PROJECT PLAN AND PROJECT SCHEDULE

We find many people use the terms project plan and project schedule interchangeably. Some don’t understand the purpose of the artefacts project plan. Let us clearly explain the purpose of those documents and their differences.

A) PROJECT PLAN

Project Objective

i. WHY we are doing this project. It explains the business problem which is the actual business driver of the project
Project Solution

ii. WHAT we are going to do in this project. It explains the solution/deliverable which is going to solve the business problem.
Project Timelines

iii. WHEN we are going to do in this project. It details major milestone timelines, implementation timelines, etc.,
Project Resources

iv. WHO we need to do this project. It details key resources that we need to design/execute/implement the project.


I. Expands the project timelines/resources section of the project plan. In order words, project schedule is nothing but the work breakdown structure of the project, the timelines of each activity, dependencies b/w each activity, who is going to do each activity, what are the milestones, what is the critical path of the project.

ii. Usually we all use Microsoft project software to do the Project schedule. Some people also use the MS excel do the project schedule for some of the very simple projects.
Hope I have clarified the purpose of the documents Project Plan and Project schedule and it would contain.

iii. Here is a six-step approach to creating a project plan. It provides a road map for project managers to follow and acts as the project manager's premier communications and control tool throughout the project.

Step 1: Explain the project plan to key stakeholders and discuss its key components

"Project plan" is one of the most misunderstood terms in project management. It is a set of living documents that can be expected to change over the life of the project. Like a road map, it provides the direction for the project.

And like the traveller, the project manager needs to set the course for the project. Just as a driver may encounter road works or new routes to the final destination, the project manager may need to correct the project course.

A common misconception is that the plan equates to the project timeline - that is only one of the components of the plan. The project plan is the major work product from the entire planning process, so it contains all the planning documents.

For example, a project plan for constructing a new office building needs to include not only the specifications for the building, the budget and the schedule, but also the risks, quality metrics, environmental impact, etc.
Components of the project plan include:

• Baselines: These are sometimes called performance measures because the performance of the entire project is measured against them. They are the project's three approved starting points for scope, schedule and cost. These are used to determine whether or not the project is on track during execution

• Baseline management plans: These include documentation about how variances will be handled throughout the project

• Other work products from the planning process, which include plans for risk management, quality, procurement, staffing and communications


Step 2: Define roles and responsibilities

Identifying stakeholders - those who have a vested interest in either the project or its outcome - is challenging and especially difficult on large, risky, high-impact projects. There are likely to be conflicting agendas and requirements among stakeholders, as well as different slants on who needs to be included.

For example, the stakeholder list of the city council where a new office building is being constructed could differ from that of an engineering consulting firm. It would certainly include the developer who wants to build the complex, the engineering firm that will build it, citizens who would prefer a park, consultants to study the environmental impact, the city council itself, etc.

The engineering firm may have a more limited view. It is important for the project manager to get clarity and agreement on what work needs to be done by whom, as well as which decisions each stakeholder will make.


Step 3: Develop a scope statement

The scope statement is arguably the most important document in the project plan. It is used to get common agreement among the stakeholders about the project definition.

It is the basis for getting the buy-in and agreement from the sponsor and other stakeholders and decreases the chances of miscommunication.

It will most likely grow and change with the life of the project. The scope statement should include:

• Business need and business problem

• Project objectives, stating what will occur within the project to solve the business problem

• Benefits of completing the project, as well as the project justification

• Project scope, stated as which deliverable will be included or excluded from the project

• Key milestones, the approach and other components as dictated by the size and nature of the project

It can be treated like a contract between the project manager and sponsor - one that can only be changed with sponsor approval.


Step 4: Develop the project baselines

Scope baseline: Once the deliverable are confirmed in the scope statement, they need to be developed into a work breakdown structure of all the deliverable in the project.

The scope baseline includes all the deliverable produced on the project, and therefore identifies all the work to be done. These deliverable should be inclusive.

Building an office building, for example, would include a variety of deliverable related to the building itself, as well as such things as impact studies, recommendations, landscaping plans, etc.

• Schedule and cost baselines

• Identify activities and tasks needed to produce each of the deliverable identified in the scope baseline. How detailed the task list needs to be depends on many factors, including the experience of the team, project risk and uncertainties, ambiguity of specifications, amount of buy-in expected, etc

• Identify resources for each task, if known

• Estimate how many hours it will take to complete each task

• Estimate cost of each task, using an average hourly rate for each resource

• Consider resource constraints, or how much time each resource can realistically devote to this one project

• Determine which tasks are dependent on other tasks, and develop critical path

• Develop schedule, which puts all tasks and estimates in a calendar. It shows by chosen time period (week, month, quarter or year) which resource is doing which tasks, how much time each task is expected to take, and when each task is scheduled to begin and end

• Develop the cost baseline, which is a time-phased budget, or cost-by-time period
This process is not a one-time effort. Throughout the project, you will most likely be adding to and repeating some or all of these steps.


Step 5: Create baseline management plans

Once the scope, schedule and cost baselines have been established, create the steps the team will take to manage variances to these plans.

All these management plans usually include a review and approval process for modifying the baselines. Different approval levels are usually needed for different types of changes.

Not all new requests will result in changes to the scope, schedule or budget, but a process is needed to study all new requests to determine their impact on the project.

Step 6: Communicate

One important aspect of the project plan is the communications plan. This document states such things as:

• Who wants which reports, how often, in what format and using what media

• How issues will be escalated and when

• Where project information will be stored and who can access it

• What new risks have surfaced and what the risk response will include

• What metrics will be used to ensure a quality product is built

• What reserves have been used for which uncertainties

Once the project plan is complete, it is important that its contents be delivered to key stakeholders. This communication should include such things as:

• Review and approval of the project plan

• Process for changing the contents of the plan

• Next steps - executing and controlling the project plan and key stakeholder roles/responsibilities

Developing a clear project plan takes time. The project manager will probably be tempted to skip the planning and jump straight into execution.

