Chapter-5

Project Planning and Implementation

Dr. Andualem Ufo

Assistant Professor
International Leadership Institute
 5.1. PROJECT PLANNING

I. Definition of Project Planning

– It is the process of defining an orderly arrangement of activities and
resources to deliver a unique product or service.
Characteristics of project planning
– organizes the project’s deliverables and resources within realistic time
frames.
– is where the project manager organizes the project’s activities and resources
with in specified time frame and
– prepares the project for successful implementation.
– builds on the work done in project initiation by further developing, enhancing,
and refining all parameters of the project such as scope, cost, and schedule.
– is an opportunity to plan and prepare, as opposed to react and catch up.

–
5.1. PROJECT PLANNING…
 II.
Objectives of Project Planning 
–Planning a project involves answering key
questions such as:
• What work should be performed?
• Who will be responsible for each piece of work?
• In what order should the work be completed?
• How long will it take to complete each item of the work?
• What resources are needed to complete each item of the work?
• How can the work be scheduled to meet the requested deadline?
5.2. THE PROCESS STRUCTURE OF PROJECT PLANNING
I. CORE PLANNING PROCESS
• represents a set of critical activities that are dependent on each other and are
executed in an explicit order.
Process flow
• project scope and objectives
• definition of project activities: work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Defining responsibilities: organizational breakdown structure (OBS)
• sequencing of activities
• Development of resource plan
• Developing project schedule
• budget planning
• Performance planning
– The project plan component documents that result from execution of the core planning
process are:
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Resource Plan
• Project Schedule
• Project Budget
• Performance Plan
 
5.2. STRUCTURE OF PROJECT PLANNING (cont’d)
II. FACILITATING-PLANNING PROCESSES
• represents planning activities that are not dependent on other
processes.
• planning processes are performed intermittently during the
project-planning phase on an as needed basis but are not
optional.
• affect components of the plans developed from the core planning
process.
– The key planning documents resulting from the facilitating planning
processes are:
» Risk Management Plan
» Communications Plan
» Change control Management
» Quality control plan
» Project acceptance plan
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CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
I. Defining the Activities or Tasks: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
WBS : Defintion
– a hierarchical description of all the work that must be done to complete the
project.
Functions
– Is used to describe all the work that needs to be completed in a project and
how it should be organized.
– provides a clear picture of the entire project.
– Is based on the idea of a project being comprised of a set of major
deliverables.
Steps in WBS Development
1. Develop Level 1 of the WBS
2. Decompose WBS: List the sub activities or tasks for major
activities
3. Assign Responsibility
4. Define WBS Elements

6
 Steps in WBS Development (cont...’d)

Criteria to test completeness in the WBS

–WBS elements :
• must be measurable in terms of cost, effort, resources,
and time.
• must result in a single end product which can be
checked
• must be the responsibility of a single individual or
functional group.

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CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
II. Determining the Flow of Project Activities (Sequencing): Networking
Activity sequencing: meaning
• creating logical flows of activities.
– It involves:
• dividing the project into smaller, more manageable components,
• Specifying the order of completion, and
• Identifying the dependent relationships between activities and tasks.
A network diagram : meaning
• a graphical presentation of the project’s activities showing the planned
sequence of work.
• is used to create and represent the logical flows of activities.
Developing network diagram:
• Information requirements
– List of activities
– logical dependency or logical relationship between activities.
• decisions
– Mandatory dependencies : Activities in series
– Discretionary dependencies: Activities in parallel
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

Activity Dependencies(preceding activities)

A -
B A
C A
D B
E C
F D,E

9
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
III. PLANNING ACTIVITY DURATION
– Duration: the amount of time required to complete the defined task.
Importance
– drives the setting of deadlines for delivery of projects, and hence peoples' assessments
of your reliability
– often determines the pricing of contracts and hence their profitability.
– combined with resource planning information and task relationships, it will define the
project schedule.
Technical considerations
– Time units can be expressed as hours, days, weeks, months, or years
– An activity’s duration will run from the start to the finish of the activity.
Techniques of planning activity duration (time estimates)
• Historical experience
• Expert advice
• Three point technique (or PERT)
te= Shortest time + 4 ( likely time) + longest time
6
 

