Project Teams

Although a single project manager may direct activities throughout a project life, he or she will normally be supported by a project team whose oomposition should reflect the type of project and the experience levels of both company and contractor personnel. The make up and size of the team may change over the life of a project to match the prevailing activity levels in each particular section of the project. 

Review Follow-up Verification In addition to someone tracking the follow-up through progress reports, responsibility should be assigned to verify that any process changes were ac tuaUy made in the field. This verification can be done by a review team as part of a process pre-start-up review. It could also be part of the project team management responsibihty or assigned to a particular functional (i.e., safety and loss prevention) representative. The closure of the review process is complete once implementation is verified. 

On rare occasions, the resolution of project review concerns or action items is a point of contention between review team and project team members. In such a case, a management structure must be in place to arbitrate such disputes. 

Some of these areas involve actions that primarily you, the ultimate user, must take (e.g., carefully defining written objectives for the QRA project team). Other areas involve decisions that you will influence, but that should be left to the team s discretion (e.g., selection of specific analytical techniques). Still other areas will require your careful interaction and negotiation with the QRA team to ensure that their final product meets your needs (e.g., defining analysis scope and available resources). 

If a QRA is to efficiently satisfy your requirement, you must specifically define its charter for the QRA project team. Figure 6 contains the various... 

Establishing the physical and analytical boundaries for a QRA is also a difficult task. Even though you will provide input, the scope definition will largely be made by the QRA project team. Defining the physical boundaries is relatively straightforward, but it does force the QRA team to explicitly identify and account for interfaces that may significantly affect the QRA results. Eor example, analysts often treat a connection to a power supply (e.g., a plug) or a feed source as a physical boundary yet, loss of power or contamination of the feed must be considered in the QRA model. 

The QRA project team can select the appropriate technical approach once you specify the study objectives, and together you can define the scope. A variety of modeling techniques and general data sources (discussed in Section 3.2) can be used to produce the desired results. Many computer programs are now available to aid in calculating risk estimates, and many automatically give more answers than you will need. The QRA team must take care to supply appropriate risk characteristics that satisfy your study objectives—and no more. 

You should consider obtaining internal and external quality assurance reviews of the study (to ferret out errors in modeling, data, etc.). Independent peer reviews of the QRA results can be helpful by presenting alternate viewpoints, and you should include outside experts (either consultants or personnel from another plant) on the QRA review panel. You should also set up a mechanism wherein disputes between QRA team members (e.g., technical arguments about safety issues) can be voiced and reconciled. All of these factors play an essential role in producing a defendable, high-quality QRA. Once the QRA is complete, you must formally document your response to the project team s final report and any recommendations it contains. 

Improvement of equipment effectiveness. This should start with a detailed design review of the plant machinery. A performance analysis of the plant could point to a specific area known to have problems (i.e., section of plant) must be selected and focused on, project teams should be formed and assigned to each train. An analysis should be conducted that address the following ... 

In one site, the project team installing a DCS (Distributed Control System) carefully developed and tested techniques to make the displays clear for red-green color blind personnel (see discussion in 6.4). The displays were effective and were applauded by the operators. However, in subsequent DCS installation projects at the same site, different project teams made no provision to make displays visible to red-green color blind personnel. This inherently less safe condition was found during a design review at one unit and at the pre-start-up safety review for another unit. 

HAZWOPER sites are subject to the same rules and requirements as other operations. This holds true whether the site is being managed by private industry, DOE, or the Army Corps of Engineers. Identifying and implementing a project team in the early phases of the project to address health and safety issues will help to achieve seamless integration and to reduce duplication. 

Establishing overall and specific organizational roles and responsibilities of different functions and disciplines by defining individual roles, responsibilities, accountabilities, and interfaces in the project team with matrix personnel and organizations, and between contractors and subcontractors. 

Bringing workers from different technical disciplines into project teams. (This will encourage employee participation.)... 

Verifying that project teams have adequate technical resources (and knowledge) to complete the project or task in a safe manner. 

The size of the project team depends on the particular tasks that are to be performed and the hazards that may be encountered. Keep in mind that a wide variety of disciplines may not be required for every project. During the early stages of planning, an organizational chart should be developed. This chart can serve to visually depict the following ... 

The project team organization. This will help to identify key individuals and alternates, roles and responsibilities, and other on-site and off-site resources. 

