SW Project Management

Project Charter and Plan

INFO 420
Dr. Jennifer Booker
INFO 420 Chapter 3 1
Digging deeper
 So far we’ve looked at projects from a
fairly high level or strategic perspective
 The business case provided a high level
justification of the project
 Now it’s time to focus on a single project in
more detail, and start fleshing out the
details needed to make it a reality

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Project charter and plan
 The second phase of the project life cycle
develops the project charter and baseline
project plan
 These are the foundation for guiding the
project through its implementation
 A major role is to define subplans that,
together, will achieve the project’s goals

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Subplans
 Subplans help manage specific aspects of
the overall project
 Scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and
people could each be the basis for a subplan
 Combined with the project’s methodology,
processes, and tools, they define the project’s
infrastructure and framework

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Project planning overview
 Much of the course will focus on the
details of these various subplans
 For now, introduce the project planning
process and how it connects to the
PMBOK
 And we’ll link the MOV to the project’s
scope, budget, and schedule

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Project planning overview
 Ultimately the project plan will answer the
basic concerns
 Who is involved in the project?
 How much will it cost?
 How long will it take?
 What will the finished product be able to do?

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Project processes
 A process is a set of activities to achieve a
particular purpose
 Just like a kitchen recipe, or a programming
algorithm
 A project uses two types of processes
 Projectmanagement processes
 Product-oriented processes

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Project processes
 Project management processes help run
the project
 Initiation, execution, closing, managing, etc.
 Product-oriented processes are those that
actually create the system or product
 System development life cycle (SDLC)
processes mostly fit in this category
 You need both kinds of processes!

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PM process groups
 The five project  They are:
management process  Initiating
groups in the PMBOK  Planning
define a project by the  Executing
kinds of work to be  Monitoring and
done Controlling
 They often overlap  Closing
different project
phases

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Initiating process group
 Processes typically include
 Developing a business case
 Initializing a project
 Getting approval of the business case
 Preparation of the project charter

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Planning process group
 Processes typically include
 Planning of individual phases within a project,
as well as planning the overall project
 Planning project scope, activities, resources,
costs, schedule, and procurement
 Scope of processes should be consistent with
the size of the project
 Includes updating plans during the project

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Executing process group
 Processes typically include
 Matching people and resources to carry out
the plans
 Develop the system (software engineering
processes, testing, etc.)
 QA, risk management, and team development

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Monitoring and Controlling process
group
 Processes typically include
 Balancing project scope, schedule, budget,
and quality objectives
 Monitor variances between planned & actuals
 Take corrective action when needed
 Scope, change, schedule, cost, & quality
control processes; and communications plan

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Closing process group
 Processes typically include
 Getting customer approval for final
deliverables
 Contract closure
 Administrative closure
 Evaluate project against its MOV
 Document lessons learned

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Project integration management
 Project integration management (PIM)
coordinates the other eight knowledge
areas throughout a project life cycle
 Includes deciding where to concentrate
resources day to day
 Proactive risk management
 Coordinating work, and making tradeoffs
among competing needs

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Project integration management
 In many ways, PIM is a key role of the
project manager
 How do you keep the project on track in spite
of personnel issues, resource issues,
technical problems, etc.?
 Understanding PIM processes is key to
producing a good project plan

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PIM processes
 Define the project charter
 Gives the project manager authority to
allocate resources
 Develop the preliminary scope statement
 This is part of the business case – the broad
scope of what is and isn’t part of the system
 Develop project management plan

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PIM processes
 The subplans mentioned earlier need to be
integrated within the overall PMP
 Direct and manage project execution
 The project manager integrates all the
processes into one coherent project. Hopefully.
 Monitor and control project work
 Critical are corrective actions when project
strays from the plan

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PIM processes
 Preventative actions can be a good part of
risk management
 Defect repair and rework are needed to
maintain quality
 Integrated change control
 Changes to the system need to be
documented, reviewed, and approved

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PIM processes
 Need to ensure all affected parties are aware
of changes before approval is given
 Close the project
 This could include premature closure of the
project, if needed
 In any event, closure should be orderly

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Project management culture
 Some organizations beg for trouble by
pretending that project management isn’t
really useful
 To help instill a sense of the overall project
management approach, follow these six
principles

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Project management culture
 Define the job in detail – know the scope
and boundaries precisely
 Get the right people involved
 Estimate time and costs, including
allowances for risks and scope
assumptions

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Project management culture
 Break the job down into a SOW
 The SOW is a contract of project objectives
 Establish and follow a change procedure
 Agree on acceptance criteria – when are
you done with each deliverable?

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Project sponsor
 The project sponsor is a critical role for the
success of any project
 It’s someone outside the development
team who is not only paying for the
project, but also acts as a champion to
support the project and protect it from
outside threats

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Project sponsor
 The sponsor:
 Empowers the project manager
 Maintains project support (“buy-in”) from other
key stakeholders
 Clears political and organizational roadblocks
 Ensures availability of resources
 Monitors project status and progress

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Project sponsor
 Approves plans, schedules, budgets, and
deliverables
 Keeps the project focused on the goal
 Since the sponsor is outside the
development team, the project manager
doesn’t control them
 Loss of a sponsor can kill a project

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Project charter
 The project charter is a high level
agreement between the project sponsor
and the project team
 Documents the MOV, which may have been
refined since the business case
 Define project infrastructure
 What resources, technology, methods, and
PM processes will support the project?

