How to initiate , plan a project

1. The first phase in project lifecycle is the initiation phase :

In this phase , the project manager must learns the objectives of the project , the business
reasons for which it was selected , information about the project deliverables , timeline , and
budget and gains approval to proceed with the project .

The project charter is the key of the initiation phase , the initiation phase is an important phase
to the project because it lays the foundation for the reasons the project is undertaken and the
primary business benefits and goals the project is expects to achieve . this phase solidifies
these elements and ensures all stakeholders are in agreement about the reasons and objectives
for the project . It also serves as an acknowledgement by management of the resources
required to deliver the project, including the budget, the schedule, and the scope.

After an organization selects their portfolio of the project , they must initiate the project .

In this case the project manager is selected to lead the project . The first task for the project
manager is to collect information from the team for and to write the Project charter.

The project Charter is a document issued by the project initiator ,it’s used to capture the
purpose of the project , the objectives , key requirements , major milestones , resources
required , major risks and key stakeholders . the project charter serve as the launching point
for beginning the planning phase of the project as it provides the basis for the project as agree
to by the key stakeholders .

The misunderstanding of a project lead to a disaster that's why the project should not be
initiated out of a whim or without clear understanding of what is to be accomplished .

A project creates something ( product , service , result ) .The project manager will not able to
effectively articulate the cost schedule or scope of the project. Not only should it articulate
what is to be created, but also the expected benefits of what it is creating , if the project
charter will not be Cleary outline .By understanding the aim and the objective of the project ,
the project manager can start to outline the work and the resources required to achieve the
stated objective . The project charter it is not meant to be a full project plan , but it represent a
high level description of the project that provides the basis from which more detailed planning
will ensue . As an analogy, if you have ever cut into an onion, you see that there are multiple
layers of onion that can be peeled away as you get closer and closer to the center. Outlining a
project works similarly in that we start with the high level description - the outer layer - which
is embodied in the Project Charter . As we work through the Planning Phase, we can begin to
articulate more and more detail as to how the project will unfold and how it will be managed
to meet the project objectives, scope, budget, and timeline - similar to peeling away the layers
of an onion. Before we explore how to create a Project Charter, we will discuss the role of
Stakeholders and Sponsors on a project .
A good technique to use when writing your objectives is the SMART technique.

 S stands for specific and clearly stated.

 M stands for measurable or quantifiable.
 A stands for achievable. It can realistically be accomplished.
 R stands for relevant. It has benefit to the business.
 T stands for time bound.

2. The second phase of the project is the planning phase it’s the most critical for the
project :

The creation of the project plan :

Defining the scope of work .

Defining the cost and budget .
Defining the schedule .
Preparing the project plan .

To begin the Planning Phase for the project, we must assemble the project team and get into
more detail as to the work required to deliver the project objectives, requirements, and
deliverables as promised in the Project Charter. At this point, the Project Manager should
assemble the project team using the outline of resources as defined in the Project Charter.
Care must be taken to ensure the team has the appropriate skill levels needed to prepare the
plan and deliver the project commitments. The entire project team may not be engaged in the
planning effort, however, the key or most critical team members must be engaged in the
planning.

Once the team is assembled, coordinating a project kickoff meeting or project startup meeting
is an excellent way to begin the planning process.

The purpose of this meeting is to bring the team together to review the Project Charter and
ensure everyone understands why the project has been initiated and what it is intended to
deliver. This is an excellent opportunity to include the project Stakeholders and the Sponsor.
It gives the entire team an opportunity to get to know each other and start to build the
important interpersonal and team relationships necessary for project success. The kickoff
meeting is intended to establish how the team will complete the planning process and/or to
begin the planning process. Sometimes these initial meetings can be several hours or several
days in length depending on the complexity of the project and agenda. It is common for a
project team to take a full week together to outline the entire Project Plan. By creating this
outline together, the team establishes a common understanding of the work to be completed
and gives the team the opportunity to detail out the scope of work to be performed.
 Defining the Scope of Work

In order to build our Project Plan, we need to start by clearly defining the scope of work.. The
reason we start with the scope that’s because the scope defines the work that must be done to
deliver a product with the specific features and functions ,also the scope of work is the first
constrain and the basis for the budget that we will require as well as the schedule of the
activities we need to complete. We cannot build a comprehensive budget without knowing
what we will be doing, and we cannot build a comprehensive schedule without knowing the
tasks and activities we need to complete. So, by starting with the scope of work, we can build
the details of the project. As Stephen Covey stated in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People® * "Begin with the end in mind...It is your plan for success. It ... puts your goals in
focus and moves your ideas into the real world."