The organizational chart further identifies key positions in the project team, including the project director, project manager, site safety and health officer (SSHO), site supervisor, emergency response coordinator, site security, and other specialized positions. 

The following sections describe roles and responsibilities that may be included in a project team. 

Security issues involving access controls are typically line management responsibilities. However, it is not unheard of to have the SSHO in charge of site access or other security-related matters. However, if the field team leader or site supervisors are in charge of access issues or other security matters, they should always strive for SSHO participation. The nature of a project may warrant assigning a member of the site security staff to the project team. Key duties of the security officer may include the following ... 

To be successful, a team selected from different groups within the project team should participate in the preparation and review of these plans. In addition, a schedule of the review and approval process for these plans needs to be established, accepted by all reviewers, and distributed before release of the first draft. Reviewers should meet an established schedule for review and submission of comments. A distinction between review and approval authority should be determined. The review process determines if all of the required elements are identified. This review can take considerable time, depending on the complexity of the project. The approval process is important when all comments are incorporated. The key responsible persons associated with the project should accept and approve the changes to the document. 

HAZWOPER specifically requires that project personnel and responsibilities be well defined. Refer to our discussion on project team organization in Chapter 3. 

Critical to hazard characterization is the identification of hazards and the assessment of possible worker exposure. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. As described before, one commonly used technique is a JHA with project teams that include the worker. The information collected is used by the SSHO and the radiation control officer to develop an appropriate hazard control and protection strategy. 

In some cases, decontamination workers wear the same level of PPE as workers entering the controlled area or exclusion zone. In others, decontamination workers are sufficiently protected by wearing a lower level of PPE. In many instances, level D protection is not acceptable in the CRZ. In addition, all decontamination workers should be decontaminated before entering the support zone. Appropriate equipment and clothing for protecting decontamination workers should be planned by the project team [2]. 

As project structures are temporary, there needs to be a system in place that controls the interfaces between the line functions and project team. Such a system would include ... 

Although the standard does not specifically require a quality planning procedure, to ensure that such planning is carried out in a manner which avoids conflict with existing practices and in a format which suits your operations, you will need to prescribe the method to be employed in a procedure. Some contracts may stipulate a particular format for contract-specific procedures, especially when they are to be submitted to the customer for approval. If these procedures are only used by the project team, this may not cause any conflict. However, if they are to be used by staff in the line departments, you may have to reach a compromise with the customer so that any differences in format do not create implementation problems. 

The standard requires that if a project management approach is used, a project manager and project team be assigned, that appropriate resources be allocated, and any special responsibilities and organizational interfaces be defined. 

In some respects this requirement is ambiguous as there are no equivalent requirements for when the APQP approach is used. The APQP manual merely offers guidance. With the APQP approach the equivalent of the project manager is the project team leader and the equivalent of the project team is the product quality planning team. 

A multidisciplinary approach is another term for a cross-functional team or a project team. Such teams comprise representatives from each line and staff department so that decisions are taken close to the development work by those who will need to implement the decisions or verify their implementation. Such teams facilitate communication and overcome delays that often occur when reliant upon line-staff relationships. If you have adopted the project management approach this requirement is not additional to that in clause 4.2.4.1. 

A process development team should be established to manage the development of any new processes. The team may be formed from the project team but you may need additional specialists. If several new processes are to be developed, several teams will be needed. By building a team for each process you will focus the efforts of staff more clearly than loading several new jobs onto the same individuals, but if you lack resources you may have no option. 

What disciplines comprise your multidisciplinary or project teams ... 

Hybrid approaches are generally more difficult to manage as the relationships and division of responsibilities between the PSM project teams and other management varies from element to element. This can lead to confusion within both the PSM teams and among other managers, which can result in misunderstandings and wasted work. 

Piiot Testing. Pilot testing of each PSM system will be performed at two locations to be selected by the project team. The test period will be two months. During the test period, the project team will monitor the PSM system to assure that procedures are clear and do not conflict with other procedures. 

Training. The project team will define the training needed for implementation of each new PSM system. The amount and type of training, and the number of staff requiring training, will be identified in the procedure developed. 

Verification. Each PSM system will include a mechanism for verifying installation. This will either be the requirement for copies of documentation being sent to Corporate EHS, or another mechanism defined by the project team. 

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