Project Planning

Kalpani Dissanayake (B.Sc. Eng(Hons), MBA, MIESL, AMCPM)

1 KALPANI DG MGT 209

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
-Benjamin Franklin

“Reduce your plan to writing.The moment you complete this, you

will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.”

-Napoleon Hill

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706– April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of
the United States. Franklin was a leading author and printer, political theorist, politician,
postmaster, scientist, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American author who was one
of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. He is widely considered
to be one of the great writers on success”
Interaction between project life cycle stages
Initiation

Planning

Execution Controlling

Project Closure
Project Planning
 One of the most significant activities of project management
 There are two kinds of planning processes as Core processes and
Facilitating processes.
1. Core processes :
These are the processes that are interdependent and must be
performed in sequence in almost all the projects. Core processes
include ;
Scope planning, activity planning and schedule development, resource
planning, cost estimation, cost budgeting, project plan development etc
2. Facilitating Processes:
These are the processes that are performed as and when they are
required in the project planning phase. The different facilitating
processes are;
quality planning, organizational planning, communication planning, risk
identification, risk quantification etc
 The Planning Process answers what has to be done, how
much, how it has to be done, by whom, in what order, for
how much, by when etc through the following steps .
Steps of Project Planning :
 Project objectives, requirements and scope are set. These
specify project end-items, desired results, time, cost and
performance targets. (What, for how much, by when?)
 The specific work activities, tasks or jobs to achieve
objectives are broken down, defined and listed (what?)
 A project organisation is created specifying the departments,
subcontractors and managers responsible for work activities.
(Who?)
 A schedule is prepared showing the timing of work activities,
deadlines and milestones. (When, in what order?)
Ctd…
 A budget and resource plan is prepared showing the amount
and timing of resources and expenditures for work activities
and related items. (how much and when?)
 A forecast is prepared of time, cost and performance
projections for the completion of the project. (How much
time is needed, what will it cost and when will the project ne
finished?)
Tools of Project Planning
1. Work Breakdown Structure and Work Packages: Used to
define the reject work and break it down into specific tasks
2. Responsibility Matrix: used to define project organization,
key individuals and their responsibilities
3. Events and Milestones: sued to identify critical points and
major occurrences on the project schedule
4. Gantt Charts: used to display the project master schedule
and detailed task schedules
Other:
Networks, critical path analysis, PERT/CPM, cost
estimating, budgeting, forecasting
Documents Produced from Project
Planning
 Master Plan
 Project Overview Statement
 Scope Statement
 Work Breakdown Structure
 Responsibility Matrix
 Gantt Charts
 Project Schedules
Master Plan
 Although each functional area prepared its own plan, all plans are
derived from and become a part of a single, overall project plan,
which is the ‘Master Plan’
Contents of a Master Plan:
The contents vary depending ob the size, complexity and nature of
project. The typical major sections are;
1. Management Summary: An overview of the project oriented
toward top level management including a brief description of
project, objectives, overall requirements, constraints, problem
areas and master schedule.
2. Management and Organisation Section: Overview of organisation
and personnel requirements for the project including;
 Project Management and Organisation: Details how the project will
be managed and identifies key personnel and authority relationships.
  Man Power: Estimates of workforce requirements in terms of skills,
expertise and strategies for locating and recruiting qualified people.
 Training and Development: Summary of the executive development
and personnel training necessary to support the project.
3. Technical Section: Overview of major activities, timing and cost
including;
 Statement of Work / Project Overview Statement and Scope of Work/ Scope
Statement
 Work Breakdown
 Responsibility Assignments
 Project Schedules
4. Budget and financial Support
5. Testing: Listing of things to be tested including procedures, timing and
personnel responsible
6. Change of Control Plan: Procedures on how to review and decision
about requests for changes to any aspect of the project
7. Quality Plan: Measures for monitoring quality and accepting
results for individual work tasks, components and end-
products
8. Work Overview Plan: Procedures for periodic review of
work, noting what is to be reviewed, by whome, when and
according to what standards
9. Documentation: List of documents to be produced and how
they will be organised and maintained
10.Implementation: Discussion and guidelines showing how the
customer will convert to adopt the results of the project
11. Economic Justification: Summary of alternatives in meeting
the project objectives showing trade-offs between costs and
schedules
12. Areas of uncertainty and risk: Contingency plans for areas
of greatest uncertainty in terms of potential failure or
milestones.
 Scope of a Project/ Scope Statement
 Scope for a Project can be divided into two as; project scope and product
scope
 Product scope details all the functions and features that are to be included
in a product or service of a project
 Project scope details the work to be done to deliver a required product
with specified features.
 A Scope Statement is a description of problem, need, or general type of
solutions to be investigated
 Scope of work to be performed by contractor, work to be included, work
excluded and work restrictions, criteria of acceptance for results or end-
items
 Requirements for the solution, results or end-item, including
specifications and standards; description of how work will be measured;
expected relationship between user and contractor; expected completion
date; constraints on cost of work to be performed
 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
 A work breakdown structure is deliverable-oriented grouping of project
activities that organize and define the total scope of the project
 Activity: is an element of work performed during the course of the project with following
characteristics
 Definite duration
 Uses resources as people, material etc
 Has a cost associated with it
 Deliverable: is any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome or result that must be
produced to complete a project or part of a project.
 Work Package: Purpose of a WBS is to break total project into pieces sometimes called
‘work packages’
 The WBS has many uses
 It includes all activities and ensures that it does not include unnecessary
activities. Approval for activities from all related parties including functional
managers, contractors etc on accuracy and completeness of work definitions
will gain their commitment to the project
 The WBS and work packages become the basis for budgeting and scheduling. The
cost and time estimates for each work package show what is expected to
complete that work package. The sum of all work package budgets, overheads
and indirect expenses will be the project target cost. These will later be used for
comparing the actual project performance with the budgeted
 The WBS and work packages will become the basis for for project control and
monitoring. The variance can be estimated and a comparison between the actual
expenditures to date with the value of the work accomplished gives the estimate
for the cost variances. Schedule and cost variances of the whole project are
determined by summarizing all schedule cost data throughout the WBS.
 WBS also serves as;
 A Thought process tool(improves thought process)
 An Architecture tool: Gives the complete picture of the project
 A Planning tool: provides the series of activities to be performed
 A Project status reporting tool: can use to report project progress
Factors Considered in developing a WBS:
 Each activity in the WBS should produce a single tangible deliverable
 Each activity at any level of the WBS is an aggregation of all its
activities listed immediately below it
 Each activity should be unique and distinct from other activities of
the project
 The activities should be decomposed logically from higher levels to
lower levels
 The activities should have some flexibility in th4e WBS development
process as the WBS might be updated when the project scope
changes
 The WBS must specify the important points (review meetings,
monthly reports, test reports etc) The activities should be
compatible with organizational and accounting structures.
Responsibility Matrix
 This chart represents the intersection of the WBS and the
organizational structure .
 An advantage of this is that the project personnel can easily
see their responsibilities to work packages and other
individuals o the project.
 This can be used for monitoring and assessing how well the
responsibilities are being performed.
 Helps reduce misunderstandings and conflicts later on.

