1 planning the project key concepts planning process project plan work breakdown structure
TRANSCRIPT
1
Planning the Project
Key Concepts
Planning Process
Project Plan
Work Breakdown Structure
2
• Concerned with activities involved in ensuring that “project outcome” is delivered on time and on schedule and in accordance with the requirements of the organisations
• Project management is needed because “special activities” are always subject to budget and schedule constraints that are set by the organisation developing the new product or service
Project Management
3
• Proposal writing.
• Project planning and scheduling.
• Project costing.
• Project monitoring and reviews.
• Personnel selection and evaluation.
• Report writing and presentations.
Management Activities
4
The Elements of a Project Plan
Overview Objectives General Approach Contractual Aspects
Schedules Resource Requirements Personnel Evaluation Methods Potential Problems
5
Two Key Elements
Resource requirements
a) Personnel elements of a project plan
b) Physical resources
6
Project Staffing• May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to
work on a project– Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid
staff;– Staff with the appropriate experience may not be
available;– An organisation may wish to develop employee skills
on a project.
• Managers have to work within these constraints especially when there are shortages of trained staff.
7
The Planning Process
Pproject Manger’s First Job
• Understand the expectations that the organisation has for the project.
• Identify who among senior managers has a major interest in the project.
• Determine if anything about the project is atypical.
8
Developing Invitation List
• At least one representative from senior management.
• Managers from functional areas that will contribute to the project.
• Perhaps highly specialised technical experts.
9
The Launch Meeting
• Senior Management Introduces PM• PM Chairs Meeting
– develop general understanding of the functional inputs the project will need
– may brainstorm the problem– may develop preliminary plan
• Important Results– scope understood and temporarily fixed– functional managers understand their
responsibilities and have committed to developing the initial plan
10
Project Planning• Probably the most time-consuming project
management activity.• Continuous activity from initial concept through
to system delivery. Plans must be regularly revised as new information becomes available.
• Various different types of plan may be developed to support the main software project plan that is concerned with schedule and budget.
11
Types of Project Plan
Plan Description
Quality plan Describes the quality procedures and standards that will be used in a project.
Validation plan Describes the approach, resources and schedule used for system validation.
Configuration management plan
Describes the configuration management procedures and structures to be used.
Maintenance plan Predicts the maintenance requirements of the system, maintenance costs and effort required.
Staff development plan.
Describes how the skills and experience of the project team members will be developed.
12
Project Planning Process
1. Establish the project constraints 2. Make initial assessments of the project parameters 3. Define project milestones and deliverables4. Draw up project schedule5. Initiate activities according to schedule6. Review project progress7. Revise estimates of project parameters8. Update the project schedule9. Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables10. If problems arise, then Initiate technical review and possible revision11. End
13
The Project Plan
• The project plan sets out:– The resources available to the project;– The work breakdown;– A schedule for the work.
14
Project Plan Structure• Introduction.
• Project organisation.
• Risk analysis.
• Hardware and software resource requirements.
• Work breakdown.
• Project schedule.
• Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
15
Sorting Out the Project
• Hierarchical Planning Process– begin with project’s objectives– list major activities needed to achieve
objectives (Level 1 Activities)– delegate level 1 activities to individuals or
functional areas to develop list of Level 2 activities …
– degree of detail should be same within a given level
16
Creating the Project Action Plan
• Project activities identified and arranged in successively finer detail (by levels).
• Type and quantity of each required resource identified for each activity.
• Predecessors and durations estimated for each activity.
• Milestones identified.• Individual or group assigned to perform the
work identified for all activities.
17
Using the Project Action Plan
• Project Master Schedule created by combining milestones, durations, and predecessors– used to compare actual and planned
performance
• Use of Templates
18
The Work Breakdown Structure
Simple Approach for Creating the WBS• Gather Project Team• Provide Team Members with Pad of
Sticky-Notes• Team Members Write Down all Tasks
They can Think of.• Sticky-Notes Placed and Arranged on
Wall
19
Work Breakdown Structures
Work Breakdown Structure Diagram
20
Work Breakdown StructuresLevel 1 Level 2 Level 3
Task 1
Subtask 1.1
Work Package 1.1.1
Work Package 1.1.2
Work Package 1.1.3
Subtask 1.2
Work Package 1.2.1
Work Package 1.2.2
Work Package 1.2.3
Task 2
Subtask 2.1
Work Package 2.1.1
Work Package 2.1.2
Work Package 2.1.3
21
Work Breakdown Structures
22
WBS - Buy A House
Top Down Decomposition, Elemental TasksTop Down Decomposition, Elemental Tasks
` BUY A HOUSE
LOCATION FINANCINGFIND HOUSE
1 - Criteria 3- Determine affordability
6- Type of House
2- Visit Locations
4- Determine mortgage provider
7- Find Real Estate Agent
5- Lockup mortgage commitment
8- Look for House
9- Make Offer, P&S Agreem't
10 - Closing
23
Buy a House
Simple Gantt Chart ViewSimple Gantt Chart View
ID Task Name
1 BUY HOUSE
2 LOCATION
3 Determine location criteria
4 Visit key locations
5 FINANCING
6 Determine affordability
7 Assess Mortagg Provider
8 Secure Mortagg Commitmt
9 FIND HOUSE
10 Type of House
11 Find RealEstate Agent
12 Look for House
13 Make Offer, P&S Agreement
14 Closing
2/5
2/5
2/5
2/14
2/5
2/24
M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W Tek 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
24
Organisational Diagrams
• Work breakdown structure (WBS): Shows hierarchy of work products
• PERT chart: Shows the order in which activities must be done (a partial order)
• Gantt Chart or Schedule: Shows scheduling of work products as a function of time
25
Creating Work Packages
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)– Break up project into activities (phases,
steps) and tasks.– The work breakdown structure does not
show the interdependence of the tasks
26
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Diagram
Build communications software
System planning (1.0) Coding (3.0) Testing(4.0) Delivery (5.0)
Top-level design (2.1)
Prototyping (2.2)
User interface (2.3)
Detailed design (2.4)
System design (2.0)
Review specification(1.1)
Review budget (1.2)
Review schedule(1.3)
Develop plan (1.4)
Source: Pleeger, ch. 3
27
Concurrent Engineering
“The simultaneous performance of product design and process design. Typically, concurrent engineering involves the formation of cross-functional teams. This allows engineers and managers of different disciplines to work together simultaneously in developing product and process design.”
