Abacus Project

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Pages: 3

According to the PMBOK guide by the Project Management Institute, the essential components needed for an organization to achieve excellence in project management are initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. By applying this model to the Abacus Project, in addition to my own personal experience with project management, the issues presented in the case study can be identified and evaluated in light of the successful outcome.

In the Abacus Project, the project lifecycle consisted of the Initiation Phase, an Environmental Evaluation Phase, the Design and Pre-construction Phase, Construction Phase, and a Cleanup and Transfer to Operation Phase. DBA, a federal agency, is described as a “typical Matrix organization”, and the Abacus Project was initiated in 1999 to build an energy transmission line to the Seattle/Kings Country region of Washington State, as the Canadian Treaty was expiring and the northwest electrical grid experienced load problems. Cross-functional teams and cross-governmental agencies worked together to solve the issues uncovered in the load forecasting models and to create alignment with the key values of the project. Having team members from the environmental, engineering, and planning departments was needed due to the complexity of the project, and the impact on the public and the enormity of the project, and the concern over electricity disruptions in the area.
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Some of the issues affecting the project lifecycle were protecting the watershed for the City of Seattle, minimizing erosion, and the need for public meetings to discuss the options and alternatives available to make the project a success. This inevitably caused long delays, but was required in order to complete the project to the satisfaction of the greatest number of