3/Planning the Project

Chapter 3
Planning the Project
This chapter begins by discussing the nine key elements of the project plan. The following two
sections address the planning process in greater detail with considerable emphasis placed on the
project launch meeting and the hierarchical planning process by which parts of the plan are
sequentially broken down into finer levels of detail. This provides a natural transition to the
creation of the Work Breakdown Structure. Finally, the chapter is concluded with a discussion of
multidisciplinary teams including the topics of integration management, concurrent engineering
and the design structure matrix.

Cases and Readings

Some cases appropriate to the subject of this chapter are:
Harvard: 9-692-058 Taco Bell Corp. This 31-page best-selling case
describes a project to implement a new strategic plan involving major
changes in layout, staffing, quality, product design, and information systems.
The coordination and integration of all these project activities is what makes
the plan successful, and hard for competitors to imitate. Two teaching notes
are available for this case: 5-692-091 (20 pages) and 5-196-073 (12 pages).
Harvard: 9-694-059 Hardcard Project: Plus Development Corp. (A1);
9-694-060 Hardcard Project: Plus Development Corp. (A2) This 10page (12-pages for A2) case allows the students to evaluate, using Microsoft
Project software, the time line, resource allocations, and other aspects of a
major project concerned with developing a hard disk drive. The perspective
is from that of the VP of engineering. The (A2) case updates the project and
the students have to determine whether a specific market introduction date
will be feasible for the project. (Note: this case duplicates some of the
information in the Plus Development Corp. case suggested for Chapter 2.)
Harvard: 9-193-013 American Airlines: The InterAAct Project (A) and
9-193-014 (B) This 17-page (and 11-page) set of cases describes the design
and implementation of an extensive knowledge information system project.
The implementation is in trouble in the (A) case and must be reassessed.
The (B) case describes the outcome of the successful implementation. A 17
page teaching note (5-194-095) is available.

27

3/Planning the Project

Harvard: 9-390-010 Grosvenor Park This case describes a very

successful project involving the development of a condominium.

28

3/Planning the Project

A reading appropriate to the subject of this chapter is:

Hallgren, M & Wilson, T. L., The nature and management of crises in
construction projects: Projects-as-practice observations (International
Journal of Project Management, 830-838, 2008). Crises are inherent in
projects because of the uniqueness of projects. This reading reviews the
nature of crises and the associated disruptions that threaten the progress of
the projects as well as the organizations themselves. The paper reviews the
nature of crises and their remedies that have interfered with project progress
of an international construction company. Fifteen crises were studied and the
report includes a characterization of the nature of these crises and how they
were managed.

Answers to Review Questions

1. What are some of the benefits of setting up a project plan for
routine, frequent projects?
One key benefit of setting up a project plan for routine, frequent projects
is that the project plan can be used as a template for similar projects in
the future. Having such a template can greatly simplify future projects
just filling in the blanks, while at the same time can ensure that important
steps or activities are not overlooked.
Furthermore, the project plan can be continuously improved and
enhanced as the organization gains additional experience with these
projects.
2. Discuss the reasons for inviting the functional managers to a
project launch meeting rather than their subordinates who may
be actually doing the work?
The reason for inviting the functional managers to the project launch
meeting is that it is important to get their buy-in and support for the
project and understanding the load on their subordinates. The functional
managers can have a significant impact on the degree to which the
project succeeds or fails based on their willingness to assign key
subordinates to the project. Clearly, if they are convinced up-front of the
importance of the project and perhaps even have input into the projects
scope, their cooperation is more likely in later stages of the project.
Another important reason for including functional managers in the project
launch meeting is to get their commitment to help develop the initial plan.

