Project management advanced 2021
Project Initiation & Planning: Scope,
Schedule, Resource, HR, Budget
Project Initiation
The project initiation phase is the first phase within the project
management life cycle, as it involves starting up a new project. Within the
initiation phase, the business problem or opportunity is identified, a
solution is defined, a project is formed, and a project team is appointed to
build and deliver the solution to the customer. A business case is created
to define the problem or opportunity in detail and identify a preferred
solution for implementation. The business case includes:
A detailed description of the problem or opportunity with
headings such as Introduction, Business Objectives,
Problem/Opportunity Statement, Assumptions, and Constraints
A list of the alternative solutions available
An analysis of the business benefits, costs, risks, and issues
A description of the preferred solution
Main project requirements
A summarized plan for implementation that includes a schedule
and financial analysis
The project sponsor then approves the business case, and the required
funding is allocated to proceed with a feasibility study. It is up to the
project sponsor to determine if the project is worth undertaking and
whether the project will be profitable to the organization. The completion
and approval of the feasibility study triggers the beginning of the planning
phase. The feasibility study may also show that the project is not worth
pursuing and the project is terminated; thus the next phase never begins.
All projects are created for a reason. Someone identifies a need or an
opportunity and devises a project to address that need. How well the
project ultimately addresses that need defines the project’s success or
failure.
The success of your project depends on the clarity and accuracy of your
business case and whether people believe they can achieve it. Whenever
you consider past experience, your business case is more realistic; and
whenever you involve other people in the business case’s development,
you encourage their commitment to achieving it.
Often the pressure to get results encourages people to go right into
identifying possible solutions with- out fully understanding the need or
what the project is trying to accomplish. This strategy can create a lot of
immediate activity, but it also creates significant chances for waste and
mistakes if the wrong need is addressed. One of the best ways to gain
approval for a project is to clearly identify the project’s objec- tives and
, Project management advanced 2021
describe the need or opportunity for which the project will provide a
solution. For most of us, being misunderstood is a common occurrence,
something that happens on a daily basis. At the restau- rant, the waiter
brings us our dinner and we note that the baked potato is filled with sour
cream, even though we expressly requested “no sour cream.” Projects are
filled with misunderstandings between cus- tomers and project staff. What
the customer ordered (or more accurately what they think they ordered) is
often not what they get. The cliché is “I know that’s what I said, but it’s not
what I meant.” The figure below demonstrates the importance of
establishing clear objectives.
The need for establishing clear project objectives cannot be overstated. An
objective or goal lacks clarity if, when shown to five people, it is
interpreted in multiple ways. Ideally, if an objective is clear, you can show
it to five people who, after reviewing it, hold a single view about its
meaning. The best way to make an objective clear is to state it in such a
way that it can be verified. Building in ways to measure achievement can
do this. It is important to provide quantifiable definitions to qualitative
terms.
The project charter
A project charter, project definition, or project statement is a statement of
the scope, objectives, and participants in a project. It provides a
preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project
objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of
the project manager. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of
the project.
The purpose of a project charter is to:
Provide an understanding of the project, the reason it is being
conducted, and its justification
Establish early on in the project the general scope
, Project management advanced 2021
Establish the project manager and his or her authority A note of
who will review and approve the project charter must be
included.
Overview of project planning
After the project has been defined and the project team has been
appointed, you are ready to enter the second phase in the project
management life cycle: the detailed project planning phase.
Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone
involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. The
planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project
deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is
created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through
the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created
during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk,
and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external
suppliers to ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget,
and within schedule.
The project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a
project manager, as you need to make an educated guess about the staff,
resources, and equipment needed to complete your project. You may also
need to plan your communications and procurement activities, as well as
contract any third- party suppliers.
