The Swiss Project Management Journal
The People Project
Improving Project Scope
Definition to Help People in Need
Insight into projects at the ICRC. By Paul Selwold
While listening to Robert Whelan describe at a high
level what a “traditional” project at ICRC is like, it is
not difficult to imagine the large organization in
which these projects are being executed. “It is fair
to say a typical duration of a project was about two-
and-a-half years,” he says. “Some projects can be as
T
he stage-gate process exists, too,
where checks and balances with
steering committees of organizational
experts drive the project from a strategic
point of view. Not enough information on
the scope to approve this project moving
forward? Please provide this missing
information and come back next month
when we meet again …
… that sort of thing. It could be perceived
as a kind of a bureaucracy, right? Well, of
course it is not quite as simple as all that,
and my somewhat cheeky statement
short at three months, and others, like the work on
the Geneva Conventions, will last ten years. And of
course, we mostly use the waterfall model.”
Although we did not go into great detail about this,
the sheer length of the duration told me already
quite a lot.
should not send the message that there is
anything wrong with this set up.
The ICRC (International Committee of the
Red Cross), based in Geneva, is a very well
known and well respected NGO which,
excluding the several sister organizations
such the Federation of the Red Cross, and
national red cross red crescent societies,
comprises sixteen-thousand direct
employees, hundreds of offices in over
eighty countries, and even more stations
in the field. For anyone (like yours truly)
who remembers very well the 1970s and
1980s, it makes sense that an NGO with
such a huge and noble mandate, and
broad physical presence, would need the
correspondingly huge and well defined
project management framework. It is very
important to have a structure which will
set the objectives, ensure sponsors’
donations are well spent, and resources
are allocated in the approved manner to
align on priorities, and avoid confusion
and dispute. All this was established well
before today’s communication techno-
logy.
Now, the ICRC is adapting its approach to
manage Project Scope in order to keep up
with our recently-very-rapidly changing
times. Robert explained the background.
“We are seeing, at the ICRC, increasing
demands for smaller, more agile projects,
and Tarun’s team is an important part of
realizing this.” One reason for the increase
in this type of demand is the sheer size of
the organization, which has grown in
recent years, but also because expec-
tations about how people work together
are changing. A lot of this change has
been influenced by the convenience and
accessibility of the Internet and commu-
nication devices.
If you talk to Tarun Sarwal, you start to see
how it won’t be long before the descrip-
tion of the “ICRC Traditional Project” is
about to get redefined.
Bodybag
Project Management Institute
SWITZERLAND Chapter
8
2017 Edition