29

3/Planning the Project

3. Discuss the pros and cons of identifying and including the project
team at the project launch meeting.
Some of major advantages to identifying and including project team
members in the project launch meeting would be:
o Getting their support early on.
o Letting them hear first hand from senior management the
importance of the project to the organization, and
o [Perhaps] getting their input on more technical issues as the
projects scope is initially defined.
Major disadvantages include:
o Not being able to identify all project team members at this early
stage.
o Getting too bogged down in technical details to the detriment of
bigger picture issues, and
o [Perhaps] less involvement from the functional managers if they feel
their department is adequately represented by project team
members from their respective departments.
4. Why do so many self-directed teams perform poorly? What can
be done to improve their performance?
One reason why self-directed teams may perform poorly is because they
may not have a good understanding of how their efforts are meant to
support overall organizational objectives. In the absence of this
understanding, the team will likely create its own objectives which will
probably lead to suboptimization if the teams objectives are only loosely
related to broader organizational objectives.
The solution to this problem is to ensure that the team has a solid
understanding of how its objectives and its work are meant to support
broader organizational objectives.

30

3/Planning the Project

5. Why is participatory management beneficial to project planning?

How does the process of participatory management actually work
in planning?
Participatory management (i.e., including project team members in the
planning process) is beneficial in that it helps ensure that:
o Important issues are not overlooked, and
o Team members are committed to the project.
Furthermore:
o Team members can be asked to identify the tasks required to
complete the project along with their estimates of time and other
resource requirements.
6. What is the difference between the Resource column on the
action plan (that would include personnel needed by the project)
and the Assigned to column?
The Resources column is more general and simply lists the type of human,
material, and machine resources needed.
The Assigned to column is more specific and identifies the particular
person who has responsibility for completing the activity.
7. Under what circumstances is it sensible to do without a project
launch meeting?
While holding a project launch meeting is always a sensible step, it may
not be essential or required in cases where the project is:
o Quite routine and frequent. In these cases the scope is likely well
understood and the functional managers have well defined
responsibilities, and
o To be completed entirely within one functional department. In this
case, the functional manager involved can ensure the appropriate
resources are assigned to the project as well as clearly define and
articulate the project's scope.

31

3/Planning the Project

8. What limitations associated with traditional project management

techniques like Gantt charts and precedence diagrams does the
Design Matrix Structure overcome?
A limitation of traditional project management planning tools is they focus
primarily on task precedence relationships.
In some projects (particularly new product development projects) another
important aspect is what information does a task need from preceding
tasks. The Design Structure Matrix addresses the issue of information
flows within a project. When the matrix is complete, all the tasks that
provide information needed to complete a given task can be determined
by looking across thats particular tasks row.

32

3/Planning the Project

Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions

9. For each of the nine components of a project master plan, discuss
the problems that might be raised if the element was incomplete.
The elements required in a project plan fall into the following nine
categories:
o Overview:

o
o

o
o

o
o

An incomplete overview of the project could lead to

overlooking key milestones. Typically, milestones
correspond to important events of a project and it is
particularly appropriate to assess the projects
performance at these times. If important milestones
are not identified, opportunities to identify problems
early on may be missed.
Objectives:
Inadequately defining the projects objectives could
lead to suboptimzation and missing important
specifications.
General
Not thoroughly discussing the General approach
could
approach:
increase the number of ad-hoc decisions that have to
be made as the project is completed and could also
result in inconsistencies as different team members
employ different approaches to address similar
issues.
Contractual
The consequences of incompletely defining
contractual
aspects:
aspects include scope creep and major disputes
between the client and the project team.
Schedules:
An incomplete schedule typically results in
overlooked activities which subsequently translates
into late project completions and/or cost overruns.
Resource
Similarly, an incomplete resource requirements
section
requirements:can result in failure to have required resources
available when needed or omitted cost elements
such as overhead.
Personnel:
An incomplete personnel section could result in
overlooking important skill requirements or the need
to provide the necessary training.
Evaluation
Not adequately specifying evaluation methods could
methods:
lead to not capturing important project performance
data which could impact the timely discovery of
problems.
33

3/Planning the Project

o Potential
problems:

Finally, not adequately considering potential

problems
means that proactive contingency plans for problems
that could have been anticipated are not available,
forcing the project team into a more reactive mode.

