Step a 



38. A clear problem statement and criteria for judging the project's 

 functioning must be formulated to determine objectively its degree of success 

 or failure. The problem statement and judgment criteria should be explicit. 

 Otherwise, the passage of time between project planning and performance 

 evaluation may obscure the original purpose, and the functioning or intent of 

 the project may be evaluated out of context. 



39. For example, suppose a section of road along a coast is threatened 

 by erosion. One possible problem statement is that erosion is endangering a 

 road between points A and B . A criterion for judging the performance of 

 the project would be to mitigate or halt the erosion for less than X dollars 

 in initial construction and less than Y dollars in annual maintenance. 

 Suppose also that a revetment is selected as the optimal solution and is con- 

 structed and maintained within budget. Also, monitoring shows that the 

 project performed as intended in protecting the road. The project has 

 satisfied the original objectives under single-project planning. However, if 

 after construction it was determined that the beach downdrift of the project 

 had eroded because of sand deprivation (caused, for example, by impoundment of 

 sand by the structure and loss of sand to the system through encasement by the 

 revetment), it might be judged that the project was a failure. A similar 

 project might have as its comprehensive planning problem statement protection 

 of the road and mitigation of anticipated erosion at the downdrift beach. 

 This would probably lead to a different solution, for example, a revetment to 

 protect the road fronted by a feeder beach to nourish the downdrift beach. It 

 is important to distinguish between failures in the planning process and 

 failures in projects themselves if lessons are to be learned from experience. 



Step b 



40. All relevant data should be assembled and analyzed with a view of 

 both defining the problem statement and deciding on a solution approach. In 

 the example given above, an evaluation of information on shoreline change and 

 the predominant direction of longshore sand transport would have led to a more 

 comprehensive problem statement. 



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