DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents
Chapter 6: Project Management
After a laboratory has considered the issues discussed in chapter 4 (Major Decisions) and is prepared to assume responsibility for the identification effort, significant personnel issues must be resolved. For a variety of reasons—including staff morale, public expectations, and economic demands—the response to a mass fatality incident should be handled as a separate project rather than as a part of the laboratory’s standard operations.
Most laboratory directors come up from the “bench,” rather than from a management background. Skills in technical troubleshooting, case management, molecular biology, and population statistics are important in the day-to-day running of a forensic laboratory. Managing a mass fatality identification effort, however, requires these skills and more. A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute, 2004) offers this important guidance for a laboratory director who must respond to a mass fatality incident:
Organizations perform work. Work generally involves either operations or projects, although the two may overlap. Operations and projects share many characteristics; for example they are:
- Performed by people.
- Constrained by limited resources.
- Planned, executed, and controlled.
Operations and projects differ primarily in that operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects are temporary and unique. A project can thus be defined in terms of its distinctive characteristics—a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from all similar products or services.
These definitions of “projects” versus “operations” suggest an important principle: a mass fatality incident DNA identification requires constant and diligent project management. The laboratory director (or designee; see Project Manager) must assess what controls are needed in project planning and project execution. For example, the areas of communications, risk management, and integration with non-DNA disciplines are often overlooked.
