1. Planning phase in Construction Project Management
ALI MOOSA TAQI

2. Introduction
A project is temporary, unique, and the product of a multifaceted and progressively elaborated process that produces a solution for a specific objective for the endeavor to be successful, the project must be accomplished on time within budget, and to the appropriate degree required to satisfy the objective. To achieve this aims must develop an integrate planning system for any construction project management especially in large and difficult type .

3. What is a Project?
A project is a unique endeavor to produce a set of deliverables within clearly specified time, cost and quality constraints [1] or project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Typically, a project is initiated by a person or organization that recognizes a business need or a specific problem needing resolution. When the business need or problem is defined, an initial concept is developed around potential solutions. A true project is not just a set of tasks to be performed. By viewing the project in terms of a process that will achieve a desired end goal, the project manager breaks down the effort into a series of tasks. The completion of the tasks leads to the final solution (the product/service) of the project [2]

4. A project consists of the following characteristics:
Temporary Process: A project includes a set of temporary processes because once the end goal is achieved and the product is delivered, the project is completed. For this reason, the end point of a project or objective needs to be defined at the very beginning of the project to ensure successful completion.

5. 2. Well-defined Goals: Projects require well-defined goals to determine completion. Without well-defined goals and objectives, a project lacks purpose. The problem definition needs to be carefully crafted and well thought out. This will determine the project objective, focus, and approaches for resolution. The focus is generated in terms of milestones, deliverables, and requirements. Without a clearly defined focus and a stated objective, the project may stray off course (not solving the problem for which it was intended), or it may incur cost and time overruns and ultimately is unsuccessful .

6. 3. Project Constraints: All projects have constraints, and these need to be defined from the outset. Projects have resource limits in terms of people, money, time, and equipment. While these may be adjusted up or down, the project manager considers them fixed resources. These constraints form the basis for managing the project .

7. 4. Project Assumptions: Similarly, certain criteria relevant to a project are assumed to be essential. For instance, it is assumed that an organization will have the foresight to make the necessary budget appropriations to fund internal projects. Project assumptions need to be defined before any project activities take place so that time is not indiscreetly utilized on conceptualizing and initiating a project that has no basis for funding

8. What is Project Management?
Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements [2] . Or Project Management is the skills, tools and management processes required to undertake a project successfully [1].

9. What Project Management is not?
Project Management is not product development. A product development methodology deals with such issues as how you design a product, how you run tests, what kinds of qualifications must be met before the product can be sold, and so on. It deals mostly with design issues (engineering, programming, etc.). A project management method may be applied to non-product development projects, but a product development methodology can’t be applied to all projects .

10. Project phases The project life cycle consists of four phases [1]
Project initiation
Project planning
Project execution
Project closure

12. Planning
By now, the project costs and benefits have been documented in previous stages, the objectives and scope have been defined, the project team has been appointed and a formal project office environment established in first stage . It is now time to undertake detailed planning to ensure that the activities performed during the execution phase of the project are properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled. The activities below shown in Figure(2) [3]. Acquisition activities are performed, if necessary, to obtain contractor support. The project work is broken down into specific tasks and sub-tasks, including the identification of project deliverables and assignment of allocated resources to each task.

13. Control documents relating to that effort are produced
Control documents relating to that effort are produced. The degree of project management rigor that is to be applied to the project is determined and milestones are established. Specific plans for management and governance of the project are established and documented to guide ongoing project execution and control. The Planning Phase ends with a formal review during which the adequacy of the Project Management Plan is determined. In the planning phase, sufficient requirements detail is required to support the development of the project's Project Management Plan and permit outside validation of this deliverable. [4]

15. A Project Plan What is a Project Plan?
A project plan sets out the phases, activities and tasks needed to deliver a project. The timeframes required to deliver the project, along with the resources and milestones are also shown in the Project Plan. Using this Project Plan Template, you can quickly and easily create a comprehensive Project Management Plan for your project It is commonly used tasks needed to complete projects from start to finish [6]

16. When do I use a Project Plan Template?
A project plan template is filled in every time you wish to embark on a new project. A summarized Project Plan is usually created early in the life cycle, with a detailed Project Plan being created later the planning phase. The project plan is referred to constantly throughout the project. Every day, the project manager will review actual progress against that stated in the project plan, to ensure they are still on track. The project plan is therefore the most critical tool a manager can have to successfully deliver projects. The first step in the project planning phase is to document the project plan [5]

17. A ‘work breakdown structure’ (WBS) is identified which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken to complete the project. After the WBS has been, agreed, an assessment of the level of effort required to undertake each activity and task is made. The activities and tasks are then sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project plan is the key tool used by the project manager to assess the progress of the project throughout the project life cycle [5]

18. Create a project plan
The first step in the project planning phase is to document the project plan. A ‘work breakdown structure’ (WBS) is identified which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken to complete the project. After the WBS has been, agreed, an assessment of the level of effort required to undertake each activity and task is made. The activities and tasks are then sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project plan is the key tool used by the project manager to assess the progress of the project throughout the project life cycle [4].