Foster, S. Thomas. Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach. Upper Saddle River New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.
28
Concurrent Engineering
“Concurrent engineering methodologies permit the separate tasks of the product development process to be carried out simultaneously rather than sequentially. Product design, testing, manufacturing and process planning through logistics, for example, are done side-by-side and interactively. Potential problems in fabrication, assembly, support and quality are identified and resolved early in the design process.”
Izuchukwu, John. “Architecture and Process :The Role of Integrated Systems in Concurrent Engineering.” Industrial Management Mar/Apr 1992: p. 19-23.
29
Concurrent Engineering
• Carrying out steps concurrently rather than sequentially– also referred to as simultaneous engineering
• Key Advantages– helps minimise conflict across functional
groups– reduces project duration
30
Concurrent Engineering
• Concurrent Engineering is about;
-Doing things simultaneously
-Focusing on the Process
-Converting hierarchical organisations into teams
31
Concurrent Engineering
• Basic Goals of Concurrent Engineering
-Dramatic improvements in time to market and costs
-Improvements to product quality and performance
-Do more with less
32
Concurrent Engineering
• Concurrent Engineering = Teamwork
-The more communication exists, the better the project outcome
• Balances Needs
-Customer, Supplier, Engineers, Marketing, and Manufacturing needs.
33
Concurrent Engineering
• Management
-Good management is vitally important
-Encourage communication
-Strong management support
34
Concurrent Engineering
• 3 Main Areas to Concurrent Engineering
1) People
2) Process
3) Technology
35
Concurrent Engineering
• Concurrent Engineering: Simultaneous development of product and process.
• Most important aspect is communication and formation of teams
• Management support is vitally important
• Don’t be afraid to change current processes and technologies
36
Activity Organisation• Activities in a project should be organised
to produce tangible outputs for management to judge progress.
• Milestones are the end-point of a process activity.
• Deliverables are project results delivered to customers.
• The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones.
37
Milestones
Evaluationreport
Prototypedevelopment
Userrequirements
Requirementsanalysis
Feasibilityreport
Feasibilitystudy
Architecturaldesign
Designstudy
Systemrequirements
Requirementsspecification
ACTIVITIES
MILESTONES
38
Project Scheduling• Split project into tasks and estimate time and
resources required to complete each task.• Organise tasks concurrently to make optimal
use of workforce.• Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays
caused by one task waiting for another to complete.
• Dependent on project managers intuition and experience.
39
The Project Scheduling Process
Estimate resourcesfor activities
Identify activitydependencies
Identifyactivities
Allocate peopleto activities
Softwarerequirements
Activity chartsand bar charts
Create projectcharts
40
Scheduling Problems• Estimating the difficulty of problems and
hence the cost of developing a solution is hard.
• Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a task.
• Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads.
• The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning.
41
Bar Charts and Activity Networks
• Graphical notations used to illustrate the project schedule.
• Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks should not be too small. They should take about a week or two.
• Activity charts show task dependencies and the the critical path.
• Bar charts show schedule against calendar time.
42
Task Durations and Dependencies
Activity Duration (days) Dependencies
T1 8
T2 15
T3 15 T1 (M1)
T4 10
T5 10 T2, T4 (M2)
T6 5 T1, T2 (M3)
T7 20 T1 (M1)
T8 25 T4 (M5)
T9 15 T3, T6 (M4)
T10 15 T5, T7 (M7)
T11 7 T9 (M6)
T12 10 T11 (M8)
43
Activity Network
start
T2
M3T6
Finish
T10
M7T5
T7
M2T4
M5
T8
4/7/03
8 days
14/7/03 15 days
4/8/03
15 days
25/8/03
7 days
5/9/03
10 days
19/9/03
15 days
11/8/03
25 days
10 days
20 days
5 days25/7/03
15 days
25/7/03
18/7/03
10 days
T1
M1 T3T9
M6
T11
M8
T12
M4
44
Activity Timeline4/7 11/7 18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9
T4
T1T2
M1
T7T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T10
M6
T11M8
T12
Start
Finish
45
Staff Allocation4/7 11/7 18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9
T4
T8 T11
T12
T1
T3
T9
T2
T6 T10
T7
T5
Fred
Jane
Anne
Mary
Jim