Why do we need project planning?
You see, careful & detailed planning help us to reduces risk and in turn uncertainty in any given project. In meticulously planned project, project planner attempts to make a provision for potential
occurrences of uncertainties in advance. It is true that project plan in advance, cannot take care of all unforeseen events, risks, and deviations nevertheless; we still, are in a better position than having no planning. Why? – We know what needs to be done, we can organize our work and also, with well-planned project we can better equip ourselves to respond aptly to potential risks, slippages, etc. Hence the bottom line is, we are able to save on time, on resources and as a result we can save on cost too.
1.Project Scope Planning
Any project is expected to provide its stakeholders with certain outcome, which is commonly termed as project deliverables. These project deliverables depends on the scope of the project. Analogically, defining a project scope is like drawing a map. In the map, the boundaries are drawn to indicate stretch/ extent of a given territory; similarly project scope outlines the extent of project deliverables.
Essentially, project scope is the definition of what the project is expected to achieve and specify the budget of both time and cost that needs to be provisioned to create the project deliverables before the project gets closed. For the best result, one needs to take care of clearly carving out project definition & the budgetary requirements. More detailing & precision during project planning definitely help the team organize their work efficiently & deliver the project more effectively. Without a project scope, project execution can go haywire.
Project Deliverables To define project scope, one needs to refer project requirements. The project planner needs to list down project deliverable items unambiguously stating whether they are ‘In Scope’ or ‘Not in Scope’. So, project scope is about outlining the project deliverables. Based on project scope, project planner(s) create(s) work break down structure (WBS).
1.1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The WBS is a breakdown/ decomposition of project work into distinct work items at higher level. These work items are aligned with the project objective and can help the project team to create expected deliverables. Generally the project team can refer to this work item hierarchy to decide whether any given task is included in WBS or not.
Essentially, WBS is decomposition of project work in a hierarchical fashion wherein with each descending level, it gives details of project deliverable required from project team.
Triangular Constraints (TQR)
The project scope is generally constrained, with respect to following aspects 1. Time 2. Quality 3. Resources
If you stretch any corner of the triangle in Figure 3: Elements of Project Planning: the triangle gets distorted; similarly any change in the scope of the project has direct effect on (either any or all) of time, quality and resources of given project. Vice versa, any change in time or cost or resource can make the project scope altered.
And each corner of this triangle in turn has cost implication e.g. any addition of resource to project can increase cost of project, any delay in delivery can increase cost of project, any compromise can quality can have further effect on cost of the project. Hence cost of the project is directly dependent on project scope & project scope in turn is dependent on project delivery time, quality parameters & resources assignment.
Once project scope is determined and work breakdown structure (WBS) is created, the next step is to create delivery timeline. For each of the deliverable work item identified in the work breakdown structure (WBS), project planner needs to identify list of activities need to perform.
Activities/Tasks
Activities as mentioned above, become a basis for estimation, scheduling, execution, and monitoring and controlling of the project work. For each of these activities he/she needs to figure out How long will it take to complete each activity (days, weeks)? What kind of resource(s) – required for its completion (skill set, experience, etc.)?
Based on the estimate of efforts required to carry out each activity, one can sum up to get duration required for each deliverable. Thus working backward, project delivery timeline can be tweaked further to provide better estimates.
Milestones
A milestone marks a significant event in the project. Generally, project sponsors would refer to list of milestones to trace project delivery in respect of timeline & cost overrun.
Gantt chart
The visual representation of project schedule can be viewed through a Gantt chart. Many portfolio managers & project sponsors find it easy to work with Gantt chart. Since referring the Gantt chart for a given project, project manager/ project planner & other stakeholder can optimize/ change the schedule further.
Generally, this is where project sponsors start pushing for aggressive project deadline which might have been indicated/ agreed earlier and sometimes it becomes a real problem. In such case, the reasonable way out is to consult the project sponsor team & provide the details of project schedule. If there are differences, highly detailed project schedule can help you – to make your point. Based on the discussion, you may agree to following options:
2. Delivery Schedule Planning
1. Reschedule project delivery timeline [Time Implication] 2. Deploy additional resources [Resource Implication] 3. Change the scope of project [Scope Implication] 4. Enforce additional/ lesser Quality checks [Quality Implication]
As project team can manage timely completion of project activities based on project delivery schedule, it is quite imperative to perform detailed estimation work on project schedule. To estimate delivery timeline, generally, it involves performing following processes.
Five steps to create delivery schedule
2.1
Define Tasks/ Activities
Identification of individual & specific tasks to be performed to create the project deliverables
2.2
Tasks/ Activities Sequencing
It is to take care of identification & establishing relationships among the project activities e.g. Product filling activity to start after package labelling activity.
2.3
Resources Requirement Estimation
This process carry out estimation of the type (skill set/ experience, etc.) and quantities of material, people, equipment, etc. required to perform any given activity.
