Project Planning
*
An Old Adage:
Fail to Plan . . .
and You Plan to Fail!
*
Project Planning –
5 Stages
- Prepare project overview
- Develop activity plan
- Assign responsibilities
- Put plan into action; track progress
- Prepare closeout report
*
- High-level summary of the project
- Sets the overall scope
- Clearly written to communicate
- Team leader responsibility
- Critical to get this right!
Stage One:
Project Overview
*
What’s In a Project Overview?
- Statement of Problem (or Opportunity)
- Goals and Objectives
- Measures of Success
- Approach, Process, and Timing
- Assumptions and Risks
*
Let’s Use the Following Example
In your course materials, and pull out Appendix pages A26 – A28.
You have taken a new job, and it is a significant distance from home. You are concerned your current car will not be reliable given its age.
*
Questions –
- What is our problem, or opportunity, or situation to be changed?
- What is our goal?
*
Goals and Objectives
- Goals and objectives describe what we want to achieve to solve the problem or take advantage of the opportunity
- Keep them simple
- Focus on the important items
- Collectively, they define the scope
- They must be measurable for success
- Clearly written
*
6.psd
Goals and Objectives
– Use the SMART Test
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Relevant
T – Time-Based
*
Question –
- Based on our project goal,
What are our most important objectives?
*
Measures of Success
- Our desired results that can be quantified
Numbers, frequency, degrees of change
- Avoid intangible measures
Make it “better”
- Superlatives can be hard to achieve!
Avoid use of “all” or “never”
*
Question –
- What measures of success should we use in our project example?
*
Approach, Process, & Timing
- Describe how we will go about our work – what will we do?
- Define the schedule you will follow
- Consider how success was achieved in similar projects
- For a new project – be creative!
*
Video Presentation
*
*
Video Review
- What approaches did the team consider?
- What assumptions were challenged?
- What was necessary for the novel approach to be considered?
*
Question –
- What approach should we follow for our project?
- What schedule do you want to meet?
*
Assumptions and Risks
- We need to consider the things we expect to happen, and the “what ifs”
- Assumptions
Things we believe will happen
Things needed to be true for success
- Risks
Undermine success
Actions can be planned to offset risks
*
Assumptions and Risks
Might Include:
- Resources needed
- Timing of resources
- Events outside our control
- Potential delays and their effect
*
For your Patrol’s project idea:
- Together, quickly outline a Project Overview for your project
- Be prepared to share your solution
Take 5 minutes to complete
Patrol Activity –
*
- Who would like to share?
Patrol Activity –
*
Project Overview . . .
. . . A Quick Review
- Defined our problem
- Listed goals and objectives
- Decided on measures of success
- Described our approach and timing
- Considered assumptions and risks
*
A Project Overview . . .
- Helps ensure success
- Helps get everyone on “one page”
- Helps prevent
Getting off track
Scope creep
*
Stage Two:
Activity Plan
*
Activity Plan
- Define the activities and tasks needed to achieve our goals
- Organize & Prioritize activities and tasks
- Identify which tasks depend on others
- Assign team members to activities
- Define dates to begin and finish
*
Activity Plan
Goal
Activity
Activity
Activity
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Task
Activity
*
Activity Plan
Replace Car
Choose Make/Style
Shop for Car
Make Purchase
Mileage
Space
Features
Cost Limit
Body
SUV?
Make?
Colors
Negotiate
Finance
Prep
Receive
Online
Dealers
Buyer
Set Price
Define Needs
*
Project Activities and Tasks Should . . .
- Pass the “SMART” test
- Have clear start and stop times
- Include estimated time and cost to complete
- Be assignable and manageable
*
Video Presentation
This clip will help illustrate the second stage of project planning – Activity Plan
*
*
“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done . . .
. . . You will keep on getting what you’ve always got.”
- We must challenge assumptions
- We must think outside the box
*
Stage Three:
Activity Assignments
*
Assign Activities
Team Leader Should –
- Confirm availability of resources
- Understand team member skills
- Match skills to tasks
- Establish progress milestones and reporting procedures
*
Assign Activities
Team Members Should –
- Know project’s purpose
- Understand their assignments
- Know the availability of resources
- Be clear about deadlines
- Understand how to address issues
*
Stage Four:
Putting the Plan
Into Action
*
Work the Plan
- Now is the time to let the team do its job!
- Staying to the plan is the clearest path to success!
- A well-laid plan will help ensure a team is performin’ . . . not stormin’!
*
Work the Plan
- Get the project going
- Provide leadership to the team
- Assist with decisions & problems
- Obtain additional resources
- Monitor progress of activities
- Monitor team performance
The Leader Should –
*
Stage Five:
Project Closeout
*
Closing Out the Project
- Recognize team members
- Prepare After-action report
- Goals and objectives met?
- Completed on schedule?
- Lessons learned?
- Ideas/recommendations for future projects
*
Summary
Five Stages of Project Planning
- Develop a Project Overview
- Plan the Work
- Make Activity Assignments
- Put the Plan into Action
- Prepare Project Closeout
*
A Different Adage:
If you plan the work . . .
. . . you plan for success!
GET SOLUTION FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT, Get Impressive Scores in Your Class
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
GET SOLUTION FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
TO BE RE-WRITTEN FROM THE SCRATCH
- Original and non-plagiarized custom papers- Our writers develop their writing from scratch unless you request them to rewrite, edit or proofread your paper.
- Timely Delivery– primewritersbay.com believes in beating the deadlines that our customers have imposed because we understand how important it is.
- Customer satisfaction- Customer satisfaction. We have an outstanding customer care team that is always ready and willing to listen to you, collect your instructions and make sure that your custom writing needs are satisfied
- Confidential- It’s secure to place an order at primewritersbay.com We won’t reveal your private information to anyone else.
- Writing services provided by experts- Looking for expert essay writers, thesis and dissertation writers, personal statement writers, or writers to provide any other kind of custom writing service?
- Enjoy Please Note-You have come to the most reliable academic writing site that will sort all assignments that that you could be having. We write essays, research papers, term papers, research proposals
- What is our problem, or opportunity, or situation to be changed?
Get Professionally Written Papers From The Writing Experts