  10
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
Factors considered in activity time estimation
• Staff availability
• Complexity of the task
• The skill level of the person assigned to the task
• Possibility for the occurrence of unexpected events
• Degree of the activity’s importance
• The nature of relationship of the activity and the others
• Efficiency of work time, and
• Mistakes and misunderstandings during the execution of
the project.
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

IV. RESOURCE PLANNING

– There are several points to be addressed when planning for
resource needs of a project:
• Determining the resource requirement
• Estimating the skill requirements or material quality
• Identification of duration of time that the resources are
available
• Identification of resource costs
• Identification of risk associated with a particular resource
• These points are discussed here under with some more
details
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
V. PROJECT SCHEDULING: CPM AND GANTT CHARTS
Function
– provides a graphical or tabular representation of predicted tasks, milestones, dependencies, resource
requirements, task duration, and deadlines.
– Its details show:
• Each WBS element to be performed
• Required predecessor task(s)
• Resources scheduled for each task
• Expected duration of each task
• Start and end date of each task of each activity and the project at the earliest and latest
• Total cost and resource requirement of project activities
objectives:
• displaying a logical sequence of tasks to deliver the project
• Providing an accurate status of the project to control the project work effort
• Providing a means for understanding the impact of change on the schedule baseline
Process of project scheduling
• Determine Tasks and Milestones
• Sequence Work Effort
•  Estimate Task Duration
• Establish Start and Finish Date
 

•  
• 
• 
1.6. PROJECT ENVIRONMENT + STAKEHOLDERS
Project Scheduling Tools/Formats
A. GANTT CHARTS
• a two-dimensional representation showing tasks and the time frame for
completion.
– Gantt Charts
• Help to lay out the tasks that need to be completed
• Give a basis for scheduling when these tasks will be carried out
• Allow to plan the allocation of resources needed to complete the project,
and
• Help to work out the critical path for a project where you must complete
it by a particular date.
• Help to monitor whether the project under way is on schedule.
Procedural steps
• List all activities in the plan
• Plot the tasks onto the graph paper
• Schedule Activities
• Present the Analysis

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CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
Task/Activities Duration/Days Dependent
On...
A. High level analysis 17 -

B. Selection of hardware platform 12 -

C. Installation and commissioning of 7 B

hardware
D. Detailed analysis of core modules 10 B

E. Detailed analysis of supporting utilities 15 A,C

F. Programming of core modules 5 D

G. Programming of supporting modules 11 D

H. Quality assurance of core modules 13 E,F

I. Documentation 8 G,H
CORE PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

Activity 0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60

A -
0
17

C
B
12,1

D B
1
2
E

F
D
22
27

I
55

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5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

I. DEVELOPING A QUALITY PLAN

Quality
– the extent to which the final deliverable conforms to the customer’s
requirements.
Quality perspectives:
– the quality of each deliverable produced for the customer and
– the quality of the management processes undertaken to produce each
deliverable.
quality plan
– defines the approach taken to ensure the level of quality of each deliverable,
– highlights the management processes required to influence deliverable quality,
such as change, risk and issue management.
– summarizes the quality targets to be met and the management processes to
be undertaken,
 I. DEVELOPING A QUALITY PLAN( cont..’d)

Quality planning process

1. Defining deliverable quality
2. Identifying Quality targets
3. Developing Quality assurance plan
4. Develop Quality control plan
5. Define process quality
5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
II. PLANNING PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT
Risk
– the possibility for the occurrence of loss due to the development of adverse
events/outcomes other than expected.
– a combination of the probability of a negative event and its consequences.
project risk
– any even that prevents or limits the achievement your objectives a defined at the
outset of the project.
– Items in the project plan that are important and that are uncertain of success should
be considered risk areas and given special attention.
specific areas that result in or increase risk.
• areas where the scope is not well defined or is subject to change.
• An unproven or immature technical approach, known technical difficulty/complexity.
• Ambitious goals.
• Unfamiliarity with the process, or inexperienced personnel,
• Exterior interfaces-because they can change and, even if they don’t change, their
descriptions or specifications may be inaccurate.
• Exterior organizational dependencies.
• Incomplete planning or optimistic cost or schedule.
• any area over which the project manager does not have control
 
