Chapter 4: Project Planning -> scope management & integration management Flashcards
Why “planning”?
*Many people have heard the following sayings:
-If you fail to plan you plain to fail
-If you don’t know where you are going any
road will take you there
-What gets measures get’s done
*Succesful project managers know how important it is to develop, refine and follow plans to meet project goals
*People are more likely to perform well if they know what they are supposed to do and when
Planning should guide the execution
*Planning is often the most difficult and unappreciated process in the project management
*Often, people do not want to take the time to plan well, but theory and practice show that good planning is crucial to good execution
*The main purpose of project planning is to guide prodject execution, so project plans must be realistic and useful.
*Often project fails at the end not the beginning
Project Integration Definition
Project Integration Management involves coordinating all project management knowledge areas throughout a project’s life span
Project Management Plan
*The project Management Plan is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed.
*Typical content of a Project Management Plan
-Introduction/overview of the project
-Project Organization
-Management and technical processes
-Work to be performed
-Schedule Information
-Budget Information
-References to other project planning
documents
*Project management plans should be:
-dynamic
-flexible
-receptive to change in the environment or
project
Scope
Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them
Deliverable Definition
A deliverable is a product produced as a part of a project, such as hardware or software, planning documents, or meeting minutes
Project Scope Management Definition
Project Scope Management includes the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in a project
Project Scope Management Process
1- Plan Scope Management: determine how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled (How are we going to do it?)
2- Collect requirements: defining and documenting the features and functions of the products produced during the project (How are we going to do it? What to we need?)
3- Define Scope: reviewing the project charter, requirements documents, etc. to create a scope starement (Creating an insight of what needs to be done)
4- Create WBS: subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components (Detail an overview of what we are going to work out)
5- Validate scope: formalizing acceptance of the project deliverables (When is it good?)
6- Control scope: controlling changes to project scope throughout the life of the project (Dealing with changes)
Requirement definition
A condition that is necessary to be present in a product, service or result to satisfy a business need.
Methods for collecting requirements
- Methods (7)
-Interviewing
-Focus groups and facilitated workshops
-Using group creativity and decision-making
techniques
-Questionnaire and surveys
-Observation
-Prototyping
-Benchmarking
*Collection of requirements is industry specific
Requirements traceability matrix
*A table that lists requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the status of the requirements to ensure that all of them are adressed.
Project Scope Statement
- Definition: The description of project scope, major deliverables, assumptions, and constraints
*Content of a project scope
-Objectives
-Scope
-Deliverables
-Constraints
-Risks
-Approval
Work Breakdown Structure
*Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project
*Foundation document that provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes
*Work package: task at the lower level of the
WBS
-Work package has one owner
-Work package can be considered by its
owner as a project in itself
*Outputs of creating the WBS are the scope baseline and project document updates
-Scope baseline includes the approved
project scope statement and its
associated WBS and WBS dictionary
Creating a WBS
*Using guidelines: some organizations provide
guidelines for preparing WBS
*Analogy approach: review WBS of similar projects and tailor it to your project
*Top-down approach: start with the largest
item of the project and break them down
*Bottom-up approach: Start with the specific
tasks
*Mind mapping: uses branches radiating out
from a core idea to structure thoughts and
ideas
WBS dictionnary
*A WBS dictionary is a document that describes the deliverables on the WBS in more detail
*Format can vary based on project needs
*It may also include who owns the work package, estimated cost & schedule information, contract information if outsourced, specific quality requirements, technical and performance requirements
