L4 PROJECT PLANNING

Project Planning
A plan is a listing or visual display that results when all project activities have been
subjected to estimation, logical sequencing and time analysis
Planning is one of the most important management activities and is an ongoing effort
throughout the life of the project. Software project management begins with a set of
activities that are collectively called Project Planning.
Project planning defines the project activities and deliverables that will be performed and
describes how the activities will be accomplished. The purpose of project planning is to
define each major task, estimate the time and resources required and provided a
framework management review and control. The project planning activities and goals
include defining:
 Specific work to be performed
 Goals that define and bind the project
 Estimates for planning, tracking and controlling the project
 Project commitments
 Project alternatives, assumptions and constraints

Planning Process
1. Project Goals
A project is successful when the needs of the stakeholders have been met. A stakeholder is
anybody directly or indirectly impacted by the project.
As a first step, it is important to identify the stakeholders in your project. It is not always
easy to identify the stakeholders of a project, particularly those impacted indirectly.
Examples of stakeholders are:
 The project sponsor.

 The customer who receives the deliverables.

 The users of the project outputs.

 The project manager and project team.

Once you understand who the stakeholders are, the next step is to find out their needs. The
best way to do this is by conducting stakeholder interviews. Take time during the
interviews to draw out the true needs that create real benefits. Often stakeholders will talk
about needs that aren't relevant and don't deliver benefits. These can be recorded and set
as a low priority.
The next step, once you have conducted all the interviews, and have a comprehensive list of
needs is to prioritize them. From the prioritized list, create a set of goals that can be easily
measured. A technique for doing this is to review them against the SMART principle. This
way it will be easy to know when a goal has been achieved.
Once you have established a clear set of goals, they should be recorded in the project plan.
It can be useful to also include the needs and expectations of your stakeholders.
This is the most difficult part of the planning process completed. It's time to move on and
look at the project deliverables.

2. Project Deliverables
Using the goals you have defined in step 1, create a list of things the project needs to deliver
in order to meet those goals. Specify when and how each item must be delivered.
Add the deliverables to the project plan with an estimated delivery date. More accurate
delivery dates will be established during the scheduling phase, which is next.

3. Project Schedule
Create a list of tasks that need to be carried out for each deliverable identified in step 2.
Generate the work breakdown structure (WBS) to produce a complete list of activities.
Develop the organization breakdown structure (OBS) and link it with work breakdown
structure to identify responsibilities.
For each task identify the following:

 The amount of effort (hours or days) required to complete the task.

 The resource that will carry out the task.

Once you have established the amount of effort for each task, you can work out the effort
required for each deliverable, and an accurate delivery date. Update your deliverables
section with the more accurate delivery dates.
At this point in the planning, you could choose to use a software package such as Microsoft
Project to create your project schedule. Alternatively, use one of the many free templates
available. Input all of the deliverables, tasks, durations and the resources who will
complete each task.
A common problem discovered at this point, is when a project has an imposed delivery
deadline from the sponsor that is not realistic based on your estimates. If you discover this
is the case, you must contact the sponsor immediately. The options you have in this
situation are:
 Renegotiate the deadline (project delay).
 Employ additional resources (increased cost).
 Reduce the scope of the project (less delivered).

Use the project schedule to justify pursuing one of these options.

4. Develop supporting project plans

This section deals with plans you should create as part of the planning process. These can
be included directly in the plan.
1. Human Resource Plan
2. Communications Plan
3. Software Risk Management Plan
4. Software Quality Management Plan
 5. Software Configuration Management Plan

Stepwise Approach to project planning

Below is another technique used in project called Stepwise Approach.
0 Select project
1 Identify project scope and objectives
1.1 Identify objectives and measures of effectiveness in meeting them
1.2 Establish a project authority
1.3 Identify stakeholders
1.4 Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis
1.5 Establish methods of communication with all parties
2 Identify project infrastructure
2.1 Establish relationship between project and strategic planning
2.2 Identify installation standards and procedures
2.3 Identify project team organization
3 Analyze project characteristics
3.1 Distinguish the project as either objective- or product-driven
3.2 Analyze other project characteristics
3.3 Identify high-level project risks
3.4 Take into account user requirements concerning implementation
3.5 Select general life-cycle approach
3.6 Review overall resource estimates
4 Identify project products and activities
4.1 Identify and describe project products (including quality criteria)
4.2 Document generic product flows
4.3 Recognize product instances
4.4 Produce ideal activity network
4.5 Modify ideal to take into account need for stages and checkpoints
5 Estimate effort for each activity
5.1 Carry out bottom-up estimates
5.2 Revise plan to create controllable activities
6 Identify activity risks
6.1 Identify and quantify activity-based risks
6.2 Plan risk reduction and contingency measures where appropriate
6.3 Adjust plans and estimates to take account of risks
7 Allocate resources
7.1 Identify and allocate resources
7.2 Revise plans and estimates to take account of resource constraints
8 Review/publicize plan
8.1 Review quality aspects of project plan
8.2 Document plans and obtain agreement
9/10 Execute plan/lower levels of planning
This may require the reiteration of the planning process at a lower level
Reasons for not planning:
There are many reasons why people don’t plan however planning is an essential activity
which should be carried out before any project is executed. Examples of reasons given for
not planning:
 The project has been done before
 Lack of knowledge of how to plan
 The project is small therefore needs no planning

