Welcome to EME 589, Management and Design of RESS!

This course was designed to assist Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems students in developing project management skills while applying the knowledge they have acquired in previous courses in the program. 

The instructor of this course wanted students to engage in projects they were passionate about. The course starts by asking students to share potential projects with one another and then self-organize around projects they are interested in. The course centers around the project, with each module sharing valuable information that parallels the progression of the project. Through text, video, and activities, students develop their projects into tangible resources or actionable plans. 

First, some explanation of how we should think about design throughout this course. These theories and definitions are based on the many courses I've taught and taken on design theory and design ethics.

Embedded within every human fabricated object within our world is an instantiation of a series of choices, intentions, and valuations; alongside acknowledgments of needs, desires, and expectations. What we refer to as technological design is really shorthand for a rich and varied set of material conditions within a complex and varied set of social and physical arrangements... between objects, people, and their environments.

Project design, as will be understood and used in this course, encompasses the processes and theories of intentionally intervening within these material conditions and socio-environmental arrangements, the understanding of which is crucial to implementing sustainable energy systems. That these instantiated processes and theories (within designs) impact the world as we live it, requires us to acknowledge that designs have consequences, and that different designs have different consequences and outcomes to different stakeholders.

That design choices impact human lives and that different choices impact lives differently, requires us to further acknowledge that there are ethical dimensions to how we approach design, and that values made during the design process become permanently embedded in the artifacts and arrangements themselves. Addressing these conditions in the development and implementation of a design is key to producing projects that are both relevant to the contemporary as well as long-term stakeholders, i.e., sustainable design.

In sum, I want you to think about what you will eventually design as a sustainable system, and not just a collection of technically sufficient devices. You should be thinking about the social arrangements required to sustain the design, as well as material stocks and flows. Achieving "design lock-in" will be a collective process of coming to agreement within your teams, and will not (should not) be the product of a single team member or stakeholder.

Overall, Module 2 will cover the initial phases of project design based on stakeholder engagements and how to refine and agree upon a project design within a team setting.

Learning Objectives

• Designing a project design
• Working with and from stakeholder engagement
• Refining a design based on ongoing feedback
• Agreeing upon a project design

Activities

• Gathering Initial stakeholder findings/needs/requirements/constraints
• Agreeing on a project problem for design intervention
• Creating a plan that matches with the team strengths/individual

As your instructor, I have to say, this is probably one of the hardest parts of the course to co-ordinate at the outset. There are many options... should we choose arbitrary projects, select groups at random, and go from there? Or should the instructor let you form groups ad hoc and according to interests?  This project is different from all of your independent RESS projects, and the formation of the groups is important to success. 

My hope is that about 50-70% of you already have a sense of the groups with which you want to work, and we can figure out a good fit for the rest. My fear is that 20-50% of you still have no inclination towards one project or another. Again, these are supposed to be GROUP projects... and not individually directed or driven. 

Let me say that working with a group this semester is particularly important if you want to get into consulting. You need to know how to work dynamically with groups... and single technology projects may not be the only thing about which you are asked to consult. As well, understanding the integration of "stand-alone energy projects" with other energy systems is also a significant outcome we want our graduates to have in their toolbox. (Ultimately, if you are looking to have a good example of a project for your portfolio, you will benefit most from working within a group of your peers.) 

Ok, that is a lot of caveats. Following this is a Discussion Forum that you should complete by Thursday of this week, where you do your best to form into groups based on your interests and areas of expertise. Groups are to be a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 participants. (Exceptions can be made if you send me an email explaining otherwise.) As well, and this is very important, attempt to achieve a balance between skillsets... your group should have roughly 50/50 renewable energy and sustainability management expertise.

For anyone not aligned with a group project by the end of Thursday this week, I will review skillsets and interests to assign you to a group by the weekend. 

Ok, let's get going!

For your consideration: In thinking about a project you proposed or one you consider joining, be sure to review the overall criteria for defining the scope of the project, as follows.

Overall Goal: The overall goal of your class project is to deliver a reliable, team built analysis and detailed design of a RESS project. The RESS project should focus on a combination of Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Sustainability Management and Policy, Bioenergy, or at least cover a number of these applications.

Project Scale: The class project will consist of a semester-long effort of a team of graduating from RESS students, carrying out the following phases of effort: project definition, preliminary design, technology selection and detailed design, and presentation followed by evaluation. Deliverables from the project will include a project design prospectus for the client, accompanied by appendices of technical calculations and supporting documents (evidence), and an oral presentation overview of project findings. Project efforts will include regular project team meetings, interactions with stakeholders, and consultation with your instructor.

Project Objectives: The objectives of the class project are to:

1. demonstrate students’ ability to conceive and develop a RESS project concept at a professional and rigorous level of detail,
2. demonstrate students’ ability to clearly and professionally communicate the results of their analysis, and
3. synthesize the subjects learned in the RESS Master’s curriculum, resulting in a single, cohesive expression of the student’s understanding of Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems.

Measures of Success: The class project will be considered successful to the degree that it answers the following questions:

• How well was the project defined, and did the project fit to its intended scope?
• How effectively did the project team interact with stakeholders and incorporate feedback?
• How technically accurate were the analyses and designs of the project?
• How insightfully did the project team analyze and reflect upon the project as they developed their design and selected their technology?
• How well did the project team work together and/or address challenges within the group structure?
• How well was the project communicated in the oral and written design reports?

These measures of success will be reflected in the final grade assigned to the student using the grading scale listed on the course syllabus.

The above is a statement of scope for your class project. Similarly, you will need to work with your project team to develop a project definition for your proposed RESS project, that follows a similar format to the list above. Note that we don’t include this as an explicit assignment that you must turn in at this point. However, we do expect that your project plan/scope will be included in your final project. Also, your project advisor may request that you submit it for review.

