5 project management project planning

Presented by:-WAHEED BUTRUS.

MUGAHID MOHAMED ELAMIN.

MOHAMED ABDELRAHMAN DAWI.

Supervised by :-Dr: MOHAMED YOUSEF August 2008

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into “hard work”.

Customers don’t know what they want “ if we commit we will be held accountable “ and a number of similar weak excuses.

The more time you spend in planning , the less time you will need to spend on implementation.

careful planning is solidly associated with project success.

They say

“ on the other hand , sensible planners do not kill the plan with over analysis which leads to a well known – paralysis by analysis.

A path in between the two extremes above is to consider how to plan the work of the project in such away that it may be translated into “hard work” that actually leads to a successful completion of the project.

• The primary purpose of planning is to establish a set of directions in sufficient detail to tell the project team exactly what must be done . When it must be done and what resources to use in order to produce the deliverables of the project successfully.

What is the project deliverables? We promise to deliver to the client goods and /or

services at quality level that will meet his expectations, they also include the time and cost required to complete the project to the client satisfaction .

What are the purposes of planning:

Characteristics of the plan:1. The plan must be designed in such away that the project

outcome must meet the objectives of the parent organization.

2. Plan is always carried out in an environment of uncertainty , it must include allowances for risk and features that allows it to be adaptive – responsive to things that might disrupt it, while it is being carried out “one such disruption.. is “scope creep – in soft ware projects”

3. The plan must also contain means of controlling the work it prescribes.

Project Planning

• Most fields have their own accepted set of project planning processes, though they are all similar, for example in the field of information system they refer to the standard “systems development cycle” for software projects, consisting of four or six or seven phases.

1. Definition phase: Here the problem is defined in a "Requirements Document".

2. Analysis phase.3. Design phase.

4. Programming phase.5. System test phase.6. Acceptance phase.

7. Operation phase.

Romans break the general planning process into six planning sequences:

1. Preliminary coordination..2. Detailed description of various tasks.

3. Budgeting.4. Scheduling.

5. Reporting.6. Project termination.

The focus is:1. On designing the physical aspects of the

project ,defining what is the project is suppose to accomplish , and who will have to do, what for the project’s desired output to be achieved.

2. The project budget and schedules.3. What must be done to test, and approve project outputs

at both interim and final stages.4. What records must be kept? Records of all changes and

adjustments that are made to the project during its life.5. a complete set of schedules together associated with the

resources and personnel needed to perform all of the tasks required to complete the project.

Because the project plan is usually a large and complex document, project mangers needs fast and simple ways of communicating specific kinds of information about their project, action plans , WBS, and linear responsibility charts are simple and highly flexible ways of doing this.

A portion of the project plan detailing the activities , their schedules and resources including personnel.

The focus of an action plan is on the schedule / resource / personnel elements of the activities required by the project.

1.The Action Plan

2-Work Break Down Structure (WBS)

It is crucial that the project’s objectives be clearly tied to the overall mission , goal and strategy of the organization such as might be reflected in the project portfolio process.

Senior management should delineate the firm’s intent in undertaking the project, outline the scope of the project and describe how the project’s desired result reinforce the organization's goal.

It is also vital that a senior manager call and present at the project launch meeting “ An initial coordinating meeting as a visible symbol of top management’s scope commitment to the project.

Unless the parties to the planning process have a clear understand of precisely what is the project expected to deliver , planning is sure to be inadequate.

It is useful to review the major risks facing the project during the launch meeting.

The known risks will be those identified during the project selection process.

The risk management plan must be started at the launch meeting so that further risk identification can be extended to include the technology of the product, the project’s schedule , resource base and other kind of risks facing the project but not clearly identifiable until the project plan has begun to take form.

The process of managing risk is not a static process, Rather it is ongoing , with constant updating as more risks are indentified, as some risks vanish , as others are mitigated.

Reality replaces conjecture – and new conjecture replaces old conjecture.

One of the outcomes of the project planning process will be the formulation of the project's risk management group and initial risk management plan that the group develops during the process of planning project.

The project launch meeting is only one of a series of meetings that will be required to plan projects of more than minimal complexity.

It is critical to the success of the project to take the time required to do a technically and politically careful job of planning.

“if this means many meetings and extensive use of participatory decision making , then it is well worth the effort”

Technical scope is established “not cast in concrete” Basic areas of performance responsibility are accepted

by the participants. Some tentative overall schedules and budgets are

spelled out. A risk management group is created Each individual accepting responsibility for a portion of

the project should agree to deliver by the next project meeting , a preliminary but detailed plan about how that responsibility will be accomplished.

