Module 3
Module 3
FAILING TO PLAN
IS
PLANNING TO FAIL
Introduction
• The purpose of planning is to facilitate later
accomplishment
• It is a complicated process to manage a
project, and plans act as a map of this process
• The map must have sufficient detail to
determine what must be done next but be
simple enough that workers are not lost in a
welter of minutiae
Introduction
• We discuss project planning in terms of
• planning
– the activities,
– budget, and
– schedule
• For project.
Introduction
• It is crucial that the project’s objectives be
clearly tied to the overall mission, goals, and
strategy of the organization, such as might be
reflected in the project portfolio process.
• Without a clear beginning, project planning
(and later progress) can easily go astray.
• Call a project launch meeting.
Introduction
• The project plan is usually a large and complex
document. PMs need fast and simple ways of
communicating specific kinds of information
about their projects. Action plans, WBSs, and
responsibility charts are simple and highly
flexible ways of doing this.
Project Plan Elements
• The process of developing the project plan varies from
organization to organization, but any project plan must contain the
following elements:
• Overview
• Objectives or Scope
• General Approach
• Contractual Aspects
• Schedules
• Resources
• Personnel
• Risk Management Plans
• Evaluation Methods
Project Plan
• Project plans are usually constructed by listing
the sequence of activities required to carry
the project from start to completion.
• This is not only a natural way to think about
a project; it also helps the planner decide the
necessary sequence of things—a necessary
consideration for determining the project
schedule and duration
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• A work breakdown structure (WBS) is prepared to
determine the exact nature of the tasks required to
complete the project.
• Project work breakdown structure (WBS) that is
another (usually hierarchical) way of viewing the
activities in the action plan.
• Often, the WBS consists of a simple list of all
project activities with major activities broken down
into subactivities, and these broken down still
further.
WBS for a conference
Linear Responsibility Chart/RACI Martix
• The project linear responsibility chart (or
table) is another specialized view of the action
plan and focuses on who has what
responsibility (e.g., performing, approving,
communicating, supporting) associated with
each project task.
Advantages and Disadvantages
• Clear roles defined
• Effective communication
• Delegate authority
• Great tool for administering
– Only mechanical aid
Gantt Chart
• A Gantt chart, commonly used in project
management, is one of the most popular
and useful ways of showing activities (tasks
or events) displayed against time.
• On the left of the chart is a list of the
activities and along the top is a suitable
time scale.
• Each activity is represented by a bar; the
position and length of the bar reflects the
start date, duration and end date of the
activity.
• This allows you to see at a glance:
• This is useful to keep tasks on track when
there is a large team and multiple
stakeholders when the scope changes.
• As it's in a bar chart format it is possible to
check on progress with a quick glance. You can
easily see:
– a visual display of the whole project,
– timelines and deadlines of all tasks,
– relationships and dependencies between the
various activities,
– project phases
How to use a Gantt chart
• The underlying concept of a Gantt chart is to map
out which tasks can be done in parallel and which
need to be done sequentially.
• If we combine this with the project resources we
can explore the trade-off between the scope (doing
more or less work), cost (using more or less
resources) and the time scales for the project.
• By adding more resources or reducing the scope
the project manager can see the effect on the end
date.
• To create a chart you need to know all of the
individual tasks required to complete the
project, an estimate of how long each task will
take and which tasks are dependent on
others.
• The very process of pulling this information
together helps a project manager focus on the
essential parts of the project and begin to
establish a realistic timeframe for completion.
• In summary:
– When you set up a Gantt chart, you need to think
through all of the tasks involved in your project and
divide them into manageable components.
– Then decide who will be responsible for each task and
delegate to the team.
– Identify task relationships and decide on the completion
date sequence for each task, showing the expected time
duration of the whole project and the sub tasks. A Gantt
chart will show the tasks in a sequential order and display
task dependencies (ie. how one task relates to another).
– Determine and allocate your resources.
– Anticipate the risks and problems you may encounter and
create a contingency plan for potential problems.
Why use a Gantt chart?
• A Gantt chart is used for the following activities:
– Establish the initial project schedule - who is going
to do what, when and how long will it take.
– Allocate resources - ensure everyone knows who is
responsible for what.
– Make project adjustments - the initial plan will need
many adjustments.
– Monitor and report progress - helps you stay on
schedule.
– Control and communicate the schedule - clear visuals
for stakeholders and participants.
– Display milestones - shows key events.
