Project Management:

A Managerial Approach 4/e

By Jack R. Meredith and Samuel J. Mantel, Jr.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Presentation prepared by RTBM WebGroup

Project Planning

There are several reasons to use

considerable care when planning projects:
The primary purpose of planning is to
establish a set of directions in enough detail
to tell the project team exactly what must be
done
The purpose of planning is to facilitate later
accomplishment
Chapter 5-1
 Initial Project Coordination

It is crucial that the project’s objectives be clearly tied

to the overall mission of the firm
A project launch meeting is an initial coordinating meeting
that serves as a visible symbol of top management’s
commitment to the project
The project launch meeting’s success is absolutely
dependent on the existence of a well-defined set of
objectives
At the launch meeting, the project is discussed in sufficient detail that potential contributors develop
a general understanding of what is needed. If the project is one of many similar projects, the meeting
will be short and routine, a sort of “touching base” with other interested units. If the project is unique
in most of its aspects, extensive discussion may be required.
Chapter 5-2
Project Launch Meeting

Should not allow plans, schedules, and budgets

to go beyond the most aggregated level at the
launch meeting
The outcomes should be:
1. Technical Scope is established
2. Basic areas of performance responsibility are
accepted by the participants
3. Some tentative overall schedules and budgets are
spelled out
a risk management group is created.
Chapter 5-3
Composite Plan

Each individual/unit accepting responsibility for a portion

of the project should agree to deliver a preliminary plan
about how that responsibility will be accomplished

These plans should contain descriptions of the required

tasks, and estimates of the budgets and schedules

These plans are then scrutinized by the group and

combined into a composite project plan

Chapter 5-4
Composite Plan

The composite plan, still not completely firm, is approved

by each participating group, by the project manager, and
then by senior organizational management

Each subsequent approval hardens the plan, and when

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

Chapter 5-5
Project Plan

The final approved result of this procedure is the project

plan, also known as a Master or Baseline plan

Once planning phase is complete, it is beneficial to hold a

post-planning review. (This meeting should be chaired by an experienced
project manager who is not connected with the project)

The major purpose of the review is to ensure that all

necessary elements of a project plan have been properly
developed and communicated

Chapter 5-6
Project Plan Elements
The process of developing the project plan varies
among organizations, but any project plan must
contain the following elements:
Overview - a short summary of the objectives and
scope of the project (directed to top management and contains a
statement of the goals of the project, a brief explanation of their relationship to the
firm’s objectives, a list of the major milestones in the project schedule.)

Objectives - A more detailed statement of the general

goals noted in the overview section (include profit and competitive
aims as well as technical goals)

General Approach - describes both the managerial and

technical approaches to the work (technical discussion describes the
relationship of the project to available technologies. subsection on the managerial
approach takes note of any deviation from routine procedure)
Chapter 5-7
Project Plan Elements

Contractual Aspects - includes a complete list and

description of all reporting requirements, customer supplied
resources, liaison arrangements, advisory committees,
project review and cancellation procedures, etc. (Completeness is
a necessity in this section. )

Schedules - this section outlines the various schedules

and lists all the milestone events (The responsible person or department head
should sign off on the final, agreed on schedule.)

Resources - this includes the project budget (both

capital and expense requirements) as well as cost
monitoring and control procedures (One-time costs are separated from
recurring project costs. In addition to the usual routine elements, the monitoring and control
procedures must be designed to cover special resource requirements for the project) Chapter 5-8
Project Plan Elements

Personnel - this section lists the expected personnel

requirements of the project including special skills, training
needs, and security clearances (This reference to “security” includes the need to
protect trade secrets and research targets from competitors as well as the need to protect the
national security.)

Evaluation Methods - every project should be evaluated

against standards and by methods established at the project’s
inception (includes a brief description of the procedure to be followed in monitoring, collecting,
storing, and evaluating the history of the project.)

