Project Management Applications
Our project management application tools assist clients in all stages of project management, analysis and tracking. These tools include the following applications:
> EndPoints 2000
> Project Management Deliverable Status/Tracking Tool
> Facility Management Database and Ranking & Sequencing Model
> Requirements-Based Assessment (RBA) Database Tool
> Status Management Information Library & Exchange (SMILE) System
> Corrective Action Unit (CAU) Deliverable Status Tracking Tool (ER Projects)
> Committment Management System
> Facility Specific (U1a) Requirements Management Database
> Training Management Tool (TMT)
EndPoints 2000
The Endpoint process has been developed to select, justify, and document the points to be reached in completing a deactivation or decommissioning project. The process leads the user through a logical framework to determine the minimum effort and cost necessary to reach the desired end state. The resulting end points are used to plan project work, and are closed out to document project completion. The Endpoint process is further described in DOE G 430.1-3, Deactivation Implementation Guide.
Polestar professionals, the inventors of the process, have developed EndPoints 2000, a database software application in MS Access to facilitate application. EndPoints 2000 was developed under the DOE EM-20 National Facility Deactivation Initiative (NFDI) program — see http://www.em.doe.gov/deact/ for further information on NFDI. EndPoints 2000 allows the user to develop custom end points for a project, or to rapidly apply the library of existing criteria and end points. A form is provided that allows the user to check off characteristics of a space or system and link them automatically to the criteria and end points in the library. End Points 2000 is the ideal management tool for the determination, management, verification, and closure of end points. The EndPoints 2000 application has been used extensively at the Savannah River Site (SRS) F-Canyon and FBLine deactivation closure projects.
The Polestar staff has significant experience identifying project end points and facility end states in both the commercial industry (e.g., Three Mile Island Cleanup) and the DOE complex (e.g., Hanford’s B Plant, PUREX Plant, FFTF, and PFP, Rocky Flats, SRS’s F Canyon, Oak Ridge Y-12’s Alpha 5). EndPoints define the actions required to meet the terminal objectives of the project (i.e., remove hazardous materials, de-energize electrical services). The project end state defines the condition the facility will be left in following completion of project activities (i.e., cold, dark and dry). Facility end points are typically identified through facility walkdown by Polestar personnel. In assisting our client’s, Polestar developed a relational database to assist in development of project end points. Polestar assists our clients in implementing the End Points software to develop project end points and provides training to our clients to be self sufficient users of the tool.
Project Management Deliverable/Task Status Tracking Tool
Polestar recently developed a flexible Project Management tool to assist project managers and engineers in managing multiple project, deliverables, and tasks. This tool can be used as a personal management system, or a project management system. The database environment allows for quick and dynamic sorting of data, using our flexible data analysis features, to provide you the information you need. The system tracks individual deliverable/task statuses and provides user-customized reports for each project team member.
Polestar utilized our project management experience and IT expertise to develop a simple tool to assist project managers, engineers, and organization in managing the simplest to the most complex projects.
Project Management Deliverable/Task Status Tracking Tool PowerPoint Presentation
Facility Management Database and Ranking & Sequencing Model
The challenge of identifying, planning, and maintaining information on the entire Savannah River Site seemed like an overwhelming task. With over 7,500 facilities, contractual obligations, differing missions, facility operating schedules, inactive and excess facilities with known and unknown condition, as well as estimating all of these facilities for out year planning – seemed nearly impossible. Polestar’s D&D, IT, and consulting team collaborated and produce the Facility Management Database to assist the SRS with this effort. The database application provides a repository for critical facility information.
Within the database, applications and models were developed to assist the Site D&D team to accomplish the task. An End State Model and application was developed to allow engineers to quickly and correctly determine the end state for a facility. Polestar’s knowledge of the end state selection process was capture in the application. Next, a Rough Order-of-Magnitude Cost Estimating application was developed, based on accepted models from INEEL, to allow simple easy input and adjustment of cost estimates for all types of facilities. Adequate for large-scale budget planning, these estimates were used in developing contractual commitments and fee payments. Duration models were created to assist planners in determining the average duration of the decommissioning activities for any size of facility – valuable for near term on long term resource and budget planning.
A key model in the database is the Ranking and Sequencing Model. This application, internal to the facility management database, allows user to subjectively an objectively assess key criteria for sequencing projects in current and out-year schedules, based on the following risk factors: Health & Safety, Economic, and programmatic. The application ranks a facility based on the inputs to these main factors and provides and optimized recommended sequencing/scheduling of these facilities, based on an available budget and previous commitments. An incredible tool to assist sites, organizations, and projects, in small and large-scale planning efforts, and enabling companies and organization to run different case scenarios based on different funding limits, facility availabilities, weighting or risk factors, or contractual commitments. These models and tools were significant in the development of the SRS Environmental Management Integrated D&D Plan.