– Identify and report problems - As everything is
depicted visually you can immediately see what
should have been achieved by a certain date and, if
the project is behind schedule, you can take action to
bring it back on course.
• Possible downfalls:
– Gantt charts are not perfect and can become overly
complex with too many dependencies and activities.
– Gantt charts are also not good at showing the relative
priorities of individual tasks and the resources
expended on a task.
INTERFACE COORDINATION THROUGH INTEGRATION
MANAGEMENT
• The most difficult aspect of implementing the
plan for a complex project is the coordination
and integration of the various elements of the
project so that they meet their joint goals of
performance, schedule, and budget in such a
way that the total project meets its goals.
• The intricate process of coordinating the work and
timing of the different groups is called integration
management.
• The term interface coordination is used to denote the
process of managing this work across multiple
groups.
• The linear responsibility chart discussed above is a
useful aid to the PM in carrying out this task.
• It displays the many ways the members of the project
team (which, as usual, includes all of the actors
involved, not forgetting the client and outside
vendors) must interact and what the rights, duties,
and responsibilities of each will be.
Project cost estimation and Budgeting
• A budget is a plan for allocating resources.
• Budget is the reflection of the WBS in another
form
• Project Budgeting can be described by four steps:
1. Estimating the cost
2.Determing the Budget
3.Monitoring and Controlling the Budget
4. Updating the Budget.
Estimating the cost
• Expert Judgment
• Analogous Estimation
• Parametric Estimation
• Bottom-up Estimation
• Three-point Estimation
• Vendor Bid Analysis
How to gather data for Budget
• Top Down Budgeting
• Bottom Up Budgeting
Cost overruns
• Improper defined scope
• Improper created WBS
• Improper technique used for estimation
• Project delays leading to schedule crashing
• Quality failure
• Change in project environment
• Ineffective scope control leading to scope creep
• Unforeseen risk
Network Analysis
• A project is a series of activities directed to
accomplishment
Plan your work first…..then work your plan
• Network analysis is the general name given to
certain specific techniques which can be used
for the planning, management and control of
projects.
Gantt chart
Originated by H.L.Gantt in 1918
Advantages Limitations
- Gantt charts are quite commonly - Do not clearly indicate details
used. They provide an easy graphical regarding the progress of activities
representation of when activities
(might) take place. - Do not give a clear indication of
interrelation ship between the separate
activities
Network Scheduling Techniques
• These deficiencies can be eliminated to a large extent by
showing the interdependence of various activities by
means of connecting arrows called network technique.
• Overtime Network scheduling techniques (CPM and
PERT) became one technique
• ADVANTAGES:
– Precedence relationships
– large projects
– more efficient
Network Scheduling Techniques
• Scheduling
PERT and CPM
• Critical Path Method(CPM)/Precedence Diagram
Method(PDM)
• The Program Evaluation and Review
Technique(PERT)/Arrow Diagram Method(ARM)
• PERT has primarily been used for R&D projects.
• CPM was designed for construction projects and
has been generally embraced by the construction
industry.
• PERT was strictly oriented to the time element
of projects and used probabilistic activity time
estimates to aid in determining the probability
that a project could be completed by some
given date.
• CPM, on the other hand, used deterministic
activity time estimates and was designed to
control both the time and cost aspects of a
project, in particular, time/cost trade-offs.
• Both techniques identified a project critical
path with activities that could not be delayed,
and also indicated activities with slack (or
fl oat) that could be somewhat delayed
without lengthening the project completion
time.
• To transform a project plan into a network,
one must know what activities comprise the
project and, for each activity, what its
predecessors (or successors) are.
• An activity can be in any of these conditions
1. it may have a successor(s) but no
predecessor(s);
2. it may have a predecessor(s) but no
successor(s);
3. it may have both predecessor(s) and
successor(s).
Example
Activity Predecessor Activity time
A - 4
B - 8
C - 10
D A 2
E B 5
F C 4
G D 1
H E,F,G 2
Estimating Activity Time
• Honest estimate of time required to complete
each of the various tasks in project.
• False Early Deadline
• Solving the network
Calculating Activity Time
Early Start ES
?
?
Slack/Float
Example
• Consider the following project(time in days)
Activity a m b predecessors
a 1 4 7 ---
b 2 2 2 ---
c 2 5 8 a
d 3 4 5 a
e 4 6 8 c,b
f 0 0 6 c,b
g 3 6 9 d,e
• Find 1. The network
2. All expected times, variance and slacks
3. Critical path
