Professional Practice, Ethics and Project Management
This domain tests professional judgement under uncertainty: what a competent, honest practitioner does when scope, data or instructions are deficient.
Standard of care
You owe the standard of a reasonably competent practitioner in the same field - not perfection. Document scope exclusions, assumptions and achieved accuracy, because your record is your defence in a claim or disciplinary proceeding.
Ethics in tension
- Conflict of interest: disclose it, and decline the work if the conflict cannot be managed.
- Confidentiality survives the end of the contract.
- Falsifying a check, signing for work you did not verify, or presenting someone else's work as your own are the standard grounds for disciplinary action.
- Accepting a verbal change of scope without written authorisation shifts liability onto you.
Project management essentials
Survey work is usually staged: reconnaissance, control, detail, deliverables, with hold points and sign-offs. Earned value: CPI = EV/AC and SPI = EV/PV. A CPI below 1 means cost overrun; an SPI below 1 means the schedule is behind.
Worked example: BAC = 100 000; at month 4, EV = 40 000, PV = 50 000, AC = 50 000. CPI = 40 000 / 50 000 = 0.80, a 20% cost overrun; SPI = 40 000 / 50 000 = 0.80, 20% behind schedule. Forecast EAC ≈ BAC / CPI = 125 000. Add the caveat that this assumes the current cost efficiency continues - that sentence carries marks.
Traps
- Signing off a deliverable you did not personally verify.
- Reporting EVM indices without saying which index applies to cost and which to schedule.
- Treating a risk register as a list of issues rather than likelihood × impact with an owner.