Planning a Project
Step1:Define Scope
Step 2: Determining what tasks need to be done, and how
long a task might take
Step 3.1 : Task characteristics
Step 3.2 : Identifying the Tasks
Step 3.3 :Sequencing the Tasks
Step 3.4 :Completing the task
Step 4:Resource Planning:
Step 4.1 : Materials Planning:
Step 4.2 : Machinery Planning:
Step 4.3 : Human Resources Planning:
Step 5 : Estimating the Duration:
Step 6: Scheduling Developement:
Step 7 : Set Milestones for each major Deliverables
Step1: Define Scope:
Developing a common understanding as to what is included in, or
excluded from, a project.
A scope estimate is made based on a requirements document.
Steps to Create a Scope Statement:
1.Define the outcome :
It should be understood and agreed between all major
stakeholders.
2.Define a Project Name :
It provide a vision of where the project is headed.
3.Define Project charter :
Listing of the project owner, sponsors, and stakeholders.
4.Identify project justification
Reason for the project ( quantifiable and qualitatives project
requirements, milestones, and deliverables).
5.Define major deliverables
For ex: Consider a small project developing a Printed Circuit Board.
In this major deliverables are -Finalise the layout
design,Constructing PCB,Testing PCB.
Define the modules or phases according to these objectives as
Module1 : Fixing the layout design
Module2: Constructing PCB
Module3: Testing PCB.
6.Define Milestones for the project:
Key targets for completion of certain phases of a project .
A milestone requires both
1.The state of the task/phase and
2.Date/Time
7.Provide Cost estimates
8.Project Time Line Estimates.
9.Set distinct boundaries to what is the expected result of the
project so there is no ambiguity.
Must Prepare Scope Definition Document with all these
above data and must be approved.
7.T
he deliverables also need to be agreed upon by the major
stakeholders as well as the project owner.
8.Finally formal acceptance signatures.
Project Charters
Deliverables Approved
Requirements
Milestones Project Scope
Cost Document
Time
Boundaries
Step 2: Determining what tasks need to be done, and how
long a task might take
Steps in determining what tasks need to be done, and how
long a task might take:
Step 2.1 : Task characteristics:
A task is the smallest activity in a project typically lasting between
two hours and two weeks.
i. Beginning and completion dates/times
ii. Fixed duration
iii. Manageable
iv. Independent
v. Measurable
vi. Clear and simple
vii. Each task must give an outcome which can test and mark as
completed.
viii. Each task should have a sufficient description of the activity to
provide a clear instruction
a) for the person who will actually do the work, and
b) to have a reasonable estimate for the total time/effort
involved.
Activity Attributes:
1.Activity description
2.Predecessor activities
3.Successor activities
4.Logical relationships
5.Leads and lags
6.Resource requirements
7.Imposed dates
8.Constraints
9.assumptions
Step 3.2 : Identifying the Tasks and task types:
10.Refer to past projects in which similar steps needed to be taken if
available.
11.Takingadvice from experts (Asking the people that will be doing
the work Or who have done it in the past) what are the works tahat
how much time is needed to complete a task is enough to get a
rough estimate.
12.Identifythe activities that are come in each deliverance from the
project scope document.
13.Determine the ways for completing that activity
14.Select one best approach based on its possibility of completing
successfully,budget and time (For ex:using a machinery will give a
better output but which increase cost)
15.Decompose the activities
16.Identify task type either it is belong to single or recurring type
task (i.e.it will happen once in a project or it will happen repeatedly
based on some time periods like reviews.)
For ex: Daily Review with Manager (Daily discussion with Manager
regarding work done on that day) which occurs daily.
Tools & Techniques
Outputs
Inputs Previous
Experience
Project Scope Activity List
Statement: Activity Attribute
Experts advice
Deliverables Milestone List
Major Milestones
Decomposition
Activity Identification
Step 3.3 :Sequencing the Tasks:
Sequencing depend on the relationship between the tasks.
17.Identify the relations between the tasks
18.Either it belongs to
a) Independent (no constraint on the tasks)
b) Dependent (which its starting or ending depends on another
task)
c) Single task (Occur one time in a project)
d) Recurring task (Occurs repeatedly in a project)
19.Make a list and group them for easy reference
20.Define sequence for the tasks based in independent and
dependent relations.
21.Identify which can be done parallel and which can be done in
serially.
Tools & Techniques Outputs
Inputs
Activity
1.Project Scope List(Updates)
Statement Dependency
Activity
2.Activity List Determination
Attribute(updates)
3.Activity Attributes Network
4.Milestone List Diagram
Activity Sequencing
Step 3.4 :Completing the task:
i. We can make a task as completed only it will be approved by
Concerned authorities. For this make a task for reviewing with
Concerned Authority for every task.
a) A task can complete only
i. Which it has a definite outcome
ii. Status reports
iii. Acceptance report given by the concerned authorities.
