Planning the project Project Management (lecture)

Planning the project
Project Management
(lecture)
• Strategic plans:
– Focus on the big picture
– Long term goals (2-5 years)
– „What?” & „Why?”
• Tactical plans:
– Focus on the operations
– Short term goals (1-18 months)
– „How?”
Hierarchy of plans
Strategic and tactical
levels of planning
Strategic and tactical
levels of planning
• Strategy provides a framework for the tactics.
Tactical plans should fit the needs of the
strategy.
• To permit effective tactical decision making
strategy should be:
–
–
–
–
Explicit
Intelligible (easy to understand)
Capable of accepting change
Capable of being monitored
• Tactical plans on higher levels act as ‘strategies’
for lower levels in the organisation.
Opportunity cost
• That which is sacrificed by choosing or
failing to adopt a different course of action
to that which is currently planned to be
taken;
=
• the value of the next best alternative
foregone (that is not chosen).
The project plan
• In its simplest form:
„it is an attempt at the timetable for ALL the activities which
make up the project”.
• As a minimum, it sets out:
– ‘how’
– ‘who does what’
– ‘when’
• A more sophisticated plan also states:
– ‘what quality’
– ‘what cost and resources’
• Its preparation is an iterative process with continuous
reviewing and updating throughout the life of the project (it is
never static document but a working tool).
Detailing the plan
• Amount of details included should vary in
time.
• Short term: fully detailed
• The short-term horizon is moving forward
(the plan become more-and-more
detailed).
Who is responsible for the
project plan?
• The project manager and the project
management team
• With the advice and assistance of:
– the project sponsor
– the customer
– and other stakeholders
Elements of project planning
1. Project goals (Project SOW):
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Project management plan
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
Project network (connections of tasks)
Responsibility assignment
Project schedule (timetable)
Budget (resources & costs)
Risk assessment and risk management
Iterative process
– Project product specifications, costs,
quality, deadlines, project deliverables etc.
Statement of Work (SOW)
SOW for the whole project:
a detailed narrative description of the work required
for a project. Can be written in the form of a legal
contract, if we do the project for an other organisation.
The effective SOW contains:
1. Introduction and background
2. Technical description
3. Timeline and milestones
4. Client expectations
There are SOWs for subprojects and even tasks, too.
Statement of Work for the tasks
within the project
• Describes the activities in the tasks in sufficient
detail.
• Content:
–
–
–
–
–
–
estimated durations
resources required
costs
measures of perfomance (performance indicators)
risks and uncertainties
reporting procedures
Project deliverables (milestones)
• a list of things or activities that need to be
delivered to meet the defined goals
• when and how each item or activity must
be delivered
• an estimated delivery date for each item
or activity
Work Breakdown Structure
• Similar to the assembly (Gozinto) charts.
• A tool used to define and group a project's discrete work
elements (tasks) in a way that helps organize and define
the total work scope of the project.
• The project is divided into hierarchical groups of tasks
(work packages, and work units).
• Tasks, work packages and work units should be
budgetable (money, labor hours, and other resources).
• The technique of creating a WBS is non-uniform.
Assembly chart (Gozinto chart)
example
Example of a WBS
Original slide is from the internet
Possible levels in a WBS
Project
Sub-projects
Deliverables
Sub-deliverables
Work packages
Work units
Another WBS example
Another example of WBS:
“Holiday”
holiday
travel
documents
passport
booking
tickets
insurance
choose
resort
household
confirm
brochures
Original slide is from the internet
cat!
Discussion question
• What is the greatest difference between a
Gozinto and a WBS chart?
GANTT charts
• Named after Henry Gantt (1861 - 1919) an
American mathematical engineer.
• A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that
illustrates a project schedule.
• Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates
of the work elements (tasks) of a project.
• Elements of a GANTT chart:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Task names
Start and finish dates of each tasks (graphically)
Dependency relationships
Task duration in an additional column
Lag relationships (start-to-start, finish-to-start etc.)
