Project Planning Wentworth Institute of Technology Electronic Design I Prof. Tim Johnson Chapter 7
Concepts and Principles What is it that we’re going to do? –A list of tasks required to complete a project. –To Do list –Sequentially listed What is it going to cost? –Time –Money –Resources commitment –People, Plant, & Provisions
Benefits of Planning Framework for communications Clients Co-workers Resource allocations Benchmark for assessment of progress Guide for decision making Proposal to business plan
Planning Tools—Gantt Chart –List of tasks vs. time –Use Microsoft Project JanFebMarAprMayJunJulySepOctNovDec Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Planning Tools—Critical Path Network diagram with directed line segments (lines & circles) Similar to Functional Block Diagram Looks at: Activities Events Identifies bottlenecks in projects
The Big Picture Project doesn’t exist in isolation Let’s look at a Power Point templet used by businesses. The next 8 slides are the example. Followed by your assignment.
Project Goals Ultimate goal of project Relationship to other projects High-level timing goals
Description Describe the project in non-technical terms. Use following slides for discussing status, schedules, budget, etc. FOR MORE INFO... List location or contact for specification (or other related documents) here
Competitive Analysis Competitors –(You may want to allocate one slide per competitor) Strengths –Your strengths relative to competitors Weaknesses –Your weaknesses relative to competitor
Competitive Analysis, Cont. Competitors Strengths Weaknesses FOR MORE INFO... List location or contact for competitive analysis (or other related documents) here
Technology New technology being used –Benefits Standards being adopted –Benefits Standards specifically being ignored –Drawbacks & benefits DYA: define your acronyms!
Team/Resources State assumptions about resources allocated to this project –People –Equipment –Locations –Support & outside services –Manufacturing –Sales
Procedures Highlight any procedural differences from regular projects of this type Discuss requirements, benefits, and issues of using new procedures FOR MORE INFO... List location or contact for procedures document (or other related documents) here
Current Status High-level overview of progress against schedule –On-track in what areas –Behind in what areas –Ahead in what areas Unexpected delays or issues
Your Assignment Draw up a Gantt chart for the solder iron project. Use MS Project found on all the computers here at WIT. Show the time line for the entire project, start to finish. Remember, we still have to write the user manual & the technical manual.