Key Project Planning Principles

Although most reasonable people will at least acknowledge there is value to planning at a logical level, many of those same people are less than emotionally committed to the practice. Why is this? Generally, it is because the project planning they have witnessed has violated one or more of the following key project planning principles:

• Purpose—The purpose of project planning is to develop a plan that enables the project to be executed and controlled, as shown in Figure 5.1.FIGURE 5.1Highlights the interactions between the planning, executing, and controlling project management processes.
• Multiple passes required—Project planning is not a one-time activity performed at the beginning of a project. For starters, it generally takes several iterations to get to a comprehensive plan given the multitude of inputs that must be integrated and the number of stakeholders that need to agree on the plan. In addition, as things happen and we learn more, plans will need to be adjusted and details ironed out as the project moves along.
• A project plan is NOT a Microsoft Project file—Before we go any further, let’s make sure we are clear on a few key terms. A project plan is not a project schedule or a work breakdown structure (WBS). NoteA project plan is an all-encompassing document that is used as the basis for controlling and executing a project.
• Give me one of them—The planning exercise and the planning team must have control over one of the traditional project success factors (scope, time, cost, or performance). Senior management can set all but one of these factors, but at least one must be left to the project. CautionA Microsoft Project file (or anything else resembling a project schedule, timeline, or WBS) is not a project plan.A project plan generally references other documents and supplemental plans, including a WBS and project schedule.
• Proactive project management—Effective planning enables a proactive project management approach. Before the execution of the project gets underway, we ask the questions and determine the approaches we will take to manage the project and stakeholder expectations regarding project communications, stakeholder responsibilities, quality management, risks, responses to specific performance variances, procurement management, and project team management. TipChange control, communications, risk, and quality project management are excellent examples of proactive project management.The team approach to project planning greatly increases its acceptance and commitment level to the project plan.
• Stay down from the mountain—Project planning is not the time for the top-down, Mount Olympus approach to management. Project planning is the time for questions, facilitation, interaction, and feedback.Specifically, you need to conduct a stakeholder analysis on all your management and customer stakeholders to validate the project definition elements, understand their expectations and communication needs, and review procedures for dealing with critical issues, risks, change requests, and performance variances.In addition, the team members who will be doing the work should be heavily involved in defining and estimating the details of the work to be performed. (We address this further. “Developing the Work Breakdown Structure Estimating the Work.) This approach leads to a better definition of the work required and a higher commitment level toward scheduled work assignments.

Important Questions Project Planning Should Answer

Think of project planning as a process of asking questions and working with your team to get the answers. While the process of defining a project answers some key fundamental questions to get us started, such as the following, it does not answer all of them:

• Why are we doing this project?
• What is the project supposed to accomplish?
• Who are the key stakeholders? The sponsor? The customers?

It is the process of “detail planning” a project that allows us to answer the questions we need to address to implement and manage the project. These important questions focus on both the work to produce the targeted deliverables and the work to manage the project. Some of these key questions include the following:

 Tip

Always get sign-off from appropriate stakeholders to confirm agreement and understanding.

• How exactly will the deliverables be produced?
• What processes or approaches will work best to get us the results we need?
• What work tasks must be performed to produce the deliverables?
• Who will do the work?
• What other resources (facilities, tools) will the team need to do the work?
• Where will the work occur?
• How long will it take to do the work?
• When will the work be done?
• How much will this project cost?
• What skills, skill levels, and experience are needed for each role? When do we need them?
• When do we need each resource? How do we get resources?
• Who is responsible and accountable for what?
• How will changes be controlled?
• How do we ensure acceptable quality in deliverables and in the process?
• How will we keep stakeholders informed and get their feedback, and what mediums are best?
• How will we track issues? How will critical issues be escalated?
• How do we handle variances? What is the threshold for senior management? What communication needs to occur?
• What risks exist? What are our response strategies?
• How will version control be conducted?
• How will project information be maintained and secured?
• How will we manage the project team? What training needs exist? How will their performance be evaluated? How will we orient any new team member? TipAs you visit with stakeholders during detail planning, make sure to validate their project definition understanding and expectation.Reconfirm that the business case for the project is still valid after the detailed project planning exercise is complete.
• If we are leveraging external resources (vendors, suppliers), how do we manage their performance?
• How will project performance be measured and reported?
• And ultimately, do I have a plan that will enable me to execute and control this project?

As we determine these answers, we capture them in the project plan. We can then review the project plan with our key stakeholders to ensure we have agreement and understanding. Next, let’s step through a typical project plan, review what each section is for, and determine how we go about getting this information.