34

3/Planning the Project

10. Give several examples of a type of project that would benefit

from a template project action plan being developed.
Projects that are completed routinely would benefit from a template
project action plan. In addition to routine system maintenance projects,
examples of such projects include:
o Constructing a house.
o Taking a drug through clinical trials, and
o Installing the same computer system in all of an organizations
manufacturing plants.
11. Why is the hierarchical planning process useful for project
planning? How might it influence the plan if the hierarchical
planning process was not used?
The hierarchical planning process is useful for project planning for a
number of reasons:
o By starting very broadly and gradually adding more detail it is a
logical and systematic process, and
o It fits well with typical organizational hierarchies in the sense that
senior and middle-level managers can focus on the top level items
and then delegate the specification of these details to the people
that will be responsible for completing these tasks.
A key problem with not using hierarchical planning is that important tasks
may be overlooked which may ultimately delay the project and/or result in
cost overruns.
12. What causes so much conflict on multidisciplinary teams? As a
PM what would you try to do to prevent or reduce such conflict?
Probably the leading source of conflict on multidisciplinary teams occurs is
the fact that team members tend to view problems only from their own
functional perspective.
One way to avoid this problem is to recruit project team members that
have an orientation to problem solving rather than a particular solution
approach.
13. Of what help is a map of interdependencies to a PM who is
managing a transdisciplinary team?

35

3/Planning the Project

A map of interdependencies shows the interrelationships between various

members of the project team across various functional areas.
Since the relationships between functional areas are likely to change as
the project progresses, explicitly mapping out these relationships for each
phase of the project can help ensure that the various areas are working
together at the appropriate times.
14. Develop an action plan with at least two levels for a project
you are personally familiar with (e.g., moving away to college,
registering for class, cleaning out a garage). (Hint: the plan will
be more useful; as a learning exercise if you have a subordinate
or two real or imaginary). Be sure to include precedences, task
durations, resource requirements, and milestones. Enter the plan
in MSP.
The following example describes a project involving the development of a
history term paper. It involves three students (Alex, Gary and Neil) and
their instructor, Professor Daniels.
History Term Paper
WB
S

Task Name

1
2

Select Topic
Get Topic Approved

3
4
4.1
4.2
5
5.1
5.2
5.3

Outline Paper
Conduct Research
Library Research
Research Web
Write-Up Report
First Draft
Proof First Draft
Edit First Draft

Estimat
Predecess
ed
or
Duratio
n
1 Week
1
1 Week
2
3
3
4.1, 4.2
5.1
5.2

3 Days
3 Weeks
3 Weeks
2 Weeks
4 Weeks
2 Weeks
1 Week
1 Week

Resource
Name
Alex, Gary, Neil
Professor
Daniels
Alex
Gary and Neil
Alex
Alex, Gary, Neil
Gary
Alex, Gary, Neil
Neil

15. Discuss the drawbacks of implementing a project plan without

a RACI matrix
A key drawback of not using a LRC (Linear Responsibility Chart) is that
required communications or tasks may fall through the cracks as no one

36

3/Planning the Project

took responsibility for completing them assuming they were someone

elses responsibility.
16. What are the potential ramifications of not utilizing integration
management techniques or parallel tasking while planning and
implementing a project?
Important relationships across functional areas will likely be overlooked if
integration management is not utilized. Not identifying these
relationships will:
o Reduce opportunities for concurrent engineering, as well as
o Lead to disconnects between these functional areas.
In both cases the project schedule and budget are likely to suffer.
17. List the advantages of using an empowered team for
planning. What conditions must be met for these advantages to
accrue?
Advantages of empowered teams include:
o
o
o
o
o

High quality solutions.

Avoiding micromanagement.
More accountability.
A greater likelihood of obtaining a synergistic solution, and
The availability of a tool for timely team evaluation and feedback.

The most important condition is that senior management must clearly

spell out (a) the projects goals and (b) be clear about the range of the
teams authority and responsibility.