Benefits of Planning
Some of the benefits of planning are:
 To pre think future actions for the project
 Verify target achievability of all set project targets
 Identify problems and risks that may affect the project
 Resource planning for project activities
 Communication to project stakeholders
 Gaining commitment from project stakeholders
 Providing people involved in the project with objectives
 Basis for controlling the project

Project Plan Contents

Project Plan is iteratively defined through Concept and Requirements Phase. Initial
estimates are refined as scope and requirements become clearer. There are two phases of
project plan:
1. Preliminary
2. Final
The Project Plan is a vital part of the project initiation stage and should normally contain
the following information for a general project:
1. Introduction and status of the plan
2. The authorization procedures
3. Statement of project objectives
4. Statement of requirement
5. Deliverables in the project
6. A Work Breakdown Structure
7. The project milestones
8. The resource requirements
9. Interdependencies of work
10. The timetable of events
11. Staffing, organization and responsibilities
12. Development methods and toolsets to be used
13. Source documentation
14. Resource and financial summary
Software Project Plan Contents
The following are some elements of Software Project Plan:
1. Scope Planning
 Scope planning is the process of progressively elaborating and documenting the
project work (project scope) that produces the product of the project.
 Project Scope Planning starts with the initial inputs of product description, the
project charter, and the initial definition of constraints and assumptions. The
product description incorporates product requirements that reflect agreed-upon
customer needs and the product design that meets the product requirements.
 The outputs of scope planning are the scope statement and scope management plan,
with the supporting detail.
 The scope statement forms the basis for an agreement between the project and the
project customer by identifying both the project objectives and the project
deliverables.
Project teams develop multiple scope statements that are appropriate for the level of
project work decomposition.

2. Objectives: Business Requirements

 Could be “Mission Statement”
 Defines Business objectives for project
 Includes Business Case (NPV Model) & Detailed Description of assumptions.

3. Technical Approach
Description of how new system is to be developed
 Technologies
 In House vs. Consultants
 Derivatives of existing (i.e. use existing object model)
 Architectural Layout – Layers

4.Contractual Aspects
 Specifies general needs from outside sources
 Consultants
 Software Suppliers
 Hardware Suppliers
 Network/Infrastructure Suppliers

5. Schedules
• Defines specific dates for milestones components
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Use Scheduling Engines like MS project etc.
6. Resource Allocation
• Resources such as licenses, servers, or other software/hardware related items
 • Personnel – how many people of what type and for how long
7. Evaluation Methods
• What methods to be used to validate performance
o Testing for adherence to spec
o Monitoring usage

• Web trends
• Database Logs
o Transaction logs
o Setup schedule for reviews

8. Overview of Project Management

• Define where possible problems can occur
o New technologies
o Business risks
o Resources

• Define Contingency Plans

o Development methods
o If the worst happens, what to do

Types of project plans

1. Project Plan (outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes)
2. Resource Plan (listing the labor, equipment and materials required)
3. Financial Plan (identifying the labor, equipment and materials costs)
4. Quality Plan (providing quality targets, assurance and control measures)
5. Risk Plan (highlighting potential risks and actions taken to mitigate them)
6. Acceptance Plan (listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance)
7. Communications Plan (listing the information needed to inform stakeholders)
8. Procurement Plan (identifying products to be sourced from external suppliers).

2.3.4 Planning and evaluation

To be effective, evaluation planning should be integrated with the program planning
process.
Once the target audience and desired outcomes have been identified, an evaluation plan
can be developed.
There are two main types of evaluation: process and outcome. Process evaluation is
intended to measure the effectiveness of the organization to implement the plan as
designed. Outcome Evaluation is intended to measure the degree to which the objective has
been met (and therefore the problem impacted) at the result of the implementation of
selected strategies and activities.
Process and outcome evaluations are often used together. A process evaluation may
indicate that the plan is being well-implemented but it will not determine if the strategies
and activities implemented are effective in addressing the problem. Similarly, an outcome
evaluation may indicate that the objective had been met, but without confirmation that the
process was effectively implemented it may not be possible to attribute the impact on the
problem to the actual intervention in question.
There are five basic steps to preparing an evaluation design:
1. Anticipate what decisions might have to be made about the plan along the way;
2. 2. Look at each part of the plan and anticipate where a comparison of actual
performance against planned performance might yield information that will help
make key decisions;
3. Design measures of appropriateness, adequacy, effectiveness, efficiency and side
effects in order to compare actual and planned performance;
4. Figure out how to obtain the data for these measurements;
5. Determine who will analyze the data, how and when.