Potential Problems - this section should include any

potential difficulties such as subcontractor default, technical
failure, tight deadlines, resource limitations and the like.
Preplanning may avert some crises. Chapter 5-9
Project Planning in Action
Project plans are usually constructed by listing
the sequence of activities required to carry the
project from start to completion, and
developing an action plan to complete the
activities
This helps the planner to decide the necessary
sequence of things
Sequencing is a necessary consideration for
determining the project schedule and duration

Chapter 5-10
Project Planning in Action

Software and hardware developers

commonly use a planning process
oriented around the life cycle events:
[Using a planning process oriented around the life-cycle events common for software and hardware
product developers, they divide the project into nine segments:]

Concept evaluation
Requirements identification
Design
Implementation
Test Chapter 5-11
Project Planning in Action

Software and hardware development

planning process (cont.)
Integration
Validation
Customer test and evaluation
Operations and maintenance

Chapter 5-12
Systems Integration
Systems Integration (sometimes called systems engineering or

is one part of integration

concurrent engineering)

management and plays a crucial role in the

performance aspect of the project

(Integration management is the process, where a

project manager receives the authority to track
and coordinate all activities and functions taking
place at different organization levels. )

Chapter 5-13
Systems Integration

This includes any technical specialist in

the science or art of the project who is
capable of integrating the technical
disciplines to achieve the customer’s
objectives
 Systems Integration
Systems Integration is concerned with three major
objectives:
Performance - Performance is what a system does. It includes
system design, reliability, quality, maintainability, and repairability.
Effectiveness - achieve desired performance in an optimal manner
Requires no component specifications unless necessary to meet one or
more systems requirements
Every component requirement should be traceable to one or more
systems requirements
Design components for optimize system performance
Cost Systems - Systems integration considers cost is a design parameter and
costs can be accumulated in several areas.

[Added design cost may lead to decreased component cost, leaving performance and effectiveness otherwise
unchanged. Added design cost may yield decreased production costs, and production cost may be traded off against
unit cost for materials. It can be used in any project where the relevant cost trade-offs can be estimated. It is simply
the consistent and thorough use of cost/effectiveness analysis]
The Action Plan (Hierarchical Planning
System)
If a large project is to come in on time and within cost, a great many things must happen when and how they are
supposed to happen. Yet each of these details is uncertain and thus each must be subjected to risk management.

a hierarchical planning system—a method of constructing an action plan

Also know as the “level planning process”

A form to assist hierarchical planning.

Hierarchical Planning
System

All activities required to complete a project must

be precisely described, and coordinated
Some activities must be done sequentially, and
some simultaneously
Using a hierarchical planning system will allow
these activities to be identified and sorted
appropriately

Chapter 5-15
Sorting Out the Project

The importance of careful planning can scarcely be

overemphasized

Pinto and Slevin developed a list of ten factors that

should be associated with success in implementation
projects

The factors were split into strategic and tactical clusters

Strategic planning lays out the long-term, broad goals that a business or individual wants to
achieve. And tactical planning outlines the short-term steps and actions that should be taken to
achieve the goals described in the strategic plan.
Chapter 5-16
Sorting Out the Project
Strategic Success Factors:
Project Mission - spell out clearly defined and agreed-
upon objectives in the project plan
Top Management Support - it is necessary for top
management to get behind the project at the outset, and
make clear to all personnel involved that they support
successful completion
Project’s Action Plan - detailed plan of the required
steps in the implementation process needs to be
developed including all resource requirements
Chapter 5-17
Tactical Factors

Tactical Factors
Competent project manager: the
importance of initial selection of a skilled
(interpersonally, technically, and
administratively) project leader
Competent project team members: the
importance of selecting and, if necessary of
training project team members
Tactical Factors

Successful resource allocation: resources, in

the form of money, personnel, logistics, etc, are
available to the projects
Adequate communication channel :
sufficient information available on the project
Control mechanism: includes planning,
scheduling programs are in the place to deal
with plans and schedules
Tactical Factors

Feedback capabilities: all parties concerned

with the project are able to review project
status, make corrections and suggestions
through formal feedback channel
Responsiveness to clients: all potential users
of the project are consulted with and kept up to
date on the project status
The Work Breakdown Structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a visual,

hierarchical and deliverable-oriented deconstruction of a
project. It is a helpful diagram for project managers
because it allows them to work backwards from the final
deliverable of a project and identify all the activities
needed to achieve a successful project.

