1. Key Concepts Planning Process Project Plan Work Breakdown Structure
Planning the Project
Key Concepts
Planning Process
Project Plan
Work Breakdown Structure

2. Project Management
Concerned with activities involved in ensuring that “project outcome” is delivered on time and on schedule and in accordance with the requirements of the organisations
Project management is needed because “special activities” are always subject to budget and schedule constraints that are set by the organisation developing the new product or service

3. Management Activities
Proposal writing.
Project planning and scheduling.
Project costing.
Project monitoring and reviews.
Personnel selection and evaluation.
Report writing and presentations.

4. The Elements of a Project Plan
Overview
Objectives
General Approach
Contractual Aspects
Schedules
Resource Requirements
Personnel
Evaluation Methods
Potential Problems

5. Two Key Elements Resource requirements
Personnel elements of a project plan
Physical resources

6. Project Staffing
May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to work on a project
Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff;
Staff with the appropriate experience may not be available;
An organisation may wish to develop employee skills on a project.
Managers have to work within these constraints especially when there are shortages of trained staff.

7. The Planning Process Pproject Manger’s First Job
Understand the expectations that the organisation has for the project.
Identify who among senior managers has a major interest in the project.
Determine if anything about the project is atypical.

8. Developing Invitation List
At least one representative from senior management.
Managers from functional areas that will contribute to the project.
Perhaps highly specialised technical experts.

9. The Launch Meeting Senior Management Introduces PM PM Chairs Meeting
develop general understanding of the functional inputs the project will need
may brainstorm the problem
may develop preliminary plan
Important Results
scope understood and temporarily fixed
functional managers understand their responsibilities and have committed to developing the initial plan

10. Project Planning
Probably the most time-consuming project management activity.
Continuous activity from initial concept through to system delivery. Plans must be regularly revised as new information becomes available.
Various different types of plan may be developed to support the main software project plan that is concerned with schedule and budget.

11. Types of Project Plan

12. Project Planning Process
Establish the project constraints
Make initial assessments of the project parameters
Define project milestones and deliverables
Draw up project schedule
Initiate activities according to schedule
Review project progress
Revise estimates of project parameters
Update the project schedule
Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables
If problems arise, then Initiate technical review and possible revision
End

13. The Project Plan The project plan sets out:
The resources available to the project;
The work breakdown;
A schedule for the work.

14. Project Plan Structure
Introduction.
Project organisation.
Risk analysis.
Hardware and software resource requirements.
Work breakdown.
Project schedule.
Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.

15. Sorting Out the Project
Hierarchical Planning Process
begin with project’s objectives
list major activities needed to achieve objectives (Level 1 Activities)
delegate level 1 activities to individuals or functional areas to develop list of Level 2 activities …
degree of detail should be same within a given level

16. Creating the Project Action Plan
Project activities identified and arranged in successively finer detail (by levels).
Type and quantity of each required resource identified for each activity.
Predecessors and durations estimated for each activity.
Milestones identified.
Individual or group assigned to perform the work identified for all activities.

17. Using the Project Action Plan
Project Master Schedule created by combining milestones, durations, and predecessors
used to compare actual and planned performance
Use of Templates

18. The Work Breakdown Structure
Simple Approach for Creating the WBS
Gather Project Team
Provide Team Members with Pad of Sticky-Notes
Team Members Write Down all Tasks They can Think of.
Sticky-Notes Placed and Arranged on Wall

19. Work Breakdown Structures
Work Breakdown Structure Diagram

20. Work Breakdown Structures
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Task 1
Subtask 1.1
Work Package 1.1.1
Work Package 1.1.2
Work Package 1.1.3
Subtask 1.2
Work Package 1.2.1
Work Package 1.2.2
Work Package 1.2.3
Task 2
Subtask 2.1
Work Package 2.1.1
Work Package 2.1.2
Work Package 2.1.3

21. Work Breakdown Structures

22. Top Down Decomposition, Elemental Tasks
WBS - Buy A House
Top Down Decomposition, Elemental Tasks

23. Simple Gantt Chart View
Buy a House
Simple Gantt Chart View

24. Organisational Diagrams
Work breakdown structure (WBS): Shows hierarchy of work products
PERT chart: Shows the order in which activities must be done (a partial order)
Gantt Chart or Schedule: Shows scheduling of work products as a function of time

25. Creating Work Packages
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Break up project into activities (phases, steps) and tasks.
The work breakdown structure does not show the interdependence of the tasks
Let's cover in a little bit more detail the work elements
First we begin by working to understand what the customer and users want. We list all the items that the customer expects to see during the development of the project. These items are called deliverables and can included anything the customer wants demonstrated or delivered as part of the project agreement.
Note that the Workbreakdown structure is very much like a to-do list. It is useful to use a word processor that allows an outline feature, or a project management tool to start with a to-do list. Listing all the to-dos and ordering them into a hierarchical relationship (Task A consists of the subtasks A1, A2, ...) is the first activity of producing a project plan.
The next step in the formulation of a project plan is to identify any dependencies between activities, tasks or functions. Note that dependency is another relation different from the “consists of” relation. Dependency is a relation between two tasks, activities or functions that denotes “must be preceded by”. If task A depends on another task B , in general it means that task B has to precede task A, otherwise task A cannot start or cannot get done.

26. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Diagram
Build communications software
System planning (1.0)
System design (2.0)
Coding (3.0)
Testing(4.0)
Delivery (5.0)
Review specification(1.1)
Top-level design (2.1)
Review budget (1.2)
Prototyping (2.2)
Review schedule(1.3)
User interface (2.3)
Develop plan (1.4)
Detailed design (2.4)
Source: Pleeger, ch. 3

27. Concurrent Engineering
“The simultaneous performance of product design and process design. Typically, concurrent engineering involves the formation of cross-functional teams. This allows engineers and managers of different disciplines to work together simultaneously in developing product and process design.”
Foster, S. Thomas. Managing Quality: An Integrative Approach. Upper Saddle River New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Concurrent engineering is the two disciples of product and process design working together to save time and resolve problems quickly.

28. Concurrent Engineering
“Concurrent engineering methodologies permit the separate tasks of the product development process to be carried out simultaneously rather than sequentially. Product design, testing, manufacturing and process planning through logistics, for example, are done side-by-side and interactively. Potential problems in fabrication, assembly, support and quality are identified and resolved early in the design process.”
Izuchukwu, John. “Architecture and Process :The Role of Integrated Systems in Concurrent Engineering.” Industrial Management Mar/Apr 1992: p
Another definition for concurrent engineering. This one specifically mentions the ideal nature of Concurrent Engineering to resolve problems quickly.

29. Concurrent Engineering
Carrying out steps concurrently rather than sequentially
also referred to as simultaneous engineering
Key Advantages
helps minimise conflict across functional groups
reduces project duration

30. Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent Engineering is about;
-Doing things simultaneously
-Focusing on the Process
-Converting hierarchical organisations into teams
CE holds some basic tenets, which are the goal of any organization which institutes CE. Experts report that the majority of manufacturing companies today are using CE and continually seeing improvement.

31. Concurrent Engineering
Basic Goals of Concurrent Engineering
-Dramatic improvements in time to market and costs
-Improvements to product quality and performance
-Do more with less
These are the goals that management should push to the teams involved in CE. Organizations instituting CE are looking to achieve in their production.

32. Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent Engineering = Teamwork
-The more communication exists, the better the project outcome
Balances Needs
-Customer, Supplier, Engineers, Marketing, and Manufacturing needs.
Almost by definition, CE is about teamwork. Communication is vitally important between all participating members and the more ideas that come together, the better the product, and profit, will ultimately be. Another important factor in CE is the balancing of needs…between customer, suppliers, engineers, marketing, and manufacturing.

33. Concurrent Engineering
Management
-Good management is vitally important
-Encourage communication
-Strong management support
When working with CE, management is a vitally important aspect. Good management can keep focus and open lines of communication. With weak management, CE groups tend to lose concentration on the goal.

34. Concurrent Engineering
3 Main Areas to Concurrent Engineering
1) People
2) Process
3) Technology
Most experts who analyze CE say that these 3 areas, People, Process, and Technology are the 3 main areas needed to successfully implement CE. All of these areas require thought and rethinking. Each area will be observed in detail on the following slides.

35. Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent Engineering: Simultaneous development of product and process.
Most important aspect is communication and formation of teams
Management support is vitally important
Don’t be afraid to change current processes and technologies
The basic thing to remember is that CE will allow you to simultaneously design your product and your process. It will allow you to solve problems quickly and at a fraction of the price. The most important aspect of CE is the people involved, the teams they form, and the communication between members. Management support helps the communication to move and keeps the group focused on the task at hand. Another important thing to remember is to not be afraid of change. Your current processes may not be appropriate for CE, so be willing to update your ideas

36. Activity Organisation
Activities in a project should be organised to produce tangible outputs for management to judge progress.
Milestones are the end-point of a process activity.
Deliverables are project results delivered to customers.
The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones.

37. Milestones

38. Project Scheduling
Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task.
Organise tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce.
Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete.
Dependent on project managers intuition and experience.

39. The Project Scheduling Process

40. Scheduling Problems
Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of developing a solution is hard.
Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a task.
Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads.
The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning.

41. Bar Charts and Activity Networks
Graphical notations used to illustrate the project schedule.
Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks should not be too small. They should take about a week or two.
Activity charts show task dependencies and the the critical path.
Bar charts show schedule against calendar time.

42. Task Durations and Dependencies

43. Activity Network

44. Activity Timeline

45. Staff Allocation