19. A Resource Plan What is a Resource Plan?
A Resource Plan summarizes the level of resources needed to complete a project. A properly documented Resource Plan will specify the exact quantities of labor, equipment and materials needed to complete your project. The Resource Planning template also helps you gain approval from your Sponsor, ensuring their buy-in [5]

20. When do I use a Resource Plan?
A Resource Plan is created during the Resource Planning phase of the project. Anyone responsible for Project Resource Management will need to create a comprehensive Resource Plan, to ensure that all of the resources needed to complete the project are identified. By implementing proper Resource Planning practices, it also helps you with budgeting and forecasting project expenditure

21. Create a resource plan
Immediately after the project plan is formed, the level of resource required to undertake each of the activities and tasks listed within the project plan will need to be allocated. Although generic resource may have already been allocated in the project plan, a detailed resource plan is required to identify the: • Type of resource required, such as labour, equipment and materials; • Quantity of each type of resource required; • Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resource required; • Specifications of all equipment resource required; • Items and quantities of material resource required. A schedule is assembled for each type of resource so that the project manager can review the resource allocation at each stage in the project [4]

23. A Financial Plan What is a Financial Plan
A Financial Plan identifies the Project Finance (i.e. money) needed to meet specific objectives. The Financial Plan defines all of the various types of expenses that a project will incur (labor, equipment, materials and administration costs) along with an estimation of the value of each expense. The Financial Plan also summarizes the total expense to be incurred across the project and this total expense becomes the project budget. As part of the Financial Planning exercise, a schedule is provided which states the amount of money needed during each stage of the project [5,7]

24. When do I use a Financial Plan?
Whenever you need to ask for money, you need a sound Financial Plan showing how it will be consumed. For a Project Manager, getting Project Finance is one of the most critical tasks in the project. Therefore, sound Financial Planning principles must be followed to ensure a positive outcome. Using this Financial Plan template, you can create a detailed Financial Plan for your project. It will help you get the Project Finance needed to successfully deliver your project on time [5]

25. Create a financial plan
A financial plan is created to identify the total quantity of money required to undertake each phase in the project (in other words, the budget). The total cost of labour, equipment and materials is calculated and an expense schedule is defined which enables the project manager to measure the forecast spend versus the actual spend throughout the project. Detailed financial planning is an extremely important activity within the project, as the customer will expect the final solution to have been delivered within the allocated budget. [1]

26. A Scheduling Plan
We have been carefully studying the “Scheduling Plan” in a previous lecture (CM 3) .

27. A Quality Plan What is a Quality Plan?
A Quality Plan helps you schedule all of the tasks needed to make sure that your project meets the needs of your customer. It comprises two parts; the Quality Assurance(QA) Plan lists the independent reviews needed and the Quality Control (QC) Plan lists the internal reviews needed to meet your quality targets. By using Quality Assurance and Quality Control techniques, you can create a comprehensive Quality Management Plan for your project

28. When do I use a Quality Plan?
Creating a Quality Plan is essential if you want to provide the customer with confidence that you will produce a solution that meets their needs. The Quality Plan states everything you're going to do, to ensure the quality of your solution. The first section defines the Quality targets. The second section sets out a Quality Assurance Plan. And the third section defines a Quality Control Plan. By using the template, you can create a Quality Management Plan that gives your customer a high degree of confidence that you will succeed

29. Create a quality plan
Meeting the quality expectations of the customer can be a challenging task. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can reasonably be achieved, a quality plan is documented. The quality plan: • Defines the term for the project. • Lists clear and unambiguous quality targets for each deliverable. Each quality target provides a set of criteria and standards to be achieved to meet the expectations of the customer. • Provides a plan of activities to assure the customer that the quality targets will be met (in other words, a quality assurance plan).

30. Identifies the techniques used to control the actual quality level of each deliverable as it is built (in other words, a quality control plan)
Not only is it important to review the quality of the deliverables produced by the project, it is also important to review the quality of the management processes which produced them. A quality plan will summarize each of the management processes undertaken during the project, including time, cost, quality, change, risk, issue, procurement, acceptance and communications management [1].

31. A Risk Plan What is a Risk Plan?
A Risk Plan helps you to foresee risks, identify actions to prevent them from occurring and reduce their impact should they eventuate [5]. The Risk Management Plan is created as part of the Risk Planning process A plan that describes the risk management process, such as how the project goes about identifying, analyzing, and controlling project risk. The Risk Management Plan identifies how often risk assessments are done, who is responsible, and any tools and templates that are used [7].

