Components of a Project Plan
1. Tasks
2. Milestones
3. People
4. Documentation (RACI chart)
5. Time
How project plan components are connected
⁃ Scope and Goals
⁃ Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
⁃ Budget
⁃ Management plans
Project scope and goals, the work breakdown structure, the
budget, the management plans are all important components
of your project plan. They help define how basic project
plans
elements - including tasks, milestones, people, documentation,
and time - will be structured and utilized in your project.
However, no two project plans will be the same. At Google,
we work with a variety of different tools and templates to
create and manage project plans. It is important to know
your end goals and what is essential to you and your team in
order to pull the relevant pieces of the project together.
How do you estimate the amount of time a give task will
take?
Time estimation
A prediction of the total amount of time required to complete
a task.
Effort estimation
A prediction of the amount and difficulty of active work
required to complete a task.
Effort estimation differs from time estimation in that effort
quantifies the amount of time it will take a person to
complete
work on a task. On the flip side, time refers to the overall
duration of the task from start to finish.That includes inactive
time. It's important to understand the difference between
time estimation and effort estimation, because it can help you
be more efficient with your available resources. An unrealistic
effort estimate can negatively impact a project schedule.
Generally, this happens when you underestimate the amount
of
time it will take to complete a task. Often, the culprit for
underestimating effort is optimism. Too much optimism can lead
you to overlook potential risks that could set your plans
behind schedule.
So, how do you try to avoid making unrealistic effort
estimates? You can do this by communicating with teammates
assigned to each task. Your teammates will have the most
realistic understanding of the amount of work required to
complete a task and should be able to provide you with the
best estimate.
Sub-tasks
smaller tasks that are required to complete a larger task.
Asking the teammate assigned to the task for their estimate is
likely to yield a more accurate estimation.
Buffer
Extra time added to the end of a task or project to account
for expected slowdowns or delays in work progress.
Types of scheduling buffers
⁃ Task buffers
⁃ Project buffers
Task Buffers
Extra time tacked on to a specific task
Task buffers should be used primarily for tasks that are out
of the project team's control.
Adding a buffer to every project task could lengthen your
project schedule unnecessarily.
Project Buffers
Extra time tacked onto the end of a project.
For tasks that are difficult to complete or have an element of
unpredictability, a projectmanager should add task buffers.
Project managers need to make sure they don't add too many
task buffers, as they could lengthen the project schedule.
Capacity Planning and Criteria Path
Capacity
The amount of work that the people or resources assigned to
the project can reasonably complete in a set period of time.
Capacity Planning
Refers to the act of allocating people and resources to
project tasks, and determining whether or not you have the
necessary resources required to complete the work on time.
Critical Path
The list of project milestones you must reach in order to
meet the project goal on schedule, as well as the mandatory
tasks that contribute to the completion of each milestone.
Your critical path includes the bare minimum number of tasks
and milestones you need to reach your project goal.
There are a few factors that can impact capacity and
capacity planning. First you need to be able to identify which
task can happen in parallel, which means they can happenat
the same time as other tasks. You also need to identify which
task can happen sequentially, meaning they must happen in a
specific manner. When you identify which task can happen in
parallel, it helps you create efficiencies within your project
schedule, by demonstrating where you can complete multiple
tasks at the same time. Identifying sequential tasks help you
identify the task that you need to prioritise early in the
project.
Tasks on the critical path should have zero float.
Planning fallacy refers to faulty predictions about now much
time you will need to complete a taste.
Effort estimation predicts the amount and difficulty of active
work you need to complete a task.
Getting Accurate Time Estimates From Your Team
Soft Skills
Personal characteristics that help people work effectively
with others.
Soft Skills for Accurate Estimation
- Asking the right questions
- Negotiating effectively
- Practicing empathy
open ended questions
a question that cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no"
Q. How long does it typically take you to mock-up a website
design like this one ?
Q. How complex is this task?
Q. What are the risks associated with this task ?
Q. When do you think you could have this ready?
An anchor of a good project plan is a clear schedule,
containing all the tasks of a project, their owners, and when
they need to be completed.
Gantt Chart
A horizontal bar chart that maps out a project schedule.
Gantt charts are highly visual representation of a project's
tasks, with clear breakdowns of who's responsible for the
work and when those tasks are due.
Project Plan Best Practices
- Carefully review deliverables, milestones, and tasks
- Give yourself time to plan
- Recognise and plan for the inevitable: things will go wrong
- Stay curious
- Champion your plan
UNDERSTANDING PROJECT BUDGET
Project Budget
The estimated monetary resources needed to achieve the
project's goals and objectives.
Milestones
An important point within the project schedulethat indicates
progress and usually signifies the project completion of a
deliverable or phase of the project.
Forecast
A cost estimation, or prediction over a period of time.
The budget will have a direct effect on the company's
financial viability.
