Planning is of major importance to a project because the project involves doing something which has not been done before. The amount of planning performed should be commensurate with the scope of the project and the usefulness of the information developed.

Whenever possible, the project team members should be identified before creating the project plan. The project manager should first identify the key staff skills that are needed on the project, then determine which resources best provide those skills. Sometimes the desired resources may not be available, and the project manager must take care to ensure that the resources, which are available, will meet project requirements. Selecting the team early in the phase will improve the accuracy of estimates and eliminate some risks by building them into the project plan. Refer to the Team Member Selection Process for more detailed information. To ensure team success, team guidelines, a meeting schedule, and status reporting standards should be decided upon after the group is first formed.

Once the team is assembled, the content/functionality of the final deliverable to the customer can be determined. Stakeholders---resources (people, groups, institutions) that can influence the success of the project--- should be identified and their importance assessed through the use of a stakeholder analysis. Customer as well as other stakeholder input is essential to establish their expectations and desires for the product and to agree on communication updates throughout the project. Internal AIS customers as well as the long-term home (or support) team for the product should also be included to resolve issues pertaining to long-term support. When the final deliverable has been determined, a high-level plan of milestones can be developed. By expanding on what it will take to achieve the milestones (activities and tasks), the team should construct a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS can then be modified by sequencing the activities and adding durations after the necessary activities have been agreed upon.

When all activity information has been collected, allocated resources should be assigned to each activity. This will create an initial project schedule. At this point, the schedule may need to be revised to reflect the impact of allocated resources. Estimated one-time and recurring expenditures should also be documented when appropriate. Refer to the Planning and Budgeting Process section 5.6 for instructions regarding preparation of project budgets. Throughout the activity and resource definition activities, risks should be looked at as possible additional constraints to the project. The risks should be identified so that appropriate responses can be developed and integrated into the schedule.

After the project schedule has been developed, the project plan should be assembled into a formal document for review with the project coach and stakeholders. At this point, the plan and the risks document may need further revisions to adapt to other project constraints. The review should consist of the following:

• Project Scope
• Description of the project
• Benefits of the project
• Responsibile Long-term Home Team
• Project deliverables
• Project Plans
• Milestones
• Schedule (task lists, Gantt and/or PERT charts)
• Resource requirements
• Assumptions
• Cost Estimates (Be sure to include out-of-pocket expenses such as training or hardware/software expeditures)
• Risks and Open Issues

Once the plan is accepted, establish the baseline plan and notify the Budget and Planning Team of the project's planned start and end dates so that the AIS Operational Plan or the AIS Organizational Development Plan can be updated.

Inputs

Project Proposal Form

The updated project proposal form offers information that is essential for developing the project plan. This document should be reviewed for relevant information, such as the defined scope of the project, deadlines, and assumptions. The location of the proposals on the AIS LAN can be found in Additional Resources under the section titled AIS Project Management Libraries.

Historical Information

Information on performance and outcomes of similar projects is useful in the planning phase. Reviewing these aspects of past projects (stored in the AIS Project Archives and Post Project Reviews, see the section AIS Project Management Libraries in Additional Resources for AIS LAN locations) with related team members and project managers could provide valuable insight to plan this project more successfully.

Outputs

Project Plan

A project plan is a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, to facilitate communication among stakeholders, and to document cost and schedule baselines.

A project plan is prepared by the project manager with input from the project team, and should be reviewed and approved by the project coach and stakeholders. It describes what the team plans to produce (milestones and deliverables), the sequence of activities required to produce it, and what resources are needed to complete the activities. The project plan and supporting materials must be stored and maintained in the project’s official subdirectory of project documents (see the section Additional Resources, AIS Project Management Libraries for the AIS LAN location). The project manager must request the creation of the project subdirectory by the AIS Department Systems and Services Team.

The AIS Project Plan Policy states: "A project plan will be produced for every active project that requires a project proposal form based on effort and visibility, but not necessarily based on funding requirements. The project plan must be prepared and maintained using Microsoft Project, so a PERT or Gantt chart can be generated, as needed."

It is suggested that a PERT chart be used for AIS presentation purposes and a Gantt chart be used for communication within the project team and with stakeholders. The information being communicated will determine the tool best to use.

Risks and Open Issues

Risk identification consists of determining which risks are likely to affect the project and documenting the characteristics of each. Identified risks should also have an organized and planned response. A tool to assist in determining the risks and responses is Force Field Analysis. Refer to the AIS TQS training materials and the included Memory Jogger for details on how to use this tool.

The risks and responses should be documented for reference in the event of the implementation of the response. When the project plan is developed, care should be taken to review the risks and integrate them into the plan. An example is adding specific tasks to the project plan that are designed to reduce or eliminate the identified risk.

Risks that do not have an identified response are known as open issues. Any remaining open issues should be documented and tracked as the project progresses.

For further information on risk management, including how to conduct a risk analysis, examples of risk-related questions to consider, and sample templates of risk management documents, please refer to the Additional Resources section on Risk Management.

