PROJECT

PLANNING
Part 1
GOALS OBJECTIVES & SCOPE STATEMENT
Agenda
• The Initiating Process Group
• Project Planning
• Project Goals Objectives & Scheduling
• Class Exercise – Group
• Project Scope Management
• Class Exercise – Individual
• Quiz

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The Initiating Process Group
What is project initiating? 

“The initiating process groups consists of those processes performed to 
define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining 
authorization to start the project or phase”
PMBOK® p.561

Deliverables that are a result of the initiating process group? 

• Project Charter
• Stakeholder Register

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Project Management
Truth??

- Compiled and or written by Mike Harding Roberts

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Project Planning
The Planning Process Group consists of those processes performed to 

establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the 

course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was 

undertaken to achieve.

PMBOK® p.565

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Objective:
Something toward which work is to be directed, a strategic position to be 
attained, or a purpose to be achieved, a result to be obtained, a product to be 
produced, or a service to be performed.
PMBOK® p.712
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time bound

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 SPECIFIC

• Description of a precise or specific behavior outcome, linked to a rate, 
number, percentage or frequency 

• Put another way, who is going to do how much of what by when?

• Example:  By June 1, 2013 the Humber Project Management Student 
Council members will have established a local academic advisory board 
that meets at least every other month during the school year.

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 MEASURABLE

• Does the objective measure up to your standard of acceptability?...e.g.

 “Answer the phone quickly”
vs.
 “Phone calls will be answered within three rings”

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 ACHIEVABLE

• With a reasonable amount of effort and application can the objective 
be achieved?

• NB: Achievable is linked to measurable.
– Usually, there's no point in starting a job you know you can't finish, 
or one where you can't tell if when you've finished it.

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 REALISTIC

• Can the people with whom the objective is set make an impact on the 
situation? 

• Do they have the necessary knowledge, authority and skills? 

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 TIME BOUND

• Somewhere in the objective there has to be a date 

• (Day Month Year) for when the task has to be started (if it's ongoing) 
and or completed (if it's short term or project related). 

• Simply put: No date = No good. 

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 SMART OBJECTIVES…
Good                                       Not So Good
Specific Vague & too many objectives

Measurable Lack of performance criteria

Achievable Too easy or too difficult

Not linked to department priorities or
Relevant & Realistic resources not available
Time-bound No deadlines

Discussed Imposed by manager

Action-plan No follow-up

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 GROUP ACTIVITY
• In Groups of 5:

• Choose an organization
• Research its mission
• Determine a goal that is aligned to that mission
• Find a project that was recently completed
• Determine the project’s objectives

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 BREAK

Be back in 10 Minutes

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 Project Scope Management
Project Scope Management:
Following are the six processes required for Project Scope Management:

• Plan Scope Management
• Collect Requirements
• Define Scope
• Create WBS
• Validate Scope
• Control Scope
PMBOK® p.129
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 Project Scope Management

Project Scope Management:
Project Scope Management includes processes required to ensure that the 
project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to 
complete the project successfully. 
PMBOK® p.129
• Project Scope
• Product Scope

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 Scope
Project Scope:
The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the 
specified features and functions. The term project scope is sometimes 
viewed as including product scope.
PMBOK® p.131
Product Scope:
The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result.

PMBOK® p.131

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 Scope Definition

Projects

Clear  Unclear 
Scope Scope

Alexander, M. (2018, June 19). Agile project management: 12 key principles, 4 big hurdles. Retrieved 
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from https://www.cio.com/article/3156998/agile‐project‐management‐a‐beginners‐guide.html.
 Project Scope Management
The Project Lifecycle:

The Project Management Body of Knowledge states that a project lifecycle 
could be:

• Predictive

• Adaptive

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 Scope Management - Adaptive
Projects with significant uncertainty with evolving requirements go 
through agile scope management:
• Where less time is intentionally spent to define and agree on scope at 
the early stages of the project. 
• Process is developed for the on‐going discovery and refinement of 
requirements. 
• Experience is that there is often gap between the real business 
requirements and the business requirements that were originally 
stated; hence agile methods intentionally build and review prototypes 
and release versions in order to refine the requirements, which 
constitutes the backlog.  
• In agile approaches, scope is defined and redefined throughout the 
project. 
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PMBOK® p.133
 A 
Comparison

Kukhnavets, P. (2019, November 6). Agile Methodology vs Waterfall Model: Pros and Cons. 
Retrieved from https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/waterfall‐vs‐agile‐with‐advantages‐and‐
disadvantages/
 The Planning Process
Why Plan?

• Does not decrease implementation time.

• “Ready, Fire, Aim” – Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence)

• What is included in the project plan?

