PART III: PROJECT PLANNING

Learning Objectives:
 Describe the importance of creating plans to guide project execution, and list
several planning tasks and outputs for project integration, scope, time, and cost
management.

 Discuss project integration management planning tasks, and explain the purpose
and contents of a team contract and a project management plan.

 Explain the project scope management planning tasks, and create a scope
management plan, scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and WBS
dictionary.

 Describe the project time management planning tasks, and prepare a project
schedule based on activity and milestone lists, activity sequencing, durations,
and resources.

 Discuss the project cost management planning tasks, and create a cost estimate
and cost baseline.

I. Planning Projects (Project Integration, Scope,

Time and Cost Management)

A. Project Integration Management Planning Tasks:

1. Objectives

 To effectively integrate the processes among the Project Management

Process Groups that are required to accomplish project objectives.
  To ensure various elements of the projects are properly coordinated

 To help meet the requirements and manage the expectations of the

stakeholders.

2. What is Project Integration Management?

Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities needed to

identify, define, combine, unify and coordinate the various processes and project
management activities within the Project Management Process Group.

Using Project Integration Management, project manager can put all the pieces of a
complex project together. This is how project is completed within agreed time, cost
and quality. This knowledge area helps in meeting the requirements and managing
the expectations of the stakeholders.

In the project management context, integration includes characteristics of

unification, consolidation, articulation, and integrative actions that are crucial to
project completion, successfully meeting customer and other stakeholder
requirements, and managing expectations. Integration, in the context of managing a
project, is making choices about where to concentrate resources and effort on any
given day, anticipating potential issues, dealing with these issues before they become
critical, and coordinating work for the overall project good.

The integration effort also involves making trade-offs among competing objectives
and alternatives. The project management processes are usually presented as
discrete components with well-defined interfaces while, in practice, they overlap and
interact in ways that cannot be completely detailed in any guide

3. Project Integration Management Processes

The knowledge area of Project Integration Management consists of the following
seven processes:

Project Integration Processes

Process Project Phase Key Deliverables

Develop Project Charter Initiating Project Charter
Develop Preliminary Project
Scope Statement
Develop Project Management Planning Project Management Plan
Plan
Direct and Manage Project Execution Deliverables
Execution
Monitor and Control Project Monitoring and Control Change Requests
Work
Perform Integrated Change Monitoring and Control Change Requests status
Control updates
Close Project or Phase Closure Final product
Table 1: Project Integration Management Processes

a. Develop Project Charter:

The first process in this project integration knowledge area is Develop Project
Charter. A Project Charter is a document that formally authorizes the existence of the
project. It specifies the reasons to do the project, justifies the money and time that is
going to be spent, specifies known requirements and outlines the outcomes. Most
importantly it authorizes a Project Manager to drive this effort.

Other possible sections of the Project Charter are Descriptions, Outline Deliverables,
Business Need, Justifications, Key Stakeholders and their top requirements and Key
Assumptions.

Normally in project environments Stakeholders might be different than the Sponsor

of the project. Charter will always be issued by Sponsor and should be broad enough
to avoid changes to that document. The sponsor should use the charter to set the
priorities for scope, schedule and cost to guide the team’s decision making
throughout the project. Some of the scope and resource information that can be
included in a project charter are:

 Objectives and deliverables

 Customer and their needs
 Business requirements
 Stakeholders
 Project manager
 Key project team members
 Project deadline
 Staff effort limit
 Budget

Although the charter should be the first significant document created for a project, it
may be necessary to modify or revise it as the project develops particularly if there is
a legitimate change in scope or deliverables.

b. Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement

The Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement process should be implemented by

the project team in response to the objectives outlined by the sponsor in the project
charter. Whereas the sponsor identifies the desired objectives and available
resources in the charter, the project team uses this process to create a document that
explains how the team will accomplish the objectives.

The preliminary project scope statement is the narrative description of project scope
including major deliverables, project objectives, project assumptions, project
constraints and a statement of work. Specific systems, processes and facilities should
be listed.

Once established, the scope cannot be changed without evaluating the ramifications
of the change and approving the new scope. The skills sets of the team members and
the plans of the team are centred on the scope as defined in the charter. Additions to
scope may require tasks that the team is not equipped to handle and that will affect
the project timeline and deliverables.

The preliminary scope statement is developed from the information provided by the
project initiator or sponsor.

