The goals of The Three Little Pigs Project is to update building codes to construct safe inexpensive houses; develop cost-effective methods to update existing homes; and reduce human error in construction.
The Engineering Research Team of the University of Western Canada is developing a test facility that will permit researchers to simulate and study realistic damage to full-scale houses from wind, snow and rain.
The Project Overview states that ...
"Around the world, tropical cyclones regularly provide vivid illustrations of the devastation that strong winds and rain can produce, in both developing and developed countries. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, destroying 20,000 houses and causing US $30 billion in damage. If the storm had tracked 50 km further north, estimated damage would have exceeded US $100 billion. Canadian engineers are active in the US and other countries that experience extreme wind speeds (Japan, China, Caribbean) and our wind code provisions are influential in these countries. In Canada, severe windstorms tend to be more localized but still cause significant damage. In addition to rare events such as the Edmonton and Barrie tornadoes, or Hurricanes Hazel and Juan, there are also the severe east coast storms. The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) was created to minimize the effects of natural disasters by reducing vulnerability through mitigation efforts. This not only applies to the well-publicized rare events, but also to the myriad of less dramatic incidents in which houses and light frame buildings are damaged in preventable circumstances.
"The "Three Little Pigs" facility will permit, for the first time anywhere, the application of realistically simulated time and spatially varying wind loads to full-scale houses and light-frame structures including sheet steel buildings, in a controlled manner, up to failure. This will permit an assessment of the integrity of the overall structure of the building, the pathways by which the load is transmitted through the structure to the ground and the performance of individual building components as part of the whole construction. Simulated snow loading will also be investigated. In addition, the facility will be used to assess the factors influencing the ingress of moisture due to wind-driven rain and the development of harmful mould growth under realistic environmental conditions. Further, information on human error during the construction process will be collected and its impact on the potential damage and failure will be analyzed. These will all be breakthrough developments to the current state-of-the-art. In fact, much of the necessary instrumentation and equipment will be developed as part of the project, since it does not yet exist." See http://www.eng.uwo.ca/research/ttlpp/
http://www.cio.com/archive/041504/wireless.html?printversion=yes
A Letter to the Editor received from Russell Archibald.
I invite you to join me on a project to develop a globally agreed methodology for categorizing projects that
We are just moving into the conceptual phase of our project, and our near-term objective is to recruit members of our team from as many countries as we can. Please feel free to forward this invitation to others whom you believe would be interested and qualified to join our team. I look forward to working with all of you.
Here are the current draft statements of project objectives and scope:
Statements of Project Objectives and Scope
Project Objectives
System Need: Define the need for a globally agreed system for categorizing projects of all types and sizes.
System Uses: Identify specific, practical uses of an agreed project categorization system.
Project Categorization System: To satisfy the defined needs and uses, develop appropriate systems, methodologies, and related categorization criteria that are acceptable, practical, and useful to PM practitioners, consultants, educators, software developers, and researchers in all parts of the world.
System Test Applications: Prove the validity of the resulting system by applying it in as many different settings as possible.
Continuous Improvement: Incorporate the results of both test and operational application of the system by continually improving the system methodologies and categorization criteria.
Project Scope
The Global Project Categorization System will be:
I invite you to join our international team to work on this project. After we define the project systematically and identify our team members, I expect that we can prepare a task/responsibility matrix to delineate specific responsibilities for individuals. I envision our team members will fall into one of the following general categories:
Project Gurus: Those team members who have established reputations as PM authorities through their published works and/or activities as practitioners, consultants, teachers, consultants, researchers, or leadership positions in professional PM associations. Our Project Gurus may also volunteer to take on some specific assignment but as a minimum we will expect them to keep themselves informed of our progress and results and to provide frequent advice and counsel to us regarding any and all aspects of the project, as they see fit.
Project Leaders: Those team members who are willing to take responsibility for specific elements of the project as defined in our project/work breakdown structure (major project elements, deliverables or tasks) or areas within the project (as, for example, Project Leader/Coordinator for each involved country, or for each specific language.)
Project Specialists: Those team members who are willing to work on and contribute to specific aspects of the project that require their experience and expertise (as, for example, specific project categories: new product, financial systems, IT systems, facility design/procure/construct, etc.)
What To Do If You Wish To Accept This Invitation to Join Our Team:
For more on the topic look at my presentation on the subject of Project Categorization at "Introduction to PCP - Slide Presentation". If you have the time, please read my paper titled "A Global System for Categorizing Projects: The Need for, Recommended Approach to, Practical Uses of, and Description of a Current Project to Develop the System," available there at "Introduction to PCP - Read Full Paper." These are elaborations on the presentation that I made in Budapest. Also, I just posted a short "Progress Report" in the Forum Room on the site on "General Announcements."
There are papers and presentations posted on the site that I believe will be of interest. If anyone is aware of additional writings of interest to our project please feel free to upload them to the site.
Russell
Russell D. Archibald, PMP, Fellow PMI and APM/IPMA
Consultant and Educator in Project Management
http://www.russarchibald.com