Project Scope and Context
As you read, consider the importance of a clear scope statement in avoiding scope creep throughout the project.
From the Trenches: Michael Mucha on Sustainability and Adaptive Challenges
Michael Mucha is Chief Engineer and Director for the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, serves as the current Chair for ASCE's Committee on Sustainability, and also serves on the Sustain Dane Board of Directors in Madison, Wisconsin. He explains that a project's scope is determined by the kind of problem you're trying to solve. Is it technical – with a clear-cut solution that engineers are traditionally trained to provide? Or is it adaptive – with no definite consensus on how to proceed, with every solution guaranteed to challenge stakeholders' values and beliefs? Or is it a mix of both?
Sustainable engineering solutions often involve adaptive challenges. As an example, he describes a recent project:
We needed to upgrade a wastewater pumping station between the Madison's Marshall Park boat ramp and a busy bike path. Building the station itself was a technical problem. If we were working in a total vacuum, we could have built it a certain size and capacity and been done with it. But to build this pumping station in such a busy area, one that people had strong feelings about, we had to take an adaptive approach. This meant focusing on providing social benefits, such as public restrooms, boat wash hydrants, and a bike repair station. But we also worked to educate the public about the larger importance of waste water treatment. For example, one simple way to get someone's attention is to explain that, when you flush the toilet, the water travels to the Gulf of Mexico in 40 days. Once you know that, you might be inclined to see a pumping station as part of a larger story – a way to help protect the global environment.
In other words, the problem shifted from a technical to an adaptive challenge. Building a pumping station is very straightforward. You could spell out all the steps in a manual. That's the technical part. But there is no manual for solving an adaptive problem. It involves changing people's belief and values. In the case of the pumping station, we wanted to change people's ideas about how they think about wastewater, so they would see the work on the station as part of something larger.
The distinction between adaptive and technical problems was first spelled out by Ronald A. Heifetz in his 1998 book Leadership Without Answers. For a hands-on, practical introduction to the topic, Mucha recommends The Practice of Adaptive Leadership.