The purpose of the project planning phase is to:
Establish business requirements
Establish cost, schedule, list of deliverables, and delivery dates
Establish resources plans
Obtain management approval and proceed to the next phase
The basic processes of project planning are:
Scope planning – specifying the in-scope requirements for the
project to facilitate creating the work breakdown structure
Preparation of the work breakdown structure – spelling out the
breakdown of the project into tasks and sub-tasks
Project schedule development – listing the entire schedule of the
activities and detailing their sequence of implementation
Resource planning – indicating who will do what work, at which
time, and if any special skills are needed to accomplish the
project tasks
Budget planning – specifying the budgeted cost to be incurred at
the completion of the project
Procurement planning – focusing on vendors outside your
company and subcontracting
, Project management advanced 2021
Risk management – planning for possible risks and considering
optional contingency plans and mitigation strategies
Quality planning – assessing quality criteria to be used for the
project
Communication planning – designing the communication strategy
with all project stakeholders
The planning phase refines the project’s objectives, which were gathered
during the initiation phase. It includes planning the steps necessary to
meet those objectives by further identifying the specific activ- ities and
resources required to complete the project. Now that these objectives
have been recognized, they must be clearly articulated, detailing an in-
depth scrutiny of each recognized objective. With such scrutiny, our
understanding of the objective may change. Often the very act of trying to
describe some- thing precisely gives us a better understanding of what we
are looking at. This articulation serves as the basis for the development of
requirements. What this means is that after an objective has been clearly
articulated, we can describe it in concrete (measurable) terms and identify
what we have to do to achieve it. Obviously, if we do a poor job of
articulating the objective, our requirements will be misdirected and the
resulting project will not represent the true need.
Users will often begin describing their objectives in qualitative language.
The project manager must work with the user to provide quantifiable
definitions to those qualitative terms. These quantifiable cri- teria include
schedule, cost, and quality measures. In the case of project objectives,
these elements are used as measurements to determine project
satisfaction and successful completion. Subjective evalua- tions are
replaced by actual numeric attributes.
Example 1
A web user may ask for a fast system. The quantitative requirement
should be all screens must load in under three seconds. Describing the
time limit during which the screen must load is specific and tangi- ble. For
that reason, you’ll know that the requirement has been successfully
completed when the objective has been met.
Example 2
Let’s say that your company is going to produce a holiday batch of
eggnog. Your objective statement might be stated this way: Christmas
Cheer, Inc. will produce two million cases of holiday eggnog, to be shipped
to our distributors by October 30, at a total cost of $1.5 million or less. The
objective criteria in this statement are clearly stated and successful
fulfillment can easily be measured. Stakeholders will know that the
objectives are met when the two million cases are produced and shipped
by the due date within the budget stated.
When articulating the project objectives, you should follow the SMART
rule:
Project Initiation & Planning: Scope,
Schedule, Resource, HR, Budget
Project Initiation
The project initiation phase is the first phase within the project
management life cycle, as it involves starting up a new project. Within the
initiation phase, the business problem or opportunity is identified, a
solution is defined, a project is formed, and a project team is appointed to
build and deliver the solution to the customer. A business case is created
to define the problem or opportunity in detail and identify a preferred
solution for implementation. The business case includes:
A detailed description of the problem or opportunity with
headings such as Introduction, Business Objectives,
Problem/Opportunity Statement, Assumptions, and Constraints
A list of the alternative solutions available
An analysis of the business benefits, costs, risks, and issues
A description of the preferred solution
Main project requirements
A summarized plan for implementation that includes a schedule
and financial analysis
The project sponsor then approves the business case, and the required
funding is allocated to proceed with a feasibility study. It is up to the
project sponsor to determine if the project is worth undertaking and
whether the project will be profitable to the organization. The completion
and approval of the feasibility study triggers the beginning of the planning
phase. The feasibility study may also show that the project is not worth
pursuing and the project is terminated; thus the next phase never begins.
All projects are created for a reason. Someone identifies a need or an
opportunity and devises a project to address that need. How well the
project ultimately addresses that need defines the project’s success or
failure.
The success of your project depends on the clarity and accuracy of your
business case and whether people believe they can achieve it. Whenever
you consider past experience, your business case is more realistic; and
whenever you involve other people in the business case’s development,
you encourage their commitment to achieving it.
Often the pressure to get results encourages people to go right into
identifying possible solutions with- out fully understanding the need or
what the project is trying to accomplish. This strategy can create a lot of
immediate activity, but it also creates significant chances for waste and
mistakes if the wrong need is addressed. One of the best ways to gain
approval for a project is to clearly identify the project’s objec- tives and
, Project management advanced 2021
describe the need or opportunity for which the project will provide a
solution. For most of us, being misunderstood is a common occurrence,
something that happens on a daily basis. At the restau- rant, the waiter
brings us our dinner and we note that the baked potato is filled with sour
cream, even though we expressly requested “no sour cream.” Projects are
filled with misunderstandings between cus- tomers and project staff. What
the customer ordered (or more accurately what they think they ordered) is
often not what they get. The cliché is “I know that’s what I said, but it’s not
what I meant.” The figure below demonstrates the importance of
establishing clear objectives.