The various parts of the project plan , including the risk management plan are then scrutinized by the group and combined into a composite project plan which is still not completely firm and should be approved by each participating group , by the project manager , and then by senior organizational management.

When senior management has endorsed it, any further changes in the project’s scope must be made by processing a formal change order.

The main point is that no significant changes in the project are made without notice , following top management approval.

The PM gathers the necessary approvals and assuring that any changes into the plan at higher levels are communicated to , and approved by the units that already signed off on the plan.

The final , approved result of this procedure is called the project plan: Or master plan Or baseline plan Or project charter

It is valuable to hold one additional meeting “a post planning review.” This meeting should be chaired by an experienced project manager

who is not connected with the project . The purpose of this review is to make sure that all necessary elements

of the project plan have been properly developed and communicated.

The fundamental planning process is unchanged except for the fact that the specifications can not be altered without the client’s permission.

e.g. marketing has promised deliverables that engineering may not know how to produce on a schedule that manufacturing may be unable to meet.

This sort of problem usually results when the various functional areas not involved in the planning process at the time the original proposal is made to the potential client.

A potential remedy for these problems is the use of multifunctional teams known as concurrent engineering where a product design and its manufacturing are developed simultaneously and the voice of customer is included in the

product development process.

The process of developing the project plan varies from organization to organization .

Any project plan must contain the following elements : Overview Objectives General approach Contractual aspects Schedules Resources Personnel Evaluation methods Potential problems Above are the elements that constitute the project plan and the basis for

more detailed planning of the budgets, schedules , work plan, and general project management.

Integration Management systems integration is concerned with : 1. Performance : include system design , reliability, quality

maintainability , and repairability. Which are high interrelated qualities

2. Effectiveness : the objective is to design the individual components of a system to achieve the desired performance in an optimal manner.

3. Cost: system integration consider cost to be a design parameter . Added design cost ,may lead to decreased component cost , leaving performance and effectiveness unchanged (value engineering) examines all these cost tradeoffs.

Multifunctional teaming is way of achieving system integration

Coordinating multidisciplinary teams (TMs) becomes more troublesome as project become more complex.

Integration management is the process of coordination the work and timing of the different groups.

(TREND) transformed relationships evolved from network diagram is the analysis designed to illustrate important linkages and dependencies between work groups.

The aim of the analysis is to alert the PM to potential problems associated with cross-functional interfaces and to aid the design of effective ways to avoid or deal with potential interface problems.

It follows that MT tends to involve conflicts that raise uncertainty and requires risk management.

The PM’s negotiating skill will be tested in dealing with intergroup problems, but the outcome of MT seem to be worth the risks.

Much effort and many techniques to convert the outcome of any conflict that does arise should be creative work on the project.

.

It is about details of the project What is to be done ? By Whom? and When? All activities required to complete the project must be precisely

delineated and coordinated and necessary resources must be available when and where they are needed and in the correct amount.

Conceptually simple method to assist in sorting out and planning all this detail is hierarchical planning system constructing:-

The action plan The WBS linear responsibility chart

To accomplish any specific project, a number of major activities must be under taken and completed.

a. List of the activities is made in the general order in which they would occur, this is level(1) a reasonable number of activities at this level might be between (2)and (20)

b. Break each of this level (1) items into (2) to (20) tasks, this is level (2)

c. Break each of this level (2) items into (2) to (20) tasks, this is level (3)

d. Proceed in this way until the detailed tasks at a level are so well understood that there is no reason to continue with the work break down.

The Action plan

This illustrates the “even planning process” The project manager will probably generate the most basic

level(level 1), the generation of additional levels will be delegated to the individuals or groups who have responsibility of doing the work.

The “even planning process” will help keep the plan focused on the project’s deliverables rather than on the work at a subsystem level. In this hierarchical planning system, the objectives are taken from the project plan. This aids the planner in identifying the set of required activities for the objectives to be met. Each activity has an outcome(event) associated with it, activities and events are decomposed into sub activities and sub events.

