Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 1 Work Plan Development Or answering the question: “So... what do we do now?”

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 2 Today’s Agenda > Converting Project Charters into Work Plans > Creating a Work Breakdown Structure – The “Nouns” > Break > Creating an Activity List – The “Verbs” > Next Steps

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 3 Work Plans Work Plans identify sequenced activities that must be completed to fulfill Project Charter contents Project Charter Work Plan

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 4 Converting Charters into Work Plans 1.From the project charter and scope statements, create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 2.From the WBS, identify the activities needing completion 3.From the activity list, develop a network diagram, identifying the sequence of activity completion 4.From the network diagram, develop a preliminary project schedule and assign resources 5.Iterate the above with key stakeholders until acceptance (a set of baselines) is agreed upon. You Your WBS Our Focus Today

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 5 The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) > The WBS = your “Nouns” »WBS = The work being delivered »Hierarchical representation of work elements needing completion— deliverables themselves or deliverable components »Single most important tool in scope definition, scope control, and communications »What about a ‘survey’?

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 6 The Noun Workshop > Goal »Develop hierarchical definition of the project (30 minutes) »“Divide and conquer” > Materials: »Sticky notes, tape, and pens »Wall or desk > You’ve gone deep enough in the hierarchy when: »Bottom level work—the work package level—requires ~ 4 total hours to complete »And/or adequate planning and control is achieved

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 7 Tips for Creating the WBS > Start with the major work of the project first (top down)—e.g. deliverables »This is level 1, then proceed downward; this level establishes the framework for the entire project so be smart here »Figure out if the project is analogous to something else and cherry-pick the approach to the project Use the Internet or other available expertise > If you’re tempted to think at the activity level (bottom up), that’s ok »Find a common theme to multiple activities, then convert to one or more nouns > Start an Open Items log now > No “Gold Plating” »Make sure to complete the work necessary to achieve the level of scope, quality, time and cost expected, no more and no less > 100% Rule »Child elements within a single parent element should represent 100% of the work envisioned in the parent > Continually ask: “What work is missing”? > All projects should include “Project Management” as a Level 1 work package Start Now (30 minutes)

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 8 WBS Template Today Consider completing and summarizing results before the next customer meeting

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 9 Break

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 10 The Activity List > Activities = your “Verbs” »List of things to do to complete the work packages »Feeds into activity sequencing (network diagrams), scheduling, and resourcing process »Have durations, owners, and specified outputs »An activity should not be performed within your project unless it is specified Note: Activities are defined only at the lowest level of the WBS

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 11 The Verb Workshop > Goal »Capture as many project activities as possible (30 minutes) > Materials: »Sticky notes, tape, and pens »Wall > Reminder: Activities should be placed only below the lowest level of your WBS =

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 12 Tips for Activity Definition > Look Out!! »You will likely find a need for additional WBS elements through the activity definition process »All activities must fit logically into the WBS > Identify good opportunities to insert major milestones, which are defined as zero-duration activities »Indicates that a major block of work has been completed. Milestones are also good status reporting mechanisms when talking to customers > Consider strongly the role that quality and risk should play in activity definition > Update your Open Item log with issues > Exclude incidental or trivial activities Start Now (30 minutes)

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 13 Activity Template Today Consider completing and summarizing before the next customer meeting

Inspiring Your Next Success! ® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting 14 Next Steps > Ensure that today’s WBS and activities have numbers assigned > Finish this exercise to completion before next class > Scope Iterations »Complete the first version of the WBS and Activity List as a team »Share WBS and optionally the activity list with customer to confirm scope »Re-define scope until complete > Schedule Iterations »As scope is progressively elaborated, continue to add appropriate activities »Use activity definitions to sequence activities (network diagrams) »Apply the concept of “critical paths” »Keep an eye out for new WBS or activities that might crop up »Assign dates and owners to activities »Share schedule (milestone-level) w/customer »Re-define until complete > Lock down scope and schedule; manage risk, quality, and change aggressively Alignment is everything