The Project Environment

An engineering project is executed within a certain environment, that is, all those non-technological factors that influence how the product is created and how it is operated to provide the service. These factors include  

These factors increase the complexity of a project not only by their existence and interactions, but also because they need to be managed, in the form of such activities as lobbying, public relations, and community consultation. In infrastructure projects it is not unusual for this management effort to amount to several percent of the total engineering effort. 

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After obtaining the prototypes, tests must be made to determine the utility. Generally these include a short time destructive test to determine the strength and to check out the basic design. Another test that is done is to use the product in the projected environment with stress levels increased in a rational manner to make for an accelerated life test. Other tests may include consumer acceptance tests to determine what instructions in proper use are required, tests for potential safety hazards, electrical tests, self-extinguishing tests, and any others that the product requires. In the case of high risk products, the test program is continued even after the product enters service. 

HIERARCHIES IN THE PROJECT ENVIRONMENT THE NEED FOR A WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE... 

The whole cycle is subject to constraints from the project environment, such as market developments, legislation, and new technologies. Late changes in customer requirements (Thomke and Reinertsen 1998) make necessary research and development (R D) management that is able to handle these uncertainties efficiently. Furthermore, the execution of the cycle is not necessarily sequential. For example, results from the generation of prototypes can be directly incorporated into a new design phase. 

The project environment defines the objectives, success criteria, project milestones, and associated management priorities that will govern the integrated technical activities in support of product developmrait. The methods by which the project is to be accomplished within the project environment should be documented in a systems integrated management plan. The efficiency and effectiveness of project integrated technical activities are enhanced by... 

In this chapter, we will further address and quantify some of the project environment issues raised in preceding chapters. They essentially relate to two aspects of project work, firstly plant capital and operating costs, and secondly the costs of project engineering and management work. 

Project Close-down. The objectives of the project close-down process are the planning of the conqrletion of the remaining tasks, project evaluation and the dissolving of the project team Transfer of lessons learned to the permanent organization and to other projects as well as the dissolution of the project environment relationships close the project. Ultimately, the project owner s approval of the project finalizes the project close-down. 

Monitoring is normally adopted as a mechanism to check that any conditions imposed on the project are being enforced or to check the quality of the affected environment. 

L. T. Cupitt, Project Summay Fate of Toxic and Hac rdous Materials in the Air Environment U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park,N.C, 1980. 

In general, the test object caimot be heated above its operating temperature in space. As free molecular conditions are obtained around the object, it outgases and, if solar-spectmm photons impinge on the object, increases the release of gas. Because the object is in a vessel and the area of the hole lea ding to the gas pump is small compared with the projected interior area of the vessel, molecules originating from the test object can return to the test object provided that they do not interact in some manner with the vessel walls and the other components of the molecular environment. The object inside the vessel estabhshes an entirely different system than the clean, dry, and empty vacuum vessel. The new system no longer has the capabiUty to reach the clean, dry, and empty base pressure within a reasonable time. 

Once the economic analysis has been completed, the project should be analyzed for unexpected as well as expected impacts on the economics. This is usually done through a set of what if calculations that test the project s sensitivity to missed estimates and changing economic environment. As a minimum, the DCF rate of return should be calculated for 10% variations in capital, operating expenses, and sales volume and priee. 

Using formalized risk assessment techniques for industrial ventilation projects may complicate the issue more than necessary. The work environment and its exposure conditions are the focus. However, when evaluating new technology, including waste management, the risk assessment approach may be valuable. 

Urban, rural and industrial developments may have profound effects on the surrounding environment. Such effects can defeat the object of development, in that the negative environmental impact may outweigh the benefits. In the case of natural resources, inappropriate development may even destroy the resource base. If environmental matters are accorded adequate consideration during the planning and management of development programs and projects it is possible for pollutants to be assimilated. As a result, the whole development can be accommodated by the environment in such a way that adverse effects are minimized and the economic and social benefits of development are maximized. 

CAM-PC is a general purpose CA software simulation environment based on CAM-6, Designed by members of the GENOME Project at Eotvos University in Hungary, the first version of CAM-PC extends the possibilities of CAM-6 but is not yet fully compatible with it. The primary addition is support for 8 bit planes, increasing the size of CAM-6 s ccdl-statc alphabet to 256, The laudable purpose behind the project is to provide inexpensive but otherwise fully functional simulation tools for amateur researchers unable to afford faster dedicatcxl hardware. 

Laser cooling can efficiently reduce the velocity of the atoms but cannot circumvent the acceleration due to gravity. On the ground the 1-g gravity level sets clear limitations to the ultimate sensitivities. The HYPER project (Hyper precision cold atom interferometry in space) will follow precisely this line and will benefit from the space environment, which enables very long interaction time (few seconds) and low spurious vibrational level. The sensitivity of the atomic interferometer can achieve few 10 rad.s. Hz to rotation and to acceleration. This very sensitive and accurate apparatus... 

The structure of the [Fe2 / - 82) P o - 61148) )2] complex is presented in Figure 1. The structure we used was obtained from x-ray crystallography, symmetrized such that the environments of the two Fe atoms are the same. The local symmetry of each Fe atom is C3, the overall symmetry of the complex is Ci. To aid in the interpretation of the computed results we oriented the complex such that the z-axis passes through the center of mass and the projections of the two P — Fe- 8 line segments onto the z-axis are maximized. 

Once the criteria were clearly established, the project team reviewed available commercial solutions and started out on a serious of presentations from vendors. From the list of possible vendors, a short list was drawn up, in rank order, and pilot evaluations were carried out. In the pilot program the systems were deployed in a real-world environment to approximately 100 scientists worldwide. 

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