Chapter 4

Project Planning
-Project management process generally includes
five phases
-Initiating
-Planning
-Executing
-Monitoring and controlling
-Closing
The four types of planning are
Strategic Planning (define organizational vision and goal)
Tactical Planning (smaller objectives and goals)
Operational Planning (execute a strategic plan)
Contingency Planning (event of an emergency)
 4.1 What is Planning
-Planning is the process of thinking regarding
-the activities required to achieve a desired goal
-Planning is a decision making process which involves
-Selection of missions and objectives
-Choose the best course of action among alternatives
-Planning is a decision making process that determines
-What to be done
-How it is to be done
-Why it is done
-When it is to be done
-By whom it is to be done
Four key questions in planning are
Where are we?
Where do we want to go?
How do we get there?
What will happen when we do?
 What is project planning
-Project planning is a discipline for stating how to
complete a project within
-a certain timeframe
-defined stages
-labelled resources
-Project planning is
-at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells
everyone involved (foundation)
-Where you’re going
-How you’re going to get there
-The planning phase is when
-the project plans are documented
-the project deliverables and requirements are
defined
-the project schedule is created
-Project planning divides the activity into four steps
(major planning)
-Setting measurable objectives
-Identifying deliverables
-Scheduling
-Planning tasks
-Supporting plans may include
-Human resources
-Communication methods
-Risk management
Importance of Project Plan
-Reducing risk
-Clarifying objectives
-Setting standards for performance
-Setting up structure for implementation
-Setting up a control system
4.2 Project planning manifestation (indicators)
a)Project specification (management plan)
b) Scope planning
c) Statement of work (a project's work requirement)
d) Work breakdown structure (deliverable oriented)
e) Activity planning
f) Estimating project times and cost
 a) Project specification
-Project specification is
-a document that defines what exactly is to be done
-A project specification is a document, used for successful
project management, that defines
- the management plan of a project as a whole
-Project specification includes
-Project’s objectives -Constraint
-Deliverables -Timeline(deadlines)
-Expected features -Budget
-A project specification is like a blueprint for the project,
providing information on
-what the objectives of the project are
-what needs to be delivered
-who will be involved
-how much budget has been allocated
-What is start and finish time of each task
-The project specification document is
-Created during the planning phase of a project
-Reviewed and updated throughout the project’s
lifecycle
-A well-written project specification document is
essential to the success of a project
-Clear and concise project specification ensures that all
stakeholders have a perfect understanding of the
-project’s objectives and deliverables
-It also allows for better management of the
project’s timeline and budget
-Without a clear and concise project specification
document, it is difficult
-To monitor progress
-Ensure that the project stays on track
10 steps to create a strong project specification
document are
-Define the scope of the project
-Identify the stakeholders
-Gather input from all stakeholders
-Add a deliverables section
-Define the project budget
-Create a timeline for the project
-Assign roles and responsibilities
-Define a communication plan
-Create a draft of the specifications in advance
-Revise and review regularly
 b) Scope Planning
-Project scope is a detailed outline of (8)
-All aspects of a project (scope, budget and timeline) -Timelines
-All related activities -Constraints
-Resources -Deliverables
-Key stakeholders -Project’s boundaries
-The project scope is
-the work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a
-product, service, or result with the specified
features and functions
-Project scope is a component of project implementation
that helps to determine
-Goals, constraints, workflow management strategies,
tasks, and deliverables
-Project scope should define the results to be
achieved in
-Specific, tangible, and measurable terms
-By clarifying your project scope, you can ensure
you hit your project goals and objectives without
delay or overwork
-Without a defined project scope, it's possible the
project may
-Exceed the budget or schedule in an annoying ways
-Project managers should define the project scope
during
-the early stages of project planning
 A clear project scope
-Provides a roadmap
-Manages stakeholder expectations
-Makes budgeting and scheduling easier
-All of the project’s elements are aligned with

