How to Counter the Terrorists - Essay Example

Define your ultimate goal and intermediate objectives. My ultimate goal is to counter the terrorists, protect the public from this threat, and re-establish public confidence in the nation's food supply. As Wikipedia defines, counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, and strategies that governments, militaries, and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism. Counter-terrorism is not specific to any one field or organization; rather, it involves entities from all levels of society. For instance, businesses have security plans and sometimes share commercial data with the government. My counter terrorism goal implies following objectives: Providing of managers on farms and in restaurants, fast food franchises, and food processing centers with information about terrorists Anti-terrorism training of managers on farms and in restaurants, fast food franchises, and food processing centers Organization of meetings and seminars for food industry managers Cooperation with other structures Of course, every of these goals include sub-goals. For example, providing of managers with information includes creating and maintaining the terrorists' database, mailing lists, articles in newspapers and magazines. Anti-terrorism training of managers includes training in determining of treat, what they should do if they noticed a terrorist and how they should train their personnel. (2) Describe (and illustrate with an organization chart) your project organization. There must be a lot of participants in the project organization, so it should have clear hierarchy in order to act effectively. The Counter Terrorism Project consists of a number of departments; each of them performs its specific activity. I suggest the following departments: Public relations department. It is occupied with spreading the information about terrorism, communicates with police structures and anti-terrorism units, and receives information from managers on farms and in restaurants, fast food franchises, and food processing centers about their anti-terrorism tactics. It is also responsible for placing anti-terrorism articles in newspapers and magazines. IT department. It provides information technologies support of anti-terrorism activity of the Counter Terrorism Project, and keeps up the terrorists' database and mailing lists. Training department. It is responsible for anti-terrorism training of managers on farms and in restaurants, fast food franchises and food processing centers. Research & Development department. It is occupied with investigations of anthrax and other biological or chemical agents and performs tests of suspicious matters and chemical agents. Supply department. It provides material and technical basis for the Counter Terrorism Project. The organization chart: (3) Develop a work breakdown structure for this project and show a Gantt chart with the schedule for the major tasks. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a results-oriented family tree that captures all the work of a project in an organized way. The WBS is used to provide the framework for organizing and managing the work. I suggest the deliverable-based structure for my project, because the committed deliverables of the project are already defined. The WBS of the Counter Terrorism Project: Phase 1. Providing With Information About Terrorists 1.1. The Terrorists Database 1.1.1. Create the Terrorists Database 1.1.2. Update the Terrorists Database 1.1.3. Provide Access to the Terrorists Database 1.2. Mailing Lists 1.2.1. Create Mailing Lists 1.2.2. Add Subscribers to the Mailing Lists 1.2.3. Compose Mailing Lists 1.3. Articles in Newspapers and Magazines 1.3.1. Getting Journalists to Write Articles about Terrorism 1.3.2. Write Articles 1.3.3. Distribute Articles over Newspapers and Magazines Phase 2. Anti-Terrorism Training 2.1. Training in Determining of Treat 2.1.1. Create the Course of Determining of Treat 2.1.2. Give the Course of Determining of Treat 2.2. Training What To Do If Noticed a Terrorist 2.1.1. Create the Course of What To Do If Noticed a Terrorist 2.1.2. Give the Course of What To Do If Noticed a Terrorist 2.3. Training of Personnel 2.1.1. Create the Course of Anti-Terrorism Training of Personnel 2.1.2. Give the Course of Anti-Terrorism Training of Personnel Phase 3. Meetings and Seminars 3.1. Create Organizational Commetee 3.2. Send out Invitations 3.3. Organize Meetings 3.4. Organize Seminars Phase 4. Cooperation with Police Structures and Anti-Terrorism Units 4.1. Get Information about criminals from Police Structures and Anti-Terrorism Units 4.2. Provide Information about suspects to Police Structures and Anti-Terrorism Units The Gantt chart: (4) Show a PERT chart showing the relationships among the tasks you have identified. Indicate the critical path. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a network model that allows for randomness in activity completion times. PERT was developed in the late 1950's for the U.S. Navy's Polaris project having thousands of contractors. It helps to reduce both the time and cost required to complete a project. The PERT chart (to Level 2): 7 5 3 3 3 7 0,5 1 1 3 The critical path is determined by adding the times for the activities in each sequence and determining the longest path in the project. The critical path determines the total calendar time required for the project. If activities outside the critical path speed up or slow down (within limits), the total project time does not change. The amount of time that a non-critical path activity can be delayed without delaying the project is referred to as slack time. There are 2 critical paths of the Counter Terrorism Project: 1.1-2.1-2.2-2.3-3.1-3.2-3.3-3.4-4.1-4.2 1.3-2.1-2.2-2.3-3.1-3.2-3.3-3.4-4.1-4.2 Each of them takes 22 days, so total length of the project is 22 days. (5) Describe how you will monitor information and control the project. Monitoring of the project must involve collecting, recording, and reporting information about a project's performance. The monitoring system is a direct link between planning and control. It provides the project manager with information to make informed and timely decisions. The monitoring system should identify key factors to be controlled, as well as specific characteristics of performance, cost, and time. I plan all participants of the Counter Terrorism Project to write reports for every activity. I suggest the following form of report: 1. Activity Number and Name. 2. Start and End Date 3. Responsible Person 4. Description (performance, cost, and other characteristics) The fundamental purpose of project control is to allow the project manager to intervene in activities and events to avoid failure and achieve success. I plan to use both negative and positive feedbacks. Negative feedback corrects the system when it deviates from its intended path. Positive feedback keeps a system moving in a direction it is already going, like a snowball rolling downhill where the larger it grows, the larger it grows. Both of them are useful for the project because positive feedback may form a vicious or virtuous circle, while negative feedback keeps the system on course. Bibliography: 1. Chapman, J.R. (n.d.) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). 2. Colenso K. (n.d.) Creating The Work Breakdown Structure. 3. Finkelstein, R. (n.d.) An Overview Of Project Management. 4. PERT. (n.d.). Retrieved June 9, 2005, from http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/pert/ Read More