Name of the project worker responsible for the task or
Resource specifications
other
GANTT chart example
ID
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8
9
10.
11.
Activities
Who
is
respo
nsible
?
1.
2.
3.
Time intervals
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Benefits of the GANTT chart
• Easy to read and comprehend
• Easy to create
• Identify the project network coupled with
its schedule baseline
• Allow for updating and project control
• Useful for resource planning
Limitations
• Can become quite unwieldy for projects
with too many activities.
• Projects are often too complex for a Gantt
chart.
• Gantt charts represent only a part of the
project constraints.
• The technique of creating a GANTT
depends on the features of the project.
GANTT chart example
Some Gantt charts also show the dependency
relationships between activities.
activities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
time
GANTT chart example
GANTT chart example
Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule
status using percent-complete shadings, or colour
lines and a vertical "TODAY" line.
Activities
time
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
today
Readings
• Lockyer – Gordon (2005) Chapter 4
Seminar exercises
Opportunity cost
1.
There are two alternative project. Only one of them can be selected.
– Project ‘A’ has an expected net cash flow of 100.
– Project ‘B’ has an expected net cash flow of 80.
What is the opportunity cost of choosing project ‘A’?
What is the opportunity cost of choosing project ‘B’?
2.
There are 3 investment opportunities with given expected net cash
flow:
‘A’ = 300; ‘B’ = 250; ‘C’ = 150.
Only one investment can be made. Which one should be
selected, and what is its opportunity cost?
3.
Someone has 1000 HUF. It can be deposited at a bank (interest is
15%). What is the opportunity cost of not investing?
WBS problem solving 1
• There is a marketing-research project containing a focus
group interview and a questionnaire survey with 200
responders. The survey is based on the analysis of the focus
group results.
• For the focus we have to gather the participants (7 days),
organize the event (place, time, equipment etc. – 2 days),
implement the interview (1 day), record the interview (2
days), analyse it (3 days) and write a brief research report for
the client/sponsor (1 day).
• For the survey we have to construct the questionnaire (2
days),test and modify it (1 day), do the sampling (2 day),
train the interviewers (1 day), fieldwork (2 days), record the
data (1 day), analyse the data (2 days) and write the final
study (3 days).
• The project manager want to keep a 5 days buffer time for
safety at the end of the project.
WBS problem solving 2
Plot a Gozinto and a WBS chart for the next project:
• Main task: prepare lunch with 2 dishes.
• The 1st course requires 2 main groups of ingredients
(A & B) that should be bought separately (time to buy
is 30 mins per ingredient-group). Cooking is 1 hr.
• The 2nd dish requires 3 group of ingredient (A, C &
D), procurement time is the same). Cooking needs 1.5
hrs.
• Cleaning after cooking needs 20 mins for 1 person, 10
mins for 2 people.
Gantt exercise
• Given the marketing research project plot
a Gantt chart with the following
information:
– Task names
– Task durations
– Time schedule
• Use a backward planning (deadline is the
30th day) and try to reach the shortest
total project time (TPT).
GANTT exercise 2
• Given the WBS from the lunch-making-project
and the additional information that there are two
identical project workers (X and Z) who can
work simultaneously, plot a simple GANTT
chart with the following content:
– Task names
– Time schedule
(time units are 10 minutes long)
– Task durations
– Denominate the person in charge for every task
• Simultaneous work is possible.
GANTT exercise 2
• How long is the full project?
• Denote the precedence relationships in
the chart!
GANTT exercise 3
• Show the schedule status on the GANTT
chart for the same project after 80 minutes
if:
• All the A, B and C ingredients are bought,
but the purchase of ingredient D is only
67% complete.
• The 1st course is already half-cooked, but
the „operations” on the 2nd dish could not
started yet.
GANTT exercise 4
• Plot a new chart with the same data but with real
times within a day. The following information are
added:
• The market, where the ingredients should be
bought is open only from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and
the earliest is the better.
• The lunch preparations (including the cleaning)
should be ready exactly at noun (12 a.m.).
Thanks for the attention!