Ranking and Sequencing Model PowerPoint Presentation
Requirements-Based Assessment (RBA) Tool
The Requirements-Based Assessment (RBA) database application assists project and facility managers in identifying the required activities and their regulatory and corporate drivers.
This tool estimates the resources and costs for supporting these activities, based on their frequency. The RBA database application identifies these activities and allows for a systematic assessment of why those activities are required and their frequency, compared to the minimum requirements. It assists in documenting rationale for increased activity frequency, while documenting the cost of compliance and over-compliance.
SMILE SYSTEM
As the needs grew for greater project management, integration, and tracking at SRS, Polestar’s team once again, answered the call and developed a web-based project/facility management system that incorporates features found in the Personal/Project Management/Deliverable Status Tracking Tool and integrated the information in the Facility Management Database Application. The SMILE system was developed to serve the needs of the Site D&D program. This dynamic and flexible web-based application provides project personnel with the ability to manage projects, status key tasks and deliverables, obtain GIS information on the area, and provide customized reports from the engineering and administrative levels to the management levels at any time and location.
SMILE allows users to define their project types, group types, and task types. Users can determine how they status individual deliverables and tasks. Key project information is presented in report format customized to the needs of any professional. SMILE provides a communication link between project managers, field engineers,
and administrative assistants, with instant results and status of any project.
Corrective Action Unit Deliverable /Task StatusTrackingTool (CDSTtool)
CDSTtool PowerPoint Presentation
Committment Management System Software (CMS)
(a.k.a. Requirements Management System)
The Problem
Many industrial facilities are governed by a complex web of federal, state and local requirements as well as requirements defined by the facility owner/operator. These requirements must be tracked to manage commitments and document compliance.
The Solution
Developed and now used at the Umatilla Chemical Disposition Facility (UMCDF), the Requirements Management System (RMS) software application to deal with the complex and tedious process of identifying requirements, scheduling commitments, tracking performance and documenting compliance.
Requirements. The user defines source of the requirements (procedure, program plans, permits) and enters any number of requirements for each source, including responsible and contact personnel. User-defined facility system and phases are assigned so that the systems and operations of a complex facility can be subdivided and tailored accordingly. The application tracks initial due date and future occurrences based on an assigned periodicity.
Activation. For requirements triggered by specific events, the RMS software allows the user to establish Incident Categories (general groupings) and Incident Types, and define a template that specifies the set of requirements that come into play upon the occurrence of that type of incident. When an incident occurs, the user enters the event into the application, and the applicable requirements are automatically generated and tracked.
View/Status/Report. The user is able to view upcoming requirements, to add status information, and to electronically document completion. Requirements status views can be filtered as the user specifies, by calendar periods and by several other attributes. This allows the user to focus on specific items of interest or to view the entire waterfront of pending requirements. Hardcopy reports can be printed.
Facility Specfic (U1a) Requirements Management Database
The Facility Requirements Management Database was developed for the U1a Complex at the Nevada Test Site to identify regulatory and company-level requirements, from source documents, and actions to be implemented to ensure compliance with the facility’s formality of operations.
The Requirements Management Database is a library of Federal, State, and company-level documents and procedures which are evaluated for applicability to the facility and the requirements and implementing actions identified. Requirements are organized by type, accountability is assigned to personnel in the organization to implement the required actions, and an evaluation performed to identify if there is a potential impact to the safety basis.
A full-suite of reports, where data can be filtered by the user to meet individual needs, demonstrate compliance with formality of operations for the facility, documents quality assurance, identifies the requirements’-based commitments to be performed, and provides a complete listing of documentation and requirements that are applicable to the facility.
Source documents and procedures can be entered into the database and requirements and actions identified for any facility, in order to document compliance with Federal, State, and company-level drivers. For an overview of the Facility Requirements Management Database, please click on the link for a brief presentation to see how this database will be beneficial for your facility and organization.
Training Management Tool (TMT)
Polestar developed an application to meet the challenges of managing training for a facility. Existing site training systems were difficult to use and didn’t handle groups of individuals, additional facility-specific training, or customized reporting.
Polestar worked with the client to determine the exact needs and technical specifications; then developed an application to assist clients in managing training. As a result, Polestar's clients have been able to greatly reduce the time and effort required to manage training, have greater accuracy, foster individual accountability, and be proactive in verifying training of support personnel.
The TMT was designed to fully integrate with existing official site training systems and augment their capabilities. Polestar’s experience and customized applications can save your facility, project, or organization time, money and reduce compliance or training issues.
For an overview of the Training Management Tool, please click on the link below for a presentation.
Training Management Tool (TMT) PowerPoint Presentation
For more information contact:
Jerel Nelson
(702) 295-5804
