Planning and Resourcing a Project

Planning and Resourcing
a Project
UNIT-II
Nishant Kumar

Recap
 A project charter is a document that formally authorizes a
project.
 It is a document usually issued by an entity external to the
project organization which provides the project manager with
the authority to apply organizational resources to project
activities.
 A project charter:
 Includes the business need that the project is to address
 Includes the product description
 Establishes the scope of the project
 Names the project manager as the responsible and authorized party
 Identifies the project deliverables, schedule, and budget
 Is concise
 Note: When a project is under contract, the signed contract may
serve as the project charter.

…
 The purpose of the Project Charter is to document the:
 Reasons for undertaking the project
 Objectives and constraints of the project
 Directions concerning the solution
 Identities of the main stakeholders

Identifying Requirements
 Project Management Plan
 Developing a Project Management Plan
 Collecting Project Requirements
 Techniques for Defining the Project Scope
 Project Scope Statement

Project Management Plan
 Project management plan documents:
 The project management life cycle and the processes that will be
applied to each phase.
 How work will be executed to meet the project objectives.

Developing a Project Management
Plan
 Project Management Plan is an integration of:
 Change Management Plan
 Configuration Management Plan
 Cost Performance Baseline
 Requirements Management Plan
 Quality Management Plan
 Process Improvement Plan
 Human Resource Plan
 Communications Management Plan
 Risk Management Plan
 Procurement Management Plan

…
 Steps for Developing the Project Management Plan
 Tailor the process to meet the project needs.
 Develop the technical and management details to be included in
the project management plan.
 Determine the resources and skill levels needed to perform
project work.
 Define the level of configuration management to apply on the
project.
 Determine which project documents will be subject to formal
change control process

Collecting Project Requirements
 Collecting requirement is a process of defining and
documenting stakeholders’ needs to meet the project
objectives. It has a direct influence on project success.
 Techniques for Collecting Requirements:
 Interviews
 Process of gathering information by talking to stakeholders directly
 Focus groups
 Designed to be conversational
 A moderator guides the discussions
 Facilitated Workshops
 Focused sessions used for gathering information from cross-functional
stakeholders
 Can be used to sort out stakeholder differences

…
 Group Creativity Techniques
 Generally used to generate and collect multiple ideas
 Some of the techniques are:
 Brainstorming
 Nominal group technique: Ranking or prioritizing of ideas
 Delphi technique: Feedback is collected on the responses collected for
requirements gathering; Feedback is anonymous
 Ideas/mind mapping: Consolidation of ideas into a single map to reflect
commonality
 Affinity diagram: Sorting of ideas into groups
 Requirements Management Plan
 Documents how requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed
throughout the project
 Requirements Traceability Matrix
 Table that links requirements to their origin, tracing them throughout project
life cycle
 Helps in ensuring requirements approved in the requirements
documentation are delivered at the end of the project
 Provides a structure for managing changes to the product scope

Techniques for Defining the Project
Scope
 Defining scope is a process of developing detailed
description of the project and product. It is progressively
elaborating and documenting project work (Scope). It starts
with product description, and takes into account
constraints/assumptions. It identifies major project
deliverables. It develops a detailed project scope statement.
 Techniques for defining project scope:
 Product analysis
 Includes techniques such as product breakdown, systems
analysis, requirements analysis, systems engineering, value
engineering and value analysis
 Alternative identification
 Techniques used to generate different approaches to execute
and perform the work of the project

Project Scope Statement
 A project scope statement describes in detail, the project’s
deliverables and the work required to create those
deliverables. It provides a common understanding of the
project scope among project stakeholders. It may contain
explicit scope exclusions that can assist in managing
stakeholder expectations.

Assignment
 Discuss and develop a Project Management Plan.
 Discuss and develop the Project Scope Statement for the
project for which you developed the Project Charter in the
class.

CREATING THE WORK
BREAKDOWN
STRUCTURE

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
 Work breakdown structure is the process of subdividing
project deliverables and project work into smaller, more
manageable components.
 It involves deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of
the work to be executed by project teams to accomplish
project objectives. Each descending level represents an
increasing detailed definition of project work. Lower levels
are known as “work packages”, which defines work that can
be scheduled, cost estimated, monitored and controlled.