By establishing this focus on results early in the Planning Phase, this keeps the project team
and Stakeholders focused on the objectives and achieving the results of the project. This focus
enables team cohesiveness and keeps the discussion around project scope focused.

The project's scope defines the project in terms of what will be produced (the deliverables)
and all the work required in order to produce the project deliverables. Scope must be defined
in a way that all project objectives and requirements can be met .

The scope includes the work necessary to manage the project as well as deliver the results of
the project. As such, We need to make sure that we understand what we offer - what is the
product, service, or result that will be created and what requirements must that
product/service/result meet. In the end, only the work defined in the scope will be delivered.

To define the scope of work, we will create three key deliverables that will be included in our
project plan:
o The Requirements documentation,
o The Scope Statement
o The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

o The Requirements documentation

In order to effectively understand the scope of work, we must understand what is being
delivered in the project. Not just the final or end deliverable, but also any incremental or
ancillary deliverables as well. This also includes any deliverables needed to execute the
project (such as the elements of the Project Plan). Collecting requirements for the project
began in the Initiation Phase. The Project Charter contains some high level requirements that
can be used as a starting point for planning, however, they are not all inclusive of all types of
requirements.

Requirements will generally fall in the following categories (this is not an exhaustive list):

 Product technical or functional requirements

  Project process/management requirements
 Quality or performance requirements (for the project and product)
 Business or organizational requirements (for the project and product)
 Support or operational requirements (for the product)
 Profitability or sales/marketing requirements (for the product) .

Documenting Requirements

All requirements are collected, documented, reviewed, prioritized, and approved by the
Stakeholders. These requirements become the basis from which the work activities (or tasks)
are defined for the scope that needs to be delivered. This is often times collected in a
deliverable called a Requirements Traceability Matrix. The * Requirements Traceability
Matrix is "a grid that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that
satisfy them." The Requirements Traceability Matrix provides a means to document each
requirement as well as which objective and deliverable it is associated with. It also provides
the means to document the agreed-to priority for each requirement. The matrix is a simple
table that allows the requirement to be traced from the Planning Phase all the way through
Execution and Closure.
Below is an example of a blank Requirements Traceability Matrix:

Example of a Requirements Traceability Matrix

Prioritizing Requirements Once requirements are collected they often need to be prioritized.
A technique to prioritize requirements is called the MoSCoW method. Each requirement is
prioritized as Must Have, Should Have, Could Have or Won't Have.
 Must Have requirements are critical and must be included in the project in order to
meet objectives.

 Should Have requirements are important and should be included in the project if time
and budget allow, or otherwise be delivered at a later date, perhaps in the next release of the
product, as an example.

 Could Have requirements are nice to have if they can be included, but the project can
still be delivered and can still meet project objectives without these requirements included.

 Won't Have requirements are agreed to by the Stakeholders, from the outset, that they
will not be included in the project or product delivery at this time but can be revisited in the future.

o The Scope Statement

A key document to define the scope of the project is the Project Scope Statement. The Project
Scope Statement is similar to the Project Charter in that it defines the objectives and
deliverables for the project. However, the Scope Statement is prepared during the Planning
Phase, and as such, will be more detailed than the Project Charter.

As we progressively identify the details of the project in the Planning Phase, we are able to
define the scope of work for our Project Plan. The Project Scope Statement must be detailed
enough so that Stakeholders understand what will be delivered in the project and that they can
confirm that the scope accurately represents the objectives and requirements for the project.
The Project Scope Statement typically also includes information on the deliverables that will
be produced as well as acceptance criteria and exclusions.

o Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

Once the Project Manager and project team have documented the requirements and Project
Scope Statement (with assistance and input from Stakeholders), the next step is to document
all the work that must be completed in order to deliver the Project Scope. This detailed level
list of work is called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The * Work Breakdown Structure
is "a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project
team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables."

The WBS is a key tool that project managers can use to define and manage scope

Defining the cost and budget .

Once we have our fully developed WBS, we can begin building the Project Budget. The
Project Budget is the cost element of the Triple Constraint. Costs are allocated to the project
at the activity level and includes all costs associated with the completion of each activity.
Additionally, a budget often times includes costs for contingency to deal with uncertainties in
the project or possible changes in the project during execution. By linking costs to the
activities in the project, we can establish a time phased view of the budget for the project. We
began by defining our deliverables, Work Packages, and activities. We identified activity
sequencing, resources, durations, and effort. By allocating our costs to each activity, we will
have a fully detailed and time-phased project budget that will align to the project schedule and
to the deliverables of the project scope. As such, the project budget contains all the costs and
project funding necessary to complete the defined scope of work by the scheduled dates.

