Defining Your Project - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 30

important to develop a procedure for decision making that will help you manage the project scope
so that you can ultimately deliver the project that is expected by the stakeholders.
Project Deinition
Project definition fully describes the project to be performed in terms of what, when, and where.
In addition, the description includes specific actions, the budget, and the overall schedule. The
end result is a document that can be used as a reference by members of the team, other stakehold-
ers, and the general public.
Beginning the project-defining process requires conducting first a preliminary site analysis (chap-
ter 4) and then a visioning exercise known as leitbild (discussed below). Ideally, these initial data will
validate the initial mission statement for the project and provide structure to the preliminary goals.
Later on, further refinement of the goal statements will follow, with more detailed site analysis and
use of reference sites (chapter 5). This iterative process is necessary because options commonly do
not present themselves until additional information is discovered on-site or with further research.
Project definition begins with stating the preliminary project goals and objectives. The process
of establishing goals and objectives usually results from inputs by the project sponsor and other
key stakeholders and is a response to the preliminary site analysis of the project site. A reference
model derived from data obtained at a reference site will guide the decisions on goals and objec-
tives. However, situations do occur when no reasonable reference site is available and alternative
approaches for developing a reference model will be needed (chapter 5). A clearer vision of the
restored landscape begins to emerge as the project moves through the project development life
cycle, during which more definition is provided by team members.
The project goals and objectives are tested and refined during the site analysis process when the
project team evaluates site function and determines specific requirements that must be addressed
by the project (box 3-1). This process may require initial field trials to verify suitability (box 3-2). Fi-
nally, a project scope statement summarizes the definition process and documents the overriding
design requirements to which the project must adhere to be considered successful.
Function
Because of the complex sets of interactions that occur within an ecosystem, it can be difficult to
isolate a single process for study. Yet, this is the responsibility and challenge facing the restoration-
ist because the absence of a function (or functions) within an ecosystem can profoundly affect the
overall health and long-term sustainability of that ecosystem.
Put simply, a function is the combination of all the natural processes and events that occur
within a given ecosystem. These processes can be divided into biological and physical categories.
Some common physical processes and events include day length, solar access, temperature, ero-
sion, and water percolation. Biological processes include growth, mortality, decomposition, com-
petition, predation, herbivory, parasitism, and symbiotic relationships. Events tend to be singular
in nature, and they characteristically have distinct beginnings and endings; often, events trigger