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Project Planning sample project plan

Scope Definition Prerequisites

Once the scope of the project has been defined in the Project Charter, the project enters the detailed planning phase. This involves:

  • Project Planning - Outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes.) By this stage, the benefits and costs of the project have been clearly documented, the objectives and scope have been defined, the project team has been appointed and a formal project office environment established. It is now time to undertake detailed planning to ensure that the activities performed in the execution phase of the project are properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled.

  • Project Plan Development - The first step is to document the Project Plan. A 'Work Breakdown Structure’ (WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken on the project. After the WBS has been agreed, an assessment of the effort required to undertake the activities and tasks is made. The activities
    and tasks are sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the Project Manager to assess the progress of the project.

  • Resource Plan Development - (listing the labor, equipment and materials required Immediately after the Project Plan is formed, it is necessary to allocate the resources required to undertake each of the activities and tasks within the Project Plan. Although general groups of resources may have already been allocated to the Project Plan, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:

    • ▪ Types of resources (labor, equipment and materials)
    ▪ Total quantities of each resource type
    ▪ Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources
    ▪ Items, purposes and specifications of all equipment resource
    ▪ Items and quantities of material resource. A schedule is assembled for each type of resource so that the Project Manager can assess the resource allocation at each stage in the project.

    Financial Plan Development - The Financial Plan Similar to the Resource Plan, is prepared to identify the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labor, equipment and materials is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which provides the Project Manager with an understanding of the forecast spending vs. the actual spending throughout the project. Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely important as the project’s success will depend on whether or not it is delivered within the ‘time, cost and quality’ estimates for this project.

  • Quality Plan Development - (highlighting potential risks and actions taken to mitigate them), providing quality targets, assurance and control measures)Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the success of the project. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can reasonably be achieved, a Quality Plan is documented. The Quality Plan:

    ▪ Defines what quality means in terms of this project
    ▪ Lists clear and unambiguous quality targets for each deliverable. Each quality target provides a set of criteria and standards which must be achieved to meet the expectations of the customer
    ▪ Outlines a plan of activities which will assure the customer that the quality targets will be met (i.e. a Quality Assurance Plan)
    ▪ Identifies the techniques used to control the actual level of quality of each deliverable as it is built (i.e. a Quality Control Plan).
    Finally, it is important to review the quality not only of the deliverables produced by the project but also of the management processes which produce them. A summary of each of the management processes undertaken during the execution phase is identified, including Time, Cost, Quality, Change, Risk, Issue, Procurement, Acceptance and Communications Management.

  • Risk Plan Development - (highlighting potential risks and actions taken to mitigate them) The foreseeable project risks are then documented within a Risk Plan and a set of actions to be taken formulated to both prevent each risk from occurring and reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate. Developing a clear Risk Plan is an important activity within the planning phase as it is necessary to mitigate all critical project risks prior to entering the Execution phase of the project.

  • Acceptance Plan Development -(listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance.)_ The key to a successful project is gaining acceptance from the customer that each deliverable produced meets (or exceeds) his/her requirements. To clarify the criteria used to judge each deliverable for customer acceptance, an Acceptance Plan is produced. The Acceptance Plan provides the criteria for obtaining customer
    • acceptance, a schedule of acceptance reviews within which customer acceptance will be sought and a summary of the process used to gain acceptance an Acceptance Plan is produced. The Acceptance Plan provides the criteria for obtaining customer acceptance, a schedule of acceptance reviews within which customer acceptance will be sought and a summary of the process used to gain acceptance of each deliverable from the customer.

  • Communications Plan Development - (listing the information needed to inform stakeholders) Prior to the Execution phase, it is also necessary to identify how each of the stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project. The Communications Plan identifies the types of information to be distributed, the methods of distributing information to stakeholders, the frequency of distribution and responsibilities of each person in the project team for distributing information regularly to stakeholders.

  • Procurement Plan Development - (identifying products to be sourced from external suppliers). The last planning activity within the Planning phase is to identify the elements of the Project which will be acquired from external suppliers to the project. The Procurement Plan provides a detailed description of the Products (i.e. goods and services) to be procured from suppliers, the justification for procuring each product externally, as opposed to from within the business, and the schedule for procurement. It also references the process for the selection of a preferred supplier (“Tender Process”) and the process for the actual order and delivery of the procured products (“Procurement Process”).