37

3/Planning the Project

18. Pursuing a degree or certificate is a major project. Construct a

brief project plan for this project that includes all 9 elements
described in the chapter.
Following, as an example, is a project plan for a student aiming to earn
his/her MBA:
Overview:

The purpose of this project is to earn an MBA. The major

milestones include completing the first year of core course
work, obtaining a summer internship, completing the
second year of course work, and obtaining a full time
position at a leading consulting organization.

Objectives:

My goal is to increase my salary by 70 percent by obtaining

full time employment with a leading consulting
organization upon completing a two-year MBA. Long-term,
my goal is to make partner of a consulting organization
within seven years of graduation.

General:

I will apply to the top public MBA programs in the Ohio,

Indiana,
approach: and Michigan areas. I will visit each that I am accepted to
assess the schools culture. I will also research them to
evaluate their success in placing graduates in top
consulting organizations.

Contractual
aspects:

I may be required to make a financial commitment to one

school
while still being on the waiting list of more desirable
school.

Schedule:

December 2005: take GMAT Exam

January 2006: research schools
February 2006: fill out admissions applications
May 2006: Visit schools
June 2006: Make decision
July 2006: House hunting trip
August 2006: Move
August 2006 May 2007: complete core
June August 2007: Summer internship
August 2007 May 2008: Complete second year and
interview for full time consulting position

38

3/Planning the Project

Resource

I will use $50,000 from my savings and take out an

estimated
requirements: $25,000 in student loans.

39

3/Planning the Project

Personnel:

My brothers will help me move.

Evaluation

Key performance metrics include my GPA and starting

salary upon
graduation.

methods:

Potential
It has been six years since I have been in school and
therefore my
problems: adjustment period may be longer than I expect. I may also
encounter interpersonal conflicts with teammates. Finally,
the cost of housing or tuition may be higher than I expect
and/or my summer internship may pay less than I expect
which would create the need to borrow more money.
19. Assume that your class instructor appointed you project
manager to lead a dozen of your classmates in writing up the
end-of-chapter pedagogy materials (i.e., Review Questions,
Discussion Question, Problems, Incidents for Discussion, and
Cases) as an Instructors Guide for this book. You plan to form
subteams to work on each of these elements, each headed by a
subteam leader. Of course, all the subteam materials will need to
be integrated into the final Instructors Guide at the end.
Construct a WBS and linear responsibility chart for this project.
The WBS for this project might be as follows:

End of
chapter
pedagogy
materials

Review
Question
s
1.1

Discussi
on
Question
s

Problem
s

Incidents
for
Discussio
n

Cases

Chapter
1
1.1.1

Chapter
1
1.2.1

Chapter
1.3.1

Chapter
1
1.4.1

Chapter
1
1.5.1

Chapter
2
1.1.2

Chapter
2
1.2.2

Chapter
2
1.3.2

Chapter
2
1.4.2

Chapter
2
1.5.2

1.3

40

1.5

3/Planning the Project

41

3/Planning the Project

20. You and your family and friends are planning to host a
graduation party at the end of the school year. Construct an
action plan for this party.
Task
1. Invitations
1.1 Make up list
1.2 Buy invitations
1.3 Mail invitations
1.4 Update RSVPs
2. Food
2.1 Buy cake
2.3 Buy drinks
2.4 Buy appetizers
2.5 Plates, forks, cups
3. Decorate
3.1 Purchase banner
3.2 Buy balloons
3.3 Napkins
3.4 Decorate house
21.

Duration

Predecessor

Assigned To

1 hour
5 days
1 day
2 weeks

-1.1
1.2
1.3

Alec, Bob, Tia

Tia
Bob, Tia
Bob

3 days
2 hours
2 hours
1 hour

-1.4
1.4
1.4

Tia
Bob
Alec
Alec

1 hour
2 days
1 hour
1 day

--1.4
3.1, 3.2

Alec, Bob
Tia
Bob
Alec, Bob, Tia

Construct an action plan for the project in Question 19.