. The components of project scope statement may contain the followings:-

 Project and scope objectives

 Product or service requirements and characteristics
 Project boundaries or limitation
 Project deliverables
 Project acceptance criteria
 Project constraints
 Project assumptions
 Initial project organizations
 Initial defined risks
 Schedule milestones
 Order or magnitude of cost estimates
 Approval requirements

c. Develop Project Management Plan

During the course of a project many questions may arise such as: How will the project
deliverable be produced? What resources (human, financial, material, etc.) are
needed to complete the project? How long will it take to complete the project? The
answers to these and other questions should be found in the project management
plan.

In the Develop Project Management Plan process the project team pulls together the
initial documents that will be used to execute, monitor, control and close the project.
These documents, which are collectively known as the project management plan, will
be inputs for all of the remaining processes so it is important that a project team
devotes enough time to producing a plan that will provide sufficient direction for the
project.

The inputs to the Develop Project Management Plan process are the project charter,
the preliminary scope statement and outputs of the planning processes in the other
knowledge areas. The project team must familiarize itself with the provisions of the
charter and the preliminary scope statement in order to determine what type of
information should be included in the plan. For example, if the charter puts strict
restraints on funding resources, the project team may need to create a budget report
that will be consulted and updated throughout the project.

The project management plan builds upon the purpose outlined in the preliminary
scope statement. It explains how the project will be executed, what resources have
been obtained for the project and how long it will take to execute the project. It
should also contain change control procedures for identifying issues and events that
may require preventive or corrective action and guidelines for responding to those
events. Given that the project will end at some point, the plan should also contain
provisions for closing the project.
Output from the Develop Project Management plan process is the Project
Management Plan or Project Plan. The project management plan is a formal,
approved document used to manage the project execution. Its main purpose is to
guide the project execution and assist the project manager in leading the project
team and assessing project status. The project management plan should be dynamic
and flexible and it should be updated as any approved changes occur.

The Project Management Plan may comprise of the followings:-

 Project Charter or Clients Brief

 Project management approach or strategy ( a summary of the

individual management plans from the other knowledge areas)

 Scope Statement, which includes the project objectives and

deliverables

 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to the level at which control

will be exercised, as a baseline scope document

 Cost estimates, scheduled start and finish dates and

responsibility assignments for each deliverable within the WBS to the
level at which control will be exercises

 Performance measurement baselines for technical scope,

schedule, and cost (schedule baseline and cost baseline)

 Major milestones and target dates for each

 Resources

 Budget and

 Risk management plan

d. Direct and Manage Project Execution

Direct and Manage Project Execution is the process that coordinates the people and
resources that have been allocated to a project with the tasks needed to complete
the project.

The Direct and Manage Project Execution process requires the project manager and
project team to perform multiple actions to execute the project management plan
and to accomplish the work defined in the project scope. Some of the actions are:

 Perform activities to accomplish project objectives

 Expend effort and spend funds to accomplish project objectives

 Staff, train and manage the project team members assigned to

the project

 Obtain quotations, bids, offers or proposals

 Select suppliers by choosing among potential suppliers

 Manage resources including materials, tools, equipment and

facilities

 Implement planned methods and standards

 Create, control, verify and validate project deliverables

 Manage risks and implement risk respond activities

e. Monitor and Control Project Work

Monitor and Control Project Work is the process that provides a project team with
the information it needs to determine whether or not the project is on track.
Monitor and Control Project Work also make the team aware of potential changes
and how they may affect the project management plan. It helps them answer the
question, “Is the proposed change corrective, preventive, or a defect repair?” This in
turn allows the team to determine the appropriate response to the proposed request.

The project team continually checks and verifies the status and execution of the
project plan. This may entail regularly scheduled meetings such as monthly progress
and site meetings, standard communications by telephone and email or whatever
mechanism is most appropriate for the project. The project manager or designated
project team member must consult the prepared work program or Gantt chart that
has been created for the project frequently to ensure that team members are
performing their assigned tasks in the time allotted. If problems or potential delays
are identified, the team must implement the change procedures outlined in the
project plan.

