Chapter-7: Project Planning

Chapter-8: Project PlanningPurpose Project plan elements Action Plan WBS and its procedures1. Purpose of Project PlanningPrimary purpose is to establish a set of directions in sufficient details to tell the project team exactly What must be done, (ii) when it must be done, (iii)what resources will be required to produce each deliverable successfully & when each resources will be needed.The deliverables are the scope or specifications. The scope includes the time and cost required to complete the project. The project must be designed to meet specific objectives Provision for risks and uncertainty2. Project Plan ElementsThe process of developing plan contains the following: Background: short description of the background in which the project will be implemented and problem statement Objectives and scope: detailed statement of general goals including technical. It also deals with competitive aims. General approach: managerial and technical approaches to the work. Technical approach describes the relationship of the project to available technologies, while managerial , takes any note of any deviation.

contd Contractual obligations: complete list and descriptions of all reporting requirements, customer-supplied resources, liaison arrangements, advisory committees, project review and cancellation procedures, proprietary requirements, specific management agreements as well as the technical deliverables and their specifications, delivery schedules and procedures for changing the above, etc.Schedules: Each task is listed, time required, person responsible and predecessor relationship Resources: One time costs are separated from recurring project costs. Also should include cost monitoring and controlling procedure.

Contd Personnel: Personnel requirements, their education and qualification, their skills, training needs, recruitment procedures, consultants, if needed. Requirements by time-phase; Risk management plan: potential risks and their mitigation planMonitoring and Evaluation (method). Every activity should be monitored against the target regularly. The project will be evaluated at certain period of time.Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)WBS is the process of dividing the project activities into small elements, which may illustrate how each activity contributes to the whole in terms of performance, responsibility, budget, and schedule. General steps: list the task breakdown in successively finer levels of detail and continue until all meaningful tasks or work packages; for each work package , identify the data relevant to WBS: vendors, duration, equipment, materials, special specifications. List the personnel and organization responsible & approval and reporting procedure Contd: all work package information should be reviewed with the individuals & organizations responsible for doing or supporting the work; total project costs should consist of 4 elements: (i) direct budget, (ii) indirect budget that would consist of general & administrative overhead costs, marketing costs, potential penalty charges, et., (iii) project contingency for unexpected emergencies; (iv) any residual that may include profit; Contd. schedule information and milestone events can be aggregated into a projected baseline schedule. as the project is carried out step by step, the PM can continually examine actual resource use by work element, work package, task and so on up to the full project level; finally the project schedule may be subjected to the same comparisons as the project budget. Actual progress is compared with scheduled progress by work element, package, task and complete project to identify problems and take corrective actions.