Task
1. Organization
1.1 Establish subteams
1.2 Select subteam leaders
1.3 Assign chapters.
2. Conduct project
2.1 Prepare drafts
2.2 Review drafts
2.3 Revise drafts
2.4 Review final drafts
3 Finalize project
3.1 Combine chapter materials
3.2 Make final revisions
4 Submit materials
4.1 Meet with class instructor

Duration

Predecessor

Assigned To

2 hours
2 hours
2 hours

-1.1
1.2

You
You
Subteam members
Subteam leaders

4 weeks
2 weeks
2 weeks
1 day

1.3
2.1
2.2
2.3

Chapter leaders
Subteam members
Chapter leaders
Subteam leaders

2 days
1 day
1 hour
2 hours

2.4
3.1
3.1
3.2

Subteam leaders
Subteam members
You
Project members

42

3/Planning the Project

22. Consider one or more projects (from this course or elsewhere)

that you understand reasonably well. Identify situations where
information learned from a later task of the project becomes
important to an earlier task.
As an example, one can consider the construction of a new house.
Initially the homeowners work with an architect to develop the plans for
the house and, as part of the plans, the dimensions for the kitchen are
specified. Later in the process the homeowners go out and actually select
the cabinets and appliances for the kitchen. At this stage, it may be
discovered that the original dimensions are not optimal given the cabinets
and appliances the homeowners actually select.
23. Contrast the Project Plan, the Action Plan, and the Work
Breakdown Structure.
o

Project plan

The primary function of a project plan is to serve as a map of

the route from start to finish. It should contain sufficient
information that, at any time, the project manager knows
what remains to be done. It is a comprehensive summary of
the project.

Action plan

An action plan not only identifies the various task and their
immediate predecessor tasks but also the estimated time
duration, the estimated resources needed, and an
identification of the individual(s) responsible for carrying out
the task.

Work Breakdown The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a set of all tasks
in a
Structure
project, usually arranged by task levels. It is sometimes
presented as a tree, much like an organization chart.

Problems
24. Prepare an action plan using MSP with the steps that must be
completed before Vern Toomey can contact outsourcing vendors.
If Vern starts on August 1, 2005, how long will it take to get ready
to contact outsourcing vendors?

43

3/Planning the Project

Based on the information in the Gantt chart it would be Tuesday, August 23, '05 before Vern
would be able to contact vendors for the outsourcing proposals,
25. Develop a mind map for a nonprofit organizations annual
casino night charity event.

44

3/Planning the Project

26. In addition to your regular responsibilities, your supervisor has

just assigned you to be in charge of your organizations annual
golf tournament. It is expected that 100 to 150 employees will
enter the tournament. In addition to organizing the event, you
are also responsible for promoting it. Your budget for the event
is $25,000. Develop a mind map for the golf tournament project.

45

3/Planning the Project

Incidents for Discussion

Incidents for Discussion Included in the Chapter

Plymouth Zoos Re-engineering Project

Question: what should Avery Mitchell do next?
Avery Mitchell should make no decision until he gets more information.
What information should he ask the consultants for before
accepting their proposal?
He should ask for references, examples of other work redesign jobs the
consultants have done, and he should ask about the relationship they had
with the former CEO of the zoo.
What project management tools would you suggest Avery ask the
consultants to use to outline the project more specifically and
address his concerns?
He should also ask for:
o A specific action plan with deliverables, objectives, schedules, resource
needs, etc.
o A linear responsibility chart so that Zoo officers can identify what the
consultants are responsible for and what the Zoo is accountable to do
to meet the targets.
These pieces of information would help Avery determine if and how the work
re-design project would impact ongoing work or other projects going on.
Also, this information would enable him to see how the consultants propose
to carry out the project. He can then determine the impact of the project on
the Zoos everyday operations. This would also enable him to see where and
how the cost savings were determined and whether they would be sufficient
to meet the Zoos profit projections.

46

3/Planning the Project

Time is Fleeting
Question: if you were the President, how would you handle this
problem?
The president could ask the IT and HR department heads each to outline a
project plan for the approach they favored.
It might be better, however, if he asked them to work together to prepare
action plans for each of their recommended solutions to the current problem
with the time clocks. The two department heads could then be asked to plan
cost benefit studies of both plans. They should carefully delineate the
objective of each project. Acting together, they could choose the best
alternative, based on the cost/benefit studies. Then they could jointly
outline the implementation project plan for the solution that they choose.

