Preparing And Implementing The Project Plan

1. Preparing And Implementing The Project Plan SHRADDHA SHARMA

2. Building the Project Plan • The project plan will vary based on the size of our project. • The project plan is not one big plan, but the collection of plans that detail how different conditions, scenarious and actions will be managed. • It is a formal document that is reviewed and hopefully, approved by management. • The project plan is a guide that allows for changes to the project plan as more details become available.

3. There are some elements within the project that generally do not change. • The foundation of the project is the project scope. • The project scope is all of the required work and only the required work to complete the project objectives. • Once the project scope statement has been agreed upon our change control protects it. • Other elements of the project plan that should be immune to change are the project charter and performance baselines.

4. Project plan elements • When project team create the elements of the project plan, can start from the scratch and build the plan. • Many times, project managers will find that their projects are similar , or even identical to past projects they have completed. • To building the project plan, there are some common elements are-

5. Project charter:- This document authorizes the project. It is the formal document that allows the project manager to manage the project work, resources and schedule to deliver on project scope. • Scope statement:- This document is written to clearly define project objectives for scope, schedule, cost and quality. The project requirements help define the scope statement. This important document is the foundation for all future project decisions as it helps determine if requests, actions, or project work results are in or out of scope.

6. Scope statement defines what the project will and won’t accomplish. • Work breakdown structure:- The WBS represent a logical decomposition of work to be performed and focuses on how the product, service or result is naturally subdivided. It is an outline of what work is to be performed. The project components are decomposed to work packages, which are the smallest, most manageable elements within the structure.

7. Time and cost estimates for each work packages:- Cost and time estimates reflects the labor and materials needed to deliver the projects. • Performance measurement baselines:- These baselines are boundaries or targets the project manager and team are expected to perform within. • Milestones and target dates for the milestones:- Within project there should be easily identified milestones that signal you are moving toward project completion.

8. Required staff and their availability and costs:- There may be portions of project plan that require temporary specialized resources to complete a portion of the project work. • Risk management plan:- This plan addresses the risks within project, documents of projects and details how each risk is managed. • Open issues:- This section of plan identifies and documents issues to be determined and allows project to continue.

9. Supporting details:- It is any relevant documentation that influenced project decision, any technical documentation and any relevant standards the project operate under. There are additional plans that organization may requires are:-

10. Scope management plan • Schedule management plan • Cost management plan • Quality management plan • Staffing management plan • Communication management plan • Risk management plan • Procurement management plan

11. Defining the project schedule • Projects must have a definite set of deliverables that mark its end. • Projects require a finish date . • Runway projects stem from loosely guarded project scope , poor planning and lack of research. • Longer the project more the cost. In addition to make it personal a missed deadlines can affect bounces, incentives and the raises for the project manager and team members. • The best way to reach a target date is to plan, plan & plan & then analyze the plan.

12. A project schedule should be a reflection of the work breakdown structure, the accumulation of all of work packages within the project & then assignment of resources for each task. • IT professionals are used to working from a specific calendar for so much of their lives. • Project managers should not work around specific dates when creating the project plan, but instead should initially work around units of time. eg.-1 day, 2 weeks, 3 months & so on.

13. FIG.-Assign tasks to be completed in units of time rather than by specific dates.

14. Creation of a project network diagram • A WBS structure is a topology of the project deliverables. • A WBS takes the project & breaks the project down into major components. • Once the WBS has been created the activity list can then be entered into Microsoft project.

15. Gantt chart:- • Gantt chart shows a mapping of each of the units of work required to complete each phase of the project. • The Gantt chart is ideal for simple short term projects. • It is a timeline of the events with consideration gives to tasks that can be completed concurrently within a project ‘s lifespan.

16. Disadvantages of Gantt chart • It do not display detailed information on each work unit • They only display the order of tasks • They do not clearly reflect the order of tasks in multiple phases • They do not reflect the shortest path to completion • They do not reflect the best usage of resources

17. Project network diagram • They are a fluid mapping of the work to be completed. • They are allow the project manager and project team to make the relationships between the task clear & create alternative solution to increase productivity & profitability. • A PND visualizes the flow of work from conception to completion. • PND provide detailed information on work units & allow project managers to analyze tasks, resources & the allotted time for each task.

