Project+/Planning

REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS Requirements analysis is the phase of the project where the requirements of a project are carefully defined. A requirement is a documented need or a description of what a system must accomplish. It is a statement that identifies a necessary attribute, capability, characteristic, or quality of the product of a project. Product The project's material outcome is its product. The product may be a service, event or a material object. It includes all necessary aspects of the deliverable including training, documentation, etc. Requirements focus on the product itself rather than the ways of achieving the product, leaving the implementation details for later. Requirements that focus on how the product is achieved are said to have implementation bias. Requirements Statement A requirements statement is a detailed accounting of project objectives. It describes the features, functions and performance constraints of the product. It provide the basis for accepting the product, or describes what must be accomplished for the product to be accepted. The following are some useful techniques to understand user requirements: Prototyping Pilot Use Case Modeling describes relationship of a software product and its environment JAD (Joint Application Design) UML (Unified Modeling Language) management tool for object oriented software design Project Description Document The Project Description Document and the Project Requirements are used to identify: the high-level value of the project to the sponsor and users gaps in the requirements when compared to the project scope whether the list of requirements is complete and valid enough to move on to next phase Project Requirements Document - OTN all system inputs are defined all system outputs are defined requirements are validated with sponsors and users business rules, special logic, and calculations are defined gaps between the requirements and the scope are identified and filled Requirement Characteristics necessary range of inputs carefully evaluated to be within the project scope complete, accurate, and valid Types Of Requirements business functional technical Traceability track a requirement to documented need Configuration Management ensure descriptions of projects products are correct and complete document physical and functional design characteristics REFINE SCOPE Scope statement will be included in the project plan Scope of a project is usually defined during the initiation phase of a project but the scope can change as needed as more analysis is done WBS (work breakdown structure) WBS key concepts hierarchical task list decomposition of project into a collection of work units use to determine the project work effort basis for planning, schedule, budget used to estimate resource requirements, activity durations, and costs required to create a Gantt chart will be included in the project plan statement Phase = highest level element of the WBS Work Package = lowest level element of the WBS one person responsible for each item, although many may work on that item formal approval should be obtained for each deliverable authority to sign off should be clearly defined depicted as tree diagram (or hierarchy chart) list in outline form with detailed items subordinated to higher-level items. schedule and budget contained in WBS? Activity or Task may be of any size (a project is a very large activity or task) sometimes the terms are synonymous sometimes the terms are used to denote a piece of work at a particular level in WBS e.g. a phase is broken into activities, and an activity into tasks defined in each activity or task duration cost resources deliverables SMART: activities or tasks should be Specific Measurable Assignable Realistic Time-framed Phase highest level element of the WBS grouping of activities in a project meets a major milestone by providing a significant deliverable e.g. requirements definition or product design document a project is broken down into a set of phases for control purposes phase is usually the highest level of breakdown of a project in the WBS. Work Package lowest level of the WBS at which project accounting is performed usually a week or so in duration and performed by an individual or small work group "Work Package" v "Task" v "Work Unit" v "Activity" "task" or "work unit" or "activity" = all ambiguous task could be high level, mid-level, or low level, i.e. summary task, sub-task work package lowest level for which accounting is performed - unambiguous best practices keep work unit duration as short as possible work teams should be small hierarchy format e.g. 1.0 Main task 1 1.1 Subtask 1 1.2. Subtask 2 2.0 Main task 2 3.0 Main task 3 Deliverable any item produced as the outcome of a project or any part of a project project deliverable is differentiated from interim deliverables interim deliverables result from activities within the project deliverable must be tangible and verifiable every element of the WBS (activity or task) must have one or more deliverables. BUILD TEAM Issues Contract Labor Outsourcing Recruit The Best Candidates ask mainly open questions develop the interview questions develop a mechanism to score responses develop a comprehensive job specification identify skills, knowledge, and attitudes required for the position Attributes To Look For In A Candidate a positive, team-player attitude a goal oriented, Can do disposition a knowledge of systems and user documentation Resource Capabilities And Resource Availability have the greatest impact on the actual duration of project tasks have the greatest impact on the estimated per unit labor cost RESPONSIBILITY ASSIGNMENT MATRIX Maps Work To People Authority Structure? ESTIMATION TECHNIQUES Top Down estimate