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Question
At what frequency should senior staff review field and laboratory activities?
 
Answer

The level and frequency of senior staff review of field and laboratory activities will be determined by site-specific needs, but in general the level of involvement of senior staff in reviews during work activities will be greater than what would have occurred in a more traditional approach. This additional level of involvement, however, will be balanced on the back-end by potentially less intensive review requirements for final products by senior staff. Planning documents based on dynamic work strategies that result from systematic project planning should incorporate "if-then" logic to support in-field decision-making. The extent to which such logic captures the "surprises" encountered during field activities will determine the level of involvement of senior oversight staff during field activities. Obvious key points of review are when decisions need to be made about the performance and acceptability of real-time measurement data, when QA/QC flags potential problems with work underway, or when an unexpected situation arises that was not fully covered by contingency plans contained in work plans.