Project Management and PRINCE2

Project
Management

Welcome

Project Basics

Project Planning

Project Business Case

Project Management - Planning

Content of a Project Plan

Products
Activities - Build
Activities - Quality Control
Resources
Timescales and Schedule
Budget
Assumptions and any other supporting text

A Plan defines WHAT will be delivered, WHEN it will be delivered, WHAT will be done to achieve this and WHO will do the work.

When to Plan

A Project Plan should be put together and agreed before the project formally starts. This should then be reviewed and updated stage by stage. Things are bound to change as the project progresses, things will also go wrong.

Benefits of Planning

It forces the project manager and project management team to think things through before they start development work. This will identify exactly what is to be produced (products) and what can be achieved with available resources.

It provides a basis for agreement with all stakeholders. The project can move forward with clarity over what is required, how long it should take and how much it should cost.

It provides a basis for control as development proceeds. Things rarely go to perfectly to plan. Without a plan the project manager has no basis for measuring if things are behind /ahead of schedule or over / under budget.

Steps in Planning

Define the products
Identify build activities
Identify quality control activities
Identify dependencies and sequence of activities
Estimate effort needed
Identify resource available / needed
Calculate duration of activities
Create a schedule
Add any narrative needed

Although planning is done in broadly this sequence of steps, in practice it is not that simple. You often have to repeat the steps more than once to get a workable plan.

Once a plan is complete it should be approved by the Project Board and any other stakeholders.

Exercise - Project Planning

Either for a project you are currently working on, or for the London Olympics 2012:

Take the products identified in the Project Basics Exercise. List the activities needed to develop each of them.

Add any quality control activities such as testing or review.

Look at the sequence of activities and draw up a flow diagram showing the sequence.

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Steve McIntosh on 01736 797122 or 07976 519757

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