The need for establishing clear project objectives cannot be overstated. An
objective or goal lacks clarity if, when shown to five people, it is
interpreted in multiple ways. Ideally, if an objective is clear, you can show
it to five people who, after reviewing it, hold a single view about its
meaning. The best way to make an objective clear is to state it in such a
way that it can be verified. Building in ways to measure achievement can
do this. It is important to provide quantifiable definitions to qualitative
terms.
The project charter
A project charter, project definition, or project statement is a statement of
the scope, objectives, and participants in a project. It provides a
preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project
objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of
the project manager. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of
the project.
The purpose of a project charter is to:
Provide an understanding of the project, the reason it is being
conducted, and its justification
Establish early on in the project the general scope
, Project management advanced 2021
Establish the project manager and his or her authority A note of
who will review and approve the project charter must be
included.
Overview of project planning
After the project has been defined and the project team has been
appointed, you are ready to enter the second phase in the project
management life cycle: the detailed project planning phase.
Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone
involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. The
planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project
deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is
created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through
the implementation and closure phases of the project. The plans created
during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk,
and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external
suppliers to ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget,
and within schedule.
The project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a
project manager, as you need to make an educated guess about the staff,
resources, and equipment needed to complete your project. You may also
need to plan your communications and procurement activities, as well as
contract any third- party suppliers.
The purpose of the project planning phase is to:
Establish business requirements
Establish cost, schedule, list of deliverables, and delivery dates
Establish resources plans
Obtain management approval and proceed to the next phase
The basic processes of project planning are:
Scope planning – specifying the in-scope requirements for the
project to facilitate creating the work breakdown structure
Preparation of the work breakdown structure – spelling out the
breakdown of the project into tasks and sub-tasks
Project schedule development – listing the entire schedule of the
activities and detailing their sequence of implementation
Resource planning – indicating who will do what work, at which
time, and if any special skills are needed to accomplish the
project tasks
Budget planning – specifying the budgeted cost to be incurred at
the completion of the project
Procurement planning – focusing on vendors outside your
company and subcontracting
, Project management advanced 2021
Risk management – planning for possible risks and considering
optional contingency plans and mitigation strategies
Quality planning – assessing quality criteria to be used for the
project
Communication planning – designing the communication strategy
with all project stakeholders
The planning phase refines the project’s objectives, which were gathered
during the initiation phase. It includes planning the steps necessary to
meet those objectives by further identifying the specific activ- ities and
resources required to complete the project. Now that these objectives
have been recognized, they must be clearly articulated, detailing an in-
depth scrutiny of each recognized objective. With such scrutiny, our
understanding of the objective may change. Often the very act of trying to
describe some- thing precisely gives us a better understanding of what we
are looking at. This articulation serves as the basis for the development of
requirements. What this means is that after an objective has been clearly
articulated, we can describe it in concrete (measurable) terms and identify
what we have to do to achieve it. Obviously, if we do a poor job of
articulating the objective, our requirements will be misdirected and the
resulting project will not represent the true need.
Users will often begin describing their objectives in qualitative language.
The project manager must work with the user to provide quantifiable
definitions to those qualitative terms. These quantifiable cri- teria include
schedule, cost, and quality measures. In the case of project objectives,
these elements are used as measurements to determine project
satisfaction and successful completion. Subjective evalua- tions are
replaced by actual numeric attributes.
Example 1
A web user may ask for a fast system. The quantitative requirement
should be all screens must load in under three seconds. Describing the
time limit during which the screen must load is specific and tangi- ble. For
that reason, you’ll know that the requirement has been successfully
completed when the objective has been met.
Example 2
Let’s say that your company is going to produce a holiday batch of
eggnog. Your objective statement might be stated this way: Christmas
Cheer, Inc. will produce two million cases of holiday eggnog, to be shipped
to our distributors by October 30, at a total cost of $1.5 million or less. The
objective criteria in this statement are clearly stated and successful
fulfillment can easily be measured. Stakeholders will know that the
objectives are met when the two million cases are produced and shipped
by the due date within the budget stated.
When articulating the project objectives, you should follow the SMART
rule:
