Ibrahima DialloDirector of PM/PMO| American Property Restoration, IncLawrenceville, Ga, United States
Hello,
What is the best way to manage a project in an emergency such as responding to a flooded building where the project manager has no time to create a project charter, project management plan, etc. Saving Changes...
Ibrahima DialloDirector of PM/PMO| American Property Restoration, IncLawrenceville, Ga, United States
Also, consider the fact that the project manager is responding to a building that has multiple floors that are flooded. The project manager must mitigate and stabilize the building so further damage does not occur. At the same time, the project manager is managing the project team to perform the work since it's an emergency. How can PMI project management processes be applied in this scenario. Saving Changes...
You might not have a detailed charter or plan, but determining what success means to your key stakeholders and then developing a plan to deliver a successful outcome is still required.
Project management requires tailoring in all contexts - a near term fixed date, high visibility project still needs to be managed but you will scale the level and rigor of practices to fit.
Things that come to mind in your specific context are:
1. Is it an all or nothing proposition or do some services/areas need to be remediated before others?
2. What resources do you have to work with - internal only, or will you pull in external resources?
3. Is this an emergency your company has experienced before and if so are there existing templates or examples of plans which you can adapt?
Kiron Saving Changes...
Sromon DasSenior Project Manager| Mara ConsultingHalifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Great points by Kiron.
All businesses usually have a business continuity plan in place; that has a project plan, charter etc, provision for testing, points of contact, roles & responsibilities, etc. Similar to firefighters- they don't build a plan from scratch when the alarm rings but they do have plans in place which they execute depending on the situation
/sd Saving Changes...
Dinah YoungProject Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William CountySpringfield, Va, United States
I agree with Sromon. Our company has a disaster recovery and COOP plan to handle these types of emergencies. You can never cover all possibilities, but certain steps are common amongst all disasters. There should be a call sheet on who can be contacts. A priority list of what services need to be restored first. A list of vendors to contact. Saving Changes...
The best practical option refers to when such a plan is available when you face a emergency. Most of the time, the emergency agencies have several pre-planned projects which will be applied by project managers at the drop of the hat. Saving Changes...
If you are responding to a disaster or emergency, you have to have the plan in place before the event.
Putting it in terms of software development, you don't create a project to respond to a critical outage. You have processes in place to get the situation under control and get things back on track. Projects may come as a result, but the initial response is not, technically, a project. Saving Changes...
Wayne Miller MS, PMPRetired / Volunteer| Conservation OrganizationsPrairie Du Sac, Wi, United States
I think Kiron touches on an important point, what do the stakeholders want to happen? Project charters and project management plans in part serve to manage scope, schedule, cost, etc. In this case the overall deliverable is pretty evident, it's how to approach the problem that needs clarification. A quick meeting with the sponsor to understand who needs to get back in first and what they need to resume business is essential. I understand that mature organizations may have contingency plans in place: if that is the case great! Some but not all of your work has been started. If you're asking the question I suspect your organization does not have one in place. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Trying to be "academic" this type of things could be understanding from the point of view of buisiness continuity. Take into account I am writting this with my undestanding of the information you provided. Then you can search for business continuity just in case you have to understand more about it. Business Continuity will provide you all you need to answer this question an others. I am in charge of this in my actual work place form some years ago. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
The great way to respond to that is follow your Risk Management Plan as Flooding should be one of the anticipated Risks especially if the property is in a flooding zone and accordingly should have a detailed risk response. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
You may look into knowledge areas like crisis and emergency management, triage etc. There are national and global organisations dealing with emergencies on a regular base. Firefighters, police, military (OODA loop), hospitals are good sources for best practices.
You will find that there are common principles like
- be prepared, have a plan, and have practiced it
- know your priorities upfront (human safety #1)
- There has to be one empower leader
- concentrate communication internally and externally
- crisis response is agile at its best: you iterate in repeating short cycles with the target to reduce overall risk level Saving Changes...
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