the objectives
-Increasing the chances of success
-Prevents scope creep (scope change)
The following components are often seen in a
project scope statement
-Goals and Objectives
-Technical requirements
-Deliverables
-Limits and exclusions
-Constraints
-Assumptions
-Risks
-Milestones (mark significant stage or event)
 Benefits of Project scope
-Helps to manage project objectives
-Helps to manage project cost
-Helps to manage project schedule
-Helps to distinguish what is and is not involved in
the project
-Help to understand the deliverables of the project
-Help to make informed decision making during
the project
-Helps to identify risks and plans steps to mitigate
 c) Statement of work (SOW)
Statement of work (SOW) is a formal document that
outlines (plans)
-The specific tasks
-Deliverables
-Requirements of a project
-It serves as a contractual agreement between project-
based company and a client providing
-a comprehensive description of the work to be
performed
-It is narrative description of products or services to
be supplied under contract
-SOW is always covers the deal between two parties
- a project-based company and the client
-Statement of work defines
-The scope of work being provided
-Project deliverables
-Timelines
-Work location
-Payment terms and conditions
-Statement of work helps to know
-What works are needed
-What are the requirements
-What kind of resource needed
-How much resources are needed
-When and where are they needed
-The SOW includes
-all the necessary information
-terms and conditions to ensure both parties have

a clear understanding of their (the rules)

-roles, responsibilities, and expectations
-It serves as a legally binding agreement that
governs the project's scope, timeline, resources,
and other essential aspects
-A clear statement of work should protect against
any disputes and negotiations when the project is in
motion
What is the purpose of a statement of work?(5)
-To serve as a means of understanding between
you and your client
-Outlines the specific tasks, deliverables, and
requirements of a project
-Provides clarity on roles and responsibilities for
both the customer and client
-Reducing disputes and promoting better
budgeting and cost control
-Allows for quick modifications to accommodate
changes in the scope of work or project management
Components of a statement of work
- Project objectives
- Project scope of work
-The resources needed for the project
-Milestones (each deliverable)
-Project requirement
-Costs and deadlines for payment
-The governance process for the project
-Timelines
-Project location
-Signatures
 d)Work break down structure (WBS)
-WBS is deliverable oriented hierarchical
decomposition of the work to be executed by the
project team to accomplish the project objectives and
create the required deliverables
-A work breakdown structure (WBS) is
-a visual, hierarchical and deliverable-oriented
deconstruction of a project
-WBS breaks projects into smaller, more manageable
components or tasks
-WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of a project into
smaller, more manageable components
-It is a visual tool that breaks down the entire project
to make it easier to plan, organize, and track progress
 Goals of a WBS
-The main goals of a WBS are
-To provide a clear understanding of the project scope
-Identify all the work that needs to be done
-Power effective project planning and management
Types of WBS
-There are two types of WBS
1) Deliverable-based (breaks down projects by timeline)
2) Phase-based (breaks down projects by scope)
-The most common and preferred approach is the
deliverable-based approach
Benefits of using Work Breakdown Structure
Evaluate crucial details of your project
Check out your project based on a top-level
view
Facilitate team communication
Easily track your tasks progress
Quickly establish relationships
Efficiently assign tasks and resources
 e) Project Activity Planning
-Project activities are
-actions undertaken by the project to achieve the
set objectives
-They are very concrete actions that are
-practical and well defined
-To plan project activities and tasks the project
manager need to take the next four step
-Setup activities
-Define relationships between activities
-Estimate resources required for performing
activities
-Estimate durations for activities
 f) Estimating project times and cost
-Estimating is
-the process of forecasting or approximating the
time and cost of completing project deliverables
-Based on WBS, estimates of
-How much times and costs does each work
level takes will be done
-Resource requirements (people and other resources)
will be estimated
-Make estimate of inherent uncertainty at each
level
Why Estimating project times and cost are important
-to support good decisions
-to schedule work
-to determine how long the project should take
and its cost
-to determine whether the project is worth
doing
-to develop cash flow needs
-to determine how well the project is
progressing
-to develop time-phased budgets and establish
the project baseline
 Project scheduling
In order to develop our schedule
-We first need to define the activities
-Sequence them in the right order
-Estimate the resources needed
-Estimate the time it will take to complete the
tasks
-Use tools to depict your plan in diagram
-The two popular tools are
a) Gantt Chart
b)The Critical Path Method(CPM)
 Tools for Project Scheduling
a) Gantt Chart
-A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project
schedule, named after its populariser, Henry Gantt in 1910
(before 113 years)
-Display the start and finish dates of the terminal
elements and summary elements of a project
-Modern Gantt charts also show the
-dependency relationships between activities and
the current schedule status (rank)
-The Gantt chart is a scheduling tool that shows
-when the project and each activity within the
project start and end against a horizontal time
scale
-It is still the most widely used tool
Using the Gantt Chart
- The Gantt chart is an effective tool for
-smaller and simpler projects
-As the project size and complexity increase
-the Gantt chart becomes less applicable
- It shows in a simple and visual manner
-What activities to work on
-in what order
-for how long
-Gantt chart format provides clear and practical
short-term schedule focus
 Benefits of Using Gantt chart (6)
-Having a Gantt chart helps ensure that
-Everyone understands the timeline for project
activities
-It helps project manager through its visual and
simple design that has lasted for decades
-It is useful tool for resource planning and allocation
-It helps you organize projects
-It helps to improve overall project visibility
-It helps to keep everyone on track
b)The Critical Path Method (CPM) Diagram
-The critical path method tool is
-a network diagram technique for analyzing,
planning, and scheduling projects
-CPM provides a means of representing project
activities as nodes or arrows
-To determine which of them are “critical” in
their impact on project completion time
-To schedule them in order to meet a target
date at a minimum cost
-Originally developed for use in large, complex,
and cross-functional projects
-the CPM tool is now employed in smaller
projects as well
 Creating the Network Diagram
-A network is
-an arrangement of activities in a paths
connected at various points, through which
-One or more items move from one point to another
-The network techniques that are used for project
planning and coordination are
-CPM (Critical Path Method) and
-PERT(Program Evaluation and Review Technique)
-Having a CPM schedule helps the project
manager to see
-The total completion time
-Understand the sequencing of activities
-Ensure that resources are available when needed

