The Case: “The Martian”

Scope
The project's scope for the Martian Expedition was extensive and ambitious. It involved sending
a group of astronauts to Mars to carry out research before returning them safely to Earth. The
major objective was to bring people to Mars, and this process included multiple steps such as
launch, transit, landing, surface activities, and return. The scope also covered the creation and
introduction of critical tools including rovers, habitats, and spaceships. The mission's technical
and logistical requirements required meticulous planning and execution, which the project team
had to guarantee. The scope also contained a sizable portion of expectation management. the first
time a person has been left behind on Mars in the movie. Overnight, it spread over the world,
hence it was a topic of concern to the entire mankind watching and all decisions had to be taken
right to bring Mark Watney back ALIVE!

Integral planning and SOPs

Each stage of the Martian Expedition project's preparation has its own opportunities and
challenges. The mission plan needs to be put into action, as well as feasibility studies, idea
development, equipment development, prototype testing, and so on. A lot of factors, including as
technology, budgets, timeframes, and mission-related threats, had to be taken into account by the
team. In technical planning, Mark's survival was represented as dependent on cooperating with
other nations like China to shorten the timescale. The funding was also first depicted as a major
obstacle since other future NASA programmes needed to be funded. Later on though, the
financial restriction was lifted since Watney's life was given priority over how much the
salvation rip would cost.

Risks
The team working on the Martian Expedition project had to recognise, evaluate, and manage a
number of hazards. Technical failures, human mistakes, environmental dangers, and
unanticipated circumstances were all potential threats. The largest danger was that Watney
would perish on Mars and the salvation army, or other astronauts, would perish attempting to
save him. This would have such a negative reputational impact on NASA that it would also have
an impact on other future space programmes. The group also needed to be ready for radiation
exposure, food and water shortages, equipment breakdowns, and communication problems. To
guarantee the safety of the astronauts and the mission's success, the project team had to create
backup plans and arrange for unforeseen circumstances.
Stakeholders and their interests
There were several parties participating in the Martian Expedition project, and each had different
aims and interests. NASA wanted to demonstrate technological prowess and advance scientific
understanding without going bankrupt or endangering lives. The administration wanted to
advance both international collaboration and national prestige. Profit and innovation were
priorities for private contractors. The exhilaration of a heroic expedition and the inspiration of
space exploration piqued the public's curiosity. The media was eager to capitalise on any and
every nuance that surfaced, whether favourable or unfavourable, that even had the potential to
cast doubt on NASA. As a result, the project team had to reconcile these interests with the
mission's broader objectives through meetings, correspondence with an adversarial government,
frequent reports, and sleepless nights.

Resource allocation
Significant financial, human, and material resources were needed for the Martian Expedition
project. To make sure that the mission was successful, the project team had to properly distribute
these resources. The government and NASA contributed funding for the expedition, and private
firms supplied the essential tools and services. Astronauts, scientists, engineers, and support
workers made comprised the human resources. Among the physical resources were satellites,
habitats, rovers, and research gear. The group had to make sure that every resource was used
wisely and productively.

The Martian Expedition project, in conclusion, was a great accomplishment that had a major
component of careful planning and the deployment of countless resources. To ensure the
expedition's success, the project team had to carefully determine the scope, organize the
objective, reduce risks, handle stakeholder interests, deal with the ever-changing situation and
information and distribute resources. The mission served as an example of what people are
capable of when they collaborate and push the envelope of what is achievable.

The triple diamond constraints (cost, time, quality)

or was it more than that…
The Martian Expedition project faced significant challenges related to all three of the triple
constraints of project management: time, cost, and scope. One of the primary challenges was the
need to complete the mission within a tight timeline because Watney didn’t have enough food to
survive. The team had to work tirelessly to develop a plan to save him, and every second was
critical. They had to balance the need for speed with the need to ensure the safety of the
astronauts Cost was another significant factor in the project's planning and execution. Sending
humans to Mars and conducting scientific experiments is an expensive undertaking, and the
project team had to work within a limited budget. They had to carefully manage their resources
and make sure they were using them efficiently.

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The scope of the mission was also ambitious, and it involved many complex tasks. There were
numerous challenges that the team had to overcome, including communication issues, equipment
malfunctions, and unexpected weather patterns. The project team had to be creative and flexible
to overcome these challenges and ensure that the mission was on track.

However, given the nature of the project, safety was an essential consideration for all
stakeholders involved, and this could be considered a fourth constraint. The safety of the
astronauts was paramount for the project team and NASA, and they had to ensure that all risks
associated with the mission were carefully planned and mitigated. Safety was paramount, and
even budget was made secondary to it. The NASA mission was “bringing Mark Watney back
ALIVE” once they figured out, he was surviving alone on MARS, and the US government,
Chinese government, space exploration stakeholders across the Global started pooling in their
resources as much as they could without a cut-off imposed on it.

