The Arborist’s Field Guide to Project Management

Seeing a ForestOne Tree at a Time

GROWWITH TREES.

Course Introduction

Grow with Trees: The Arborist’s Field Guide to Project Management is specially designed, self-paced educational material that promotes the real use of project management principles, methods, and tools. The Field Guide draws upon arborists’ established knowledge for connection with core principles of Project Management, making them quickly available for real-world application and new insights. This integrated approach does not treat new material as an invasive species: it reveals familiar processes of trees as they reflect specific management principles.

This Field Guide is an important vehicle for using information “in the field”. Each chapter introduces its concerns through an arborist’s perspective, and identifies growth objectives and seed terms to direct the study. It delves into essential aspects of project management, followed by a glossary of specialized words. Concluding each chapter are WORK ITems – critical thinking exercises to prepare the student for certification opportunities.

The first chapter of Grow With Trees establishes the framework of Project Management by using a clear description of its main structural components. The second chapter is dedicated to project communication, as ninety percent of a project manager’s time is spent employing some form of communication. The next three chapters address a component of “the triple constraint” phenomenon: Scope, Time, and Cost. Chapters on Risk and Quality round out the conceptual base of project management. The final chapter summarizes and orders all of the documentation produced during a project, and emphasizes the vital importance of documentation practices necessary for the successful completion of every project’s life cycle.

Grow with Trees is intended for all arborists – those with no formalized or practical knowledge of project management concepts, as well as those who have theoretical training but lack integrated field experience. This approach is as wide as the arborist’s profession – from arboriculture to landscape architecture, forestry, et cetera.

Company-specific materials tailored to reflect certain goals, topics and issues (including concept review material and exams) are available upon request.

2 communication

3 scope

4 time

5 cost

6 risk

7 quality

8 documentation

table of contents

producergrow with trees ™

authorsStan Vera-ArtGenevieve Maupin

editorsGenevieve MaupinStan Vera-Art

copyright 2014

1 framework

6 7

1 FRAMEWORK

Trees naturally reveal wisdom and mastery of their systems’ processes and techniques. This is demonstrated in that they live, adapt, and evolve over a very long time1. They are responsive to external factors such as seasons, and have developed methods to advance through them. If they change with the seasons, they can withstand the longer test of time. We arborists know this, and may even be drawn to these workings, the elegant survival mechanisms, and the lessons they offer. However, listening to trees and working with trees are sometimes two different matters; trying to integrate our economic interests and culture with their natural processes can present challenges, to say the least.

Increasing numbers of industries look for reliable systems to apply those processes, and techniques to their work. Their goals are to enhance standards

1 The Pando (Latin for “I spread”; also known as The Trembling Giant) is a clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen; its root system, estimated at 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms.

while securing their places within economies. Some systems are already quite refined: when there is demand for standard products and services, traditional methods (factory production, computer software, et cetera) for supplying orders suffice. But when there is demand for a unique product, service, or result, the formation of a specialized project is required. Its goal is defined by particular needs, and its approach require assessments of all related work. Professional project management is the system that delivers honed processes, tools, skills, knowledge, and techniques which can be consistently applied to any project, anywhere in the world, with remarkable success. As with trees, project management endures the tests of time.

growth objectives

• Learn the nature and purpose of a project

• Explain what a project life cycle is

• Explain what a project phase is, and how phases relate to one another

• Be able to identify the most common phases of a project life cycle

• Know what “deliverables” are and why they are important to project phases

• Know exactly what project management is, and how it influences work standards

seed terms• Project• Project Life Cycle• Project Phase• Deliverables• Project Plan• Project Management

to:

8 9

Project

Trees have a temporary existence – a life span – with a clear beginning and a clear ending. Each tree is also unique; even within one species, individual trees will look different. Projects share this in common with trees. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result (Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide, Fifth Edition).

While projects themselves are unique and temporary, the management approach is consistent and stable. The Project Management profession identifies common principles to encourage the success of unique projects. As we will see, these principles require consistent application for good management.

Project Life Cycle

Each tree has a life cycle with a definite beginning, intermediate phases, and a definite end. Phases are collections of logically related activities that occur within the life cycle. These phases are conception (seed), birth (sprout), infancy (seeding), juvenile (sapling), adult (mature), elderly (decline), and death (snag/rotting log). A tree’s life cycle may end prematurely (disease, chainsaws, storms), or thrive through completion. Depending on the tree species, the number of years in a full cycle varies.

Projects resemble trees in that each has a defined beginning and end, termed “initiation” and “close-out”. As there are many kinds of projects, each project itself has its own life cycle.

Initiation phase processes enable a company to make informed decisions to move a project forward into its planning phase, or to exit and abandon a project. A Statement of Work (SOW) is a document that acts as a miniature project plan to educate a company about the endeavor, and helps these decisions to be made. It is coupled with a (signed) contract.