-Monitor those that are critical

-Measure progress
 Constructing a CPM Diagram
Constructing a CPM diagram is
-An exercise in patience and discipline that involves
proceeding through the following major steps
-Determine the level of detail and identify activities
- Sequence activities
-Assign resources and estimate activity duration
-Draft a CPM diagram
-Identify the critical path
-Review and refine
-In a logic diagram
“nodes” ( Circles or rectangles) represent each
activity
-Arrows representing the relationships between
these activities
-Predecessor activity: Activity that logically comes
before another Activity
-Successor Activity: Activity that logically comes
after another activity
-For convenience, connect all circles without
predecessors into a circle denoted “Start”
-Similarly, connect all circles without successors
into a circle marked “Finish”
-A common relationship in schedules is known as
-Once all activities are arranged in logical order
and relationships are set, the logic diagram is ready
for the calculation process

Earliest start time Activity Earliest Finish time

Latest start time Duration(Time) Latest Finish time
 Information Required to Determine Project Duration
-There are two ways to calculate the critical path
a) Forward pass is moving from project Start to
finish or left to right (ES and EF calculated)
b) Backward pass is moving from project finish to
start or from right to left (LS and LF calculated)
c) Earliest start time (ES)
Earliest time the activity can start
d) Early Finish (EF)
Earliest time that the activity can finish
e) Latest start time (LS)
-Latest time that the activity can start
without causing a delay to the project
completion date
f) Late Finish (LF)
-Latest time that the activity can finish without
causing a delay to the project completion date
 g) Critical Activity
-Any activity in the schedule that does not
possess any float; Total Float = 0(LS – ES =0)
j) Free Float (FF)
-The maximum number of days the activity can
be delayed
-without delaying any succeeding activity
k) Total Float (TF)
-The maximum number of days the activity
can
be delayed
-without delaying the project completion
date
 Computing ES and EF Times Rules
a) Forward Pass: is moving from project Start to
finish or left to right
-In the forward pass, the Early Start(ES) and Early
Finish(EF) values for each activity, along with the
overall project duration, are calculated
-The calculation process begins with placing a zero
in the Early Start (ES) position of the first activity.
-The rest of the calculation continues with the use
of the following formulas:
Early Finish (EF) = ES + Duration (Time)
Early Start(ES) = Maximum (or Highest) EF
value from immediate predecessor(s)
An example of a Forward Pass calculation is shown in the fig
b)Backward Pass
-The second step in the calculation is comprised of
the backward pass
-Through this pass, the Late Start (LS) and Late
Finish (LF) values are calculated
-The formulas for the backward pass are shown
below:
Late Start = LF – Duration(time)
Late Finish = Minimum (or Lowest) LS value
from immediate Successor(s)
To start the backward pass calculation, the EF value in the
last activity is “dropped” down to the LF value.

