Scope

The scope of the project is to bring Mark Whatney back to Earth safely. It involved a series
of steps to ensure that he gets back home safely and in one piece. Apart from this another
project objective is to improve the image of NASA, which has clearly been damaged given
that the crew left him behind as dead and NASA had also declared so. Nevertheless, they
eventually find that he has survived and have to make another press conference. The key
deliverables involved are setting up the rocket up for launch, launching it on time and for
Mark to reach the rendezvous point in time. The assumptions made are that everything
would go according to plan and there would be no set-backs. Moreover, the project
planners also assumed that Mark’s supply of food would not rot and he will be able to
survive on the little food he has.

Planning Process and risks

The planning for this project is very unique and cumbersome, and this is a one of a kind
project. As , the project has a very tight deadline hence they have to fast track many
processes and condone certain regulations in order to make sure that the project/ mission
of getting back Mark is completed in time. Process planning involves a lot of stake holders,
with the final call being made by Jeff Daniels the director of NASA. Vincent, Bruce and
Mitch also provide useful input. Bruce whose division is responsible for making the shuttle
to bring him back also provides valuable input with regards to the time and resources it
would take to complete the project. The first step in the planning process was to set goal
of getting Mark back, and then collect and analyze data to make a plan for getting Mark
back. Later on the plan is implemented and monitored to correct any deviations.

The risks for the project are manifold. Mark is the only person on the planet and anything
could go wrong from the support systems, equipment malfunction to getting ill or hurt.
Actually an incident does actually occur in which the compartment which holds his potato
crop blows up and he had to ration his remaining crop. Apart from the obvious risks Mark
has to face, NASA also has to face the risks of their satellites and rockets malfunctioning
and exploding, which they do. Furthermore, in a later stage of the project when his team
decides to pluck him from space, there obviously is a lot of risk. Apart from this, Mark
uses a platinum reactor in his vehicle to keep warm; this could explode at any time. The
very nature of the project makes it extremely risky.

Stakeholder interests and Resource Allocation

The main stakeholders and their interests are:

 Mark Whatney
The lone astronaut stuck on Mars. His interest is to survive long enough for Ares
4 mission to come and take him to Earth!
 NASA
It is NASA’s interest to rescue their astronaut from Mars. It was a huge PR blunder
to first declare him as dead and then announce him to survive the accident. NASA
is also looking to save face by this mission. Moreover, if they fail this mission, then
 there is high chance that they will not be able to secure further funding from
congress for the Mars mission. Finally, the rescue mission has become a point of
interest for the American nation and the world in general. Hence, this rescue
mission has become as matter of respect for NASA, and to maintain its image as
the supreme organization in space exploration.
 Mark’s crew
Marks crew obviously believes that they have responsibility to get him back given
that the left him behind in the first place. The onus of responsibility falls more
strongly on Melissa Lewis who was leading the mission. Hence, this mission also
has a personal and emotional dimension.
 China National Space organization
This organization is also major stake holder as they have provide the rocket to
bring him back home after NASA’s rocket fails. They provide the new rocket on
the condition that NASA will take one of their astronauts in the next mars mission
called ARES 4. Thereby, they have an interest that this mission will help them with
their space exploration journey.
The resource allocation is done to make sure that the project is completed on time. Money is not
a constraint as NASA has secured funding from congress to bring him back. The first step in
resource allocation was to divide the project into smaller tasks. Then resources were allocated
according to the priorities and the demands of the different tasks. The resources included human
resource, equipment, facilities and materials. People were allocated to the tasks according to their
specializations and past experience. Furthermore, reallocation of resources also took place, for
example in order to bring back the deadline for the project, resources from different departments
were consolidated and redirected to achieve the goal.

Paramount diamond constraints

The time and scope of the project were the most paramount constraints.

Time is of the essence as Mark is stuck on Mars and literally is the only person on a planet. He
has a limited supply of food and the crop he had planted were destroyed because of the explosion.
Furthermore, he is rationing his supplies and is not in the best of health. Also, his mental health
is also compromised and NASA has a fight against time to save him from certain death. Hence,
Time is an important constraint for Mark and his crew as well as NASA. Due, to the limited time
NASA had they could not check the rockets for any faults and had to go ahead with the launch
with the project carrying a risk of failure of 2.5%. This shows the importance of time for the project
and how it impacted all other things like scope and quality.

Moreover, another important constraint of the project is scope. Scope of the project encompasses
different parts of the projects. Scope is always at the heart of any project. This project has
numerous stakeholders and some have their own vested interests. Hence, we see scope creep
happening, when the team decides to ignore the commands of NASA director and go after Mark
on their own. Scope is important for all the stakeholders. Scope is also important because it
directly impacts the success of the project. And, the very fact that there were significant
disagreements between different stakeholders regarding scope make it all the more important.
 Risks, Safeguards and outcomes

 Airlock blowing open

No one could have foreseen the airlock to blow open. No safeguards were in place in case it
happened. The existing systems could not deal with this risk because he did not have time to cover all
the possible faults that might occur. As a result of the airlock blowing up, a piece of Mark’s helmet was
broken, and the shaft was totally blown open. He craftily used a part of his own space- suit to cover the
hole in his space suit. Also, he has to use a huge piece of canvas to cover the airlock, in order to stabilize
the pressure in the HAB. Eventually, he changes his space suit and helmet and is able to make the Hab
habitable again. Moreover, he also sends a message to Earth that he is fine, to the relief of his
colleagues at NASA. However, one of the biggest problem that has changed the scope of project is that
due to the blast the shaft blew open and his potato crop got destroyed. Mark estimates that due to the
blast he has lost a years’ worth of food. Hence, everyone at NASA now knows that they have to ‘crash’
their project. They launched a new satellite called ‘Iris’, and they would have to launch it in a month and
a half. This has some important lessons for project managers. The first one is that set-backs can and will
happen. What is of importance is how you deal with them. Secondly communication between different
stakeholders is of utmost importance, for the project to progress. Moreover, we can see that how a
single event can have repercussions across the project planning cycle and affect the whole project.