If a task termed as completed means there is no work on
that and it is ready to implement.
Step 4:Resource Planning:
Now we have to allocate resources to perform and complete that
task.
Resources that may involved in a project are :
1. Materials
2. Machineries
3. Human Resources
4. Experts (advices from experienced people)
5. Approval Team or Testing Team (To test the project - to make the
tasks as complete)
Some of these resources may be external or internal.
Step 4.1 : Materials Planning:
a) Identify the required materials for each task
b) Choose best material from the alternatives
c) Group the same type of materials and list out how many
required
d) Prepare a list of materials with name and quantity
e) Collect data from stores which are available internally and
which have to order to get from external
f) Book the available materials under your project
g) Order the unavailable materials
h) Fix a date when will it available and make a follow-up with
the Ordered-Team
i) Put a buffer time based on its urgency and plan the works
accordingly the delivery date given.
Step 4.2 : Machinery Planning:
a) Machinery resource may buy or hired for some days it will
depend on the profit we gain by buying that.
b) If it is buying,
i. Put a buffer time to the work related to that machinery if
no dependencies is there and upto which it will not effects
closing date of the project
c) If it is hiring for some days,
i. Make a deep analysis on when the work will be started
ii. Make an agreement with externals when the machinery
will be available
iii. Decide the time duration which will effects the budget if it
is prolonged
iv. Utilize the materials total time effectively which can effect
the constraints like budget, time.
Step 4.3 : Human Resources Planning:
After completion the identification of tasks,
1.Identification of Human Resource for tasks :
a) Estimate the skills required for each task to complete.
For ex: To create a website, we need a backend designer. So
choose resources who have efficient skills on working with
database.
b) Collect and group the resources and make a list based on
their work category.
c) For each category there may be one or more resources
available(Skill Matrix).
d) It will gives a clear idea which are available internally and
which we have to hire from externally.
2.Selecting the Human Resources:
a) Select the resources based on their skill set (It may depend
on that resource experience, efficiency, knowledge on that
particular area etc.)
b) Collect their availability.
c) Efficient human resources may increase the budget.
d) Put choice for tasks and give 1st preference to high efficiency
and 2nd preference to others
e) Make analysis on
High-efficiency Resource --high budget but less time to
complete
Normal-Efficiency Resource --Low budget with more time to
complete
f) Choose the suitable resource based on their availability
without overcoming the constraints (budget, time).
g) If efficient resource is not available for the total work period,
make a discussion with other project team and engage to
your project if the other project doesn't effect.
h) If resource is not available due to some uncertainty, it will
create problems. So
1. Try to engage the 2nd preference resource if available.
2. Increase work hours of newly engage resource if
needed and its must not overcome the project
constraints.
i) In allocating two or more resources to a single task, consider
each resource must produce an outcome for that task.
For ex: Searching for a new technology (Definitely more than
one
resource will give a better result than one resource. They
both give more
data to start the work)
j) Allocate the work to more than one based on the work
priority and type of the work.
k) Finally fix the cost and work hours for each resource to
complete that work.
Tools & Techniques
Outputs
Inputs 1.Alternatives Analysis
[resource capability or 1.Activity
Activity List skills] Resource
Activity Attributes requirements
Resource Skills [different tools(hand 2.Activity
Resource versus automated)] attributes(up
Availability dates)
[Make-or- buy
decisions regarding
resource]
Activity Resource Estimating
Step 5 : Estimating the Duration:
How can we estimate this task will finish at fixed time duration?
1.To estimate the task duration, need past experience of that
work/similar work.
2.Need a better understanding of the resource efficiency.
If above both are available,
1.Estimate the hours required for each task to complete
(:.Complete means there is no work to spent on it once it is termed
as complete) based on
a) Task complexity
b) Resource proficiency
c) Resource Efficiency
d) Risks that may occur in doing those tasks.
e) No of Reviews that may occur in completing that task
f) Lead or Lag times
(Lag Time-The amount of delay in the relationship
between the predecessor and the successor .
Lead Time-The amount of time that must pass for one
task before its successor task can start.)
3.Make a reasonable estimate to complete that work based on past
experience
4.Use PERT Analysis to calculate the duration for a task
a) The optimistic estimate is based on if everything goes
right.
b) The pessimistic estimate is based on if everything goes
wrong.
c) The most likely estimate is using your best judgement as
the most likely to occur in this situation.
d) average them out by adding them all together and divide
by 3.
e) For example for a task if an optimistic estimate of 10
days, a pessimistic estimate of 19 days, and a most likely
estimate of 13 days .
f) Add 10 + 19 + 13 to get 42. Now divide by 3 and get 14
days. Estimate for this task is 14 days.
