Project Planning

Below are the important themes that you must remember from the PMI Perspective for the Planning Phase of the Project.

1. The project planning process comprise 20 of the 42 total processes in PMBOK
2. The project plan is much more than a project schedule. It is an all-encompassing document used as the basis for project controlling and executing.
3. A project charter is not a project plan. It is the starting point that is used to build/develop the project plan
4. The WBS is not the project schedule.
5. The WBS serves as the foundation for most project-planning activities.
6. The WBS should include all the work to be done as part of the project and should be developed with the project team.
7. The granularity of the WBS depends on what detail is needed for effective management and control.
8. WBS is created by decomposing the Scope Statement.
9. Activity definition is done using the WBS as input and generates the activity list.
10. A project schedule must meet three key criteria to be complete: It must have buy-in, be achievable, and be realistic and formal.
11. Developing a project schedule is a four-step process: (1) define work activities (2) identify activity/task relationships (3) estimate effort and duration of each activity (4) apply calendar and resource availability to build a schedule.
12. Network diagrams highlight relationships among project activities.
13. The three types of project network diagrams are Activity-on-Node (most popular), Activity-on-Arrow (uses dummy activities), and GERT (uses loops and conditional branches).
14. Estimating should be performed by the person doing the work.
15. Key project success factors (cost, time, scope, resources) should be managed to baselines and only changed when an approved project change has been executed.
16. All assumptions used in estimating should be documented & checked for their validity at the appropriate time.
17. Historical information is vital to improving estimates.
18. The key facts about the “critical path” in a project schedule are as follows:
o It's the longest sequence of activities.
o There is zero slack (float).
o It's the focus of any schedule-compression activity.
19. The three scheduling techniques are CPM (uses one estimate), PERT (uses three estimates), and GERT (can show various project outcomes).
20. The Monte Carlo technique is the most popular simulation scheduling technique and is also used for risk analysis.
21. The three methods for presenting the project schedule are milestone charts, Gantt charts, and network diagrams.
22. The two most popular methods for compressing the schedule are crashing (adding extra resources to critical path tasks to reduce overall time) and fast tracking (performing critical path tasks in parallel).
23. Cost estimates for an activity are affected by activity duration, resource rates, and risk level.
24. The three levels of estimating accuracy are order of magnitude (-50% to +50%), budget (-10% to +25%), and definitive (-5% to +10%).
25. The risk management plan is not a risk response plan.
26. All project management activity should be “thought about” and planned.
27. Effective project management is proactive.
28. The “core” planning processes are those that must be done in a specific sequence. (Defining Scope, Creating WBS, Defining Activities, Sequencing Activities, Estimate Resource Requirement & Durations and Creating Budget)
29. The “facilitating” planning processes are always performed, are not optional, and directly impact many of the core planning processes. (Planning communications, Planning for Human Resources, Quality etc)
30. The formality and detail of each supplemental plan will vary depending on project need.
31. Ninety percent of a project manager's time is spent communicating. Communication is the most important project management skill. Identifying all stakeholders is paramount to an effective Communication plan and directly impacts the success or failure of the Project
32. Remember the three C's in project communications: Clear, Concise, and Courteous.
33. Quality management addresses both product (goods and services) quality and project management quality.
34. The project manager has ultimate responsibility for the project product quality.
35. Quality is planned in, not inspected in.
36. The PMI definition of quality is “conformance to requirements” and “fitness of use.”
37. The identification of risks is an iterative, continual process throughout the project.
38. Risk management will change the project plan during planning, executing, and controlling.
39. After procurement planning, the other steps of procurement management (including solicitation planning) are only performed if a “buy” decision is made.
40. All requirements should be specifically stated in the contract and should be met.
41. Project communication dealing with procurement management should always be formal and written.
42. Incentives should be used to align the seller's objectives with the buyer's.
43. The risk management plan, risk response plan, procurement management plan, quality management plan, communications plan, and staffing plan are all considered part of the project plan.
44. The three main types of contracts are cost reimbursable, fixed fee, and time and materials.
45. Once a contract is signed, as a buyer we must uphold our end of the contract and be fair in all dealings with the seller. We should not request anything to be done that is not part of the contract


Other PMI Themes:

General PMI Themes
Project Framework
Project Initiation
Project Execution
Project Monitoring & Controlling
Project Closure
Ethics & Professional Responsibility

Chapter 10: Project Integration Management in Project Planning Phase

Aim: To understand the Process that falls under Project Integration Management. i.e., “Develop the Project Management Plan”

The project management plan process covers all activities that identify and direct the actions of many other processes in the planning process group. Developing the project management plan includes coordinating the development of the subsidiary plans and incorporating them into the complete project plan. The main purpose of the project management plan is to define how the project is to progress from its beginning to completion.

In short, the project management plan provides the high-level game plan for how the project moves through its lifecycle. PMI defines many potential subsidiary plans that make up the overall project management plan. These subsidiary plans provide the specific details for managing each aspect of the project from initiation through closure. The subsidiary project management plans could include

• Project scope management plan
• Requirements management plan
• Schedule management plan
• Cost management plan
• Quality management plan
• Process improvement plan
• Human resource plan
• Communication management plan
• Risk management plan
• Procurement management plan

One of the more common mistakes inexperienced project managers make is to confuse a project plan with a project schedule. The output from many common project management software packages do not qualify as a project plan. They are a good start, but a true project plan is made up of much more information than just scheduling information. This process requires a focused effort to create a plan that incorporates all known information about a project.

The Table below shows the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for the develop project management plan process.

Develop Project Management Plan
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project charter Outputs from planning processes Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Expert Judgment	Project Management Plan

Exam Watch:
You will see “expert judgment” listed as a tool and technique for several processes. The meaning of “expert judgment” is specific to each process. In the context of the develop the project management plan process, expert judgment includes
• Tailor the process to meet the project needs
• Develop technical and management details to be included in the project management plan
• Determine resources and skill levels needed to perform project work
• Define the level of configuration management to apply to the project
• Determine which project documents are subject to the formal change control process

You can learn more about the Develop Project Management Plan process by Clicking Here

Prev: Chapter 9

Next: Chapter 11

Chapter 9: Understanding PMI’s Planning Process Group

Aim – To provide an overview of the PMI’s Planning Process Group.

After you have completed the initiating processes you are ready to start planning your project. This means that you possess formal authorization to conduct the work of the project. But you won’t know what to do without a plan. Planning answers a few very important questions. What work will you do? What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
To answer these questions, start from what you know. There are three outputs from the initiating process group processes. Always start with the information necessary to proceed. Recall that PMI refers to this initial information for each process as the process’s inputs. The three outputs from the initiating processes are
• The project charter
• The stakeholder register
• The stakeholder management strategy

Armed with these initiating documents you can start the planning processes. In a nutshell, you follow each of the planning processes to refine the project documents from these outputs. As you develop the planning documents, always remember how the various processes are related.

Think of the initiating progress group as the processes that answer the ‘“what’” and ‘“why”’ questions. The planning processes answer the ‘“how”’ questions. The planning processes result in outputs that explain how the project will progress toward reaching its goals.

Exam Watch:
The Planning Process Group is by far the largest group and has many processes. So, be prepared to answer many questions in this area on the exam. After all, planning process group questions make up 23% of the PMP exam.

PMI is very explicit in stressing the importance of planning. Far too many projects suffer from the poor practice of starting work before anyone really knows what needs to be done. This almost always results in wasted effort and lost time. Proper planning requires good communication among the team and sound leadership from the project manager. The result of solid planning is a project team that is more informed and prepared to carry out the work required to meet the project’s goals. You should expect to see several questions on the exam that require you to understand the importance of fully planning before starting work.

Because planning is such a large process group, the subsequent chapters in this section wil cover the following topics:
• Integration
• Scope
• Schedule
• Cost
• Communications
• Risk
• Quality
• Procurement
• Human resources

The main purpose of planning is to provide a framework to gather information to produce a project management plan. In fact, the plan itself is really a collection of other plans. The majority of activities in the planning group center around developing the supporting documents that comprise the final project management plan. As more detailed information is learned about the project, the overall plan becomes more complete and the stakeholders’ confidence in the project increases.

Planning is an iterative group of processes as well. As the project progresses it often becomes necessary to modify the plan due to any number of reasons. Unexpected results, delays, outside factors, and internal factors can all require additional planning. Any scope changes are likely to require one or more planning processes to be revisited. Don’t assume that planning is only accomplished once. The exam requires that you understand how planning is iterative throughout a project.

Prev: Chapter 8

Next: Chapter 10

Chapter 25: Introduction to Project Planning

After the project has been initiated, you need to develop a project management plan, which becomes the primary source of information for how the project you are currently managing will be executed, monitored & controlled, and closed.

In this chapter, we are going to take a look at how a Project Manager would begin this planning phase.

So, lets get started!!!

Planning the Project

Once the project has been initiated, it’s time to do some planning. As I said in the previous chapter, any project that does not have a proper plan seldom succeeds. So, as the project manager it is our responsibility to plan properly and to ensure that our project is a success. This includes determining the project scope, during which time you’ll refine the project objectives and determine things like:

• How the scope will be executed
• How the execution will be monitored and controlled, and
• How the project will be brought to a proper closure.

Project planning is embodied in the project management plan that is developed through progressive elaboration. The project management plan is a document that defines, prepares, coordinates, and integrates all subsidiary plans, such as scope and risk management plans, into one plan. The goal here is to develop a source of information that will work as a guideline for how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.

Trivia:
It is important for any project to have a good plan. It is possible that the project manager might leave the company or move on to another critical project where his/her expertise is needed and leave the current project to another manager. Eitherways, the presence of a good project plan will help the new manager, whomsoever it might be, to handle and manage the project effectively.

How Important is Project Planning?

Let us take a real time example to explain this. Lets assume that you are going to get married and for the sake of comparison, lets compare this marriage to a project. (I know it's a bad analogy but I think it would be a good example to explain the whole importance part of it)

Once you decide to get married, you need to fix a marriage hall, print invitations, send them to all your friends, meet up close friends & family members and invite them, arrange caterers, arrange decoration parties who will decorate the marriage hall during the events, arrange for flowers and garlands, buy new cloths, jewels for the bride, and on and on. The list is very long. Unless someone from the couples family (Usually the Fathers of the bride & groom) sit down and do extensive planning to ensure that the event is a success.

Imagine, what a disaster it would be to realize that the flowers & garlands werent ordered and the bride and groom are ready to tie the knot on the stage? Forget the disaster, it would be embarrassing for the couple and their close family members to see such an event.

Fortunately, the project managers (the dads of the couple) wouldn't let such a thing happen and plan it all out properly to result in a successful and happy wedding.

I guess, by now you have understood the importance of planning on the success of a project.

Elements of Project Planning

The planning phase of any project would involve 3 important things:

1. Refining the project objectives defined during project initiation and collecting requirements based on the stakeholder needs and expectations.
2. Determining the scope of the project.
3. Determining the course of action required to attain these objectives, which involves breaking down the scope and objectives into concrete, manageable tasks.

It is important to plan the project because not all projects need all the planning processes, nor do they all need them with the same level. Therefore, the content of the project management plan, the ultimate output of project planning, will depend upon the project under consideration.

As the project goes through different stages, the project management plan may be updated and revised through the change control process. Following are some issues that project planning phase addresses:

• Which project management processes will be used for the project, what the level of implementation for each of the processes will be, and what the inputs and tools and techniques for the processes are
• The project baseline against which the performance of the project will be measured and against which the project will be monitored and controlled
• How the changes to the approved plan will be monitored and controlled
• What the needs and techniques for communication among the stakeholders are
• How the project lifecycle looks, including the project phases if the project is a multiphase one

Note: This list is not exhaustive and the project plan may include a lot more than this.
Trivia:

The project baseline is defined as the approved plan for the scope, schedule, and cost of the project. The project performance is measured against this baseline, and therefore this baseline is also called the performance baseline. The project baseline is also referred to in terms of its components: cost baseline, schedule baseline, and scope baseline. How do you know how the project is performing? You compare the performance to the baseline. Approved changes in scope, schedule, or cost will obviously change the baseline.

Let us take a look at a pictorial representation of how the Project Management Plan is Prepared.

Before I begin explanation, this is just a high level view. The details involved in each of these steps might be more complicated and may require a lot of effort.
The output of the project Initiation Phase is the Project Charter, Stakeholder Register and the Stakeholder Management Strategy. These are the inputs in the process of creating the Project Management Plan.

Depending upon the complexity of the project, the project management plan can be either a summary or a collection of subsidiary plans and components, which might include:

• Standard plans from different aspects of project planning, such as the cost management plan, communication management plan, scope management plan, and risk management plan.
• Other components, such as the milestones list, the resource calendar, and baselines for scope, schedule, cost, and quality. A baseline is a reference plan against which all the performance deviations are measured. This reference plan can be the original or the updated plan.

In a nutshell, project planning involves determining exactly what will be done and how it will be done. Executing a project means implementing the project management plan for that project. Therefore, the project management plan contains the project scope that defines what needs to be done to meet the project objectives.

But how exactly is the project management plan actually developed? Don't worry, that is what our next chapter is going to explain…

Previous: Planning a Project

Next: Developing the Project Management Plan

Chapter 24: Planning the Project

In the previous chapters, we learnt how to Initiate a Project, how to create a project charter, how to identify stakeholders and how to prepare a stakeholder management strategy.

The next big step after initiating a project is to plan for the project.

What is Project Planning?

Any Project that needs to be executed has to be planned. Any tasks that was begun without proper planning and due diligence is almost always a failure. So, as a responsible project manager you have to plan your project properly to ensure that, your baby is a success. After all, which project manager wants to spend months of his time on a failing cause? Atleast, I don’t …

What are the Phases Involved in Project Planning?

Project Planning involves 4 important phases. They are:

1. Planning the Project Scope
2. Planning the Project Resources
3. Planning the Project Schedule
4. Planning Quality & Risk Management

Each of these 4 phases is equally important and have a significant impact on the success of the project.

As Project Managers we need to put in dedicated effort to plan for each of these phases and as expected, the PMP exam covers each of these in depth.

In the forthcoming chapters, we will be starting with Project Scope Management and then move on to the other phases in Project Planning one by one.

Previous: Important Terms & Definitions

Next: Introduction to Project Planning