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Planning the Project. Key Concepts Planning Process Project Plan Work Breakdown Structure. Project Management. 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
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Planning the Project Key Concepts Planning Process Project Plan Work Breakdown Structure
Project Management • 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
Management Activities • Proposal writing. • Project planning and scheduling. • Project costing. • Project monitoring and reviews. • Personnel selection and evaluation. • Report writing and presentations.
Overview Objectives General Approach Contractual Aspects Schedules Resource Requirements Personnel Evaluation Methods Potential Problems The Elements of a Project Plan
Two Key Elements Resource requirements • Personnel elements of a project plan • Physical resources
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.
The PlanningProcess 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.
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.
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
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.
Project Planning Process • Establish the project constraints • Make initial assessments of the project parameters • Define project milestones and deliverables • Draw up project schedule • Initiate activities according to schedule • Review project progress • Revise estimates of project parameters • Update the project schedule • Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables • If problems arise, then Initiate technical review and possible revision • End
The Project Plan • The project plan sets out: • The resources available to the project; • The work breakdown; • A schedule for the work.
Project Plan Structure • Introduction. • Project organisation. • Risk analysis. • Hardware and software resource requirements. • Work breakdown. • Project schedule. • Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
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
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.
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
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
Work Breakdown Structures Work Breakdown Structure Diagram
WBS - Buy A House Top Down Decomposition, Elemental Tasks
Buy a House Simple Gantt Chart View
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
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
Build communications software System design (2.0) Coding (3.0) Testing(4.0) Delivery (5.0) Review specification(1.1) Top-level design (2.1) Review budget (1.2) Prototyping (2.2) Review schedule(1.3) User interface (2.3) Develop plan (1.4) Detailed design (2.4) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Diagram System planning (1.0) Source: Pleeger, ch. 3
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.
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.
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
Concurrent Engineering • Concurrent Engineering is about; -Doing things simultaneously -Focusing on the Process -Converting hierarchical organisations into teams
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
Concurrent Engineering • Concurrent Engineering = Teamwork -The more communication exists, the better the project outcome • Balances Needs -Customer, Supplier, Engineers, Marketing, and Manufacturing needs.
Concurrent Engineering • Management -Good management is vitally important -Encourage communication -Strong management support
Concurrent Engineering • 3 Main Areas to Concurrent Engineering 1) People 2) Process 3) Technology
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