In summary, all four constraints were paramount for the Martian Expedition project, but safety
was arguably the most critical one. The safety of the astronauts was paramount for the project
team, NASA, and the success of the mission was dependent on ensuring their safety throughout
the project. The project team had to carefully balance the triple constraints of cost, time, and
scope, while ensuring that safety was never compromised. The project's success was due to the
project team's ability to manage all four constraints effectively and ensure that the mission was
completed safely, on time, within budget, and to a high standard of quality.

Initially unaccountable risks (uncertainties)

When planning a real-world mission to Mars, there are always risks that cannot be accounted for
during the initial and detailed planning phases. These risks could include things like equipment
malfunctions, unforeseen environmental hazards, and human error. The equipment could
malfunction with the slightest of inaccuracies in the mathematical calculations done for them
e.g., when Watney’s potato plants were killed due to malfunctioning in the sterilization
compartment and also when in the beginning when Matt’s heart monitor broke, everyone
assumed he was dead. That was a technical glitch no one could have seen coming. It could also
be due to environmental hazards, e.g., the first sandstorm that hit which made everyone abandon
MARS and return to the spaceship. There were many human errors unaccounted for as well, e.g.
when Watney had a mini blast while trying to make water hence, a lot many errors were
unaccounted for because no one thought such scenarios could occur where they’d have room for
errors. It was a mission to MARS, hence, not everyday work or task which made a lot of
mistakes normal during the course of that trip. To help minimize these risks, the project team
would have contingency plans in place and would have conducted extensive simulations and
testing to identify and address potential issues. But despite all of these precautions, there is
always a chance that something unexpected could happen.

If such an unforeseen event were to occur, the project team would need to quickly determine the
best course of action to deal with it based on the specific circumstances and available resources.
For example, if a critical piece of equipment malfunctions, they would need to decide if it could

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be repaired or replaced or if the mission would need to be aborted altogether. It's important to
keep in mind that even with existing systems and safeguards in place, they may not always be
equipped to handle every possible risk. That's why the project team's experience and quick
decision-making skills are so crucial in these situations.

Changing Scope:
The scope change in "The Martian" project did not follow the PMI's scope management cycle.
PMI's scope management cycle includes planning, scope definition, creating the work
breakdown structure, verifying, and controlling the scope, and closing the project scope.
However, in the case of "The Martian" project, the scope change was not planned, defined, or
controlled. It was a result of creative decisions that had to be made to save Watney on tasks
never experienced before. There was no pre-planning or work on WBS, everything was taken at
face value i.e., when it came it had to be dealt with

MS Project-based WBS
The rationale behind the lags placed within the MS Projects file are placed in the notes within
each of the row.

Assumptions

 Since Mark was stuck on Mars and attempting to simply survive, we are assuming that he
works all seven days of the week.
 The day, divided into 24 hours, is segregated into 10 hours of sleep i.e. from 10pm - 8am
and the remaining 14 hours i.e. 8am – 10pm, of work (Exhibit 1)
 Projects start date was set on 21st of March because the first date we are introduced to in
terms of SOL time in SOL 21.
 24 hours on earth are equal to 24 hours 39 minutes and 35 seconds on mars. Since
there is a very small margin of difference between the lengths of a day on earth and mars,
therefore, going forward the number of SOL days will be equal to the number of earth
days in MS Projects.
 We assumed it took the team on Hermes 380 days to make a rotation from Earth and go
back to Mars. We based this assumption on the fact that after Mark was made aware of
the plan to rescue him via Hermes, he had 7 months (210 days) to prepare, 77 days of
travel and 23 days of waiting until the team reached him, which totals 310 days. Now as
it was costing the team on Hermes, 533 days extra for this rescue mission, the remaining
223 days are assumed as the travel time from Mars to Earth.

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Lessons learnt from the movie-based WAC:
We learned that in the face of extreme uncertainty where there is no prior project experience to
learn from, the cost constraint has to be heavily compromised on. The project to save Watney
had to be delivered in a timely manner and with the best quality because anything less than that
would have meant death. Hence, even in the triple constraints there is prioritization and an
overall sacrifice of one of the constraints to manage the other two. The movie is a great example
of understanding the scope and constraints, as we see Watney understand the scope of the
situation he was initially in i.e. stuck on Mars, limited food supply, team members going back to
earth, NASA thinking he is dead. Regardless of which he attempted to adjust and started
planning his way to not only survive, but also to go back to Earth. This movie also does justice
to highlighting the importance of communication and teamwork in order for any project to be
successful.

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Exhibits

Exhibit 1

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