Chapter 9: Plans Flashcards
What do plans enable the project team to understand
- risks
- products that need to be delivered
- any issues with the scope
- which people, equipment and resources are needed
- when events should occur
Whether targets are achievable
What is the planning horizon
Planning becomes more difficult and uncertain the further into the future it extends
- there will be a time period over which it’s impossible to plan with accuracy
THIS IS THE PLANNING HORIZON
What’s a more effective method to planning to avoid the planning horizon
A detailed team plan for the short term and outline plan for the long term is a more effective approach
PRINCE2 addresses the planning horizon issue by requiring that both high level and detailed plans are created and maintained at the same time, reflecting the relative certainty and uncertainty on other side of the planning horizon
These are:
Project plan for the project as a whole
- this will usually be a high level plan, providing indicative timescales, milestones, costs and resource requirements based on estimates
A detailed stage plan for the current management stage, aligned with the overall project plan timescale
- this plan is produced before the start of the stage, and must not extend beyond the planning horizon
What is product based planning
What needs to be delivered (products) must be identified before deciding what activities, dependencies and resources are required to deliver those products
What are some benefits of product based planning
- identifying and documenting the products to be produced
- removing any ambiguity over what the project is expected to produce
- improving communication
- preparing the way for the production of work packages for suppliers
What must a project do regarding plans to be following PRINCE2
- ensure that plans enable the business case to be realised
- have at least 2 management stages: initiation stage & one other management stage
- produce a project plan for the project as a whole and a stage plan for each management stage
- produce specific plans for managing exceptions
- define roles and responsibilities
What is a project product description
A description of the overall projects output, including the customer’s quality expectations together with the acceptance criteria and methods for the product
What is a product breakdown structure
- A hierarchy of all products to be produced during a plan
LOOK AT DIAGRAM ON HOW PRINCE2 PLANS RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER
LOK AT DIGRAM
What’s an exception plan
A plan that often follows an exception report
Exception plans must be produced to show the actions required to recover from or avoid a forecast deviation from agreed tolerances in the project plan or stage plan
- if stage plan is being replaced, this needs the approval of the project board
- exception plans aren’t produced for team plans used to manage the delivery of work packages
What is a team plan
This is an optional level of plan used as the basis for team management control when executing work packages
A team plan is produced by a team manager to facilitate the execution of one or more work packages
- these plans are optional and their need and number will be determined by the size and complexity of the project and number of resources involved
What is the responsibility of corporate, programme management/ customer regarding plans
- set tolerances and document them in the project mandate/ confirm them to the project board for inclusion in project brief
What is the responsibility of the executive regarding plans
- approve project plan
- define tolerances for each management stage and approve stage plans
What is the responsibility of the senior user regarding plans
- assist the project manager in preparing project and stage plans
- commit user resources to stage plans
What is the responsibility of the senior supplier regarding plans
- assist PM in project and stage plans
- Commit user resources to stage plans
What is the responsibility of PM regarding plans
- design the plans
- prepare the project plan and stage plans
- decide how management stages and delivery steps are to be applied
What is the responsibility of team manager regarding plans
- prepare team plans
- prepare schedules to each work package
What is the responsibility of project assurance regarding plans
- review changes to the project plan to see whether there’s any impact on the needs of the business or the project business case
What is the responsibility of project support regarding plans
- assist with the compilation of project plans, stage plans and team plans
How long should management stages be
Length of management stages isn’t defined
Management stages should be shorter when there is greater risk, uncertainty or complexity
- they can be longer when risk is lower
Factors that influence this include;
- the planning horizon at any point in time
- delivery steps within the project
- alignment with programme activities
- level of risk
LOOK AT FIGURE 9.3, 9.4, 9.5
LOOK AT FIGURES
Order of ….
Writing a project product description (for project plan only)
Creating a product breakdown structure
Writing a product description
Creating a product flow diagram
Writing a product description
Project product description is created in the starting up a project process as part of the initial scoping activity
- it may be refined during the initiating a project process when creating the project plan
It’s subject to formal change control and should be checked at management stage boundaries for see if any changes are required
How is a product breakdown structure created
- the plan is broken down into its major products, which are then further broken down until an appropriate level of detail for the plan is reached
- a lower level product can be a component of only one higher level product.