2.4 Task Durations Estimation
The process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. One can arrive at these estimates based on either of Expert’s judgement (consulting Subject Matter Expert) Three Point Estimate (Most likely, Optimist, Less Likely) Parametric Estimation (length & height of compound wall, number of lines of code)
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to add tolerance for duration of activity if you are unsure of exact duration (e.g. 3 weeks +/- 2 days).
2.5 Schedule Development
This is a critical process wherein project planner analyses sequences of activities, for each activity what are the: durations required, resource required, and constraints arising due to scheduling. The outcome from this exercise is a project schedule. Once project schedule is agreed by important stakeholders, it becomes a baseline for the given project.
Table 1: 5 steps to create project delivery schedule
These five steps will help us create project schedule and it would become a baseline for a given project. The project schedule may change as project progress; this change can be attributed to change in scope, deliverables, quality and risk aspects of the project.
It is the people who make the project work hence it is critical to plan for project team. But project resource is not just about the people to be involved in the project, rather materials, equipment required for successful completion of the project. Having mentioned this, generally resource planning tends to revolve about people/staffing management.
3. Project Resources Planning
Human Resource Plan
This plan tries to answer following questions but rather precise details: 1. What kinds of people are required to complete the project – necessary qty, competencies? 2. What should they do – roles & responsibilities? 3. Whom will they report to?
Thus human resource plan identifies and document the staffing requirements – skillset, roles, responsibilities and also establish the reporting structure of the project resources. It also provides the staffing plan which specifies timeline of acquisition & release of staff.
The staffing plan in last decade has become quite important for services based companies where these companies struggle with the pool of resource in terms of their availability, utilization; especially of the scarce resource having special knowledge/skill sets.
To arrive at human resource plan, project planner need to refer organization structure & figure out necessary changes and compliances required for project requirement. Companies may have following organization structure: 1. Hierarchical Organization 2. Matrix Based Organization 3. Flat organization
What can we expect from human resource plan?
Sr No
Item Description
A Roles & responsibilities
This section of the plan broadly describes how resources should be & how they are expected to perform in order to deliver the project outcome.
A.1
Role
For set of activities & work area, Roles are identified to make resource accountable e.g. business analyst to assess & process business requirements
A.2
Responsibility
This section documents clearly describes the work a project team member is expected to carry out to perform project activities
A.3
Competency
If project team does not have necessary competencies, project outcome remains uncertain. To a
Why do we need project planning? You see, careful & detailed planning help us to reduces risk and in turn uncertainty in any given project. In meticulously planned project, project planner attempts to make a provision for potentialoccurrences of uncertainties in advance. It is true that project plan in advance, cannot take care of all unforeseen events, risks, and deviations nevertheless; we still, are in a better position than having no planning. Why? – We know what needs to be done, we can organize our work and also, with well-planned project we can better equip ourselves to respond aptly to potential risks, slippages, etc. Hence the bottom line is, we are able to save on time, on resources and as a result we can save on cost too. 1.Project Scope Planning Any project is expected to provide its stakeholders with certain outcome, which is commonly termed as project deliverables. These project deliverables depends on the scope of the project. Analogically, defining a project scope is like drawing a map. In the map, the boundaries are drawn to indicate stretch/ extent of a given territory; similarly project scope outlines the extent of project deliverables. Essentially, project scope is the definition of what the project is expected to achieve and specify the budget of both time and cost that needs to be provisioned to create the project deliverables before the project gets closed. For the best result, one needs to take care of clearly carving out project definition & the budgetary requirements. More detailing & precision during project planning definitely help the team organize their work efficiently & deliver the project more effectively. Without a project scope, project execution can go haywire. Project Deliverables To define project scope, one needs to refer project requirements. The project planner needs to list down project deliverable items unambiguously stating whether they are ‘In Scope’ or ‘Not in Scope’. So, project scope is about outlining the project deliverables. Based on project scope, project planner(s) create(s) work break down structure (WBS). 1.1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The WBS is a breakdown/ decomposition of project work into distinct work items at higher level. These work items are aligned with the project objective and can help the project team to create expected deliverables. Generally the project team can refer to this work item hierarchy to decide whether any given task is included in WBS or not. Essentially, WBS is decomposition of project work in a hierarchical fashion wherein with each descending level, it gives details of project deliverable required from project team. Triangular Constraints (TQR) The project scope is generally constrained, with respect to following aspects 1. Time 2. Quality 3. Resources If you stretch any corner of the triangle in Figure 3: Elements of Project Planning: the triangle gets distorted; similarly any change in the scope of the project has direct effect on (either any or all) of time, quality and resources of given project. Vice versa, any change in time or cost or resource can make the project scope altered. And each corner of this triangle in turn has cost implication e.g. any addition of resource to project can increase cost of project, any delay in delivery can increase cost of project, any compromise can quality can have further effect on cost of the project. Hence cost of the project is directly dependent on project scope & project scope in turn is dependent on project delivery time, quality parameters & resources assignment. Once project scope is determined and work breakdown structure (WBS) is created, the next step is to create delivery timeline. For each of the deliverable work item identified in the work breakdown structure (WBS), project planner needs to identify list of activities need to perform. Activities/Tasks Activities as mentioned above, become a basis for estimation, scheduling, execution, and monitoring and controlling of the project work. For each of these activities he/she needs to figure out How long will it take to complete each activity (days, weeks)? What kind of resource(s) – required for its completion (skill set, experience, etc.)? Based on the estimate of efforts required to carry out each activity, one can sum up to get duration required for each deliverable. Thus working backward, project delivery timeline can be tweaked further to provide better estimates.