18. PND can be used to predict the earliest completion date. • In this simultaneously tasks are started & completed at a time. • We can use a PND to determine the flow of work to predict the earliest completion date.

19. Figure - Network diagrams demonstrate the relationship between tasks.

20. Detailed project planning:- In a large projects a PND is essential • Implementation tracking:- A PND allow the project manager to react to the changes by adjusting resources or other dependent tasks. • Contingency plans:- PND allow a project manager to play out “what if?” scenarios with any work unit within the project plan. • Resource control:- A project manager can add or remove resources to a task to complete it faster or delay completion. Resources can be worker & physical objects

21. Precedence diagramming method • It requires the project manager to evaluate each work unit & determine which task are successor & predecessor task. • Once this information is obtained we can begin to snap the pieces of the precedence diagramming method • Each unit of work in project network diagram using precedence diagramming method is represented by rectangle called the activity node.

22. The AOA method uses arrows to represent the start and end of activities.

23. Arrows link predecessor and successor tasks using AON.

24. There are 4 types of dependancies :- • Finish to start : It requires predecessor task to complete before successor task can being. Eg.- installing network cards before connecting PCs to the internet • Start to start : Task should be started but not necessarily completed at same time. eg.- planning for physical implementation of a network & determining each network IP addressing configuration

25. Finish to finish : It require that predecessor and successor task be completed at the same time. Eg.- rolling out a new software package & finishing the user training seesions. • Start to finish : The predecessor does not begin until successor finishes. eg.- if u r opening a coffee shop u will want ur inventory of coffee to be hand as close as possible to when construction of shop is done

26. Dependencies describe the relationship between tasks

27. Project constraints • A constraints is a boundary or limit based on the project. • Deal with the constraints before a preset budget for project an inflexible deadline , limited availability of computer hardware , locating a resources with a specific skill. • Constraints are any factors that can limit options. They must be documented ,their risks examined & then project manager must plan on how to meet the project objectives with the identified constraints.

28. Hard logic : The relationship between activities eg.- you must install the operating system before install the application.(finish to start relation) • Soft logic : The project manager decides to do tasks in a particular order based on experience, conditions in the project, time or other reasons. This logic called discretionary logic. eg.- Completed all the coding before beginning the testing phase.

29. There are 4 types of constraints :- 1. Date constraint: Project have deadlines that require project managers to work backward from the assigned completion date. Whenever possible avoid using specific dates for tasks unless it is absolutely required. The best method of assigning tasks is to use a unit of time & then predict when the task may happen based on the best & worst case.

30. There are 3 types of date constraints : 1. No earlier than : Task may happen any time after a specific date not earlier than given date. 2. No later than : Task must completed by this date or else. 3. On this date : Time oriented constraints, there is no margin for adjustment , task must be completed on this date no sooner & later.

31. 2. Management constraints : These are the dependency relationships imposed because of a decision by management this includes the project manager. eg.- Development of a web based learning management system. • 3. Technical constraints : Within an IT project tasks will be logically sequential to get from the start to the end. This constraints may use when building network diagram into two major categories are :

32. 1 . Discretionary constraints : They allow the project manager to change the relationship between activities based on educated guesses. • 2 . Resource constraints : A project manager may elect to schedule two tasks as FS rather than SS based on a limitation of a particular resources.

33. Organizational constraints : Within organization there may be multiple projects that are related. The completion of another project may be a key milestone for another project to continue. Should another project within organization be lagging it can impact our own project’s success.

34. Building the PND • The PND can be a long & detailed map of the project. • One of the best method of building & implementing the PND is on a whiteboard utilizing sticky notes. • Project manager & project team can use the activity lists so identify the relationships between the units of work. • To create the PND by adding activities in order they should happen based on the upstream and downstream activities.