Next, planning phase processes lead to the creation of the deliverable named the Project Plan. A Project Plan is a document that describes, at a minimum, a project’s scope, time, cost, communication, documentation, risks management plans, and requisite quality standards.

Once a Project Plan is established, it will be implemented during the execution phase, also referred to as “work the planned work”. Work results are the execution phase deliverables.

The controlling phase makes sure the plan is implemented correctly by comparing the work with the plan.

Finally, the close-out phase is focused on properly closing outstanding issues and project invoices, as well as documenting lessons learned from the completed project.

The project type will determine the number of phases in its life cycle, and what they are called, but they are most commonly identified as Initiation, Planning, Execution, Controlling, and Close-out Phase. Just as with a tree, a project may be terminated prematurely, or go through every phase of its particular life cycle. Depending on the project type, its time span varies.

Now that we have defined what projects’ life cycles and phases are, let us look more closely at work activities that occur in various phases. With trees, processes and chemistries change between the juvenile and dying phases: the same is true for project phases.

Project Phases

It is typical for a project to have many phases, and for each phase to have its own set of processes. The phases themselves are connected logically to one another, and are carried out one-by-one; they may overlap. The most common phases within a project are initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and close-out. Each highlights different components in the project life cycle, and each phase brings about one or more deliverables. A deliverable is a product of work – most often a tangible product (i.e., a document or other work result); it can also be a decision. The completion of a phase’s deliverable is a good indicator of the completion of that phase.

A sampling of common phase processes and their deliverables

While projects themselves are unique and temporary,

the management approach

is consistent and stable.

10 11

Project Management

In an oversimplification, we can say that Project Management is just… managing projects. However, as a discipline, it is much more than that. Project Management is the system (and discipline) that consistently applies known processes, tools, skills, knowledge, and techniques to create and manage specific and unique projects. It enhances transparency in work, allows for clear communication, creates accountability, and identifies success or failure points.

Project Management gives us a

language and frame for how to structure work.

It allows - enables! - us to identify distinct phases in our work and understand their relationships. This greatly enhances our ability to bring about the successful completion of a project.

This is an especially significant matter when working with the developing tree industry. The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) and other tree-related organizations are making great strides in heightening their levels of professionalism by consistently applying similar processes, tools, skills, knowledge, and techniques to arboreal work. The ISA certifications indicate that specific knowledge of, and experience with, trees has been acquired. This trend toward improved industry standards is also seen in organizations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI): one may obtain PMI certifications in order to become, for example, a Project Management Professional (PMP).

For the purposes of this training, we will simply study the discipline of project management and the ways in which its system is designed to work with scope, time, costs (budget), communications, documentation, risks, and quality standards. In the following chapters, we will explore each of these factors.

Project A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result

Project Life Cycle A project’s definite beginning, intermediate phases, and end

PhaseA Collection of logically related activities occuring within a life cycle

DeliverableA tangible product (including a decision) resulting from work, sometimes indicating the completion of a phase

Project Plan A comprehensive document that describes and orders all factors of a project into actionable steps

Project ManagementThe system (and discipline) that consistently applies known processes, tools, skills, knowledge, and techniques to create and manage specific and unique projects

International Society of Arboriculture (ISA)An international organization which fosters greater public awareness of the benefits of trees through research, technology, and education

Project Management Institute (PMI)The world’s leading professional project management organization which purposes the advancement of the project management methodology

SPECIALIZED WORDS

12 13

WORK ITems

1. Describe (use your own words) what a project is.

2. How does the project life cycle parallel the tree life cycle?

3. What is a phase, and what determines the end of one phase and the beginning of another?

4. Describe (use your own words) what project management is.

14

2COMMUNICATION

“Actions speak louder than words.” We usually understand this idiom to mean that actions are more important than words. However, several studies by Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Message, might give us a new way of thinking about this interpretation. He examined the daily communications between people, and discovered that 93% of all communication is nonverbal – only 7% of any message is conveyed through words! 38% is communicated by certain vocal elements, and 55% through visual cues, such as facial expressions, gestures, posture, et cetera. Is it possible that “actions speak louder” because they actually communicate more than words, as Dr. Mehrabian discovered?

That most messages are communicated nonverbally should be no surprise to arborists: trees communicate as well. As their caretakers, we receive their

grow with trees .com™

messages every day, but mostly via sight, smell, and touch – though hearing, taste, movement, and energy can be involved as well. We receive sensory information from trees. We observe wilt, leaf-loss, decay, discoloring, and other expressions of activity. Verbal and written communication, as helpful as they sometimes are, are not directly available from them to us. We gather this information from people who have ‘known’ a tree for a long time, and have watched its behavior closely over the years. Brainstorming with arborists who have cared for trees in the past qualifies as information gathering from experts. Walking up to a tree, however, and verbally asking, “Hi, any thoughts on why you are experiencing canopy dieback?” is a stretch. Unlike a doctor and patient, you can’t tell a tree, “describe your ailments to me,” or “show me where your pain is.”1

1 note: if you can, please tell us – we are always thinking research