Planning Requirement
Unless all of the necessary information becomes available at project initiation effective
total program planning cannot be accomplished. These information requirements are:
1. The statement of work (SOW)
2. The work breakdown structure (WBS)

The Statement of Work (SOW)

The statement of work (SOW) is a narrative description of the work to be accomplished. It
includes the objectives of the project, a brief description of the work, the funding constraint
if one exists, and the specifications and schedule.
The SOW contains a detailed list of all work to be performed by the pro-poser for the
benefit of the customer. It is a narrative description of products or services to be supplied
by the project.
For internal projects, the project initiator or sponsor provides the statement of work based
on business needs, or product or service requirements. For external projects, the statement
of work can be received from the customer as part of a bid document, for example, request
for proposal, request for information, request for bid, or as part of a contract. The schedule
is a "gross" schedule and includes such things as the:

• Start date
• End date
• Major milestones
• Written reports (data items)

Work Breakdown Structure

1. Definition
• The WBS is described as a hierarchical structure which is designed to logically
subdivide all the work-elements of the project into a graphical presentation. The full
scope of work for the project is placed at the top of the diagram, and then sub-
divided smaller elements of work at each lower level of the breakdown. At the
 lowest level of the WBS the elements of work is called a work package. A list of
project’s activities is developed from the work packages.
• Effective use of the WBS will outline the scope of the project and the responsibility
for each work package. There is not necessarily a right or wrong structure because
what may be an excellent fit for one discipline may be an awkward burden for
another.
• The core elements that enable the elaboration and development of the Project
Schedule begin with the Scope Statement, WBS and WBS Dictionary.
2. When to use
• A work breakdown structure is an essential element in project planning and project
management. In the quality planning process WBS begins with a generalized goal
and then identifies progressively finer levels of actions needed to accomplish the
goal. In the quality improvement process, the tool is especially useful for creating an
implementation plan to remedy identified process problems. For WBS to accurately
reflect the project, however, it is essential that the team using it have detailed
understanding of the tasks required.
• The building block (the smallest unit) of a WBS is the activity, which is a unique unit
of the project that has a specified duration. An activity is defined as any function or
decision in the project that: consumes time, resources, and cost
3. How to use it:
• Identify the primary requirement or objective : This should be a clear item, based on
customer requirements, to which the entire team agrees. Write this requirement at
the top of the chart.

• Subdivide the requirement statement into major secondary categories: These

branches should represent requirements, products, or activities that directly lead to
the primary objective or that are directly required to fulfill the overall requirement.
The team should continually ask, “What is required to meet this condition?”, “What
happens next?”, and “What needs to be addressed?”

• Write the secondary categories below the primary requirement statement. Using
sticky notes at this stage makes later changes easier to accomplish.

• Break each major heading into greater detail , As you move from top to bottom in
the WBS, products and activities should become more and more specific. Stop the
breakdown when each task is tiny enough to be easily completed and evaluated for
accuracy.

• If the team does not have enough knowledge to continue at some point, identify the
individuals who can supply the information and continue the breakdown later with
those individuals present.

• Review the WBS for logic and completeness. Make sure that each subheading and
path has a direct cause-and-effect relationship with the one before. Examine the
paths to ensure that no obvious products or actions have been left out. Also ensure
 that the development of listed products or completion of listed actions will indeed
lead to the anticipated results.

• Once the WBS is complete, the WBS dictionary needs to be the next item developed.
The WBS dictionary is a narrative documentation of the effort needed to accomplish
all work defined in the WBS. The WBS dictionary is developed for the lowest level
element in the WBS only. WBS Dictionary describes each component of the WBS.

4. Benefits of using WBS

Using a WBS provides a number of benefits to the management and to the development
teams.
 It gives the management an idea about the size and complexity of the project.
 It helps in planning, scheduling, and monitoring a project realistically. To aid
planning, scheduling, and monitoring a project, you can use tools such as:
 Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT)
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
 Timeline charts
 Gantt charts

These tools use WBS as the fundamental basis for assessing resources to tasks, computing
the number of days needed, and the cost required to complete the tasks.

5. Types of WBS:
1. Process WBS: It is a WBS form that partitions a large process into smaller and
smaller processes. Each process is eventually decomposed into task that can be
assigned to individuals for accomplishment. It is used by the project manager to
manage their projects.
2. Product WBS: It is a WBS-form that partition a large entity into components.
Each component and its interfaces are identified, resulting in a clear identification of
the larger system. It is primary tool of system engineers & software engineers.
3. Hybrid WBS: A WBS that includes both process and product elements of a project
into one WBS. IT is used by managers who first want to control project cost.