2.By apply this technique to all tasks for the project, all tasks
come up with a more true representation of actual time.
3.It is unlikely that everything will go right or wrong in every
task.
4.Therefore, it should average out over the entire project.
Reserve Analysis:
Incorporate additional time for contingency reserves, time
reserves or buffers, into the overall project schdule as a
recognitionof Schdule risks.
The contingency reserve can be a percentage of the estimated
activity duration,a fixed umber of work periods, or developed by
quantitative schdule risk analysis.
Such contingency reserve is documented along with other
related data and assumptions.
Inputs
Tools & Techniques
1.Project Scope
Outputs
Statement
2.Activity List
3.Activity attribute 1.Expert 1.Activity
4.Activity judgement duration
Resource estimates
requirements 2.Reserve [quantitative]
5.Resource Analysis 2.Activity
Availability attributes updates
6.Activity Cost 2.PERT Analysis
Estimates
Activity Duration Estimating
Step 6: Scheduling Developement:
Upto now we identified the tasks, task types, sequence of tasks,
resources needed to complete the task, duration - time needed to
complete the task.
1.Based on the data upto now which collected, make it into a proper
order by
a) Assigning the task parameters
i. Start Date
ii. End Date
iii. Resources needed(Materials,Machinery,Humanresources)
1. Availability
2. Work hours per day
3. Cost
4. If work hours increased then their overtime cost
iv. Duration for that task to complete(task complexity,
resource performance)
v. Dependent tasks.
b) Link the tasks if needed based on dependency.
c) Adjust the task Start Date and Finish Dated based on the
resource availability and task dependency(i.e.parallel or
sequential)
For ex: 1. Consider two tasks which are the same work i.e.
Designing the 2 web pages in a
webapplication.It is allocated to 2
resources.These can be do parallel which has no
dependencies between them.
2. Storing the data through a webapplication into
database and showing that data through a report
from the database.
These must be done sequentially.
d) Here we may find duplicate resources and over allocations for
the resources to the tasks.These must be levelled.
a) Leveling resources is about balancing resources work
distribution, starting with solving over allocations.
i. Move one or more tasks, if you consider the lack of
resources as a constraint.
ii. Add new resources
Adding new resources is not always good to the
project.Decide if adding new resource is advanatage or not
based on the situation and it must not extend the project
endline.
iii. Increase the work hrs/Day if the work has to be done in
the scheduled time.
Inputs
Outputs
Tools & Techniques
1.Project Scope
Statement
1.Schedule Network
2..Activity List
Analysis
3.Activity Attributes
2.Critical Path Method Project
4.Network Diagram
3.Schedule Comparison Schedule
5.Activity Resource
4.What-If-Scenario Schedule
Requirements
5.Resource Levelling Baseline
6.Resource availability
6.Adjusting Lead and Resource
7.Activity Duration
Lags requiremen
Estimates
t
8.Project management
Activity
plan
attributes
[Schdule]
Requested
[cost]
changes
[project scope]
Project
[risk management-{Risk
manageme
register}]
nt Plan-
Schedule
manageme
nt plan
Schedule Development Overview
Step 7: Schedule Control:
Schedule control is concerned witj
1.Determining the current status of the project schedule
2.Influencing the factors that create schdule changes
3.Determining that the project schedule has changed
4.Managing the actual changes as they occur
Schedule control is a portion of the integrated Change Control
process
1.Progress
1.Schedule Reporting
Management Plan
1.Schedule
2.Performance
2.Schedule baseline(updates
Measurement
Baseline )
3.Project
3.Performance Performance
Management
Reports measurements
Software
Requested
4.Approved Change changes
4.Variance
Requests Recommended
Analysis
corrective
actions
5.Schedule
Activity
Comparison bar
List(updated)
charts
Activity
attribute(update
d)
Project
management
plan(updates)
Step 7 : Set the Milestones :
Key targets for completion of certain phases of a project .
A milestone requires both
1.The state of the task/phase and
2.Date/Time to be set.
Ex:Some typical SE milestones
Requirement specifications completed
key plans completed.
Step 8: Changes in plans :
1. It ensures that any variation is properly sized and costed.
2. The implications must be understood before it can be
considered.
3. Any variation must also result in a variation to time and cost.
a) Determine cost of the change
b) Determine the impact of the change on project schedules
c) Determine the added value does the change represent for
the customer or end user.