hierarchical planning process is a “method of constructing a work breakdown structure (WBS)

The Work Breakdown Structure
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can take
a variety of forms that serve a variety of
purposes
The WBS often appears as an outline with Level
I tasks on the left and successive levels
appropriately indented
The WBS may also picture a project subdivided
into hierarchical units of tasks, subtasks, work
packages, etc.
Chapter 5-18
Deliverable Based Work Breakdown Structure
Phase based WBS
The Work Breakdown Structure
The WBS is an important document and can be
tailored for use in a number of different ways
It may illustrate how each piece of the project contributes to
the whole in terms of performance, responsibility, schedule,
and budget
It may list the vendors or subcontractors associated with
specific tasks
It may serve as the basis for making cost estimates or
estimates of task duration
It may be used to document that all parties have signed off
on their various commitments to the project
Chapter 5-19
The Work Breakdown Structure
General steps for designing and using the WBS:
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
2. For each such work package, identify the data relevant to
the WBS. List the personnel and organizations
responsible for each task. (Linear Responsibility Chart)
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
accuracy of the WBS Chapter 5-20
The Work Breakdown Structure
General steps for designing and using the WBS (cont.):
4. The total project budget should consist of four elements: direct
budgets from each task; an indirect cost budget for the project; a
“contingency” reserve for unexpected emergencies; and any residual,
which includes the profit derived from the project

5. The project master schedule integrates the many different schedules

relevant to the various parts of the project. (projected baseline schedule)

Items 1-5 focus on the WBS as a planning tool but it may also
be used to monitor and control the project

Chapter 5-21
The Work Breakdown Structure
Items 6 and 7 focus on the WBS as an aid to monitor
and control a project:
6. The project manager can examine actual resource use,
by work element, work package, task, up to the full
project level. The project manager can identify
problems, harden the estimates of final cost, and make
sure that relevant corrections have been designed and
are ready to implement
7. The project schedule may be subjected to the same
comparisons as the project budget. Actual progress is
compared to scheduled and corrective action can be
taken
Chapter 5-22
Interface Coordination through
Integration Management
The most difficult aspect of
implementing a project is the
coordination and integration of
the various elements of the
project
The intricate process of
coordinating the work and
timing of all inputs is called
integration management
Interface coordination is used to
denote the process of managing
this work across multiple groups
Chapter 5-23
Approaches to Interface
Management
Recent work on managing the interface
focuses on the use of multifunctional
teams (MT)
There is general agreement that MT has a
favorable impact on product/service design
and delivery
Successfully involving cross-functional teams
in project planning requires that some
structure be imposed on the planning process
Chapter 5-24
Approaches to Interface
Management

A different attack on the problem is defining and

mapping all interdependencies between the various
members of the project team
Rather than mapping interfaces on the firm’s organizational
chart, instead it maps the interdependencies directly
Does not ignore the value of the WBS, action plan, or
PERT/CPM networks, but simply uses interface maps as a
source of the coordination requirement to manage the
interdependencies

Chapter 5-25
Summary

The preliminary work plans are important

because they serve as the basis for personnel
selection, budgeting, scheduling and control
Top management should be represented in the
initial coordinating meeting where technical
objectives are established, participant
responsibility is accepted, and preliminary
budgets and schedules are defined
Chapter 5-26
Summary

Common elements of the project plan are the

overview, statement of objectives, general
approach, contractual requirements, schedules,
budget, cost control procedures, evaluation
procedures, and potential problems
System integration concerns the smooth
coordination of project systems in terms of cost,
performance, and effectiveness
Chapter 5-27
Summary
The work breakdown structure (WBS) relates the details
of each subtask to its task and provides the final basis
fir the project budget, schedule, personnel, and control

When multifunctional teams are used to plan complex

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

Chapter 5-28
Project Planning

Questions?

Chapter 5-29
Project Planning

Picture Files
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Figure 5-12
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Table Files
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