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Post Katrina: Problems Linger On (Part 1 of 3)
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Hurricane Katrina was front-page news for several weeks. At the time, it seemed like the horror stories would never stop coming.
There are still plenty of nightmare Katrina stories, but the ones that occasionally make it to the front page are random and infrequent. Most Katrina-related stories are relegated to the back pages…but don't mistakenly think they're about minor problems.
Any PM can tell you that a project doesn't end when it's "officially" completed on deadline. Construction PMs don't leave town when a 40-story office building they project-managed from inception is ready to rent space, or when a bridge or tunnel that took five years to build is finally open to the public. Their work is ongoing. The follow-up monitoring, checking, rechecking, re-evaluating safeguards and, of course, the disaster scenarios never stop being fine-tuned.
PM Perspective: Every project needs a contingency plan. It's especially vital when results and outcomes cannot be absolutely guaranteed. Budgets have to be constantly revised in light of new developments or problems. In short, contingency planning means detailed and comprehensive fallback actions.
I'd like to think that Gantt charts exist covering the myriad post-Katrina disaster scenarios, outlining what is being done, timeframe projections, cost columns, schedules and a critical path analysis that is always being …
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