Tree Risk Assessment: TRAQ & QTRA - Compatibility and Common Ground

[Acer ventura]

Hi

 

I’ve had a number of requests to compile a summary of the http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/73829-tree-risk-assessment-qualification-traq-isa-best-management-practices.html thread into a referable and formatted document so it could be downloaded and followed without the distractions that can be the fun and games of a discussion forum.

 

The plan is to have this as a working document that can be updated as and when improved analysis comes to the fore, or if any errors that I might have made in it are identified. It is a long, and at times necessarily complicated, document which might be best digested by reading the summary and having a nibble at the bits that take your fancy. I’m uploading it in a draft form for a month to catch any typos and oversights on my part because I’m aware I’m particularly vulnerable to word blindness with it at the moment.

 

I’ve started a new thread because since the last time I posted, just under year ago (around 2 600 views), the view count has gone up by more than 6 000, so there still seems to be a fair bit of interest, and the content has evolved enough to warrant a clean sheet.

 

I will maintain an email alert for any new posts on the old thread, and Steve Bullman as kindly agreed to imbed a link to the new thread in the first post of the old one. So this thread would be a good place to develop any debate about the contents further.

 

Like last time, I’m going to post links to the thread on the UKTC, QTRA, and LinkedIn ASCA and ISA forums to let them know of the update. As with the old thread, if anything of interest comes up on the other forums about the content I’ll let you know.

 

I would very much welcome any comments on the forum or privately about the contents. I greatly appreciate these messages and am more than happy to honour the confidentiality of anyone who requests it.

 

So, here it is

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura

TRAQ - Arbtalk Document First Draft - 05.06.15.pdf

Edited June 6, 2015 by Steve Bullman

[Andy Clark]

I hope it's easier on the eye than the last thread Acer. I do love this subject and read and re-read the progress of the old thread with great interest at the time, but i just couldn't help feel it was needlesly convoluted and pointlessly trying to achieve the impossible simply for the sake of the challenge and with no real goal in sight - and thus ended up loosing the will to live. Lol

 

Best of luck this time though.

[Acer ventura]

I hope it's easier on the eye than the last thread

 

Hi Andy

 

I won’t try to second guess how long before you lose the will to live with this one .

 

When I was first approached about doing this last year, I thought it would be a doddle. I couldn’t have been more wrong when I eventually rolled up my sleeves to set about it. Making this stuff easy on the eye is really, really difficult. So, if you have any ideas for improvement then please let me know.

 

When/if you get to Betweenness you’ll find I’ve used a curry menu matrix to try and get the concept across.

 

 

Towards the end of the putting this together I realised I could just about sum up the whole of the 50 page plus document with a simple curry menu analogy. When I tried it out on a few folk though, I got one warning it could look like I was being facetious, whereas others have said I should use it because it helps. In the end I dropped it because it didn’t fit very well with the style or context of the document. However, it still seems to me to be a neat way of encapsulating most of the important issues and complexities into a relatively easy to comprehend paragraph. Here it is:

 

To a tree owner/manager, a TRAQ risk assessment is like placing order for a meal at an Indian restaurant for themselves, and unfamiliar others who have an unknown tolerance to heat. The owner/manager can choose anything on the menu, as long as it’s a Korma. However, the Korma could be as hot as a Madras, Vindaloo, or Phal. At an additional cost, the chef will propose ways of making the Korma as mild and bland (with reduced benefits), as the chef thinks it should be.

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura

[Adam M]

Korma is usually more the phall colour round my way.

[TTS North]

Okay - reposted in the correct place!

 

I'm looking forward to reading this - a quick skim shows that clearly a huge amount of work has gone into it. Well done.

 

I used to deliver risk management training and the 'back of a beer mat' mantra was drilled into me by day to day busy non-specialist customers. Borrowing from manufacturing and software development I distilled it down to just that - but the underpinning theory has to be there - which is what you have been gathering.

 

I suppose the modern equivalent would be 'it needs to fit in a filofax (yes I still have one)/one page on an iphone!

[Acer ventura]

I'm looking forward to reading this - a quick skim shows that clearly a huge amount of work has gone into it. Well done.

 

I used to deliver risk management training and the 'back of a beer mat' mantra was drilled into me by day to day busy non-specialist customers. Borrowing from manufacturing and software development I distilled it down to just that - but the underpinning theory has to be there - which is what you have been gathering.

 

I suppose the modern equivalent would be 'it needs to fit in a filofax (yes I still have one)/one page on an iphone!

 

Hi TTS North

 

Thanks. You might be one of the few that's 'looking forward to reading' it.

 

If you still have the will to live after reading it, I'd value any comments you might have. The plan is to update it as and when there's better information, but I'm planning to update from the draft version at the beginning of next month anyhow, to pick up any comments, suggestions for improvement, errors etc.

 

Something I've spotted straight away is the pdf rendering has clobbered the quality of some of the illustrations I painstakingly took care to import via PowerPoint to image by messing about in the registry to get publishing quality of 300dpi with them.

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura

[Acer ventura]

Hi

 

Just by way of keeping a record of this. The download on the first page has been updated. There's no significant change beyond me trying to steer a line between decent graphics and not making the document too large to email. The 05.06.15 document has much better images if the quality on the old one bothers you.

 

One thing I did forget to keep a note of was the number of views it had before it was updated, which I think was something like 150+.

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura

[Cassian Humphreys]

Gday Acer mate, just joined Arbtalk to view the attached. Will do so hopefully with some good questions. We loved Version 5.

 

Regards from Down-under...

[Gary Prentice]

Gday Acer mate, just joined Arbtalk to view the attached. Will do so hopefully with some good questions. We loved Version 5.

 

Regards from Down-under...

 

Welcome to Arbtalk.

 

I hope you don't mind but I used one of your quotes for my signature line:biggrin:

[Acer ventura]

Gday Acer mate, just joined Arbtalk to view the attached. Will do so hopefully with some good questions. We loved Version 5.

 

Hi Cassian

 

Good to hear from you on here, and great news that you're getting on well with QTRA v5.

 

It's a draft document at the moment. So, let me know if there's anything in it you have issue with, you think could be embellished, or any suggestions you might have about making it easier to understand, once you've taken your little red pen to it.

 

I'd originally planned to firm it up this month, based on feedback and revisiting it after a break. However, given some of the off forum comments I've had, what's happening with the ISA LinkedIn thread about it, and that I'll be presenting QTRA v5 at the ISA conference in Florida next month, I think I'm going to delay messing about with it until the back end of August because there could be some valuable feedback, or developments, that would be worthwhile including.

 

Cheers

 

Acer ventura