35. When reconvene to finalize the PND consider the amount of risk have allowed into project by asking these questions : 1. Are there adequate resources to complete the project? 2. Are the time estimations accurate? 3. Are there too many concurrent tasks? 4. Are resources spread too thin? 5. Is this a proven plan? 6. Is the plan realistic?

36. Analyzing the PND • Critical path : It is the sequence of events that determine the project completion date. The critical path is the longest duration from project start to project completion.

37. Calculating the project slack : 1. Free slack : Total time a single activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any successor activities. 2. Total slack : Total time an activity can be delayed without delaying project completion. 3. Project slack : Total time the project can be delayed without passing the customer expected completion date.

39. Early finish= ES + duration of the activity-1

41. Formulas for calculating the project slack : • 1. slack = early finish – late finish • 2. slack = late start – early start • Early finish = early start + duration of activity - 1 • Late start = late finish – duration of activity + 1

42. There are 4 processes can do to affect the flow of project schedule : 1. Fast tracking : This method allows activities to be done in parallel than in sequence. This approach usually increases project risk. 2. Crashing : This allows the project manager to add more resources to effort driven activities in an attempt to shorten their duration. Crashing usually increases the project costs because of the expense of the labor.

43. 3. Lead time : It is a negative time because it brings activities closer together even allowing them to overlap. 4. Lag time : It is waiting time ,it’s often applied to activities where there must be an added duration between the tasks.

44. To begin the schedule compression do the following : 1. Analyze the critical path to move tasks earlier in the workflow. 2. Consider relationships between tasks to change FS to SS. 3. Identify tasks that require lag time & evaluate the predecessor tasks to move it earlier in the workflow. 4. Consider any tasks & level of acceptable risks by changing relationship types. 5. Consider adding additional resources to tasks to shorten the duration required to complete tasks.

45. Implementing the project plan • In this portion of project, team will create the components defined in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the sequence of activities in the Project Network Diagram (PND). • PM will interact with team members to ensure their successes as they complete the tasks. • Finally, tracking the implementation against PND, cost, and time estimates and then implementing corrective actions as needed to keep the project on track and on budget

46. This part of project management will test and challenge all of planning, research, and ability to lead and react to situations that may impact project completion. • Reviewing Assignments with the Project Team : • An ideal project team will consist of people who are confident in their work, their abilities, and their commitment to the project. • They will always complete their tasks on time, without flaw, and happily report to pm that everything is perfect and on schedule.

47. One of responsibilities as the project manager will be to mold this team into a reliable, interdependent collection of professionals who can rely on each other, themselves & project manager. • Through regular team meetings, outings, and one-to-one conferences, project manager will develop a working relationship with each member and learn how to motivate, inspire, and lead each individual. • Focus on the Work : • One message all project managers should convey to the project team members, is to simply focus on their work, their tasks, and their responsibilities.

48. once the plan has been created, the team should just get to work, ignore the gossip and the details that don’t involve them, and focus on their duties to complete their tasks. • Planning is an iterative process throughout the project. • Part of planning is to find the most appropriate resource for each project task. The assignment of resources to tasks allows the team members to know what they have to do and when they need to do it. • Encourage them to focus on their duties and their commitment to completing their assignments, and ignore what anyone else may or not be doing.

49. The team is a collection of individuals who need to work together, but also have the ability to work independently as their tasks require it. • Hosting a Project Status Meeting : • Within Communications Management Plan define which people need what information, when they need it, and how they’ll get the information. • Communication can be both formal, like a report, and informal, like a hallway conversation. • In project management, both methods of communication are needed.

50. office is, close to the team or in a different building, PM will need to create a regular schedule to meet with project team. Regular meetings, whether weekly, biweekly, or on own custom schedule, will serve several purposes: • Allows a team member to report on his activities • Underscores the project vision • Allows the team to resolve problems • Allows the project manager to lead the team without hovering • Creates a sense of ownership of the project • Creates a sense of responsibility to the project for team members