Summary of the Project and Primary Failures
The armed forces personnel face many life-threatening risks. There is a need to document their exposure to different risks as it affects their health. The Department of Defense (DOD) developed the Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System-Industrial Hygiene (DOEHRS-IH) project to manage documentation of threats with complete pathways of exposure. DOEHRS-IH intends to support a common framework of hazard identification, evaluation, and control. DOEHRS-IH has many components such as the occupational, environmental, health and industrial hygiene to represent the plethora of risks facing the armed forces. Treating patients who had encountered dangerous substance was quite tricky because their medical history and necessary paperwork were not readily available. DOEHRS-IH would be a web-based application providing real-time environmental monitoring capability and would eliminate the need for paper records of the patients’ histories.
The Department of Defense conceived the project before 9/11, but the project implementation took longer. It took three years before the project was implemented. It was not until 9/11 that the project team and the government realized the importance of DOEHRS-IH and the need to implement it urgently. The project team faced some challenges, which are considered the primary failures to traditional risk management. First, there was the challenge of scheduling. The DOEHRS-IH project brought together different teams from different government agencies. The teams had problems in coordinating their efforts, schedule, and sequencing technical work. Poor scheduling is the main reason the project implementation took longer. The project was delayed for three years, and it was at risk of being shut down. The project team should have anticipated the problem and created preventative measures in advance.
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Another primary failure is the design challenges which fueled the scheduling problem. Different stakeholders disagreed on the minimum system requirements. Failure to agree on minimum system requirements is a primary failure as the project cannot proceed until everyone is on the same page. Communication problems among the stakeholders exacerbated the problem. The DOD, Army, Navy and Air Force were part of the project, and the different teams were frustrated when they did not receive appropriate information about the project at the right time.
Describe the levels of uncertainty and complexity for the project
The project scope management involves identifying and controlling what goes into the project. Scope management brings together stakeholders to define the project scope (de Souza et al., 2014). Projects with different stakeholders often have high levels of uncertainty and complexity. The DOEHRS-IH project brought different stakeholders, each with unique needs and expectations for the project. Thus, the DOEHRS-IH project had high levels of uncertainty and complexity.
Project uncertainty arises when there is a lack of complete assurance of the outcome of the event. When DOD conceived the project idea and created the project team, the team came up with the project scope, scheduling, and outcomes of the project. According to de Souza et al. (2014) uncertainty occurs when there is an incomplete understanding of the scope, incomplete understanding of work within the scope, and the inability to take into consideration the expected. The project team experienced scheduling problems and failed to agree on the minimum requirements of the system, and this shows that the team did not have a complete understanding of the project scope. The project team also failed to plan for unexpected such as scheduling problems. It took three years before the project was implemented, and by the time of implementation, the project team was not sure that the project would be implemented. Project uncertainty spreads faster and affects all aspects of the project. Uncertainty is the beginning means that the real schedule will deviate from the expectation. Each task/ part of the project will be associated with uncertainty such that it will be difficult to accomplish even the simplest tasks.
On the other hand, complexity determines whether a project is hard or simple to implement. Some of the factors that cause uncertainty also cause project complexity. For instance, the stakeholders for the DOEHRS-IS were not on the same page on the minimum requirements for the system. When stakeholders do not agree on what should be a part of the project, they tend to have different project objectives and goals making it hard to plan and implement the project. Ineffective communication between the key stakeholders also adds to the complexity as each stakeholder will be tempted to implement the project in a manner they deem fit.
Determine what the project manager should communicate to the customer about project unknowns?
The concept of the ‘unknowns’ has become a common concern in project management. There are always some project risks that are potentially damaging to the project and are unknown to the project team during the planning phase. According to de Russo et al. (2017), the project team engages in a risk assessment as early as the planning phase to determine the risks, but not all risks can be accurately identified during the project initiation and planning phase.
Communication is a crucial role for the project manager. The project manager is obligated to communicate everything to the customer and stakeholders, including the risks and the unknowns as they occur. The project manager and the project team already has a risk assessment document in place that will guide how the manager will communicate the unknowns to the customer. The risk assessment document contains the relevant risk management standards that the project manager will apply in evaluating the unknown.
Since unknowns cannot be identified in advance, the project manager has to react immediately to address the unknown. The first step is by absorbing the effects of the unknown using the risk contingency plan. Secondly, the project manager evaluates the impact of the unknown to identify the costs to generate a report that will be passed on the customer and other stakeholders. When communicating the unknown, the customer wants hard facts on how the unknown has affected the project and possible responses. The project manager must communicate possible responses to the unknown while giving the pros and cons of each alternative before making a recommendation. The customer will have a role in deciding the response.
The project manager will monitor the response to the risk/ unknown while communicating it to the customer. Risks and unknowns affect the project scope, budget, and timeline; thus the customer will want to be updated on the measures to mitigate the effects of the unknown. Lastly, the project manager will update the risk management plan/ policy and communicate it to all the stakeholders.
Relating to the selected project, Identify and discuss risk identification for selectionism and learning
Risk identification is the process of identifying risks that can ruin the success of the project. The four types of project management risks are scope risks, scheduling, and resource and technology risks. The risks are classified into four to make it easy to identify based on the aspect of the project they affect. Scope risks include scope creep, integration issues, and hardware and software defects. DOEHRS-IS project experienced scope creep and integration issues when the DOD, Navy, Army, and Airforce could not agree on the minimum requirements for the system. Additionally, the initial system was meant to be web-based, but as the project continued, there was a need for the system to support mobile connections and to be operable without the internet, which was a significant scope creep.
The second class of risk is scheduling risks which affect the progression of the project. Scheduling risk was one of the main reason for the delay of DOEHRS-IS project. The project manager had to integrate scheduling and sequencing for technical work on the project with the Defense Acquisition System’s requirements and constraints. Consequently, the project implementation was delayed for three years.
Resource risks arise from personnel related issues. DOEHRS-IS project involved many stakeholders from different departments. There is a need to manage the essential staff involved in the project such that no critical personnel will leave during the critical stages. DOEHRS-IS project did not face any personnel-related resource risk that affected the implementation of the project, but lack of funds qualifies as resource risk. As the project scope expanded, the project team required an additional budget for the new changes and to ensure the project is finished within schedule.
Lastly, technology risk refers to the delays caused by software and hardware defects. Technology risks are prevalent in technological projects when the technology fails halfway through the implementation of the project or when it fails to meet the performance benchmarks. Aside from the scope creep of making the system applicable in mobile platforms, there was no technology risk for DOEHRS-IS project.
Discuss the contingency planning approach and the management challenges of informing stakeholders
The client and other stakeholders place pressure on the project manager/ team to complete the project successfully. They believe that with adequate planning and execution, the project will succeed. While most project managers that engage in proper planning and implementation achieve the desired outcomes, some risks and unknowns affect the project in a drastic manner. Contingency planning is about creating an alternative plan in case the original plan does not work (Lawson & Gray, 2015). Contingency planning does not focus on significant disasters only; it also prepares for small-scale events such as the loss of data, personnel, and suppliers. Contingency planning is a crucial part of project planning and management, but the challenge arises in informing stakeholders.
The project manager implements contingency planning into everyday project operations with the aim of managing disruptive unknowns and uncertainties. The project manager works with the risk management team to evaluate project continuity and contingency planning. The other stakeholders might not understand why the project manager takes time and resources for contingency planning that could have been used in the implementation. The other stakeholders involved in project planning and management will not understand the need to prepare for unknown and uncertainties when they have put in place the right plans/ steps to ensure the success of the project.
Some of the contingency planning challenges include poor motivation, organizational mistakes, and poor analysis. The project manager has to motivate the stakeholders by giving them scenarios that could lead to failure of plan A to encourage them to create plan B. Secondly, another challenge in contingency planning is organizational mistakes. Some mistakes are discovered when it is too late to develop a contingency plan, and the stakeholders will not collaborate in contingency planning once the damage has happened. Lastly, inadequate analysis can affect how the project manager informs the stakeholders about the need for a contingency plan. The project manager has to analyze the situation adequately using risk forecasting, assessment, and analysis tools to identify all the facts before informing the stakeholders.
References
Aleksic, A., Tomlac, J., Micic, R., Tolmac, D., & Prvulovic, S. (2016). Analysis Of The Complexity Of The Operational Project From The Aspect Of Management And Minimum Risk Of Project. Oxidation Communications , 39 (4), 3212-3222.
de Souza Pinto, J., Novaski, O., Anholon, R., & Besteiro, É. N. C. (2014). Measuring Project Complexity and Uncertainty: Scale Proposal. Business Management Dynamics , 4 (1), 29- 51.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Russo, R. D. F. S. M., Sbragia, R., & Abraham, S. O. Y. (2017). Unknown Unknowns in Innovative Projects: Early Signs Sense making. BAR-Brazilian Administration Review , 14 (3).
