Chapter 9: Plans

Question 1

What do plans enable the project team to understand

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

What is the planning horizon

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What’s a more effective method to planning to avoid the planning horizon

Answer 3

A detailed team plan for the short term and outline plan for the long term is a more effective approach

Question 4

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:

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is product based planning

Answer 5

What needs to be delivered (products) must be identified before deciding what activities, dependencies and resources are required to deliver those products

Question 6

What are some benefits of product based planning

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

What must a project do regarding plans to be following PRINCE2

Answer 7

• 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

Question 8

What is a project product description

Answer 8

A description of the overall projects output, including the customer’s quality expectations together with the acceptance criteria and methods for the product

Question 9

What is a product breakdown structure

Answer 9

• A hierarchy of all products to be produced during a plan

Question 10

LOOK AT DIAGRAM ON HOW PRINCE2 PLANS RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER

Answer 10

LOK AT DIGRAM

Question 11

What’s an exception plan

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What is a team plan

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is the responsibility of corporate, programme management/ customer regarding plans

Answer 13

• set tolerances and document them in the project mandate/ confirm them to the project board for inclusion in project brief

Question 14

What is the responsibility of the executive regarding plans

Answer 14

• approve project plan
• define tolerances for each management stage and approve stage plans

Question 15

What is the responsibility of the senior user regarding plans

Answer 15

• assist the project manager in preparing project and stage plans
• commit user resources to stage plans

Question 16

What is the responsibility of the senior supplier regarding plans

Answer 16

• assist PM in project and stage plans
• Commit user resources to stage plans

Question 17

What is the responsibility of PM regarding plans

Answer 17

• design the plans
• prepare the project plan and stage plans
• decide how management stages and delivery steps are to be applied

Question 18

What is the responsibility of team manager regarding plans

Answer 18

• prepare team plans
• prepare schedules to each work package

Question 19

What is the responsibility of project assurance regarding plans

Answer 19

• review changes to the project plan to see whether there’s any impact on the needs of the business or the project business case

Question 20

What is the responsibility of project support regarding plans

Answer 20

• assist with the compilation of project plans, stage plans and team plans

Question 21

How long should management stages be

Answer 21

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

Question 22

LOOK AT FIGURE 9.3, 9.4, 9.5

Answer 22

LOOK AT FIGURES

Question 23

Order of ….

Answer 23

Writing a project product description (for project plan only)

Creating a product breakdown structure

Writing a product description

Creating a product flow diagram

Question 24

Writing a product description

Answer 24

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

Question 25

How is a product breakdown structure created

Answer 25

- 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

Question 26

What should be considered when creating a product breakdown structure

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Consider the following when creating a product flow diagram

Answer 27

- 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

Question 28

Dependency meaning? What are the two types of dependencies

Answer 28

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

Question 29

How can estimates be made

Answer 29

- 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

Question 30

‘Float’ meaning (aka slack)

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Critical path meaning

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What does identifying a plans critical path enable the PM to monitor

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Why is an activity-on-node diagram useful

Answer 33

- 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

Question 34

Info regarding assessing resources

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Levelling meaning

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Agreeing control points

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Benefits of having Milestones?

Answer 37

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

Question 38

How many milestones should there be

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What should budget include

Answer 39

- cost of activities - risk budget - change budget - cost tolerances

Question 40

Where should risks be logged

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Examples of planning risks:

Answer 41

- Omission of plans at the appropriate management level - The plan contains a high proportion of external dependencies

Question 42

What would a common approach consist of when using agile

Answer 42

- 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

Question 43

Info regarding plans from a suppliers perspective

Answer 43

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

Question 44

Why may customer and supplier plans need to be confidential

Answer 44

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

Question 45

In the absence of PRINCE2, what technique should be used

Answer 45

MoSCoW: - must have - should have - could have - Won’t have

Question 46

Explain the abbreviation of MoSCoW

Answer 46

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