Project Management

A Managerial Approach

Project Planning

Its a dream until you write it

down. Then it is a goal

Project Planning
There

are several reasons to use

considerable care when planning projects:

The primary purpose of planning is to

establish a set of directions in enough detail
to tell the project team exactly what must be
done.

The purpose of planning is to facilitate later

accomplishment

Initial Project Coordination

It is crucial that the projects objectives be clearly

tied to the overall mission of the firm

A project launch meeting is an initial coordinating
meeting that serves as a visible symbol of top
managements commitment to the project
The project launch meetings success is absolutely
dependent on the existence of a well-defined set of
objectives
.

Project Launch Meeting

The outcomes should be:
1.
2.
3.

Technical Scope is established

Basic areas of performance responsibility are
accepted by the participants
Some tentative overall schedules and budgets are
spelled out
Care should be taken to not allow plans, schedules,
and budgets to go beyond the most aggregated level
at the launch meeting.

Composite Plan
Each individual/unit accepting responsibility for a portion

of the project should agree to deliver a preliminary plan

about how that responsibility will be accomplished
These plans should contain descriptions of the required

tasks, and estimates of the budgets and schedules

These plans are then scrutinized by the group and

combined into a composite project plan

Composite Plan
The composite plan, still not completely firm, is approved

by each participating group, by the project manager, and

then by senior organizational management
Each subsequent approval hardens the plan, and when

senior management has endorsed it, any further changes

in the projects scope must be made by processing a
formal change order

Project Plan
The final approved result of this procedure is the project

plan, also known as a Master or Baseline plan

Once planning phase is complete, it is beneficial to hold

a post-planning review
The major purpose of the review is to ensure that all

necessary elements of a project plan have been properly

developed and communicated

PROJECT PLAN ELEMENTS

Project Plan Elements

Overview - a short summary of the objectives and scope

of the project
Objectives - A more detailed statement of the general
goals noted in the overview section
General Approach - describes both the managerial and
technical approaches to the work
Contractual Aspects - includes a complete list and
description of all reporting requirements, customer
supplied resources, liaison arrangements, advisory
committees, project review and cancellation procedures,
etc.

Project Plan Elements

Schedules - this section outlines the various schedules and

lists all the milestone events

Resources - this includes the budget (both capital and
expense requirements) as well as cost monitoring and
control procedures
Personnel - this section lists the expected personnel
requirements of the project including special skills, training
needs, and security clearances
Evaluation Methods - every project should be evaluated
against standards and by methods established at the
projects inception. It contains a brief description of the
procedures to be followed in monitoring, collecting, storing
and evaluating the history of the project.

Project Plan Elements

Potential Problems - this section should include any
potential difficulties such as subcontractor default,
technical failure, tight deadlines, resource limitations and
the like. Preplanning may avert some crises

Project Planning in Action

Project plans are usually constructed by listing

the sequence of activities required to carry the

project from start to completion, and developing
an action plan to complete the activities
This helps the planner decide the necessary
sequence of things
Sequencing is a necessary consideration for
determining the project schedule and duration

Project Planning in Action

Software and hardware developers commonly

use a planning process oriented around the life

cycle events:

Concept evaluation

Requirements identification

Design

Implementation

Test

Project Planning in Action

Software and hardware development planning

process (cont.)

Integration

Validation

Customer test and evaluation

Operations and maintenance

Systems Integration
Systems Integration is one part of integration

management and plays a crucial role in the

performance aspect of the project
This includes any technical specialist in the

science or art of the project who is capable of

integrating the technical disciplines to achieve
the customers objectives

Systems Integration
Systems Integration is concerned with three

major objectives:

Performance - what a system does

Effectiveness - achieve desired performance in an
optimal manner

Requires no component specifications unless necessary to

meet one or more systems requirements
Every component requirement should be traceable to one or
more systems requirements
Design components to optimize system performance, not
the performance of subsystems

Cost Systems - cost is a design parameter

Hierarchical Planning System

All activities required to complete a project must

be precisely delineated, and coordinated

Some activities must be done sequentially, and

some simultaneously
Using a hierarchical planning system will allow

these activities to be identified and sorted

appropriately
Also known as the even planning process

Sorting Out the Project

The

importance of careful
scarcely be overemphasized

planning

can

Pinto and Slevin developed a list of ten factors

that should be associated with success in

implementation projects
The factors were split into strategic and tactical

clusters

Sorting Out the Project

Strategic Success Factors:

Project Mission - spell out clearly defined and agreedupon objectives in the project plan

Top Management Support - it is necessary for top

management to get behind the project at the outset, and
make clear to all personnel involved that they support
successful completion

Projects Action Plan - detailed plan of the required

steps in the implementation process needs to be
developed including all resource requirements

Tools for planning

Work Break Down Structure
Responsibility matrix

The Work Breakdown Structure

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can

take a variety of forms that serve a variety of

purposes
The WBS often appears as an outline with

Level-I tasks on the left and successive levels

appropriately indented
The

WBS may also picture a project

subdivided into hierarchical units of tasks,
subtasks, work packages, etc.

