[Alma_na] Email from Dr. Lo - Regarding Work Elements - Please Read.

[Janet Bauer]

Dear colleagues,

 

In the DHs' meeting last Friday, I emphasized the important step of
sending the revised Work Element sheets to the Project Manager first for
review, discussions and decisions on the final revision, before sending
to Richard Simon, the JAO controller who is charged currently for
implementing the PMCS and therefore the loading of the work element
sheets into the PMCS.  

 

I would like to explain why, in case you think I was just insisting on
protocol, just for protocol's sake.

 

The problem in the past was the lack of sufficient coordination and
management at the project level within the NA ALMA team.  First of all,
it should be clear that cost, schedule and scope changes cannot be made
independently by the various IPTs without the coordination and
management and approval by the Project Manager, as the inter-IPT
dependencies must be coordinated.  Second of all, the project controller
is primarily a keeper of budget, and maybe in this case also of work
element sheets, but the Project Manager has the responsibility to manage
the cost and schedule of the project, not the JAO controller, nor the
Triad consultants.  They may have helped the IPT leads to analyze the
past and may suggest changes for the future and may help to fill out the
work element sheets, but none of them should make any decisions on scope
or cost changes, i.e. in the final work element sheets.  The problem of
filling out the work element sheets, without proper review of the
Project manager, leads to revised schedule and cost that is out of 

control.   Relying on the project controller for the coordination of 

budget and schedule at the project level in the past was clearly
incorrect and may have led to some problems.

 

As you may know, the work elements form the basis of formulating in the
WBS and milestones, etc, and have to be carefully and properly composed.


The example of BE IPT having only two milestones in the current plan is
a result of improper composition of the work element sheets in the past.

 

My insistence on having the Project Office review with all of you the
revised work element sheets is essential to assuring the work break down
structure and milestones and resulting schedule of activities will be
self-consistent over the entire project and compatible with the level 1
milestones and the overall project budget and schedule.

 

This will take some effort and is a very important exercise.

 

As I mentioned, we will hold a couple of sessions to go over the proper
procedure and process of filling out the work element sheets shortly, so
that we will finalize the revised work element sheets in the coming
weeks.  Clearly, for many work element sheets, coordination with our
European partners will be necessary.

 

I hope you will bear with me in this period of reorganization of
ourselves.  I am convinced that we will all be better off at the end of
this process.

 

Cheers,

KYL

Fred K. Y. Lo

________________________________________________________________________
_____

Director and Senior Scientist

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

 

520 Edgemont Road

Charlottesville
Phone: 434 296 0221

VA 22903
Fax:   434 296 0385

U. S. A.
Web:   www.nrao.edu

 

 

 

Janet Bauer

NRAO - ALMA North American Project Office

2496 Old Ivy Road, Suite 226

Charlottesville, VA 22903

 

434.296.0296      (phone)

434.296.0255      (fax)

jbauer at nrao.edu <mailto:jbauer at nrao.edu>  (E-mail)

 

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