Applications of Work Breakdown
Structure
1. Scope control mechanism
2. Communication tool
3. Helps prevent omission of products and services
4. Helps assign responsibilities
5. Used as the basis of activity lists
6. Provides structure and coding system for integration of
costs, schedule, contracts (control points known as Control
Account is used for the same)
7. Facilitates the use of Project Management software.
Use “templates” for similar projects

Assignment
 Discuss the work breakdown structure for a live project that
you are working on.

DEVELOPING THE
PROJECT SCHEDULE

Project Activities
 Project activities are the work packages that are planned, are
decomposed into smaller components called schedule
activities to provide basics for:
 Estimating
 Scheduling
 Monitoring and controlling the project work

Sequencing Activities
 Method of constructing a project schedule network diagram.
 Uses boxes or rectangles, referred as nodes, to represent
activities and connects them with arrows to indicate
dependencies.
Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM)

Types of Dependencies used in
PDM
Start (S) Finish(F)
Finish (F) Initiation of the successor
activity depends upon the
completion of the
predecessor activity
Completion of the
successor activity depends
upon the completion of the
Start (S) Initiation of the successor
activity depends upon the
initiation of the
Completion of the
successor activity depends
upon the initiation of the

Estimating Project Activity
Resources
Estimating Project Activity Resources
 Activity Resource Requirements
 Description of the types and quantities of resources required for each
schedule activity in a work package
 Resource Breakdown Structure
 A hierarchical structure of the identified resources by resource
category and resource type
 Example
 Resource category—labour, material, etc.
 Resource type—skill level, grade level
Estimating Project Activity Durations—Types
 Analogous Estimating:
 Uses parameters from a previous similar project, as the basis for estimating
the same parameters for future project
 Uses historical information and expert judgment
 Used in the early phase of a project when there is limited amount of detailed
information

Parametric Estimating:
 Uses a mathematical model to calculate projected time for an
activity based on historical records from previous projects and
other information. (Regression Analysis, Learning Curves)
Three Point Estimates:
 This concept originated with the Program Evaluation and Review
Technique (PERT) wherein estimates can be improved by
considering estimation uncertainty and risk
 PERT uses three estimates to define an approximate range of an
activity’s duration:
 Tm—Most likely
 To—Optimistic
 Tp—Pessimistic
 Expected activity duration: Te = (To + 4Tm + Tp)/6
Reserve Analysis:
 Time reserves or buffers get included into the overall project
schedule to account for schedule uncertainty

Scheduling Techniques—Critical
Path Method
Developing Schedule Techniques:
 Critical Path
 Is the longest duration path through a network diagram and determines
the shortest time to complete the project
 Critical Path Method
 Calculates the theoretical early start and finish dates, and late start and
finish dates, for all schedule activities without considering any resource
limitations.

 Resource levelling
 Is a schedule network analysis technique applied to a schedule that
has been analysed by critical path method
 Can be used when shared or critical required resources are only
available at certain times, are only available in limited quantities, or
to keep resource usage at a constant level
 Applied after critical path method to address a situation when
resources have been over-allocated
 Example:
 resource assigned to two or more activities over the same time period
 Or where critical required resources are available only on certain dates or
duration or maintained at a constant level,
 Can cause the original critical path to change.
 Schedule Compression Techniques
 Shortens the project schedule without changing the project scope, to
meet schedule constraints, imposed dates, or other schedule
objectives.
 Techniques include:
 Crashing—Shortening duration through overtime, bringing in additional
resources
 Fast Tracking—Activities which should ideally be performed in sequence are
performed in parallel

Introduction to Cost Estimation
 Cost estimation is a process of developing an approximation
of the costs of the resources needed to complete project
activities. It includes identification and consideration of
costing alternatives.

Cost Estimating Types
 Analogous Estimating
 Uses the values of parameters, such as scope, cost, budget, and duration or measures of scale such as
size, weight and complexity, from previous, similar project as the basis for estimating the same parameter
or measure for a current project
 Is generally used to estimate a parameter when there is limited amount of detailed information about the
project
 Parametric Estimating
 Uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables (square footage in construction)
to calculate an estimate activity parameters, such as cost, budget and duration
 Bottom-up Estimating
 Involves estimating the cost of individual work packages or individual schedule activities with the greatest
level of specified detail
 Three-Point Estimates
 PERT uses three estimates to determine an approximate range for an activity’s cost:
 Cm—Most likely
 Co—Optimistic
 Cp—Pessimistic
 Expected activity cost: Ce = (Co + 4Cm + Cp)/6
 Reserve Analysis
 Contingency reserves are cost estimates to account for cost uncertainty
 Project Management Estimating Software
 Cost estimating software applications, computerized spreadsheets, simulation and statistical tools, are
widely used to assist cost estimating

Cost of Quality
Cost of Conformance Cost of Non–Conformance
Prevention costs
(Build a quality product)
• Training
• Document processes
• Equipment
• Time to do it right
Appraisal costs
(Assess the quality)
• Testing
Inspections
Internal failure costs
(Failures found by the project)
• Rework
• Scrape
External failure costs
(Failures found by the customer)
• Warranty
• Down time
Loss of business

Developing Quality Management
Plan
 Quality Management Plan
 Describes how the project management team will implement the performing
organization’s quality policy
 Provides input to the overall project management plan and includes quality
control, quality assurance, and continuous process improvement approaches
for the project
 Process Improvement Plan
 Details the steps for analysing processes to identify activities which enhance
their value
 Quality Metrics
 A metric is an operational definition that describes, in very specific terms, a
project or product attribute and how the quality control process will measure it
 Examples of quality metrics include on-time performance, budget control,
defect density, failure rate and test coverage
 Quality Checklist
 A checklist is a structured tool, usually component specific, used to verify that
a set of required steps has been performed

Human Resource Plan
 Human resource plan provides guidance on how project
management resources should be identified, managed,
controlled and eventually released. It includes roles and
responsibilities, project organization charts and the staffing
management plan.
 The key items to consider in staffing management plan are:
 Staff acquisition
 Resource calendars
 Staff release plan
 Training needs
 Recognition and rewards
 Compliance
 Safety requirements

Communication Management Plan
 Communication management plan addresses:
 Stakeholder communication requirements
 Information to be communicated, including format, content and
level
 Person responsible for communicating the information
 Person or groups who will receive the information
 Methods or technologies used to convey the information, such e-
mail, press releases
 Frequency of the communication, such as weekly, bi-monthly, etc
 Escalation process
 Process of updating communication management plan
 Glossary

Sample
Type of
Information
Purpose of
Distribution
Document
Format
Method of
Distribution
Frequency
Person
Responsible
Audience
Requirements
gathering
To understand
customer
requirements
MS Word
document
Meeting and
written
communication
During
project
initiation
Project
manager
Project team
Weekly status Project status
update
MS Word
document
E-mail
communication
followed by a
meeting
Weekly Project
manager
All project
stakeholders
Executive
status
To check
progress and
discuss
corrective
actions
MS Power
Point
presentation
Meeting and
written
communication
Bi-weekly Operations
manager
Senior
executives
and
functional
heads
Knowledge
sharing
To share lessons
learned
MS Power
Point
presentation
Classroom
Presentation
Monthly Team
members
Project team

Steps for Identifying Risks
 Determining which risks might affect the project and
documenting their characteristics
 Prioritising risks for further analysis or action by assessing
and combining their probability of occurrence and impact.
 Numerically analysing the effect of identified risks on overall
project objectives.
 Developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and
to reduce threats to project objectives.

Risk Response Techniques
 Strategies for Threats
 Avoid: Eliminating the threat by eliminating the cause
 Mitigate: Reduce probability and/or impact
 Transfer: deflect, allocate
 Accept
 Strategies for Opportunities
 Exploit: Ensure that the opportunity is realised
 Enhance: Increase probability and/or impact share
 Share: Allocate ownership to a third party
 Accept

Assignment
 Prepare a risk register and risk a response plan for a live
project which you have worked on.

Planning and Resourcing a Project

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