Project planning
From Free net encyclopedia
Project planning is part of the Project Manager's armoury that must be in place to ensure that effective control of time and cost/budget over time is managed within the project environment.
To do this a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) must be identified and activities associated with each element of it. Activities have dependencies on one another, normally known as relationships and occur in a logical manner.
For example, "I can't start the car until I've turned the key in the lock" would be shown as "Turn Key in lock -> Start car".
This is known as a finish to start relationship. There are also Start to start, finish to finish and start to finish relationships.
Activities require resources to ensure it can be completed. These can be both material and human resources (e.g. an electrician, a JCB, a plank of wood). An estimate is made of the likely resources required to complete an activity and the duration of time.
Finally costs can be attributed to each resource on each activity in a project which should result in the total cost for that project if all the activities have been defined.
Once established and agreed the plan becomes what is known as the baseline. This is what the project will be measured against throughout its lifespan.
As the project progresses, the plan should progress as well, monitoring the progress being made, ensuring activities are taking place when they should be, and that resources (and therefore costs) are in line with expectations. Analysing this information is what is called Earned value management.
British Army Saying - (The 6 P's) - Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance