Project Planning

WHAT IS PLANNING

What is project planning?

Project planning involves the creation of resource plan, financial

plan, quality plan, risk plan ,acceptance plan, communication plan
and procurement plan.
project planning is “the answering of the
following questions:
What must be done?
How should it be done?
Who will do it?
By when must it be done?
How much will it cost?
PROJECT PLANNING
Why a plan? Because:
 Used as a basis for organizing project activities
and allocating responsibilities to individuals
 A means of communication and coordination
between all those involved in the project
 Encourages people to look ahead
 Inspires a sense of urgency and time
consciousness
 Establishes the basis for monitoring and control
What do we plan?
 The work
 Manpower and organization
 Financial resources
 Information system
Project objectives
Must help in answering the following questions
What are the technical and performance
objectives?
What are the time and cost goals?
To what extent should project work be sub-
contracted? How many contractors? The terms
of contract?
Three issues arise in the planning process:
(1) During the conception and definition phases
a plan is made specifying the project
requirements, work tasks, responsibilities,
schedules, and budgets;
(2) during the execution phase the plan is
likened to actual project performance,
time, and cost; if there are inconsistencies,
(3) then, corrective actions are taken and the
requirements, schedules, and budgets
updated.
• Planning is essential parts of project
management;
they enable people to understand
what is needed to meet the project
goals and
reduce the uncertainty of
outcomes.
Project Charter
• A project charter is a document that briefly
describes the statement of work, expected /end-
items or results, and required resources.
• If the work is being performed under contract,
the contract will serve as the charter.
• The purpose of the charter is to enable the
project manager, senior management, and
functional managers to reach agreement about
the scope of the project and the resources they
will commit to it.
 STEPS IN PROJECT PLANNING

Once key members of the project team have

been assembled/identified, they begin preparing
the detailed project plan. The plan includes:-
1. Project objectives, requirements, and scope
are set.
• These outcome elements specify project end
items, desired results, and time, cost, and
performance targets.
• The scope includes specific acceptance
requirements that the customer uses to determine
acceptability of results or end items.
2. The specific work activities, tasks, or jobs
to achieve objectives are broken down,
defined, and listed. (What?)
3. A project organization is created
specifying the departments, subcontractors,
and managers responsible for work activities.
(Who?)
4. A schedule is prepared showing the timing
of work activities, deadlines, and milestones.
(When, in what order?)
5. A budget and resource plan is
prepared showing the amount and
timing of resources and expenditures for
work activities and related items. (How
much and when?)
6. A forecast is prepared of time, cost,
and performance projections for the
completion of the project. (How much
time is needed, what will it cost, and when
will the project be finished?)
These steps need to be followed
each time because every project
is somewhat unique, requires
different resources, and must
be completed to specific time,
cost, and performance
standards to satisfy users’
requirements.
 THE PROJECT MASTER PLAN

The project is initiated with the

preparation of a formal, written master
plan. The purpose of this plan is:
to guide the project manager and team
throughout the project life cycle;
to tell them what resources are needed,
when, and how much they will cost; and,
to permit them to measure progress and
performance.
Summary Plan Vs. Master Plan
The difference between the summary plan in
the proposal and the master plan is that the
former is intended for the customer, and the
latter for the project team.
The summary plan need only contain enough
detail to give the customer an overview; the
master plan must be of sufficient detail to guide
the team in the execution of the project.
oOnce top management approves the plan it
gives the project manager tacit authority to
conduct the project in accordance with the plan.
Contents of Master Plans
The contents of master plans vary
depending on the size, complexity, and
nature of the project.
Usually, the plan has three major
sections:
I. Management Summary.
II. Organization Section
III. Technical Section
 I. Management Summary

Brief explanation of the project in favor of top-

level management. It includes:
a brief description of the project,
Its objectives,
overall requirements, constraints, problem
areas (and how they will be overcome), and
the master schedule showing major events
and milestones/indicators.
 II. Organization Section

Which specifies the organization and personnel

requirements for the project. It includes:
A) Project Management and Organization:
Describes how the project will be managed and
identifies key personnel and authority
relationships.
B) Manpower: forecasts of workforce
requirements in terms of skills, expertise, and
strategies for locating and recruiting qualified
people.
C) Training and Development: Summary of the
executive development and personnel training
necessary to support the project.
 III. Technical Section

Describes major activities, timing, and cost. It includes:

A) Statement of work and scope of work: General
description of major project activities and tasks, and
results or end-items.
B) Work breakdown: List of work packages and
description of each.
C) Responsibility assignments: List of personnel
and responsibility for work packages.
D) Project schedules: showing major events,
milestones, and points of critical action or decision.
May include bar charts, project networks, and
diagrams.
E) Budget and financial support: Estimates and timing of
capital and development expenses for labor, materials, and
facilities.
F) Testing: Listing of things to be tested, including
procedures, timing, and persons responsible.
G) Change control plan: Procedures for changes request to
any aspect of the project plan.
H) Quality plan: Measures for monitoring quality and
accepting results for individual work tasks, components, and
end-item assemblies.
I) Work review plan (may be included in quality plan):
Procedures for periodic review of work, noting what is to be
reviewed, by whom, when, and according to what standards.
J) Documentation: List of documents to be
produced and how they will be organized and
maintained.
K) Implementation: Discussion and guidelines
showing how the customer will convert to, or adopt,
the end-item of the project.
L) Economic justification: Summary of
alternatives in meeting project objectives showing
tradeoffs between costs and schedules.
M) Areas of uncertainty and risk: Contingency
plans for areas of greatest uncertainty in terms of
potential work failure or missed milestones.
 Tools of Project Planning

ᴥMuch of the technical content of project plans is derived

from the basic tools described in this. They include:
(1) Work breakdown structure (WBS) and work
packages (WP)—used to define the project work and
break it down into specific tasks.
(2) Responsibility matrix—used to define project
organization, key individuals, and their responsibilities.
(3) Events and milestones—used to identify critical
points and major occurrences on the project schedule.
(4) Gantt Charts—used to display the project master
schedule and detailed task schedules.
 Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)

♥ Large & complex projects consist of several

smaller, interrelated tasks and work elements.
♣ The procedure for decomposing the overall project
into sub-elements is called the work breakdown
structure or WBS.
☺The purpose of a WBS is to divide the total project
into small pieces, sometimes called work packages.
♠ Decomposing the project into work packages
enables us to prepare project schedules and cost
estimates and to assign management and task
responsibility.
◙ A typical WBS might consist of the following five
levels (actually the number of levels varies; the
name of the element description at each level is
arbitrary):
Level Element Description
1 Project
2 Category
3 Subcategory
4 Sub-subcategory
5 Work package
☻The WBS is reviewed again and again
to make sure everything is there.
☻Supplementary or missed items are
identified and added to the structure at
appropriate levels.
☻The WBS should be checked by the
various project participants to ensure that
nothing was missed.
◙ How far down does the breakdown
structure go?
♠ As far as is necessary to completely
define a work task. Sometimes a Level 2
breakdown will be adequate, though
usually a Level 3 or higher level
breakdown will be necessary.
♠ For a task to be well defined it must
have the following properties:
 (i) Clear, comprehensive statement of work:
The task is well-enough defined so the responsible
ones know exactly what must be done.
(ii) Resource requirements: The labor, skills,
equipment, facilities, and materials for the task are
identified.
(iii) Time: The time needed to perform the task is
estimated.
(iv) Cost: The costs for the required resources,
management, and related expenses for the task are
estimated.
(v) Responsibility: The parties, individuals, or job
titles responsible for performing the task and approving
it are identified.
 (vi) Outcomes: The deliverables, end-items and associated
requirements and specifications for the task are identified.
(vii) Inputs: The preconditions or predecessors needed to
begin the task are identified.
(viii) Quality Assurance: The entry, process, and exit
conditions to which the task must conform are identified; these
are specified in the quality plan.
NB. If any of the properties mentioned above cannot
be defined, then the task is too broad and must be
broken down further.
 WBS in the Planning Process

♣The WBS is the crucial element of the project

planning and control process. It is used in three
ways:
(1) During the WBS analysis, functional
managers, subcontractors, and others who will
take part in the work are identified and become
involved.
♥ Their approval of the WBS helps ensure accuracy
and completeness of work definition, and gains their
commitment to the project.
(2) The WBS and WPs become the basis for
budgeting and scheduling.
♣ The cost and time estimates for each WP show
what is expected to complete that work package.
♣ The sum of work package budgets plus
overhead and indirect expenses becomes the
target cost of the entire project.
♣ These budgets and schedules are the
baselines against which actual figures will later be
compared to measure project performance.
(3) The WBS and WPs become the basis for
project control.
♠ While the project is in progress, actual work
completed for each work package is compared to
work that was scheduled to have been completed.
The result is an estimate of time and schedule
variance.
♠ Similarly, a comparison of actual expenditures to
date with the value of the work accomplished gives
an estimate of cost variance.
♠ Schedule and cost variances for the project as a
whole are determined by summarizing all schedule and
cost data throughout the WBS.
31 of 85 Project Planning

Tools of planning
Bar chart(Ghant chart)
 A pictorial device in which activities are
represented by a horizontal bars on the time
axis.
 Manpower requirement can be shown a number
on the bar

Project Financing and Management-Project Management

32 of 85 Project Planning

Tools of planning
Bar chart

Project Financing and Management-Project Management

33 of 85 Project Planning

Tools of planning
Bar chart
Advantages Disadvantages
 simple to understand  cannot show interrelations
among activities in complex
projects
 used for manpower planning  physical limit to the chart
 used to show project progress  cannot easily cope with
frequent changes/updating

Project Financing and Management-Project Management

34 of 85 Project Planning

Tools of planning
Network Techniques
 Activities, events and interrelationships are represented by a
network diagram
Advantages Disadvantages
 effectively handles  more complicated than bar charts
interrelationships
 identifies critical activities  do not define operational schedule
 can handle complex projects

Project Financing and Management-Project Management

• The Project Network
–A flow chart that graphically describes the sequence,
interdependencies, and start and finish times of the
project job plan of activities that is the critical path
through the network. Uses
• Provides the basis for scheduling labor and equipment.
• Enhances communication among project participants.
• Provides an estimate of the project’s duration.
• Provides a basis for budgeting cash flow.
• Identifies activities that are critical.
• Highlights activities that are “critical” and can not be delayed.
• Help managers get and stay on plan.
WBS/Work Packages to Network

FIGURE 6.1
WBS/Work Package to Network (cont’d)

FIGURE 6.1 (cont’d)

 Constructing a Project Network

• Terminology
–Activity: an element of the A
project that requires time.
–Merge Activity: an activity that
has two or more preceding B D
activities on which it depends.
–Parallel (Concurrent) Activities:
Activities that can occur C
independently and, if desired,
not at the same time.
 Constructing a Project Network (cont’d)
• Terminology
–Path: a sequence of connected, dependent activities.
–Critical path: the longest path through the activity
network that allows for the completion of all project-
related activities; the shortest expected time in which
the entire project can be completed. Delays on the
critical path will delay completion of the entire project.
why?
C

A B D

(Assumes that minimum of A + B > minimum of C in length of times to complete activities.)

 Constructing a Project Network (cont’d)
• Terminology
–Event: a point in time when an activity is started
or completed. It does not consume time.
–Burst Activity: an activity that has more than one
activity immediately following it (more than one
dependency arrow flowing from it).
B
• Two Approaches
–Activity-on-Node (AON)
• Uses a node to depict an activity. A C
–Activity-on-Arrow (AOA)
• Uses an arrow to depict an activity.
D
 Individual Assignment !

• What are the steps of project planning ?

• What is the importance of Planning ?
• What are the importance of WBS in the planning
process ?