News About Fascinating Projects - November 2006
- Space Shuttle Discovery to Return to the International
Space Station in December - Is Britain's Biggest Public IT project in trouble?
- Project Underway to Build the World's First "Eco-city" in China
Space Shuttle Discovery to Return to the International
NASA has announced that Space Shuttle Discovery's next mission, designated STS-116, is targeted for launch no earlier than Dec. 7 on a flight to the International Space Station.
Discovery will bring a new crew member to the station, and astronauts will rewire the growing orbiting laboratory to bring online new power supplies generated by solar arrays installed in September 2006. Duration of the STS-116 mission is expected to be 11 days.
The rewiring during the mission will almost double the electrical power available on the station. Discovery's astronauts will perform three spacewalks to rearrange the station's electrical and cooling systems and install a small, new component of the girder-like truss. The work will require powering down and re-powering virtually all of the station's key systems in one of the most complex assembly missions to date.
Discovery's crew members will be Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Bill Oefelein and mission specialists Bob Curbeam, Nick Patrick, Joan Higginbotham, Suni Williams and Christer Fuglesang. Mr. Fuglesang is a European Space Agency astronaut. Williams will remain aboard the station to begin a six-month stay. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, aboard the station since July, will return to Earth on Discovery.
Commander Polansky, an astronaut since 1996, will be making his second space flight on STS-116. He first flew as pilot of the shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-98 in February 2001, a 13-day flight that delivered the U.S. Destiny Laboratory to the station.
The space shuttle is one of the most complex machines every built. With its robust capabilities, the space shuttle has allowed humans to construct the International Space Station (the world?fs largest orbiting laboratory), paving the way back to the Moon, on to Mars and further into the universe. For more information about STS-116, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle.
Is Britain's Biggest Public IT project in trouble?
According to the Financial Times on Monday, 2 October 2006, the UK's $12B Euros (US$22.5B) project to create an electronic record for every patient in England "the biggest civil IT project in the world" has hit stormy waters three years into its life major points raised in the article included the following:
- Significant basic infrastructure has not been installed;
- The project's main goal of patient records will be at least two years late;
- Senior government officials charged with the project's ownership have changed repeatedly;
- The Project faces major issues associated with patient consent and confidentiality; and
- Accenture, the global IT consultancy, is pulling out of the project.
- Costs could soar to 2-3 times current budget, with some estimates at $30B Euros.
Apparently, an impartial study of the project?s technical achievability is still needed. In other words, the completion and success of the entire project is at risk.
This should come as no surprise to most readers familiar with IT project management. The Standish Group in the USA in its annual survey still reports that approximately one third of IT projects fail to deliver on time, on budget or according to program performance goals.
While we at PMForum.org are not surprised, we sympathize with the project sponsors and stakeholders, the citizens of the UK. This project qualifies for special consideration for at least three reasons: (1) it is a large IT project, with inherent difficulties and not enough best practice models available for the PM team; (2) it is a "gmega-project?", entailing a special set of PM-related issues due to its size, schedule, number of participants and stakeholders, budget, etc.; and (3) it is a highly visible and politically charged public program that requires special stakeholder management by the PM team. These are not easy programs to manage, although there certainly is information and expertise available to support them if sponsors are willing to consider getting professional PM advice rather than hiring contractors to help.
For more information on this program, visit: http://www.e-health-insider.com/news/item.cfm?ID=2104 or conduct a Google search on NHS patient records IT project in the UK
Project Underway to Build the World's First "Eco-city" in China
Located on Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangzi River, a new city is being designed by Chinese planners with the help of the British engineering firm Arup to create the world's first fully green city. The new city is intended to become a showcase of environmental co-operation between China and Great Britain, and to demonstrate the latest in environmentally friendly technologies in all aspects of city design and operation.
The new city of Dongtan will be located on the eastern end of Chongming Island, a semi-rural area on the northern boundary of Shanghai, one of China's most crowded cities with a population of 9.3 million. The city will be built on reclaimed land, and is expected to attract low polluting high tech industries. It will also be built to attract eco tourists from the city and elsewhere around China.
No diesel or gas vehicles will be allowed in Dongtan. Other environmentally friendly policies and technologies to be implemented will included:
- Energy will come from renewable sources such as wind turbines & bio fuels;
- Most of the city's rubbish will be recycled;
- Human waste will be reprocessed and used for irrigation;
- Food will be produced without agricultural chemicals;
- Green building technologies will be used to reduce energy consumption.
The design will be a combination of traditional Chinese features and the latest "green" technologies from the West. Phase 1 to accommodate the first 25,000 people is to be completed by 2010. Total population will increase to 500,000 by 2040.
Although plenty of problems are anticipated, both the Chinese government organizations involved and the British firm Arup hope this
project can be a model for other sustainable cities around the world. For example, Arup is also involved in the planning for a new
zero-carbon development in an old industrial area in east London. More information about the Dongtan project can be found at:
http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTk4MTk
or
http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/811/2006/05/07/301@85444.htm.