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Project charter
 Identify key personnel, facilities and tools
 Summarize the project plan
 Scope, schedule, budget, and quality objectives
 Deliverables, major milestones

 Define roles and responsibilities

 Identify project sponsor, manager, key leads, and
how they will communicate and make decisions

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Project charter
 Express commitment to the project
 Describe the resources committed to the project
 Who will take ownership of the final product?

 Define project control mechanisms

 What processes will be followed for requesting,
reviewing, and approving changes to project
scope, cost, or schedule?

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Charter contents
 A charter typically can contain:
 Project identification, such as the name or
acronym or logo by which it’s known
 Critical for your team coffee mugs
 Project stakeholders
 Who are they?
 What roles do they play?

 Who reports to whom?

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Charter contents
 Project description
 Give a nice overview of the project, for someone
who’s never heard of it
 Might include the project’s vision or overall goals

 Measurable organizational value

 Yes, it’s important enough to get its own section
 Project scope
 Could be a formal SOW, or less formal narrative

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Charter contents
 The project scope is less detailed than the project
plan, but outlines the major features of the project,
and what is not part of the project scope
 Project schedule – at a high level, such as
major phases and overall duration
 Project budget – at least the totals
 Quality issues, such as the standards to be
followed, or other overall quality objectives

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Charter contents
 Resources – who is providing people,
technology, facilities, etc. to support the
project
 You don’t want an office in your daughter’s dorm
room…
 Assumptions and risks
 Key people availability
 Events that could change project scope, budget, or
duration

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Charter contents
 External constraints on the project, e.g. project
interfaces to existing systems
 Internal constraints, such as resource competition

 Project impact on other parts of the organization

 Environmental, political, economic, or other issues

 Project administration
 What plans will be developed to support this
project? Scope mgmt, communications, quality
mgmt, quality mgmt, change mgmt, HR, etc.

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Charter contents
 Acceptance and approval
 Who signs off on this puppy?
 References
 Terminology
 Particularly helpful if the project scope spans many
technical specialties, who don’t know each others’
acronyms and phrases

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Project planning framework
 Now that the overall picture of the project
has been defined (its charter), the detailed
planning process can begin
 The project planning framework describes
the planning process
 We start with the MOV

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Project planning framework
 The project plan seeks to answer our pet
perennial management questions
 What needs to be done?
 Who will do it?
 When will they do it?
 How long will it take?
 How much will it cost?

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Project planning framework

MOV

Scope

}
Phases
Sequence
Schedule
Tasks Resources
Budget
Time estimates

Adapted from Fig 3.4 of text

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MOV
 We start with the MOV, which hopefully
was agreed upon by all key stakeholders
 The MOV also connects to your organization’s
strategic goals and mission, so making the
project happy will also support your
organization

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Define the project’s scope
 Now we need to establish what the scope
of the project really is
 What features will be implemented?
 Might help to look at broad categories of features
(manufacturing, sales, HR management, etc.) then
get more detailed in each category
 What systems are/are not being replaced?
 What job roles will be affected?

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Define the project’s scope
 The planning stage of this defines the
scope in a requirements document, or
SOW, or use cases, or … something
 Then the definition stage groups the scope
into work packages, each with a set of
related features (both in functionality and
priority)

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Define the project’s scope
 Then verification must occur to make sure
the MOV will be satisfied by the chosen
scope
 The change control process is critical to
manage adjustments to the scope

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Divide project into phases
 The project development needs to be
broken into phases of some kind
 Waterfall life cycle phases?
 RUP iterations?
 ‘n’ spirals, then another life cycle?
 The phases are very SDLC-dependent,
and a key source for assumptions

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Divide project into phases
 Each phase needs to have clearly defined
deliverables
 Phases also need decision points –
milestones
 How do you know when the phase is done?
 Give the sponsor a chance to approve the
work, and start the next phase

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Task sequence, time & resources

 Once the phases have been defined, need

to define the tasks within each phase, both
for product development and for project
management processes
 That’s key to include both types of activities!
 Tasks can be sequential, or parallel, or
have to start or stop together

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Task sequence, time & resources

 Resources needed for a task might include

development tools, facilities, test
equipment, external system interfaces,
 …and people
 Cost for labor needs to include overhead
costs, which typically totals 2.0 to 2.5 times
their salary (roughly $100k to $300k/yr)

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Task sequence, time & resources

 Time for a task to be accomplished is the

calendar time
 Not everyone is devoted to a project 100% of
the time
 Some tasks might require many people at
once
 Some tasks can be done in parallel, other
require sequential action

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Baseline schedule and budget
 So all of the tasks, their costs, and other
resources comprise the baseline plan for
the project
 From that plan, you can determine the
overall schedule (calendar months) and
cost for the project
 This baseline plan is the basis for all ‘planned
vs actual’ measurements during the project

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Baseline schedule and budget
 EVERYONE should review the baseline
plan for consistency, completeness, and
make sure it will really result in a system
that will achieve its MOV
 Remember, can only control two of cost,
schedule, and scope – which one can you
give up?

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Kick-off meeting
 Many projects start with a formal event to
start them, a kick-off meeting
 It provides a clear start to the project,
helps introduce the major players (front
line managers), and builds team morale

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Summary
 We’ve examined the key processes, both
to develop a product and to manage a
project
 Reviewed the role of project integration
management
 Outlined a project charter and the process
for developing the baseline project plan

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