32. When do I use a Risk Plan?
A Risk Plan should be used anytime that risks need to be carefully managed. For instance, during the startup of a project a Risk Plan is created to identify and manage the risk involved with the project delivery. The Risk Plan is referred to frequently throughout the project, to ensure that all risks are mitigated as quickly as possible. The Risk Plan template helps you identify and manage your risks, boosting your chances of success [5]

33. Create a risk plan
The next step is to document all foreseeable project risks within a risk plan. This plan also identifies the actions required to prevent each risk from occurring, as well as reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate. Developing a clear risk plan is an important activity within the planning phase, as it is necessary to mitigate all critical project risks prior to entering the execution phase of the project [1].

34. An Acceptance Plan What is an Acceptance Plan?
An Acceptance Plan (also known as an "Acceptance Test Plan") is a schedule of tasks that are required to gain the customers’ acceptance that what you have produced is satisfactory. It is more than just a task list though. An Acceptance Plan is in fact an agreement between PM and the customer, stating the acceptance tasks that will be undertaken at the end of the project to get their final approval. The Acceptance Plan includes a list of the deliverables, the acceptance test activities, the criteria and standards to be met, and the plan for their completion [5, Researcher]

35. When do I use an Acceptance Plan?
You should create an Acceptance Plan every time you need to produce a set of deliverables that require the customer's approval before completion. If the customer needs to approve anything, then you should agree upfront what actions will be taken to get their approval when the deliverables are complete. By creating an Acceptance Plan at the start of a project, it will save you time and hassle at the end, as the acceptance test actions will already have been pre-completed by the customer

36. Create an acceptance plan
To deliver the project successfully, you will need to gain full acceptance from the customer that the deliverables produced by the project meet or exceed requirements. An acceptance plan is created to help achieve this, by clarifying the completion criteria for each deliverable and providing a schedule of acceptance reviews. These reviews provide the customer with the opportunity to assess each deliverable and provide formal acceptance that it meets the requirements [1]

37. A Communication Plan What is a Communication Plan?
A Communication Plan (or Communications Plan) describes how you intend to communicate the right messages to the right people at the right time. Within a Communication Plan, the communication goals, stakeholders and strategies, activities and timeframes are described. A Communication Plan helps you keep everyone informed so that you can communicate a consistent message to your target audience [5,7]

38. When do I use a Communication Plan?
Whenever you have a variety of staff, external suppliers, customers and stakeholders to communicate with, then you should record your communications formally in a Communication Plan. A clear Communications Plan is vital to the success of an organization. It is also critical to the success of projects, as it ensures that all of the staff and stakeholders are kept properly informed of the progress of a project. The best time to perform Communication Planning is during the start up phase of a project. This will ensure your Communication Plan includes the tasks needed to communicate effectively throughout the entire project life cycle

39. Create a communications plan
Prior to the execution phase, it is also necessary to identify how each of the stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project. The communications plan identifies the types of information to be distributed to stakeholders, the methods of distributing the information, the frequency of distribution, and responsibilities of each person in the project team for distributing the information [4].

40. A Procurement Plan What is a Procurement Plan?
A Procurement Plan defines the products and services that you will obtain from external suppliers. A good Procurement Plan will go one step further by describing the process you will go through to appoint those suppliers contractually. Whether you are embarking on a project procurement or organizational procurement planning exercise, the steps will be the same. First, define the items you need to procure. Next, define the process for acquiring those items. And finally, schedule the timeframes for delivery [5,7]

41. When do I use a Procurement Plan?
It is advisable to create a Procurement Plan whenever you want to purchase items from suppliers. Using the Procurement Plan template, you can define the procurement requirements, identify potential suppliers, contract those suppliers and manage them to ensure delivery. Project Procurement Planning is critical to the success of any project. The Procurement Plan template helps you to perform these steps quickly and easily [5]

42. Create a procurement plan
The last planning activity within the planning phase is to identify the elements of the project to be acquired from external suppliers. The procurement plan provides a detailed description of the products (that is, goods and services) to be acquired from suppliers, the justification for acquiring each product externally as opposed to from within the business, and the schedule for product delivery. It also describes the process for the selection of a preferred supplier (the tender process), and the ordering and delivery of the products (the procurement process) [4].

43. References
1- Jason Westland (2006) (The Project Management Life Cycle) 120 Bentonville Road London N1 9JN United Kingdom /
2 Net work (Configuration Management Plan)/IDA-MS-CMP (2015) founded on
3- A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, 3rd. edition, (2004)
4- R. Max Wideman (2011) (Project Life Cycle) a book is a review by Wideman on a origin the project management life cycle by Westland 
5- Method123  2363 St. Davids Square Kennesaw, GA 30152, USA / 6-
7- Matt H. Evans Course 19: Managing Projects , founded on