1. Project Initiation & Planning
Farrokh Alemi, Ph.D.
Narrated by Lee Baliton
This is the course on project management, the lecture on project planning. This lecture was organized by Professor Farrokh Alemi.

2. Project Phases Initiation Planning Execution Controlling Closing
A project has five phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Controlling, and Closing

3. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
In the project planning phase the plans for the project are detailed. The activities that need to be carried out are listed and a schedule developed, budgets drafted and people assigned to do various tasks.

4. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
An important component of planning is communication. The communication plan lists who will be informed of the progress of the project and at what frequency. Given that these days there are easy access to media, it is important to think through the communication medium as well.

5. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
Frequent, periodic s, video clips and other communications to the sponsors is a minimum set of communications
The communication plan should include at least two groups of people, the various sponsors of the project and the frontline people affected by the project. At designated intervals, an executive summary should be ed to project sponsors. Do not wait till a problem occurs. Maintain frequent reporting to project sponsors so that the progress of the project unfolds for the sponsors as it does for the project manager.

6. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
Frequent, periodic s, video clips and other communications to the project team is a minimum set of communications
The same goes for frontline employees. Periodic communication of progress helps people anticipate the coming project. These periodic communications keep the organization focused on the project. A plan should always indicate the frequency of communication and medium of communication for various groups involved in the project.

7. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
A project manager should think of himself as a director of a movie. He should regularly prepare and distribute media about the project
A project manager should think of himself as a director of a movie. He should regularly prepare and distribute media about the project. You never thought that you went to school to study management and you will end up preparing short video clips and presentations but this is what savvy modern project managers have to do. They need to use media to reach large number of employees and manage their expectations.

8. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
A project manager should think of himself as a director of a movie. He should regularly prepare and distribute media about the project
A project manager should think of himself as a director of a movie. He should regularly prepare and distribute media about the project. You never thought that you went to school to study management and you will end up preparing short video clips and presentations but this is what savvy modern project managers have to do. They need to use media to reach large number of employees and manage their expectations.

9. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
Planning also involves deciding for contingencies of how the project scope might change. A process should be designed to communicate the need for change, the scope of the change, the implication of the change for budget and finish time, and the decision making process to deliberate whether to go ahead with the change. Changes in scope are almost always necessary for large projects because no one, even the best project manager, can anticipate all contingencies. Sooner or later something surprising comes up that has been overlooked. We go to build the hospital extension and we find that the land includes buried ammunition from World War two.

10. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
We go to build the hospital extension and we find that the land includes buried ammunition from World War two. We go to create an electronic health record and find out that our hospital is merging with another with an incompatible record system. In large projects scope changes are inevitable and should not be resisted. These changes indicate the desire to be make the project more central to the mission of the organization and they should be looked at as corrections in project direction. Instead of resisting these corrections, project managers should have a process in place to manage them efficiently and without rework or work stoppage.

11. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
A formal approval of plans is needed before the project execution starts. Again, it is not enough to keep plans on paper. It is important to make people live and imagine the changes. Detailing various groups is part of getting the final approval. Role playing of the new procedures might be a good way of making everyone understand the pending changes

12. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
In the planning phase, surprising things come up. What seemed like a well functioning organization may in close scrutiny look quite different. The expansion of electronic health record assumes that there is a function system in place. In close scrutiny one might find the reality very different. Labs are available on the computer but in reality everyone calls in their labs because that is faster and paper records are kept of orders. A gap analysis helps sort out the validity of assumptions of sponsors of the project against the reality of frontline clinicians working and taking care of patients.

13. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
In large projects, a project manager has to also prepare request for proposals and plan a system for vendor selection.

14. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
Finally comes three activities that are typically done using software programs. These are breaking down the project into discrete and related tasks, estimating the resources and time each task takes and creating a schedule for the various tasks that includes assignment of task to specific people. We will return to these three tasks in other lectures.
More on these
activities later

15. Planning Phase Communication plan Scope management plan
Approval of plans
Gap analysis
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Vendor selection
Work breakdown & Schedule
Budget and Resource assessment
Identify critical path
Kickoff end of plan
There is a formal end to planning. All team members are gathered and alerted to the start of execution. The communication plan is used to alert the sponsors and the larger number of employees that might be affected by the project.

16. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Selection
Description
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans

17. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Selection
Description
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans

18. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
High level tasks listed
Ask for lower level tasks
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans

19. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project schedule
Project budget
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans

20. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project schedule
Project budget
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans

21. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Plans to reduce risk
Plans for disasters
Communication plan
Other management plans

22. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Plans to reduce risk
Plans for disasters
Communication plan
Other management plans

23. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Recipient, mode, frequency, responsibility
Other management plans

24. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Recipient, mode, frequency, responsibility
Other management plans
Recipient
What
Frequency
Mode
Responsibility
Medical executive committee
Project status
Monthly
Verbal report
Sponsor
Sponsors
Weekly
Written report
Project manager
Activity status
At start and weekly
Project team member

25. Elements of a Detailed Plan
Project team
Work plan
Time and cost of activities
Project risks
Communication plan
Other management plans
Scope management
Resource management
Quality management

26. Planning has many parts. Media plays an important role in them
Take Home Lesson
Planning has many parts. Media plays an important role in them
The take home lesson is simple. Successful project managers go beyond paper work and use media effectively in project initiation and planning. They include the customer’s voice in the reasons why the project was undertaken and they use media to report to different groups of stakeholders.