Glades County is a region on the Gulf Coast with a population of 600,000. About 90 percent of the population is located in and near the city of Sitkus. The main attractions of the area are its clean, sandy beaches and nearby fishing. Resorts, restaurants, hotels, retailers, and the Sitkus/Glades County economy in general rely on these attractions for tourist dollars.
In the last decade, Glades County has experienced a near doubling of population and industry. One result has been the noticeable increase in the level of water pollution along the coast due primarily to the increased raw sewage dumped by Glades County into the Gulf. Ordinarily, the Glades County sewer system directs effluent waste through filtration plants before pumping it into the Gulf. Although the Glades County Sanitary District (GCSD) usually is able to handle the county’s sewage, during heavy rains the runoff from paved surfaces exceeds sewer capacity and must be diverted past filtration plants, directly into the Gulf.
Following heavy rains, the beaches are cluttered with dead fish and debris. The Gulf fishing trade also is affected; pollution drives away desirable fish. Recently, the water pollution level has become high enough to damage both the tourist and fishing trade. Besides coastal pollution, there is also concern that as the population continues to increase, the county’s primary fresh water source, Glades River, will also become polluted.
The GCSD has been mandated to prepare a comprehensive water waste management program that will reverse the trend in pollution along the Gulf Coast as well as handle the expected increase in effluent wastes over the next 20 years. Although not yet specified, it is known that the program will include new sewers, filtration plants, and stricter anti-pollution laws. As a first step, GCSD must establish the overall direction and mission of the program. Wherever possible, answer the following questions (given the limited information, it is okay to advance some logical guesses; if you re not able to answer a question for lack of information, indicate how and where, as a systems analyst, you would get it).
What is the problem? Carefully formulate it. The main problem of this case study is the increase in the level of water pollution along the coast due primarily to the increased raw sewage dumped by Glades County into the Gulf. The water pollution has become high enough to damage both the tourist and fishing trade. The root cause of the worsening water pollution is the doubling of population and industry in the area. Aside from the degradation of the Gulf, there is a concern that as the population continues to increase, the county’s primary source of fresh water will also become polluted.
Define the overall objective of the water waste management program. Because the program is wide-ranging in scope, you should break this down into several sub objectives.
STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES: The overall objective of the water waste management program is to reverse the trend in pollution along the Gulf Coast as well as to handle the expected increase in effluent waste over the next 20 years.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES (SUB-OBJECTIVES):
- To establish the overall direction and mission of the water waste management program;
- To include new sewers and filtration plants in the water waste management program;
- To strictly implement within the district the anti-pollution laws.
Define the criteria or measures of performance to be used to determine whether the objectives of the program are being met. Specify several criteria for each sub-objective. As much as possible, the criteria should be quantitative, although some qualitative measures should also be included.
How will you know if the criteria that you define are the appropriate ones to use? Measures of Performance for Sub objective 1: To establish the overall direction and mission of the water waste management program. First, the project manager estimates the size of the project and identifies the tasks that need to be performed. This step produces important management deliverables, including the workplan, the Gantt Chart, Pert Chart, refining estimates, and determining the scope of management.
The project manager staffs the project and puts several activities in place to help coordinate project activities. Staffing the project includes determining how many people should be assigned to the project, matching people’s skills with the needs of the project, motivating them to meet the project’s objectives, and minimizing the conflict that may occur over time. The deliverables for this part of project management are a staffing plan, which describes the number and kinds of people who will work on the project, the overall reporting structure, and the project charter, which describes the project’s objectives and rules.
The overall direction and mission of the water waste management program will be met if you will be able to identify the size of the project and if the manager knows the size, this will give him the idea of how many people to hire or assign to the project. And once the overall reporting structure is determined, he will be able to formulate the overall direction and mission of the project.
To include new sewers and filtration plants in the water waste management program;
Identification of the actual requirements. In many ways, the requirements determination step is the single most critical step of the whole process. Because it is here that the major elements of the project first begin to emerge. During the requirements determination, the project is easy to change because little work has been done yet. As the project moves through the other phases, it becomes harder and harder to make changes because of all the rework that is involved. So it is necessary that small batches of requirements are identified first and implemented in incremental stages, allowing the overall project to evolve over time. And so that adjustments in the latter part of the implementation would be easier.
Estimation of Cost. The manager needs to estimate the cost of the project and then assess how to roll out the project in a way that meets the county’s needs. The estimates developed at the start of the project are usually based on a range of possible values and gradually become more specific as the project moves forward. The numbers used to calculate the estimates can come from several sources. They can be taken from projects with similar tasks and technologies or can be provided by experienced developers. The estimates should be conservative so that the numbers can be refined along the way. The inclusion of new sewers and filtration plants in the project would be easy to achieve if you know the actual requirements and cost of the project.
To strictly implement within the district the anti-pollution laws. Coordination with the District’s officials who are responsible in the implementation of law. The manager must first coordinate with the officials of the district to know how severe the problem is, to what degree are the people doing the violation so that such law can be implemented at once. Of course, there is a process in passing a law, so it should be forwarded to the proper forum.
Setting a fine for violation of the law The setting of the fine must be discussed first in a round table so that the value that will be considered must not be too high nor too low. It will be too high if the value is very unreasonable and too low if the violator would not mind paying for it. These two measures would be appropriate for sub objective number 3 because as discussed it is not easy to pass a law there should be a proper forum for that and to set a fine for violation of the law would surely help in the implementation of the law.
