Project management a managerial approach chapter 05

Project Management: A
Managerial Approach
Chapter 5 – Project Planning
© 2006 John Wiley


Overview
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•
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Initial Coordination
Planning Elements
Preliminary Tools
Coordination via Integration

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Planning
• There are several reasons to use considerable care
when planning projects:
– The primary purpose of planning is to establish a set of
directions in enough detail to tell the project team
exactly what must be done
– The purpose of planning is to facilitate later
accomplishment

© 2006 John Wiley

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Initial Project Coordination
• It is crucial that the project’s objectives be clearly tied to
the overall mission of the firm
– A project launch meeting is an initial coordinating meeting
that serves as a visible symbol of top management’s
commitment to the project
– The project launch meeting’s success is absolutely dependent
on the existence of a well-defined set of objectives

© 2006 John Wiley

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Project Launch Meeting
• Should not allow plans, schedules, and budgets to go
beyond the most aggregated level at the launch
meeting
• The outcomes should be:
– 1. Technical Scope is established
– 2. Basic areas of performance responsibility
are accepted by the participants
– 3. Some tentative overall schedules and
budgets are spelled out
© 2006 John Wiley

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Composite Plan
• Each individual/unit accepting responsibility for a portion of
the project should agree to deliver a preliminary plan about
how that responsibility will be accomplished
• These plans should contain descriptions of the required tasks,
and estimates of the budgets and schedules
• These plans are then scrutinized by the group and combined
into a composite project plan
© 2006 John Wiley

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Composite Plan
• The composite plan, still not completely firm, is approved by
each participating group, by the project manager, and then by
senior organizational management
• Each subsequent approval hardens the plan, and when senior
management has endorsed it, any further changes in the
project’s scope must be made by processing a formal change
order
© 2006 John Wiley

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Project Plan
• The final approved result of this procedure is the project plan,

also known as a Master or Baseline plan
• Once planning phase is complete, it is beneficial to hold a postplanning review
• The major purpose of the review is to ensure that all necessary
elements of a project plan have been properly developed and
communicated
© 2006 John Wiley

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Project Plan Elements
• Overview
– Summarized Scope, Objectives, Structure

• Objectives
– Time, Cost, Performance
– Profit Goals
– Technical Requirements

• General Approach
– Technologies to Use
– Managerial Procedures

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Plan Elements
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Contracting Guidelines

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Legal Considerations
Procedural and Relationship Considerations

Schedule and Resources Limitations
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•

Early Identification of Tradeoffs

Monitor and Control
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Establish Metrics, Measurements, & Opportunities

Potential Problem Areas
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Risk Identification, Assessment, and Response
© 2006 John Wiley


Project Planning in Action

• Project plans are usually constructed by listing
the sequence of activities required to carry the
project from start to completion, and developing
an action plan to complete the activities
• This helps the planner decide the necessary
sequence of things
• Sequencing is a necessary consideration for
determining the project schedule and duration

© 2006 John Wiley

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Project Planning in Action
• Software and hardware developers commonly use a
planning process oriented around the life cycle
events:
– Concept evaluation
– Requirements identification
– Design
– Implementation
– Test
© 2006 John Wiley

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Project Planning

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Planning

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Planning

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Planning in Action
• Software and hardware development planning
process (cont.)
– Integration
– Validation
– Customer test and evaluation
– Operations and maintenance

© 2006 John Wiley

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Systems Integration
• Systems Integration is one part of integration
management and plays a crucial role in the
performance aspect of the project

• This includes any technical specialist in the science
or art of the project who is capable of integrating the
technical disciplines to achieve the customer’s
objectives

© 2006 John Wiley

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Systems Integration
• Systems Integration is concerned with three major
objectives:
– Performance - what a system does
– Effectiveness - achieve desired performance in an optimal
manner
• Requires no component specifications unless necessary to meet
one or more systems requirements
• Every component requirement should be traceable to one or more
systems requirements
• Design components to optimize system performance, not the
performance of subsystems

– Cost Systems - cost is a design parameter
© 2006 John Wiley

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Hierarchical Planning System

• All activities required to complete a project must
be precisely delineated, and coordinated
• Some activities must be done sequentially, and
some simultaneously
• Using a hierarchical planning system will allow
these activities to be identified and sorted
appropriately
• Also know as the “even planning process”
© 2006 John Wiley

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Sorting Out the Project
• The importance of careful planning can scarcely
be overemphasized
• Pinto and Slevin developed a list of ten factors that
should be associated with success in
implementation projects
• The factors were split into strategic and tactical
clusters
© 2006 John Wiley

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Sorting Out the Project
• Strategic Success Factors:
– Project Mission - spell out clearly defined and agreed-upon
objectives in the project plan

– Top Management Support - it is necessary for top
management to get behind the project at the outset, and make
clear to all personnel involved that they support successful
completion
– Project’s Action Plan - detailed plan of the required steps in
the implementation process needs to be developed including
all resource requirements
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© 2006 John Wiley


The Work Breakdown Structure
• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can take a
variety of forms that serve a variety of purposes
• The WBS often appears as an outline with Level I
tasks on the left and successive levels appropriately
indented
• The WBS may also picture a project subdivided into
hierarchical units of tasks, subtasks, work packages,
etc.
© 2006 John Wiley

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The Work Breakdown Structure
• The WBS is an important document and can be tailored for
use in a number of different ways
– It may illustrate how each piece of the project contributes to the
whole in terms of performance, responsibility, schedule, and

budget
– It may list the vendors or subcontractors associated with specific
tasks
– It may serve as the basis for making cost estimates or estimates of
task duration
– It may be used to document that all parties have signed off on their
various commitments to the project
© 2006 John Wiley

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The Work Breakdown Structure
• General steps for designing and using the WBS:
– 1. Using information from the action plan, list the task
breakdown in successively finer levels of detail. Continue
until all meaningful tasks or work packages have been
identified
– 2. For each such work package, identify the data relevant to the
WBS. List the personnel and organizations responsible for each
task.
– 3. All work package information should be reviewed with the
individuals or organizations who have responsibility for doing or
supporting the work in order to verify the accuracy of the WBS
© 2006 John Wiley

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The Work Breakdown Structure

• General steps for designing and using the WBS (cont.):
– 4. The total project budget should consist of four elements: direct
budgets from each task; an indirect cost budget for the project; a
“contingency” reserve for unexpected emergencies; and any
residual, which includes the profit derived from the project
– 5. The project master schedule integrates the many different
schedules relevant to the various parts of the project

• Items 1-5 focus on the WBS as a planning tool but it may
also be used to monitor and control the project
© 2006 John Wiley

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