Estimating Techniques : There are multiple techniques that can be used for estimating costs:

1- Bottom-up estimating, including activity cost estimating. Bottom-up estimating is

done at the lowest level of the WBS and costs are aggregated upwards. As the name
infers, activity cost estimating assigns costs to each activity in the WBS. We already have
identified all the activities required to deliver the project and we have assigned resources
to each activity including personnel, materials, equipment, and supplies. By estimating
the cost of each activity, these costs can be aggregated up to determine the overall project
cost. Estimating at the activity level requires that the people doing the estimating must be
familiar with the activity as they will use their best judgment based on experience or use
information from similar activities on other projects to determine the cost. The Project
Manager needs to ensure that those preparing the estimates at the activity level are those
that are most familiar with the activity.

A variation of bottom-up estimate is Three Point Estimating. Instead of using one estimate

for each activity, three estimates are provided. The concept of using three estimates is to
allow for uncertainty and risk associated with the activities in a project. three estimates are
provided for each activity as follows:

 Most likely: this is the estimate that represents the most likely resources will be
assigned that can complete the work in a realistic time frame.

 Optimistic: this is the estimate that represents the fastest that the activity can be
completed assuming no unexpected interference, risk or uncertainty.

 Pessimistic: this is the estimate that represents the worst case scenario where risk and
uncertainty create delays in activity completion.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Bottom-up technique

The advantage of this process is that it encourages participative management and creates a
more accurate estimate because of the detail level of the estimate. The disadvantage of this
process is that it consumes a good amount of time and effort on the part of those
contributing to the estimates.
 2- Top-down estimating, including parametric, analogous, group decision making, and
software estimating. Top-down estimating determines costs at the project level or
deliverable level and allocates costs downward to the detailed activities.

 Parametric estimating:

Is an estimating technique in which an algorithm is used to calculate cost or duration based on

historical data and project parameters." Parametric estimating can be used when there is a
known cost per unit based on historical data. For example, in the construction industry,
construction companies maintain historical data of the costs of their buildings based on
parameters such as square footage or square meters. They may also keep historical records of
variations in cost per square meter based on the location or size of the building. By using this
historical data, construction companies are able to quickly determine the estimated cost for a
similar building.

 Analogous estimating :

Analogous estimating is a technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a

project using historical data from a similar activity or project." Analogous estimating is a
technique that can be used by reviewing past similar projects. It can only be used if there is
ample historical information available of the actual costs of similar projects. The project must
be sufficiently similar in order to provide some confidence in the accuracy of the estimate. An
example could be if you are planning to move to a new apartment and you know your friend
recently moved to a new apartment, you can ask them what it cost.

 Groupe decision making

A group decision making technique such as the Delphi Method can be used. In this method a
panel of experts are used to create estimates via iterative facilitated consensus-building
sessions. This process will produce a cost estimate for the project based on the consensus
view of the expert opinions from those with knowledge and experience in similar type
projects.

 Software estimating

Software estimating is a technique that uses a software package or program that is driven by
project historical information, statistical analysis and/or simulations. The software determines
the estimate for a project based on set characteristics or criteria and estimates are analyzed by
providing a probability of success for each estimate.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the TOP-Down technique

The advantage of top-down estimating techniques is that they can be done fairly quickly
with basic information about the project. As such, they can be done to provide guidance in the
project selection process or in the development of the Project Charter to establish initial
 budgeting expectations and requirements for the project. The disadvantage of top-down
estimating techniques is that they tend to be less accurate than bottom-up techniques.

Defining the schedule .

The information about creating the WBS can now be used to build our project schedule .

Critical Path Method :

The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a common network diagramming method used to
determine the project schedule. CPM is a method used to estimate the minimum project
duration and determine the amount of scheduling flexibility on the logical network paths
within the schedule model. This method used to prepare the project schedule. It is also a
common method used in scheduling software tools such as Microsoft® Project. CPM involves
identifying which activities are critical and must be completed on schedule or it will delay the
entire project.

The steps for the Critical Path Method:

1. Create a network diagram and determine network paths.

2. Perform the Forward Pass.

3. Determine critical activities, float, and the critical path.

4. Perform the Backward Pass.

 if the Sponsor and management believe the delay is unacceptable, then the Project Manager
has three choices to attempt to bring the project back to the original day
duration: Crashing, Fast Tracking, or Scope Reduction.