However, the traveler who plans the route before beginning a journey ultimately reaches the intended destination more quickly and more easily than the disorganised traveller, who often gets lost along the way.

Similarly, the project manager who takes time to create a clear project plan will follow a more direct route to project success.


B) PROJECT SCHEDULE

1. Project Schedule Development & Planning the Timing and Sequence of Project Activities

No matter the size or scope of your project, the schedule is a key part of project management. The schedule tells you when each activity should be done, what has already been completed, and the sequence in which things need to be finished.

Scheduling, on the other hand, is not an exact process. It's part estimation, part prediction, and part 'educated guessing.'

Because of the uncertainty involved, the schedule is reviewed regularly, and it is often revised while the project is in progress. It continues to develop as the project moves forward, changes arise, risks come and go, and new risks are identified. The schedule essentially transforms the project from a vision to a time-based plan.

Schedules also help you do the following:

• They provide a basis for us to monitor and control project activities.

• They help us determine how best to allocate resources so we can achieve the project goal.

• They help us assess how time delays will impact the project.

• We can figure out where excess resources are available to allocate to other projects.

• They provide a basis to help us track project progress.

With that in mind, what's the best way of building an accurate and effective schedule for our next project?

Project managers have a variety of tools to develop a project schedule – from the relatively simple process of action planning for small projects, to use of Gantt Charts and Network Analysis for large projects. Here, we outline the key tools you will need for schedule development.

Schedule Inputs

We need several types of inputs to create a project schedule:

• Personal and project calendars – Understanding working days, shifts, and resource availability is critical to completing a project schedule.

• Description of project scope – From this, we can determine key start and end dates, major assumptions behind the plan, and key constraints and restrictions. We can also include stakeholder expectations, which will often determine project milestones.

• Project risks – We need to understand these to make sure there's enough extra time to deal with identified risks – and with unidentified risks (risks are identified with thorough Risk Analysis).

• Lists of activities and resource requirements – Again, it's important to determine if there are other constraints to consider when developing the schedule. Understanding the resource capabilities and experience you have available – as well as company holidays and staff vacations – will affect the schedule.

A project manager should be aware of deadlines and resource availability issues that may make the schedule less flexible.
Scheduling Tools

Here are some tools and techniques for combining these inputs to develop the schedule:

• Schedule Network Analysis – This is a graphic representation of the project's activities, the time it takes to complete them, and the sequence in which they must be done. Project management software is typically used to create these analyses – Gantt charts and PERT Charts are common formats.

• Critical Path Analysis – This is the process of looking at all of the activities that must be completed, and calculating the 'best line' – or critical path – to take so that you'll complete the project in the minimum amount of time. The method calculates the earliest and latest possible start and finish times for project activities, and it estimates the dependencies among them to create a schedule of critical activities and dates. Learn more about Critical Path Analysis.

• Schedule Compression – This tool helps shorten the total duration of a project by decreasing the time allotted for certain activities. It's done so that we can meet time constraints, and still keep the original scope of the project. We can use two methods here:

• Crashing – This is where we assign more resources to an activity, thus decreasing the time it takes to complete it. This is based on the assumption that the time you save will offset the added resource costs.

• Fast-Tracking – This involves rearranging activities to allow more parallel work. This means that things you would normally do one after another are now done at the same time. However, do bear in mind that this approach increases the risk that you'll miss things, or fail to address changes.

Use of Project Stages:

One of the biggest reasons that projects over-run is that the 'final' polishing and error-correction takes very much longer than anticipated. In this way, projects can seem to be '80% complete' for 80% of the time! What's worse, these projects can seem to be on schedule until, all of a sudden, they over-run radically.

A good way of avoiding this is to schedule projects in distinct stages, where final quality, finished components are delivered at the end of each stage. This way, quality problems can be identified early on, and rectified before they seriously threaten the project schedule.

Project Review

Once we have outlined the basic schedule, we need to review it to make sure that the timing for each activity is aligned with the necessary resources. Here are tools commonly used to do this:

• 'What if' scenario analysis – This method compares and measures the effects of different scenarios on a project. We use simulations to determine the effects of various adverse, or harmful, assumptions – such as resources not being available on time, or delays in other areas of the project. We can then measure and plan for the risks posed in these scenarios.

• Resource levelling – Here, we rearrange the sequence of activities to address the possibility of unavailable resources, and to make sure that excessive demand is not put on resources at any point in time. If resources are available only in limited quantities, then we change the timing of activities so that the most critical activities have enough resources.

• Critical chain method – This also addresses resource availability. We plan activities using their latest possible start and finish dates. This adds extra time between activities, which we can then use to manage work disruptions.

• Risk multipliers – Risk is inevitable, so we need to prepare for its impact. Adding extra time to high-risk activities is one strategy. Another is to add a time multiplier to certain tasks or certain resources to offset overly optimistic time estimation.

After the initial schedule has been reviewed, and adjustments made, it's a good idea to have other members of the team review it as well. Include people who will be doing the work – their insights and assumptions are likely to be particularly accurate and relevant.

Key Points

Scheduling aims to predict the future, and it has to consider many uncertainties and assumptions. As a result, many people believe it's more of an art than a science.

But whether we're planning a team retreat, or leading a multimillion-dollar IT project, the schedule is a critical part of our efforts. It identifies and organizes project tasks into a sequence of events that create the project management plan.

A variety of inputs and tools are used in the scheduling process, all of which are designed to help us understand our resources, our constraints, and our risks. The end result is a plan that links events in the best way to complete the project efficiently.

MKR