 Destruction of Iris

Due to the urgent nature of the project, NASA had to crash the project and had to overlook
safety checks. Accordingly the rocket had a launch failure probability of 2.5%. Nevertheless it was
launched and rocket deviated from its target and exploded. There were no safeguards in place in
case it happened, in fact it was the only hope of the NASA team. They had no option but to crash the
project because in that case Mark would have had to starve to death. The repercussions for this was
that initially NASA was dejected but ultimately the Chinese Space agency helped them provided they
take a Chinese to mars in the future. This illustrates an important lesson for project management
professionals’ i.e that tradeoffs are an inherent part of project management. What matters is how
you prioritize different objectives. Moreover, project leaders can works with their competitors for
mutual benefit.

 The mars buggy (rover)breaking down

There was a high chance of Mark’s rover breaking down. Eventually his rover, did actually
break down and some of his solar panels were destroyed. As a result he ran behind
schedule to the rendezvous point. To safeguard against risk obviously there was
mechanical equipment in the rover.
 Mark’s shuttle not making it to the rendezvous
It was quite possible that the Mars shuttle be unable to reach Hermes shuttle. This
actually happened and Mark had to punch a hole in his suit and use the propulsion to
reach Melissa. The system lacked any safeguards to protect against the risks. In fact, as
per NASA’s instructions Mark had removed a lot of equipment from Ares 4 shuttle.
  New mars probe destroyed
It is quite possible that the new mars probe designed with help of Chine is also destroyed.
In that case NASA would have no back-up to fall to whatsoever. Luckily, this did not
happen.
 RTG/plutonium reactor could blow up

It is possible that the RTG/plutonium reactor that Mark, kept with him in the rover to keep
warm would have blown up. This would have disastrous consequences as it would have not only
killed Mark but would have also made it difficult for future Mars missions to come to Mars.
However, he did not have a choice as; if he used rovers’ heaters to keep warm he might not have
been able to complete the journey on time.

 Blowing up a hole in a portion of the Hermes shuttle

Ares 3 crew comes up with a plan to blow a hole in Hermes. This hole redirects the
pressure and propels Hermes towards Watney. Unfortunately, no significant damage was done
and the crew was able to get Watney safely. They had no other option as they would have burnt
excess fuel otherwise and it would not be possible to make the journey home. Luckily for the Ares
3 mission, it only caused minor damages and the crew was able to complete its mission. The lesson
for project managers is that sometimes extreme but calculated measures must be taken to
achieve objectives.

Scope change

Rich Purnell an astrodynamist comes up with a plan called Purnell maneuverer. According to this
Taiyang Shen would no longer need to reach Mars but instead would be launched into near Earth-
orbit and would restock Ares3 crew; the Ares 3 would then slingshot to Mars and pick up Mark.
However, there was a disagreement between Teddy, the NASA director and Mitch who was
responsible for the Ares program. Mitch believes that Teddy is being a coward by not taking the
risk and saving Mark. He leaks this plan to Ares 3 crew. The scope change happened when the
Ares 3 by the consent of all the crew members agree to undertake the mission to save Mark.

However, it did not follow PMI project management process as important steps like collecting
requirements and creating WBS did not happen. Moreover, the scope was also not verified and
the ‘control scope’ process was also not done. The change is the scope of the project was not
approved by the NASA leadership instead the crew of ARES 3 decided to undertake the scope
change.

The scope change was necessary because according to NASA’ original plan the food would
be delivered 6 weeks after Watney ran out of his food reserves. Thus, if this scope change
did not happen Watney would only have a small chance of survival. The crew had to
decide whether to have a large chance of one person dying on a small chance of 6 people
dying.

There were costs associated with the scope change, for example the Ares3 crew would
get home late and would have to bear more separation from their loved ones. Moreover,
there was some chance of an accident during the rescue mission; in which case the lives
of the 6 crew members could be jeopardized. Moreover, it also caused Mitch, the head
of the Ares3 space mission to lose his job. Apart from this the crew members were also
likely to face disciplinary inquiry when they got back home, and not allowed to go on any
missions in the future. Hence this mission could jeopardize their future and careers.
Nevertheless, the scope change was worth the effort and risks involved because it
provided the crew opportunity to rescue their crew member. Furthermore, it also helped
NASA to get some good publicity. If the crew had not gone to save Mark, it is very likely
that he might not have survived.

Conclusion
‘The Martian’ was indeed an interesting read and had numerous learnings for business
professional and project managers alike, for example: responding to changes in the
environment, communication, managing conflicting interests ,flexibility and taking all
stakeholders along. I would recommend this read to all business students because it
provides a view of problems from multiple dimensions and helps to better relate to the
dynamic problems that businesses face every day.