Stakeholder Analysis Document

Obtaining support and reducing obstacles from key stakeholders can greatly increase the likelihood of a successful project. Early on in the planning phase a list of all the people, groups, and institutions that will affect or be affected by the project should be identified, along with the specific interests they have in the project.

Using a stakeholder analysis tool, criteria are identified along with the importance/weight each criterion carries. Possible criteria include:

• Stakeholder interest(s) in the project
• Stakeholder attitude (positive or negative) toward the project
• Stakeholder influence on the project

Once criteria have been identified, each key stakeholder is assessed on each criterion and scores are recorded in a matrix designed for this purpose. When the data has been gathered, analyses can be performed to determine what impact the stakeholder may potentially have on the success of the project. Strategies can then be developed and incorporated into the project plan to gain early support from the stakeholders and to minimize obstacles.

For further information on stakeholder analysis, including how to conduct a stakeholder analysis and samples of assessment criteria, please refer to the Additional Resources section on Stakeholder Analysis.

Project Team Identified

The project team members should be identified early in the planning phase. This involves getting the required human resources assigned to and working on the project.

Project Ground Rules

To ensure team success, the project team should establish a set of project ground rules that will guide and regulate the team's activities. Refer to the document called "sample project ground rules.doc" located at J:\share\dept\process\project management process for a sample of project ground rules.
Click here to view a PDF Version.

Team Meeting Ground Rules

To ensure team success, the project team should establish a set of meeting ground rules that will guide and regulate the team's meetings. Refer to the document called "sample team meeting ground rules.doc" located at J:\share\dept\process\project management process for a sample of meeting ground rules.
Click here to view a PDF Version.

Tools and Techniques

Team Member Selection Process

The Team Member Selection Process should be used to identify project team members from within AIS that have the skills needed to complete project activities.

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is project management software. Project management software assists project managers by providing a means for organizing project information. A project manager uses the software to enter and maintain a workplan that organizes activities and details. The software calculates the scheduled dates for tasks based on the time or work requirements of each task using a calendar of working days for the project and its resources.

Microsoft Project is a tool to assist project managers in creating a WBS, PERT Charts, Gantt Charts, and resource histograms. Other reports and charts are also readily available for use and customization. AIS project team members and managers should use the latest version.

Activity Decomposition

Decomposition involves subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components until the deliverables are defined in sufficient detail to support project phases.

Decomposition involves the following major steps:

1. Identify the milestones of the project.
2. Decide if adequate cost and duration estimates can be developed at this level of detail for each milestone. If these estimates cannot be determined, the activities should be decomposed into smaller tasks and reviewed for adequate estimates.
3. Identify the elements of the deliverable for all decomposed milestones in tangible, verifiable results in order to facilitate performance measurement.
4. Verify the correctness of the decomposition.

PERT/CPM

Network analysis techniques identify early and late start and finish dates for the uncompleted portions of project activities. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM) are examples of network analysis techniques.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is an event-oriented technique used to show all the project tasks, dependencies, and earliest and latest start times for each task in graphical form. It is used to estimate project duration when there is a high degree of uncertainty with the individual activity duration estimates.

The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a technique used to predict project duration by analyzing which sequence of activities (which path) has the least amount of scheduling flexibility (the least amount of float). The critical path identifies the activities in the project plan which have the most potential to delay the project end date.

Time and Cost Estimating Techniques

Estimating work times provides several benefits for the project manager. It gives an idea of the level of effort required to complete a project. This information then enables the project manager to produce a realistic plan based upon that effort. Estimating also helps the project manager anticipate the budget for the project.

There are many formal techniques available to estimate time and cost for activities. Please refer to the Project Management Reference Section for more details on these techniques. Anyone reviewing these estimates should understand that they are approximations, not accuracies.

Although the formal techniques are very specific, most of them have the following tasks in common:

• Break activities down into small pieces for easier and more accurate estimation. (WBS)
• Review historical information and compare to current activities.
• Include a contingency buffer for potential risks.
• Solicit advice from others that have previously completed similar activities.
• Identify and document the assumptions and parameters used to derive the estimates.

Expert Judgement

Expert judgement will often be required throughout this phase. Such expertise may be provided by any group or individual with specialized knowledge or training and is available from many sources including:

• Personal experience
• Other teams within AIS
• Vendors
• Universities with similar projects

Project Management References

This includes tips, AIS-specific reference materials, document locations, training classes, books, articles, and other materials as mentioned in the Additional Resources section of this document.

Project Templates

An activity list, or a portion of an activity list from a previous project, is often usable as a template for a new project. In addition, the activity list for a WBS element from the current project may be usable as a template for other similar WBS elements. Project templates may also be available for specific types of projects in the project template subdirectory. See Additional Resources (section AIS Project Management Libraries) for the AIS LAN location of the templates subdirectory.

Resource Sharing

The project manager may need additional resources for the project in order to meet the project deadline dates. Refer to AIS Planning and Budgeting Process - Resource Sharing, section 7.2 for guidelines.