The resultant hierarchy of products is known as a product breakdown structure
What should be considered when creating a product breakdown structure
It’s usual to involve a team of people in the creation of a product breakdown structure, perhaps representing the different interests and various skill sets involved in the plans output
Consider the following when creating a product flow diagram
- It’s sensible to involve those who are to develop or contribute to the products contained in the plan
- rather than preparing the product flow diagram after the product breakdown structure has been drawn, some planners prefer to create the product flow diagram in parallel with the product breakdown structure
Dependency meaning?
What are the two types of dependencies
A dependency means that one activity is dependent on another.
- There are at least two types of dependency relevant to a project (interval and external)
- An internal dependency is one between two project activities; in these circumstances the project team has control over the dependencies
How can estimates be made
- identifying the type of resource required. Specific skills may be required depending on the type and complexity of the plan; requirements may include non Human Resources such as equipment, travel or money
- estimating the effort required for each activity by resource type. At this point, the estimates will be approximate
‘Float’ meaning (aka slack)
The amount of time that an activity can be delayed without affecting the completion time of the overall plan.
The float can either be regarded as a provisional within the plan, or as spare time
Critical path meaning
Critical paths are sequences of activities with minimal float (zero float if delivery is to be achieved as soon as available resourcing allows) .
- Thus, if any activity on the critical path finishes late, the whole plan will finish late
What does identifying a plans critical path enable the PM to monitor
Enables PM to monitor those activities that:
- Must be completed on time for the whole plan to be completed to schedule
- Can be delayed for a time if resources need to be re-allocated to catch up on missed activities
Why is an activity-on-node diagram useful
- Can be used to schedule dependent activities within a plan
- Helps PM to work out the most efficient sequence of events needed to complete any plan
- Enables the creation of realistic schedules
LOOK AT DIAGRAM IN BOOK
Info regarding assessing resources
A useful approach is to allocate resources to activities with zero slack first. Those activities with the greatest slack are the lowest priority for resource allocation
- It’s important that task owners are identified
- When assigning resources, it’s important to recheck the critical path as the actual resources assigned may be more/less productive than the assumption made when calculating activity effort and duration
Levelling meaning
The first allocation of resources may lead to uneven resource usage/over-utilisation of resources.
- It may therefore be necessary to rearrange resources; this is called levelling
Agreeing control points
The draft schedule enables the control points to be confirmed by project board
- activities relating to the end of a management stage should be added to the activity network and the schedule revised
- One common mistake when creating a schedule is not to allow time for approval of products/ releases
Benefits of having Milestones?
Breaking plan into intervals associated with a milestone allows the project manager to have an early indication of issues associated with the schedule itself
- and also a better view of the activities whose completion is critical to the timeline of the plan
How many milestones should there be
There should be far fewer milestones than deliverables or work packages, but there should be enough milestones at major intervals to gauge whether or not the plan is proceeding as expected
What should budget include
- cost of activities
- risk budget
- change budget
- cost tolerances
Where should risks be logged
Each resource and activity and all planning information should be examined for its potential risk content
All identified risks should be entered into the risk register
Examples of planning risks:
- Omission of plans at the appropriate management level
- The plan contains a high proportion of external dependencies
What would a common approach consist of when using agile
- the starting up a project process, producing the vision and product roadmap
- a management stage for the initiating a project process, producing the product backlog
- then a series of delivery management stages containing releases of (groups of) requirements/ features
Info regarding plans from a suppliers perspective
When tailoring the plans theme from a customer/ supplier situation it must be clear, through the contract, how the plans are to be produced and what rights of inspection & audit the customer has.
Suppliers plan should have sufficient activities/ milestones for the customers PM to maintain plans
Why may customer and supplier plans need to be confidential
Both customer and supplier plans may need to be confidential to the other party as they may contain other information
It’s essential to prepare non-confidential versions of the plan that can be shared
In the absence of PRINCE2, what technique should be used
MoSCoW:
- must have
- should have
- could have
- Won’t have
Explain the abbreviation of MoSCoW
Must have
- essential to business, justification of the project
Should have
- Important, but not critical to business justification
- Absence may weaken business justification
Could have
- Not critical to business justification
- Absence doesn’t weaken business justification
Won’t have
- The acceptance criteria/quality criteria define what has been considered but won’t be delivered
The MoSCoW technique can also help to define scope tolerances, supporting the manage by exception principle
