Chapter 6

Planning the Work Activities

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 The Process of Planning Projects
Plans are only good intentions unless they
immediately degenerate into hard work.

Peter Drucker
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REASONS FOR PLANNING A PROJECT
 Establish a set of directions
 To ensure that the process must meet the objectives
of the parent org and the project
 Must be able to meet client’s demands
 Plan must include:
 Allowances for risk and uncertainty
 Methods to ensure integrity (means to control the Proj)
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 PLANNING
 It is an iterative / repetitive process
 It is time consuming
 It is frustrating
 It requires techniques
 It demands patience, cooperation, understanding and sacrifice
 It is always torturous

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 The Project Plan is the complete set of
documents and data used to describe the project
objectives, method, schedule and budget.
 The Action Plan is the subset of the overall plan
that concentrates on the schedule and required
resources.
 The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the
subset of the plan that displays a decomposition
of the work to be executed by the project.
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SOFTWARE RELATED PROJECT PLANNING IN ACTION
an example

 Concept evaluation
 Requirements identification
 Design-Preparation of
 Implementation Process
 Test Phase (s)
 Integration of different modules
 Validation of results
 Customer tests and evaluation
 Operation and maintenance
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THE SCHEDULING OF THE PROJECTS
 Schedule is the conversion of a project action plan
into an operating timetable.
 Best approach to Scheduling is to first make Network
of Activities and then work on it logically and
analytically .

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 Initial Project Coordination
 Early meetings are used to decide on participating in the project
 Also used to “flesh out” the nature of the project
 Outcomes include:
1. Technical scope
2. Areas of responsibility
3. Delivery dates or budgets noted
4. Risk management group created
 Each participate in the project should approve this initial plan
 This plan is approved by senior management
 Senior management may change…
1. Accelerate timetable
2. Reduce budget
3. Part of budget may be “held back” for contingencies
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 Outside Clients
 When it is for outside clients, specifications
cannot be changed without client’s permission
 Client may place budget constraints on
project
 May be competing against other firms

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 Project Plan Elements
 Also called project proposal
 Elements similar to general planning components
 Overview
 Objectives or scope
 General approach
 Contractual aspects
 Schedules
 Resources
 Personnel
 Risk management plans
 Evaluation methods

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 Project Plan Elements Continued

 Overview
 Short summary of the objectives and scope of the project
 Includes objectives, organizational structure, major
milestones
 Objectives or scope
 More detailed statement of goals
 Includes goals on profit, competition, and technical

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 Project Plan Elements Continued

 General approach
 The managerial and technical approach to the
project
 May have a technical section to discuss project
technology
 May discuss the use of subcontractors

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 Project Plan Elements Continued

 Contractual aspects
 Reporting requirements
 Customer-supplied resources
 Liaison arrangement
 Advisory committees
 Project review and cancellation
 Proprietary requirements
 Specific management agreements

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Project Plan Elements Continued

 Schedule
 Lists when each task will be completed
 Lists all milestone events
 Is the heart of completing the project
 Action Plan
 List of activities
 Schedules
 Resources incl Personnel
 WBS and Linear Responsibility Charts
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 Project Plan Elements Continued

 Resources
 Budget
 Capital, labor, material, by task
 Cost monitoring and control procedures
 Personnel
 Personnel requirements of project
 Skills are listed rather than people
 May include “time phasing” of requirements

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Project Plan Elements Continued

 Risk management
 Problems and lucky breaks
 Evaluation methods
 What will be measured and monitored
 How the data will be collected and stored
 How the project will be evaluated

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fig_06_01
 The Action Plan
 What is to be done
 When it is to be started and finished
 Who is going to do it

 The Action Plan is the subset of the overall

plan that concentrates on the schedule and
required resources

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 The Action Plan Continued

 Activities on a project face unique complexities

 Some activities cannot start until others are finished
 Some activities must be done at-the-same-time
 Some activities are very time critical
 Others have a great deal of flexibility
 Knowing all this requires a great deal of planning

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 Hierarchical Planning
 Major tasks are listed
 Each major task is then broken down into
more detail
 This continues until all the activities to be
completed are listed
 Need to know which activities “depend on”
other activities

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A Form to Assist Planning

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Career Day

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A Tree-Based Plan

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The Work Breakdown Structure
 A product-oriented family tree subdivision of
hardware, services, and data required to produce the
end product
 Breaks tasks down into successively finer levels of
detail
 Continues until all meaningful tasks or work
packages have been identified

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The Work Breakdown Structure Continued

 These smaller elements make tracking the

work easier
 Need separate budget/schedule for each task
or work package

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 Steps to Create a WBS
1. List the task breakdown in successive levels
2. Identify data for each work package
3. Review work package information
4. Cost the work packages
5. Schedule the work packages
6. Continually examine actual resource use
7. Continually examine schedule

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A Visual WBS

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 Hierarchical Planning
Breaking of planning / tasks down into the activities that must be done at
each managerial level.

 Certain number of activities must be undertaken and

completed as follows:
 Step-1: Make a list ---- Level 1 (activities anywhere
between 1-20)
 Step-2: Level-2 (break each of these activities into 2
to 20 tasks)
 Step -3 Level-3 (break each of these tasks into 2-20
subtasks)
 Step -4: Continue in descending order
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Linear Responsibility Charts

 Ties each work package to someone

 May also show interfaces between groups

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Sample Linear Responsibility Chart

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fig_06_08
fig_06_10
 Interface Coordination Through
Integration Management
 Managing a project requires a great deal of
coordination
 Projects typically draw from many parts of
the organization as well as outsiders
 All of these must be coordinated
 The linear responsibility chart helps the
project manager accomplish this

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 Integration Management
 Multidisciplinary teams
 Integration management
 Interface coordination

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Managing Projects by Phases and Phase-Gates
 Break objectives into shorter term sub-
objectives
 Project life cycle used for component parts
 Focus on specific, short-term output
 Lots of feedback between disciplines

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