Ch # 05 Project Planning

Plan & Planning

Plan: Plans are only good intentions unless they

immediate degenerate into hard work. Planning: It is a process of developing plans. Tom peters says: The more time you spend planning, the less time you will need to spend on implementation Analysis by Paralysis: Do not kill the plan with overanalysis.

Reasons why we must careful while planning the projects.

To establish a clear set of directions for the project

team. Answers the w family questions How much Time & Cost are Required to complete the project. Design in such a way, so that it achieve the org. objectives. Include the allowances of risk in the uncertain environment. Plans must include the methods to ensure project integrity. Project budgets and scheduling are the major parts of the master plan.

Initial project Coordination.

a) When Org. itself a Client Project launch meeting. Presence of senior management Project launch meeting is absolutely depends on the clear set of the objectives associates with the project. Nature of scope depends upon the nature of project Types of projects: Simple & Complex. Simple Projects: Fix plans in more detail at its initial meeting Complex projects: General aggregate flexible plans must be designed.

Initial project Coordination: Outcomes of the Initial meeting.

Technical scope: is established but not in concrete.
Basic areas of the performance responsibility are

accepted by the participants. Some tentative overall schedules and budget are spell out.

Initial project Coordination: Outcomes of the Initial meeting.

The plans are scrutinized by the group and Combined

into composite project plans. Composite plans are approved by each participating group, By the project manager and then by the senior management. Change order: For simple project only informal written memoranda can be substitute a change order. While For the complex project, for significant change, it is following by a written notice and management approval. All this is the responsibility of the PM. If Pm does not follow a procedure as laid down, a disciplinary action may be taken against him/her.

Initial project Coordination: Outcomes of the Initial meeting.

Master/ Baseline Plan: The PM should always return to

the contributing units for consideration and reapproval of the plan as modified. The final approved result of this procedures is called project plan, master or baseline plan.

Initial project Coordination: Post Planning Review Meeting

After completion of the planning phase, an additional

post planning review meeting is held. This meeting is held by the experience project manager who is not connected with this specific project. The purpose of this meeting to make ensure that al the necessary elements of plan have been properly developed and communicated

Initial project Coordination:

b) When Outside Client
The procedure is same as the case (a) as discussed above. The only difference is this that specification can not be changed without the consent or permission of the clients. Common problem: The conflict between the marketing personnel and engineering personnel. This problem is solved by using he multi functional teams, is also called concurrent engineering.

Initial project Coordination: Project Plan Elements

Senior management not only approves the project plan but also notifies the subunits in the organization to ensure resources to the project. The process of developing the project plan varies from organization to organization; but it has contain the following elements: 1. Overview 2. Objectives 3. General Approach: Managerial & Technical approaches 4. Contractual Aspects 5. Schedules 6. Resources 7. Personnel 8. Evaluation Methods 9. Potential Problems: subcontractor default, strikes, technical failure etc

Initial project Coordination: Project Plan Elements

All above elements constitutes a project plan. When it is prepared, approved and disseminate to all interested parties. This document is also known as Project Charter

Initial project Coordination: Project Planning in Action

Plans are listing in sequence of the activities required from start to complete a project. i.e. Project schedule & duration. Project is divided into 9 segment over its life cycle: Concept evaluation Requirements identification Design Implementation Test Integration Validation Customer test and evaluation Operations and maintenance

System Integration
It include any technical specialist in the science and art of the project who is capable of integrating the technical disciplines to achieve the customers objectives, and/or integrating the project into the customers system. It is also called system engineering. It has three major objectives: 1-Performance: What a system does. It includes design, reliability, quality, maintainability and reliability. The design should fall with in the parameters establish by the clients whether it is under or over designed.

System Integration
2-Effectiveness: To achieve the desired performance in an optimal manner. Guidelines: 1-it is necessary to meet one or more system requirements. 2-Every component requirement should be traceable to one or more system requirements. 3- Design component to optimize system performance, not the performance of subsystem.

System Integration
3- Cost: It considers cost to be a parameter. Added design cost may lead o decreased component cost, leaving performance & effectiveness unchanged It may yield decreased production cost and trade off b/t production cost & unit cost for materials. Value engineering or value analysis: It examine s all these cost trade-offs and is an important aspect of system integration. Best Achievers: System integration is best achieved by the multifunctional teams.

Sorting Out the Project

Sorting out project may be done by two techniques: 1- A simple approach for this is Hierarchical planning system or Even planning process It includes action plan, Tree and Ten factor approach. Even Planning Process: It will help keep the plan focused on the projects deliverables rather than on the work at a subsystem level. Hierarchical Planning System: The objectives are taken from the project mater plan. It helps the planner in identifying the set of required activities for the objective to meet. i.e. Project action plan: a) Action plan: Level 1Activity: Task 1a, Task 1b, Task 1c, etc Level 2 Activity: Task 2a, Task 2b, Task 2c, etc Level 3 Activity: Task 3a, Task 3b, Task 3c, etc Breakdown of activities lies between 2 to 20. Examples: Installation of a new production Plan Career Day At College or Merger of Company A into Company B. Disadvantage: many of manager mix both events and activities

Sorting Out the Project b) Tree Diagram

Mainly Gozinto chart is used for tree diagram in Hierarchical Plan.

Project

Level A

Level B

1A

2A

1B

2.1 A

2.2A

Sorting Out the Project

C) Pinto & Slevin developed a list of 10 fatcors that

should be associated with success in implementation projects. These factors are split into strategic and tactical clusters. But here we consider only strategically factors. Project Mission Top management support Projects action plan

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Linear Responsibility Chart

Action plan and WBS is not same thing. WBS has

most variety of forms that, in turn, serve a wide variety of purposes. It is an outline with the level 1 tasks on the left and successive levels appropriately indented or It gives a project picture subdivided into hierarchical units of tasks, subtasks, work packages.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Linear Responsibility Chart

Procedure for designing and using the WBS: 1- List the task breakdown in successively finer level of detail from the action plan. E.g. budget, schedule, monitor and control. 2- Identify the data relevant to WBS. E.g. vendors, durations, equipment and special specification. It is helpful to construct a linear responsibility chart. Fig. 5.7 3- Verification of the WBSs accuracy by the responsible and supported personnel. E.g. Resource requirement, schedule and subtask relationships can now be aggregated to form the next higher level of WBS. 4- Pricing a Proposal, or determining profit and loss. It consist of four elements: i- Direct Budget for each task ii- Indirect cost budget for the project. IiiContingency reserve iv- Residual or profit/loss 5- Milestone events can be aggregate into project master schedule All above 5 points are considered as Planning Tool. It help to monitoring and controlling the projects.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Linear Responsibility Chart

6- Examine the variances of each task: Actual Estimated expense. 7- Examine the variances of time of each task: Actual time spend Estimated time to complete a task.

Interface Coordination Through Integration Management.

The process of managing the work across multiple

groups. The linear chart is useful for that action. The early approach is TREND ( Transformed Relationship Evolved From Network Data) The analysis is done to illustrate important linkages and dependencies between work groups. Today, Multifunctional teams managing interface: to planned design the product or service project. Fig. 5.12