hence any rains experienced during that period will be quite small, but may however delay the renovation process (Marion, 2002). This has been taken care of as stated before. There is also the possibility of lack of interest by some parties of the guests invited and the staff included. Since this can happen there is need for the management to highlight the need for this project through drastic advertising plans to the staff and the general public reflecting on the long term benefits that will be achieved. There will also be need to monitor events that occur on a daily basis so that motivation measures can be made with the use of play games in the process of training. There will also hence be the need to have regular meetings between the Project Manager and the Assistant Project Manager (Mrs. Davis). Document Management Plan With the project being undertaken to eventually produce a document, there needs to be a careful process taken into consideration. This has the potential to be very damaging and the process needs to be managed carefully. As the project progresses within the time line, it must be managed so that all the staff pertaining to the success of the project and the Project Manager (Mr. Walter) and all the parties involved are clear on what to do about the final version of the document Summary With the introduction to the development of the PID, a crucial document in Project Management, we have looked at the business case and the considerations that go into its preparation, including other elements of the PID such as tasks, costs and benefits. This has helped a lot to develop a sound plan in trying to help the residents and other stakeholders of Sun View in light of reduction of loss of lives as a result of flooding, but it should be noted that further consideration is being taken into account as per the measures of reducing the effects of flooding (David I. Cleland, Lewis R. Ireland, 2006). The following is the path taken up for the project. References: David I. Cleland, Lewis R. Ireland, (2006), Project management: strategic design and implementation, McGraw-Hill Professional. Dennis L, (2006), Project management, Publishing, Ltd. Clifford F. Gray, Erik W. Larson, (2008), Project management: the managerial process, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Gary R. Heerkens, (2007), Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project McGraw-Hill Professional. Harold. K, (2007), Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, John Wiley and Sons. Phillips. J, (2010), IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, PublisherMcGraw Hill Professional. Marion E. Haynes, (2002), Project management: practical tools for success, Cengage Learning. Read More