A Few Notes...

Do not “pre-select” your technology in the project definition. Leave room for comparing competing technologies and approaches. Also, try to come up with measures of success that are quantifiable whenever possible. Even in the case of difficult “nonphysical” parameters, you can often come up with a quantifiable metric if you are creative.

Before Choosing:

Before choosing a group with which you want to participate, even if you want to follow your own proposal, you need to consider what strengths you bring to the table. (Don't focus on your weaknesses... it's a waste of time, and you don't choose projects and passions based on your weaknesses.) And, ultimately, does the project seem to you to be locally grounded and realistically achievable?

Consider your Strengths:

• What kind of project do you want to work on?
• What is your area of RESS expertise and program specialization?
• Do your area(s) of expertise compliment any project specifically?
• What is your current job context, and how can a project either extend from or address specific needs for this context?
• What is your area of expertise and major strength in the RESS portfolio?
• Is this an area of expertise in which you want to get stronger, or are you looking to transition?
• Do you have policy experience/expertise within a given project scope?
• Do you have technical experience/expertise for a specific project?
• Are you more interested in designing for a specific technological solution or for a specific sustainability goal?

Other considerations:

• Does the context of the project fall within a reasonable scope of being able to be changed?
• Does the project seem technically feasible, considering current technologies?
• Can the project connect with enough stakeholders for meaningful interactions?
• Does the project have a chance of being measurable in terms of sustainability?
• Does the project seem reasonably affordable for the client?

Main question for you:

Is there a project that would work to help you achieve some or all of these goals?

Stakeholder interaction is an oft underappreciated aspect of successful project management that must be actively addressed if a project is to achieve its full potential. As (soon to be) RESS graduates, you are expected to be able to conceive and develop technically outstanding projects, but you must also be able to develop projects that succeed within their governmental, social, and cultural context. Stakeholder interaction is a key component to making that happen.

The purpose of working through the following Lynda.com lessons is to remind you how project managers works with potential and enrolled stakeholders. These tutorials are geared more towards how businesses and enterprise in general comprehend stakeholder relationships. What these video tutorials do not address is how we must further push our thinking about stakeholder engagement as a fundamental aspect of sustainability and sustainable systems. You have encountered issues concerning sustainability and stakeholders in numerous RESS courses and their lessons (from BIOET 533, EME 504, EME 805, EME 803, and others), and you are expected to approach stakeholder engagement aligned with those broader perspectives.

Why Work With Stakeholders?

This is a fair question. If people are not actually doing the work, why should they be involved? Here are a few good reasons; perhaps you can think of others as well:

• Stakeholder involvement may be required. Bosses and investors are especially desirous of appropriate updates and interactions relating to a project.
• Stakeholders can provide you with access to data and resources that would not normally be available.
• Stakeholders can support your project financially or otherwise. While financial support is obviously critical, non-monetary community support can also be very important, since the opposite (community opposition) can be detrimental to the project, especially if opposition is based on misunderstanding of the project.
• Stakeholders can ensure long term project success. Often, your role in project development will only be a small piece of the total success of the project, and often stakeholders for your project will be the active participants in complementary activities that will be critical to long term success. Consider, for example, the development of “E85 Flex-Fuel” vehicles in the United States. Without the support of ethanol producers, distributors, and retailers, the development of Flex Fuel vehicles will not be successful, even though those entities are not directly involved in designing or manufacturing the vehicles.

Building sustainable cities - and a sustainable future - will need open dialogue among all branches of national, regional and local government. And it will need the engagement of all stakeholders - including the private sector and civil society, and especially the poor and marginalized.

~ Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary-General

How to Effectively Work With Stakeholders

The key to effective stakeholder engagement is creation and implementation of a Stakeholder Interaction Plan. While some people and groups carry out stakeholder interaction plans on an informal basis, it is best to explicitly create a written plan to that can be reviewed and revised, thus ensuring that key groups or activities are not excluded. Every stakeholder interaction plan should include, at a minimum, the following elements:

• List of Stakeholders - list, characterize, and prioritize the stakeholders for your project.
• Objectives - describe exactly what you hope to accomplish with stakeholder interaction (try to be specific-use measurable goals if possible). Consider not only what you hope to gain from the interaction, but also what the stakeholders hope to gain.
• Methods - describe how you plan to communicate with and engage your stakeholders, and when this will occur, relative to the overall project schedule.
• Feedback - Explain how you will receive feedback from stakeholders, how you will incorporate their feedback into the project, and how you will assess whether or not your objectives have been met.

This first tutorial is about stakeholder management for project managers. By the end, you will be able to complete a Scoping Checklist for your project. (In the actual course, you would see a link, here, to connect you to the exercise files for this module.)

This second tutorial is about managing stakeholders within the broader scope of project management. This particular section was viewed as a subsection of Module 1, but here your group is expected to complete a Stakeholder Management Checklist for the project. (In the actual course, you would see a link, here, to connect you to the exercise files for this module.)

Deliverables

Developing a coherent project plan with three components

1. Project Checklist
2. Stakeholder Analysis Plan
3. Stakeholder Management Plan

Video Tutorials

Exercise Files

Discussion

Participate in the Developing Cohesiveness and Trust discussion at the beginning of the module period.
How to get the most from stakeholder engagement.

Project Milestones

Remember to create your project definition statement and definition of team roles.

Create a stakeholder interaction plan for your project. This document will be created by your project group and submitted by your group leader. The process should include a brainstorming/discussion session, drafting of the plan, and reviewing/revising of the plan before it is submitted. The plan should be submitted in written form, and be of professional quality.