 Refer the figure on the sample responsibility matrix for

LOGON project.
 Sample Project Plan Format

(Source: ‘Project Management’ by ICFAI Center for Management Research, pg 49)

(Source: ‘Project Management’ by ICFAI Center for Management Research, pg 129)
 Sample Statement of Work: Middle -West Parcel
Distribution (MPD) Company, New Project: LOGON system
The contractors responsibility shall be for furnishing expertise, labor, material, tools, supervision
and services for the complete design, development, installation, check-out and related services
for full operations capability for the LOGON system. All necessary testing of systems and
subsystems designed and installed by the contractor, as well as of current facilities, to ensure
compatibility with the new system and with local, state and federal requirements will b performed
by the contractor.
The LOGON system must meet minimal performance requirements, be compatible with existing
structural and utility limitations of the facility and be compliant with packaging and logistical
standards and codes, all as specified under technical information sheet.

Exclusions:
Removal of existing storage, placement and retrieval equipment will be performed under separate
contractor.
Scheduled Delivery Date:
LOGON system must be fully operational on or before 30th April, 2006.
Subcontractors:
Contractor shall submit with the proposal a list of subcontractors and the work to be assigned to
each. Subcontractor shall be subject to approval of MPD
Cost and Contract:
Price of contract will not exceed $ 1.5 Million. Contract will be fixed priced with a penalty charge of
$ 1,000 per day for failure of system to meet the target operational completion date of 30th April,
2006
 Sample WBS
 Please refer the WBS of a TELECOM project provided
herewith
 A model of WBS
(Source: ‘Project Management’ by ICFAI Center for Management Research, pg
139)

(Task 1 Task 2 Task 3 ……………….Task n)

Thank you