College of Engineering and Architecture

Computer Engineering
Software Design

PLANNING STAGE
 College of Engineering and Architecture
Computer Engineering
Software Design

I. PLANNING STAGE ACTIVITIES

a. Identification of the system for development

This activity involves identifying project goal, objectives and deliverables. It

also includes a study of existing concepts, procedures or any entity that
contributes factual understanding of the problem you wished to solve.

Specific Activities:
 Company Overview
– it is important to align company or business vision to the project goal.
Understanding what a company or business vision will lead developer
to acquire a clear insight on what the project aims to achieve
 Problem Statement
- Identifying problems or reason why the project is needed
 Formulating Project Objective
- stating the project objectives as well as the specific deliverables on
each objective.
 Related Project Study
- This activity will help developer to collect relevant information to use
on the next stages of development

b. Feasibility Assessment
Feasibility study is conducted that helps in determining whether the system is
possible to develop or not. There are three types of feasibility study, they are –
technical feasibility, economical feasibility and behavioral feasibility. Studying
all these feasibility helps the user and the developer to understand on what
grounds their system will be made and what all features they can include in
the software. The main purpose to conduct the feasibility study is to establish
the reasons to develop the software that is accepted by all the users and
can be modified easily as per the requirements

Read more about

Types of Cost Estimation in Projects
Create A Project Budget That Works: The Complete Cost Estimation Guide

c. Creation of Project Plan

The output of this stage is a well-documented Project Plan. It includes all
gathered information from the other activities done. There is no standard
format in creating the project plan as long as it consists of vital information
from the other activities involved in this stage.
 College of Engineering and Architecture
Computer Engineering
Software Design

The main purpose of creating a project plan is to prove that there is a need to
develop the proposed system and that the system is possible to create.

d. Project Scheduling

Another activity under planning stage is determining the span of the project
development. With all the deliverables identified from the previous activities,
the next step is to identify how much time do we need to perform each
deliverable.

To do this, first, breakdown each deliverable into work packages. It is as simple

as creating a to do list for each deliverable. A Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS) is one of the best project planning used to perform this task.

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical structure of things that the

project will make or outcomes that will be delivered.

Read this article to learn how to create, do’s and don’ts and tips in creating
WBS

https://medium.com/@amlog/work-breakdown-structure-why-is-it-a-great-tool-for-both-
software-developers-and-managers-4f46691be823

After defining all task needed to develop the system, assign schedule in this
task. There are several tools used in scheduling tasks and here are some:

1. PERT and CPM

2. Gantt Chart