As shown in the figure below:

Deliverables ………………………………………… Measurement of accomplishment……………… Key constraints and

assumptions…………………Task Estimate

d resources

Immediate Predecessor

Task

Estimated Time

duration

Assigned To

1. Develop a plan for preparation of the floor site

a) Get specifics of machine centre

Mounting points

Task Estimated resources

Immediate Predecessor Task

Estimated Time duration

Assigned To

b) Check Construction specifications on plant floor

c) Present final plan for floor preparation approval.

2. Develop a plan to maintain plant output during the installation and test period

CONT.

CONT.

The actual form the action plan takes is not (holy) – not even all elements of the action plan are the same. The appearance of an action plan will properly differ in different organizations and may even differ between departments or divisions of the same organization.

A tree diagram can be used to represent a hieratical plan. This type of diagram is called Gozinto chart as shown below:-

L 1

L2

In practice, this process is iterative. Members of the project team who are assigned responsibility for working out a second ,third, or lower level action plan , generate a tentative list of tasks , resource requirements , task durations, predecessors, etc… and bring it to the delegation for discussion amendment and approval.

As was the case with project action plans, the Work Break down Structure (WBS) is not one thing .it can take variety of forms that in turn, serve a wide variety of purposes..

The WBS often appears as an outline with the level 1 tasks on the left and successive levels appropriately indented.

WBS may also picture a project subdivided into hierarchical unit of tasks, subtasks, work package, ..etc

1. WBS links the indented activity levels with a Gantt chart that visually shows the activity duration at any level.

2. WBS shows the organizational elements associated with specific categories of tasks. As shown in the figure below:-

WBS (Account number shown)

Control group of the electronics Department

WBS is an important document and can be tailored for use in a number of different ways.

WBS illustrates how each piece of the project contribute to the whole in terms of performance, responsibility, budget, and schedule .

It may, if the PM wishes, list of vendors or subcontractors associated with specific tasks.

WBS may be used to document that all parties have signed off on their various commitments to the project.

WBS may note detailed specifications for any work package; establish account numbers, specify hardware/ software to be used and identify resource needs.

1. Using information from the action plan, list the task breakdown in successively finer levels of detail. Continue until all meaningful tasks or work packages have been identified and each task can be individually planned, budgeted, scheduled, monitored, and controlled.

2. For each work package, identify the data relevant in WBS (e.g. vendors , duration , equipment , materials, etc) list personnel and organization responsible for each task.

3. All work package information should be reviewed with the individuals or organizations who have responsibility for doing or supporting the Work in order to verify the WBS accuracy.

4. For the purpose of pricing a proposal, or determining profit and loss, the total project budget should consist of:

direct budget, indirect cost budget, project contingency, and any residual which include the profit.

5. Schedule information and milestone events can be aggregated into project master schedule.

6. As the project carried out step by step, the PM continually examine actual resource use, by work element, work package….. etc up to the full project level.

7. Finally , the project schedule maybe subjected to the same comparison as the project budget.

This shows who is responsible for what. It also shows critical interfaces between units that may require special managerial coordination. With it the PM can keep track of who must approve what, and must report to whom, as illustrated in the figure below :

Responsibility

WBS Project Office Field Operation

Subproject Task Project Manager

Contract Admin

Project Eng.

Industrial Eng.

Field Manager

Determine need

A1

A2

Solicit quotations

B1

Write approp.Request.

C1

C2

C3

Approval

If the project is not too complex, the linear responsibility chart be simplified as in the figure below :

Legend:Actual responsibility (1)General supervision (2)Must be consulted (3)May be consulted (4)May be notified (5)Final approval (6)

The preliminary work plans are important because they serve as basis for personnel selection, budget ,scheduling and control.

Top management should be represented in the initial coordination meeting where technical objective are established. Participant responsibility is accepted , and preliminary budget and schedule are defined.

The approval and change process are complex and should be handled by the project manger .

Common element of the project plan are the overview, statement of objective, general approach, contractual requirements , schedule, budget, cost control procedure, evaluation procedure , and potential problems.

System integration concerns the smooth coordination of project systems in terms of cost, performance ,and effectiveness.

The hierarchical approach (even planning process) to project planning is most appropriate and can be aided by a tree diagram of project subset, called a Gozinto chart, and work break down structure (WBS). The WBS relates the details of each subtasks to its task and provides the final basis for the project budget, schedule, personnel and control.

A linear responsibility chart is often helpful to illustrate the relationship of personnel to project tasks and to identify

where coordination is necessary. When multifunctional teams are used to plan complex project,

their work must be integrated and coordinated. Interface maps are useful way of identifying the interdependent that must be managed.