5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
Risk management planning: purposes
• to predict the likelihood that a risk will occur,
• to quantify its potential impact on the project, and
• to develop plans for risk management.
• To reassess risks documented during Project Initiation

Risk Management Process

1. Risk identification
– Focuses on risks associated with execution of the project as well as external
risks to the project.
– Risks are frequently associated with resource and schedule constraints.
2. Risk Quantification/measurement
– estimating the likelihood of occurrence of the risk event and,
– Measuring the effect the risk will have on the project.
3. Risk response and monitoring.
– Assigning risk priorities based on the level of impact and the probability of
occurrence.
4. Risk mitigation costs.
– requires the estimation of cost by budget category for the mitigation actions
planned in risk response planning.
5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

III. DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION PLAN

Communication
– the exchange of information between parties.
Communications planning: purposes
– identifying and meeting the information needs of the project stakeholders.
– describes the means by which project communications will occur.
– simplifying and document effective communications within the project
organization.
Information required in the communications plan includes:
– Identification of stakeholders with information needs
– Stakeholder information requirements
– Time frame or period the stakeholder needs the information
– Detailed description of the information need
– Description of when and how information is collected and who collects it
– Description of document distribution methods and frequency of distribution.
5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
IV. PLANNING CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change
– ANY adjustment to ANY aspect of the Project Plan or to ANY already approved deliverable.
– Every aspect of the project defined during Project Initiation and Planning has the potential to
change.
– change should be expected to occur throughout every project phase;
– Decision-Makers must agree on the change control process, which then must be formalized,
documented, and included as a section in the Project Plan.
i. Management of changes to the project includes:
– the administrative management (tracking, review, and assessment) of the proposed changes;
– the organized timely review and decision on recommended changes to controlled items; and
– The administrative process to ensure that the project team is informed of changes when they
are approved.
ii. Change control
– the process of controlling, documenting and storing the changes to control items. This
includes proposing the change evaluating it approving or rejecting it scheduling it and tracking
it.
– Change control requires the following:
• All project plan items are baselined when the project plan is approved.
• The integrity of the performance measurement baseline must be maintained.
• Changes are coordinated among all knowledge areas of the project.

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5.4. FACILITITATING PLANNING PROCESS: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
V. DEVELOPING AN ACCEPTANCE PLAN
Acceptance
– gaining agreement from the customer that the deliverables produced by the
project meet the criteria defined by the customer.
An acceptance plan includes:
– a list of the milestones to be achieved and deliverables to be produced;
– a set of criteria and standards for the acceptance of deliverables by the
customer;
– a plan outlining how the deliverables will be reviewed to determine whether or
not they meet the criteria and adhere to the standards set by the customer;
– a process for gaining customer acceptance once the deliverables have been
produced.
Acceptance plan
– usually constructed towards the end of the project planning phase after the
project plan, resource plan, financial plan, quality plan and risk plan have been
documented.
Acceptance planning process
1. Identifying the acceptance criteria
2. Build an acceptance schedule 23
 Project Implementation
– Once financing is secured and a final go-ahead (green
light) given to proceed with the implementation of a given
project, inter-organizational linkages for its smooth
implementation are streamlined, and a project office is
set up.
– All the construction and supervision of the project is
made.
– Immediately after the completion of project
implementation, management and assets are integrated
into the operation to the new economic entity or unit.
– Project operation involves the running and maintenance
of the new entity in accordance with planned objectives
and tasks.
 Project Implementation
–The major priority during this stage is to ensure
that the project is carried out in the way and with
in the period that was planned.
–The feed back effect on the discovery and design
of new projects and deficiencies in the capabilities
of the project actors can be revealed in this stage.
–Thus, recording, monitoring, and progress
reporting are important activities so as to allow
management to become aware of difficulties as
they arise.

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