Now the backward pass formulas for late start and late finish can be
applied.
-Note that in diagram above, the LF value for Activity B is based on
the lowest LS shown by its two successors (Activity D and Activity
E)
C) Float Calculations
-The importance of calculating Total Float and Free Float are found it the
definitions of these terms.
-As stated earlier, float values indicate
-how much each individual activity can be delayed before affecting
successor activities or the planned project completion date
-The float calculations for the sample schedule are shown in the
following fig
-Formulas for calculating Total Float and Free Float are as follows:
Total Float = LS – ES (it is also calculated by LF – EF)
Free Float = ES – EF
Note that
-Total Float shows the difference between the earliest date that the
activity can start and latest date the activity can start before the
completion date is delayed.
Free Float, per definition, is the amount of time that the activity can be
delayed before any successors will be delayed.
-Early Start/Finish times are used to calculate the Free Float values.
So in basic terms, the finish date (Early Finish) of the
activity is compared with the planned start (Early Start) of
succeeding activities.
-As shown in figure, Activity C has three days of float
before the start of Activity E will be delayed
d) Critical Path
-Once the float values are calculated, the string of critical
activities will be identified
-This continuous string of critical activities is called the
Critical Path.
-Critical activities are those that do not posses any float
-Note that the summation of the critical activity durations
(Activities A, B, D, and F in above figure) is equal to the
overall project duration (which was calculated in the
forward pass).
-This reinforces the fact that a delay (or additional time added
to the activity duration) in any critical activity
-will cause a subsequent delay in the completion date.
Example-1
Activity Description Duration
Immediate
Predecessor (days)
a Project Kick‐ off - 0
b Get materials for a a 10
c Get materials for b a 20
d Manufacture a b, c 30
e Manufacture b b, c 20
f Customize a e 40
g Assemble a & b d, f 20
h Release g 0

c e f

g h Finish
Start a

b d
Example- Critical Path Method
Finding the Critical Path, duration and Project Duration
Activity Precedence Duration
A - 5
B - 4
C A 8
D B 8
E B 8
F B 5
G C,D 8
H E,I 22
I F 2
J F 12

C
G
5 8
B 8
H
4 E
22
F 8 J
5 2
I
12

Calculate the path

Path Duration
A-C-G 5+8+8=21
B-D-G 4+8+8 = 20
B-E-H 4+8+22= 34
B-F-J 4+5+12 = 21
B-F-I-H 4+5+2+22=33
There are five paths in this
Critical path having longest duration (B-E-H)
Example-3
-Use forward and backward pass to determine the
following project duration and critical path

Activity Predecessor Duration(days)

A - 3
B A 4
C A 2
D B 5
E C 1
F C 2
G D,E 4
H F,G 3

Rough Draft
D
B G
A E
C H
G
F
 3 B 7 7 D 12
3 4 7 7 5 12
0 A 3 12 G 16 16 H 19
5 E 6 12 4 16
0 3 3 16 3 19
11 1 12
3 C 5
9 2 11
5 F 7
14 2 16
Acti Total Remark
vity Float(Slack)
A 0 One day delay will increase project
completion time by one additional day
B 0
C 6 No, problem it delayed delayed 6 days
D 0
E 6
F 9
G 0
Example-5 Compute Project Completion time

-Project Completion date is 26th week

-Critical Activities are activities on the critical path
A, E, F, G, I
 Benefits of Using CPM
-Having a CPM diagram helps the project manager
-to see the total completion time
-to understand the sequencing of activities
-to ensure resources when necessary
-to monitor those that are critical, and
-to measure progress
-The CPM diagram is easily explainable by means of the
project network diagram
-This diagram greatly adds to
-higher accuracy of schedule control
-higher precision of schedule control