In addition to keeping the project on track, the monitor and control process should be
used to both protect and expand the scope of a project when appropriate. Project
teams are often conditioned to avoid changes to the project; as a result, new
information that comes to light during the project may be swiftly deemed “out-of-
scope” without review. Instead, all requests to change the product need to be
monitored. These requests may be to correct an issue, prevent an issue from
occurring or request that a defect be repaired. The project manager must maintain
control of these requests and make sure they are approved or disapproved through
the proper communication channel as outlined in the project management plan.
Either outcome should be reported and approved changes integrated into the
project.
f. Integrated Change Control

When valid changes are approved through the Monitor and Control process, they
must be incorporated into the project and documented using the Integrated Change
Control process. This ensures that valuable information that was developed during
the project is not lost. Future projects may benefit from information captured
through this process and retained as a lesson learned.

This process is also a mechanism that allows the project team to identify and revise a
baseline for its project. Items such as project cost estimates, schedule activity
sequences, dates, resource requirements and analysis of risks responses may need to
be revised or reallocated as a result of the implemented change. If, for example, the
project team discovers that it needs to purchase a piece of equipment that was not
included in the project, both the cost estimates and project schedule may be affected.
Both of those impacts should be included in the approved change document and
reflected in the budget and Gantt chart. Failing to link the three items may lead to
confusion or concern later in the project.

g. Close Project

Close Project is the process used to confirm and document the end of a project or a
phase of a project. It allows the sponsor to formally accept the project and provides a
procedure for transition of the product from project deliverable to operational use. It
should also result in the creation of a library or archive of project documentation
that can be used for future projects.

Close Project provides documentation of any changes that were made throughout
the project lifecycle and helps the team and stakeholders determine why corrective
action was taken. Documenting the process also helps an agency determine finals
costs, avoid re-inventing the wheel and reduce the chance of making the same
mistakes again.

A checklist of Close Project tasks should include:

 Ensure that all documentation is archived

 Ensure that all deliverables are installed

 Get customer acceptance and sign-off of deliverables

 Create a transition plan

 Conduct a Satisfaction Survey

 Create, document, and distribute lessons learned

 Conduct Post-Implementation audit

 Celebrate success

 Ensure team members are reassigned and other resources are

released
 PM PROCESSES INPUT TOOLS & TECHNIQUES OUTPUT

PROJECT PHASE

Project Selection Methods

Contract Project Management Methodology
Project Statement of Work Project management information system
Expert Judgement
Enterprise Environment Factors
Project Charter
Develop Project Charter

Contract Project Management Methodology

Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement
INITIATION Project Statement of Work Project management informationPreliminary
system Project Scope Statement
Enterprise Environment Factors
Expert Judgement

Develop Project Management Plan

Preliminary project scope statement Project Management
Project Management Processes Plan
Project management methodology
Enterprise environmental factors
Project management information system
Organizational process assets
PLANNING Expert Judgement

Deliverables
Project Management Plan
Requested changes
Approved corrective actions
Implemented change requests
Approved preventive actions
Implemented corrective actions
Approved change requests Project Management methodology
Direct and Manage Project Execution Implemented preventive actions
Approved defect repair Project management information system
Implemented defect repair
Validated defect repair
Work performance information
Administrative closure procedure
EXECUTION

Recommended corrective actions

Recommended preventive actions
Project management plan Forecasts
Work performance informationProject management methodologyRecommended defect repair
Rejected change request Requested changes
Project management information system
Monitor and Control Project Work Expert judgement

Approved change requests

Project management plan Rejected change requests
MONITORING Requested changes Project management plan (updates)
& CONTROL Integrated Change Control Work performance information Project management methodology Project scope statement (updates)
Recommended preventive actions
Project management information system
Approved corrective actions
Recommended corrective actions
Expert judgement Approved preventive actions
Recommended defect repair Approved defect repair
Deliverables Validated defect repair
Deliverables

Project Management Plan

Contract Documentation
Project management methodology Administrative closure procedure
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Contract Closure Procedure
Organizational Process Asset Project management information system
Final product, service or result
CLOSING Close Project Work Performance InformationExpert judgement
Organisational process assets (updates)
Deliverables
SUMMARY

- A project charter should:

 Formally authorizes the project.

 Gives the objectives and business case
 Identifies the Project Manager.
 Be generic enough not to change often.
 Be written by a Manager higher in authority than Project Manager.
 Includes name, description, deliverables

- The Inputs, Tools and Techniques and Output of Develop Project Charter process are given
below.

h. Develop project management plan

i. Direct and manage project execution
j. Monitor and control project work
k. Perform integrated change control
l. Close project or phase