A Typical Model of WBS

Proj.goal
Obj.1
task1-1
act1-1-1
act1-1-2
act1-1-3

task1-2
Act1-2-1.
act1-2-2

Obj 2

task2-1

task2-2

task2-3

act2-1-1

Act2-2-1.

act2-3-1

act2-2-2

act2-3-2

act2-2-3

The Work Breakdown Structure

The WBS is an important document and can be

tailored for use in a number of different ways

It may illustrate how each piece of the project contributes

to the whole in terms of performance, responsibility,
schedule, and budget
It may list the vendors or subcontractors associated with
specific tasks
It may serve as the basis for making cost estimates or
estimates of task duration
It may be used to document that all parties have signed
off on their various commitments to the project

The Work Breakdown Structure

General steps for designing and using the WBS
Using information from the action plan, list the task
breakdown in successively finer levels of detail. Continue
until all meaningful tasks or work packages have been
identified
1. For each such work package, identify the data
relevant to the WBS.
List the personnel and
organizations responsible for each task.
2. All work package information should be reviewed with
the individuals or organizations who have
responsibility for doing or supporting the work in order
to verify the accuracy of the WBS

The Work Breakdown Structure

General steps for designing and using the WBS (cont.):

4. The total project budget should consist of four elements: direct

budgets from each task; an indirect cost budget for the project; a
contingency reserve for unexpected emergencies; and any
residual, which includes the profit derived from the project

5. The project master schedule integrates the many different

schedules relevant to the various parts of the project

Items 1-5 focus on the WBS as a planning tool but it may

also be used to monitor and control the project

The Work Breakdown Structure

Items 6 and 7 focus on the WBS as an aid to

monitor and control a project:

The project manager can examine actual resource use, by

work element, work package, task, up to the full project

level. The project manager can identify problems, harden
the estimates of final cost, and make sure that relevant
corrections have been designed and are ready to
implement
The project schedule may be subjected to the same
comparisons as the project budget. Actual progress is
compared to scheduled and corrective action can be taken

Exercise
John just graduated from a local university and
joined his fathers company as executive V.P,
Operations. Dad gives him a project. 20% of the
companys sales come from sale of above
ground swimming pool kits. They do not install
the pools. John has to find out whether or not
they should get into that business. John has
decided to personally estimate the cost to
company of setting up the pool and then calling
some competitors to see how much they charge.
That will tell him if it is profitable.
Johns WBS looks like this-

Pool installation WBS

Work tasks
Prepare grd surface
Clear
Rake
Level
Sand bottom

Labour hrs(estimate)
2.67
1
1/3
1
1/3

Lay out pool frame

Bottom ring
Side panels
Top Ring

2.50
1

Add plastic liner

Assemble pool
Build wooden support
Layout
Assemble

0.50
1.66
3.00
1
2

Fill and test

2.00
--------

Total

12.33

Based on 12.33 labor hrs. at $15 per labor hr.,

total cost came out to $185.00. John found
that on average his competitors charged
$229 to install a similar pool. John thought he
had a winner. Since he had never assembled
a pool himself, he decided to increase the
budget by 10%, just in case.
Is his projection reasonable ? What other
aspects can be considered?

Benefits
1. Gives people responsibility for a manageable
part of the project
2. Facilitates control activities, as individual
parts can have their consumption of
resources tracked
3. Facilitates the financial aspects like budget
cost etc

Drawbacks
Destructive

situations can arise when

improvements in one area upset the
running of another.

People

try to optimize their own part of

the project & lose the holistic view of the
project.

Responsibility matrix
It is a format which shows work package for a

functional position

RESPONSIBILTY MATRIX

V.P

GM PM Mgr1 Mgr2

Define WBS
Establish H/w specs

5
2

1
3

3
1

3
4

Establish s/w specs

Establish mfg specs

2
2

3
3

4
4

1
1

Establish project
plan

1 Actual Responsibility
2 General Supervision
3 Must be consulted

4 May be consulted
5 Must be notified
6 Final approval

Ques-Project Management in Practice

Task 5 C is the critical, pacing task of a rush
project. Fred always nitpicks anything that
comes his way, slowing it down, driving up costs,
and irritating everyone concerned. Normally
Fred would be listed as Notify for task 5C on
the responsibility matrix, but the PM is
considering forgetting to make the notation on
the chart. Is this unethical, political or smart
management?

Interface Coordination through Integration

Management
The most difficult aspect of implementing a

project is the coordination and integration of the

various elements of the project
The intricate process of coordinating the work
and timing of all inputs is called integration
management
Interface coordination is used to denote the
process of managing this work across multiple
groups

Approaches to Interface Management

Recent work on managing the interface focuses

on the use of multifunctional teams (MT)

There is general agreement that MT has a
favorable impact on product/service design and
delivery
Successfully involving cross-functional teams in
project planning requires that some structure be
imposed on the planning process

Approaches to Interface Management

A different attack on the problem is defining and

mapping all interdependencies between the

various members of the project team

Rather than mapping interfaces on the firms

organizational chart, instead it maps the
interdependencies directly
Does not ignore the value of the WBS, action plan, or
PERT/CPM networks, but simply uses interface maps
as a source of the coordination requirement to manage
the interdependencies