Budget creation takes place in the initiation phase of your
project. The budget will be adjusted as needed throughout
the life cycle of the project. The budgeting process usually
happens in conjunction with the scheduling process. Because
the steps of the scheduling process are highly dependent on
the costs. Project budgeting is never a one-size-fit-all
operation. You have to prioritize where you allocate funds
within.
Ultimately, most projects are created to improve workforce
productivity, increase revenue, or attempt to save costs mithin
an organization.
A project manager must show the requested amount of money
was used in order to secure enough budget for future
projects.
COMPONENTS OF PROJECT BUDGET
When creating a budget, a project manager must account for:
-understanding stakeholder needs
- Budgeting for surprise expenses
- maintaining adaptability
- Reviewing and reforcasting throughout the project
Resource cost rates
The cost of a resource (eg. labour, tools, equipment, materials,
and software)
Performing a reserve analysis will help you account for any
buffer funds you may need.
Reserve Analysis
A method to check for remaining project resources.
Contingency Budget
Money that is included to cover potentially unforeseen events
that aren't accounted for in a cost estimate.
Cost of Quality
Cost that is incurred to prevent issues with products,
processes or tasks.
It includes:
- prevention costs
- appraisal costs
- internal failure costs
- external failure costs
Resources and Tactics to make sure you're not overestimating
or underestimating:
- Researching historical data
Reviewing past projects that are similar to yours to get an
idea of what your project could entail. We refer to that as
referring to historical data.
- Leveraging experts
To leverage something means to use it to its maximum
advantage. Leveraging experts means gathering their insights
to do something more effectively.
- The bottom -up approach
This means thinking about all the parts of a project from the
beginning to the end, including making a list of every material,
resource, contract worker, or anything that comes with an
associated cost, and adding that all together.
- Confirming accuracy
You will want to double check everything to confirm accuracy.
- Setting of your baseline
Once you've set your baseline, you will have to revisit that
number and adjust it to match where the project is currently.
For any project break the project into tasks. Then, estimate
the cost of each item, add estimates together, add
contingency and tax. Lastly, seek approval from key
stakeholder.
MAINTAINING THE BUDGET
monitoring the budget is crucial for a project manager to
enforce accountability in terms of spending.
milestones are a great opportunity to re- review the budget,
to identify if anything needs to be reset or revisited
throughout the project.
Fixed contracts
Paid for when certain milestones are reached.
Time and Material contracts
Paid monthly based on the hours worked and other fees
associated with the work, like travel and meals.
Cost control
Practice where a project manager identifies factors that night
impact their budget and then creates effective actions to
minimize variances.
In order to control cost you have to:
- Establish a sign off plan and inform the appropriate
stakeholders of any changes that occur
- Manage changes as they're made
- Accept that budget misses will happen
- Adequately account for, adapt, and manage your budget
INTRODUCTION TO PROCUREMENT
Procurement
Obtaining all of the materials, services, and supplies required
to complete the project.
Vendors
Individuals or businesses who provide essential goods and
services
Vendor Management
- sourcing vendors
- getting quotes for vendors' work
- deciphering which vendors will fulfill your needs
- negotiating vendor contracts
- setting deadlines for vendors
- evaluating performance
- ensuring vendor payments
PHASES OF PROCUREMENT
1. Initiating
2. selecting
3. contract writing
4. Control
5. completing
Agile Procurement Management
⁃ Collaborative with both the project team and the end
supplier
⁃ There is heavy emphasis on the relationship between
these parties
⁃ Project team plays a larger role in identifying what needs
to be procured
⁃ Living contract
Traditional Procurement Management
⁃ focus on standard contracts with clear terms and
deliverables
⁃ Project manager may be responsible for end-to-end
procurement
⁃ contracts may feature lengthy and extensive
documentation
Documentation
⁃ Non disclosure agreement (NDA)
NDA is a standard within a lot of companies, and its best
practice to ask external contract workers to sign an NDA.
A document that keeps confidential information within the
organization.
⁃ Request for proposal (RFP)
a document that outlines the details of the project. RFPs are
used to solicite bids from vendors so that you can then select
which vendor might be the best for your project.it is widely
used within different departments in a company and across
various industries. It typically includes an overview of the
project, the desired outcomes, and goals, budget, deadline,
milestones, and contact information.
⁃ StatemIent of work (SOW)
An SOW is sent after the vendor is selected andevolves as
the project goes on.A document that clearly lays out the
products and services a vendor or contractor will provide for
the organisation. An SOW also provides a description of the
contractor's needs and requirements to properly perform the
agreed- upon services.
IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS WHEN PARTNERING WITH VENDORS
" Honesty, responsibility, respect, and fairness are the various
values that drive ethical conduct for the project management
profession."
Potential unethical risks
⁃ bribery or corruption
⁃ sole supplier sourcing
⁃ interaction with state-owned entities
