How is a remediation project managed?
The fundamental elements of managing any project, from building a house to cleaning an environmentally polluted factory, are the same: What is the Scope of the project (ie what needs to be done?); What is the schedule (or how long do you have to do this job?); and what is the budget (how much money is there to spend on this job?).
As a project manager, you rarely set Scope. The project owners, clients or agencies, who are paying for the work or commissioning the work, will define this. In the case of a cleanup project, often associated with a Brownfields project, the ultimate goals for cleanup are set by law, regulations and agency-issued guidance, the end use of the site, and the requirements to protect human health and the environment. . However, the Scope can vary even under that overriding objective, and that Scope is set by the tasks you must perform. Do you dig? or pump water? or install wells for evaluation? Obviously, defining a Scope calls for a finished product at the end: either a “clean” location, or the removal of drums or piles of material, or defining where something (such as contamination) can be found. Projects without a good definition of Scope are like trying to knit without knowing what you intend to have in the end – you don’t want to end up with sleeves for a sweater when your goal was a pair of socks.
Tasks within a scope definition will, of course, vary. As a simple example, if your Scope is defined as a subsurface assessment, you will need to find out where and how deep to install the wells, if you need neighbor access, which driller has the right drilling equipment and skills, what hazards you will be facing. exposed your people and how to protect them, whether or not you can bring physical equipment to the locations you want to drill, how you will collect and compile your data, and whether or not you need to draw conclusions from the work. Each of these tasks will require specialists to form your project team, and their input will also be included in the definition of the list of tasks to achieve that Scope.
The normative and guidance requirements will also add tasks. Site health and safety plans will need to be written and approved and then implemented, as will task-based work plans. Reporting of progress, data, and findings is often done according to a defined schedule, and in the case of a project performed under an order to do work, penalties can be imposed if that schedule is not met.
The schedule is often the nightmare of the project. Those who spend money want the minimum amount of work, done quickly, to minimize expenses. Geologists, chemists, and other scientists who will study and draw conclusions on data will always want more data, which means more time in the field, and will often want or need more time to develop conclusions. As a project manager, you are an important part of the group that finds the middle between these two positions. Weather is often a time constraint, as winter snows and the hot and cold of summer can be dangerous to field personnel, or make data very difficult to obtain (for example, consider the difficulty of sampling of water in minus 10 degrees Minnesota January day). Gaining off-site access can take considerable time when neighbors and their attorneys are difficult to deal with. Getting reviewed, revised and approved midterm and final reports always takes longer than ideal.
And the budget hangs over everything. None of us work for free, and equipment and downtime are expensive. Clients resist spending increases, but change orders always come up, despite your planning efforts. The crude interest in keeping expenses low is often at odds with a moralistic approach to accurately defining and correcting an environmental impact. But even in agency-managed cleanings, the budget is paramount. Agency budgets are not limitless, especially in these tough economic times, and every project, not just yours, is a priority for those affected by it. So you need to be able to analyze and forecast spending and trends and be aware of contingencies, because they always come up, and someone will want to know where the money has been and is going, and what you get for the money spent.
Keeping track of all of this requires skills that are often not taught in school. Project management tools will help, but as a project manager you need to balance these important elements with both strong people skills and engineering expertise, because after all, the ultimate goal of a project is to satisfy stakeholders. .