Milestones
A milestone marks a significant event in the project. Generally, project sponsors would refer to list of milestones to trace project delivery in respect of timeline & cost overrun.
Gantt chart
The visual representation of project schedule can be viewed through a Gantt chart. Many portfolio managers & project sponsors find it easy to work with Gantt chart. Since referring the Gantt chart for a given project, project manager/ project planner & other stakeholder can optimize/ change the schedule further.
Generally, this is where project sponsors start pushing for aggressive project deadline which might have been indicated/ agreed earlier and sometimes it becomes a real problem. In such case, the reasonable way out is to consult the project sponsor team & provide the details of project schedule. If there are differences, highly detailed project schedule can help you – to make your point. Based on the discussion, you may agree to following options:
2. Delivery Schedule Planning
1. Reschedule project delivery timeline [Time Implication] 2. Deploy additional resources [Resource Implication] 3. Change the scope of project [Scope Implication] 4. Enforce additional/ lesser Quality checks [Quality Implication]
As project team can manage timely completion of project activities based on project delivery schedule, it is quite imperative to perform detailed estimation work on project schedule. To estimate delivery timeline, generally, it involves performing following processes.
Five steps to create delivery schedule
2.1
Define Tasks/ Activities
Identification of individual & specific tasks to be performed to create the project deliverables
2.2
Tasks/ Activities Sequencing
It is to take care of identification & establishing relationships among the project activities e.g. Product filling activity to start after package labelling activity.
2.3
Resources Requirement Estimation
This process carry out estimation of the type (skill set/ experience, etc.) and quantities of material, people, equipment, etc. required to perform any given activity.
2.4 Task Durations Estimation
The process of approximating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. One can arrive at these estimates based on either of Expert’s judgement (consulting Subject Matter Expert) Three Point Estimate (Most likely, Optimist, Less Likely) Parametric Estimation (length & height of compound wall, number of lines of code)
Sometimes, it’s a good idea to add tolerance for duration of activity if you are unsure of exact duration (e.g. 3 weeks +/- 2 days).
2.5 Schedule Development
This is a critical process wherein project planner analyses sequences of activities, for each activity what are the: durations required, resource required, and constraints arising due to scheduling. The outcome from this exercise is a project schedule. Once project schedule is agreed by important stakeholders, it becomes a baseline for the given project.
Table 1: 5 steps to create project delivery schedule
These five steps will help us create project schedule and it would become a baseline for a given project. The project schedule may change as project progress; this change can be attributed to change in scope, deliverables, quality and risk aspects of the project.
It is the people who make the project work hence it is critical to plan for project team. But project resource is not just about the people to be involved in the project, rather materials, equipment required for successful completion of the project. Having mentioned this, generally resource planning tends to revolve about people/staffing management.
3. Project Resources Planning
Human Resource Plan
This plan tries to answer following questions but rather precise details: 1. What kinds of people are required to complete the project – necessary qty, competencies? 2. What should they do – roles & responsibilities? 3. Whom will they report to?
Thus human resource plan identifies and document the staffing requirements – skillset, roles, responsibilities and also establish the reporting structure of the project resources. It also provides the staffing plan which specifies timeline of acquisition & release of staff.
The staffing plan in last decade has become quite important for services based companies where these companies struggle with the pool of resource in terms of their availability, utilization; especially of the scarce resource having special knowledge/skill sets.
To arrive at human resource plan, project planner need to refer organization structure & figure out necessary changes and compliances required for project requirement. Companies may have following organization structure: 1. Hierarchical Organization 2. Matrix Based Organization 3. Flat organization
What can we expect from human resource plan?
Sr No
Item Description
A Roles & responsibilities
This section of the plan broadly describes how resources should be & how they are expected to perform in order to deliver the project outcome.
A.1
Role
For set of activities & work area, Roles are identified to make resource accountable e.g. business analyst to assess & process business requirements
A.2
Responsibility
This section documents clearly describes the work a project team member is expected to carry out to perform project activities
A.3
Competency
If project team does not have necessary competencies, project outcome remains uncertain. To a
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