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 Project Stages
• How much time should each phase take?
• Expressed as a % of total project time, best practice 1 suggests…:

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 Planning Process Group

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 Planning
Contents of a Project Plan

• Overview
• Objectives
• General Approach
• Contracted Aspects
• Schedule
• Resource Requirements
• Personnel
• Evaluation Methods
• Risk Management Plan
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 Planning
Feasibility Study

Requirements Gathering

Design

Unit Test

System Integration Test

Client Acceptance Test

Delivery & Maintenance
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 Planning
When you are picked as the PM for a Project:

• Understand the objectives of the project
• Understand the priority and expectations from the organization
• Identify the sponsors and managers with major interest in this project
• Determine what, if anything, about the project is atypical
• Determine if a feasibility study was performed
• Determine what, if any, contractual agreements were signed

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 Planning
The Project Kick‐Off Meeting

• Introduction of the PM – conducted by Senior Management
• Chair the meeting ‐ PM
• Outline the project goals
• Clarify the expectations of all parties
• Create a commitment by all those who influence the project’s outcome. 

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 Planning
Hierarchical Planning Process
Typically, the 

L3
lowest level 
of the tasks 

L2
will have a 

L3
duration of 2 
days to 2 
weeks

L3
L2
L1

L3
L2

L3

PM Functional  Team Leads
Manager Experts
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 The Project Action Plan
Content of the Project Action Plan:
• Project activities identified and arranged in various levels, in detail. 
• Estimates of duration to accomplish each task. 
• Estimates of type and quantity of project resources required for 
each activity. 
• Milestone information. 
• Data that will allow tasks to be sequenced so that the set will be completed 
in the shortest possible time (predecessor relationships)

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 Planning for Agile Projects
Planning for iteration‐based agile projects will based on:
• “Pull” methodology, where work is pulled based on the team’s capacity and 
the size of each user‐story. 
• If team size is reduced due to vacations, holidays, sick, etc., the intake of work 
will also be reduced to ensure that the team can complete the work within one 
iteration. 
• Agile teams plan in iterations and deliver in increments; learn and then re‐
plan in an ongoing cycle. 

PMBOK® Agile Practice Guide p.55

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 Milestone
A significant point or event in the project. 
PMBOK® p.186

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 Project Action Plan
Template
Software Development Project
ID Task Name Predecessors Duration Start Finish Resources

1 Identify project objectives 1 day 01-Jan-09 PM

2 Develop preliminary scope 1 3 days PM
3 Gather requirements 2 5 days BA
4 Build architectural diagram 3 3 days Architect
5 Develop test plan 3 5 days QA
6 Build code 4 20 days Dev
7 Develop test case matrix 5 5 days QA
8 Unit test the code 5, 6 3 days QA/Dev
9 System integration test 6,7 6 days QA
10 Client acceptance test 9 10 days QA/Client
11 Build implementation plan 10 2 days PM/BA
12 Build maintenace plan 10 3 days PM/Dev
13 Production acceptance test 10 5 days Operations
14 Go-Live 11, 13 0 days
15 Transition to support 12, 14 1 day PM
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 Project Action Plan - Answers
Template
Software Development Project
ID Task Name Predecessors Duration Start Finish Resources

1 Identify project objectives 1 day 1-Jan-09 1-Jan-09 PM

2 Develop preliminary scope 1 3 days 2-Jan-09 4-Jan-09 PM
3 Gather requirements 2 5 days 5-Jan-09 9-Jan-09 BA
4 Build architectural diagram 3 3 days 10-Jan-09 12-Jan-09 Architect
5 Develop test plan 3 5 days 10-Jan-09 14-Jan-09 QA
6 Build code 4 20 days 13-Jan-09 1-Feb-09 Dev
7 Develop test case matrix 5 5 days 15-Jan-09 19-Jan-09 QA
8 Unit test the code 5, 6 3 days 2-Feb-09 4-Feb-09 QA/Dev
9 System integration test 6,7 6 days 2-Feb-09 7-Feb-09 QA
10 Client acceptance test 9 10 days 8-Feb-09 17-Feb-09 QA/Client
11 Build implementation plan 10 2 days 18-Feb-09 19-Feb-09 PM/BA
12 Build maintenace plan 10 3 days 18-Feb-09 20-Feb-09 PM/Dev
13 Production acceptance test 10 5 days 18-Feb-09 22-Feb-09 Operations
14 Go-Live 11, 13 0 days 22-Feb-09 22-Feb-09
15 Transition to support 12, 14 1 day 23-Feb-09 23-Feb-09 PM
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 Quiz

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THANK YOU.