Chapter-8: Project Planning

1.
2.
3.
4.

Purpose
Project plan elements
Action Plan
WBS and its procedures

1. Purpose of Project Planning

Primary purpose is to establish a set of
directions in sufficient details to tell the project
team exactly
(i) What must be done,
(ii)(ii) when it must be done,
(iii)(iii)what resources will be required to produce
each deliverable successfully &
(iv)when each resources will be needed.
The deliverables are the scope or specifications.
The scope includes the time and cost required
to complete the project. The project must be

designed to meet specific objectives

Provision for risks and uncertainty

2. Project Plan Elements

The process of developing plan contains the
following:
Background: short description of the background in
which the project will be implemented and problem
statement
Objectives and scope: detailed statement of general
goals including technical. It also deals with
competitive aims.
General approach: managerial and technical
approaches to the work. Technical approach describes
the relationship of the project to available
technologies, while managerial , takes any note of
any deviation.

contd

Contractual obligations: complete list and

descriptions of all reporting requirements, customersupplied resources, liaison arrangements, advisory
committees, project review and cancellation
procedures, proprietary requirements, specific
management agreements as well as the technical
deliverables and their specifications, delivery
schedules and procedures for changing the above,
etc.
Schedules: Each task is listed, time required, person
responsible and predecessor relationship
Resources: One time costs are separated from
recurring project costs. Also should include cost
monitoring and controlling procedure.

Contd
Personnel: Personnel requirements, their
education and qualification, their skills,
training needs, recruitment procedures,
consultants, if needed. Requirements by
time-phase;
Risk management plan: potential risks
and their mitigation plan
Monitoring and Evaluation (method).
Every activity should be monitored
against the target regularly. The project
will be evaluated at certain period of time.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS is the process of dividing the project activities
into small elements, which may illustrate how each
activity contributes to the whole in terms of
performance, responsibility, budget, and schedule.
General steps:
list the task breakdown in successively finer
levels of detail and continue until all meaningful
tasks or work packages;
for each work package , identify the data relevant
to WBS: vendors, duration, equipment, materials,
special specifications. List the personnel and
organization responsible & approval and reporting
procedure

Contd:
all work package information should
be reviewed with the individuals &
organizations responsible for doing or
supporting the work;
total project costs should consist of 4
elements: (i) direct budget, (ii) indirect
budget that would consist of general &
administrative overhead costs,
marketing costs, potential penalty
charges, et., (iii) project contingency
for unexpected emergencies; (iv) any
residual that may include profit;

Contd.
schedule information and milestone events
can be aggregated into a projected baseline
schedule.
as the project is carried out step by step, the
PM can continually examine actual resource
use by work element, work package, task and
so on up to the full project level;
finally the project schedule may be subjected
to the same comparisons as the project budget.
Actual progress is compared with scheduled
progress by work element, package, task and
complete project to identify problems and take
corrective actions.