47

3/Planning the Project

Suggested Case Analyses and Solutions

St Dismas Assisted Living Facility -- 1
Teaching Purpose: The St. Dismas Assisted Living Facility cases comprise a set of cases
beginning in this chapter and are all associated with the same project the planning, building,
and marketing of an assisted living facility for people whose state of health makes it difficult for
them to live independently, but who are not yet ill enough to require nursing home care. In this
initial installment of the case, students address issues related to the project deliverables, project
constraints and assumptions, the development of an action plan, and the selection of a project
manager.
Question #1: Define the project deliverables.
Deliverables of the project are:

Construction of a 100 unit facility

Provide a positive return on investment and contribute to overall
business

Project outcomes that will be measured to determine project

effectiveness are:

Increase utilization of existing hospital outpatient services

Develop more services focused on wellness and preventative
medicine
Increase census of inpatient units

Question #2: Define project constraints and assumptions.

Project assumptions are:

For-profit subsidiary of St. Dismas

Free standing apartment construction design
Facility will be constructed to provide easy access to St. Dismas services such as
kitchen area, outpatient therapy areas, etc.
100 units, some designed for heavy-assisted, and most lightassisted.

Project constraints are:

Construction cannot begin until after November 1999

48

3/Planning the Project

Open facility in July 2000

49

3/Planning the Project

Question #3: Develop a level 1 action plan.

Outline the broad steps in the project, for example;
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Step

Who Does

Start ALF project

Building design
Construction
Define food service needs
Define housekeeping needs
Define staffing needs
Develop policies and
procedures
Create budget for facility
Create financial systems
(payroll, accounting, etc)
Identify telecommunications
& information systems
needs
Develop marketing plan
(including ground breaking
event)
Develop communications
plan
Define clinical services
needed
Develop management
structure
Identify all regulatory
requirements
Complete Project

COO
Construction Manager
COO
COO
COO
COO
CFO
CFO
Director Information
Services
Vice President of
Business Development
VP Business
Development
Rehab Medical Director
Fred Splient
Fred Splient

Question #4: Is Dr. Splient a good choice for project manager?

Support your position.
Students can support both yes and no answers.
However, Fred Splient is not an appropriate project manager. Fred
should function as the project champion. He can provide the necessary
oversight and leadership without actually managing the project. He is
the Chief Executive Officer of a major medical center; his role in the
organization is not one of a project manager but an organizational

50

3/Planning the Project

leader. Fred is also far too busy to handle the day-to-day needs of
managing a large project such as the planning and construction to
open an assisted living facility. It has also not been identified that he
has the necessary skills to manage a project.

51

3/Planning the Project

Key points for discussion:

Why does Fred want to be project manager?
He wants control of the project, he wants to be sure the project gets done, he
will have members of his Board of Trustees sitting on the project team, this is
a highly visible project, to his customers, board and community members.
This project is a major change from the regular business of St. Dismas.
What sort of systems can Fred set up so that he sees that the
project gets managed without having to do it himself?
Fred needs to set up effective communications systems for the project. He
could have the project manager report directly to him. Fred could still chair
the project steering team.

52

3/Planning the Project

John Wiley & Sons

Teaching Purpose: This case requires students to use their creativity and develop a WBS for a
website development project.
Question #1: Develop a mind map for this project.

53

3/Planning the Project

Question #2: Convert your mind map into a WBS.

54

3/Planning the Project

Question #3: Discuss how your mind map might be used to facilitate
other project planning activities such as resource allocation,
schedule development, and risk analysis.
The mind map can be utilized to develop what additional resources (human) can be allocated,
and for what portion of the project. It would also facilitate the development of a schedule for
each component of the website and determine where risks might be encountered within the
project, where the pitfalls might be encountered as you develop the website.

55