effort/cost/duration/risk of project or phase looking at the project as a whole comparing project to previously performed similar projects methods of comparison analogous estimating direct comparison parametric estimating using an algorithm experts estimating from memory ROM (Rough Order of Magnitude) estimate effort/cost/duration/risk of project or phase done early in a projects to get a ball park figure about the same as top down. Parametric estimate effort/cost/duration or project or phase using an algorithm parameters that represent attributes of the project used to calculate used in top-down estimating. Analogous estimate effort/cost/duration/risk of project or phase estimating using similar projects or activities as a basis for determining used in top-down estimating Bottom Up estimate effort/cost/duration or project or phase breaking down into activities, tasks and sub-tasks estimating the effort, duration and cost of each task and sub-task combine all component estimates to determine the full estimate determining duration through a bottom-up approach requires sequencing and resource leveling to be done as part of the scheduling process. Cost and Time Estimating Issues scope task requirements resource availability resource expense original estimations vs actuals FTE = Full Time Equivalent SCHEDULE Process For Creating Schedule estimate time and resources for each work unit historical data expert judgment determine dependencies between work units level the resources create checklists for each work unit understand dependency relations between work units FF, SS, FS, SF Five Lists Required To Generate Schedule deliverables project tasks required skills available skills time and resources per task Items Needed To Justify The Schedule the project critical path actions you have taken the tasks with time requirements Sequencing Tasks part of the scheduling process tasks are positioned serially or parallel based on dependencies between them sequencing results in a task network. Dependencies: Types Of mandatory inherent in the nature of the work often involve physical limitations hard logic discretionary defined by project management team soft logic external relationship between project and non-project activities Milestones points in time when a deliverable or set of deliverables is available denote a significant event such as the completion of a phase SMART criteria = Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-framed on gantt chart represented by black diamonds on tracking gantt chart, slipped milestones represented by white diamond an event: no duration or effort must be preceded by one or more tasks even the beginning of a project is preceded by a set of tasks, may be implied Critical Path path(s) in a project network that has the longest duration series of activities that determines the earliest completion of the project may be more than one critical path critical path(s) may change during the project. Float Or Slack amount of time available for a task to slip before it delays the project end date It is the difference between the task's early and late start dates. Lead minimum lapse of time between start of activity and start of overlapping activity Lag waiting time between two tasks Gantt Chart bar chart that depicts a schedule of activities and milestones activities are listed along the left side of the chart time line is listed along the top or bottom of the chart activities are shown as horizontal bars length of activity bars are equivalent to the duration of the activity may be annotated with dependency relationships and other schedule-related information. Network Diagram graphic tool for depicting the sequence and relationships between tasks forms of network diagrams PERT Diagram Critical Path Diagram Arrow Diagram Precedence Diagram Pert (Program Evaluation And Review Technique) scheduling technique that makes use of dependency analysis and critical path to determine the duration of a project slack to determine priorities of tasks task durations are computed as (Optimistic + 4x Most likely + Pessimistic estimates) / 6) Schedule project time-line identifies dates (absolute or relative to a start date) that project tasks will be started and completed resources will be required milestones will be reached. Sequencing Tasks tasks are positioned serially or parallel based on dependencies between them sequencing results in a task network. BUDGET Process For Creating - Bottom Up determine cost of resources for each work unit determine when those resources will be required should have written approval from the project sponsor Uses For Top Down Budget confirm the customer's expected cost validate detailed (bottom-up) budget when it is created Budget Baseline need budget and schedule to develop show when the budget for each work unit will be spent basis for budgets cash flow basis for PV (BCWS) and EV (BCWP) (new terms?) Management Reserve funding for price changes that occur over the project life cycle due to -inflation- ? Cost Budgeting allocate cost estimates over time four inputs to cost budgeting cost estimates WBS project schedule risk management plan one output from cost budgeting cost baseline time phased budget Fully Loaded Amounts For Hr Include compensation benefits overtime etc COMMUNICATIONS PLAN Communication Policies There should be no arguments in front of the customer Consultants should not discuss other clients while on-site Communications Plan Should Include Communication: purpose senders recipients frequency type method description Information Needs Of End-User Management main systems functionality user involvement requirements main deliverables planned delivery times QUALITY PLAN Quality Plan create operation definitions for performance, and reliability Project Review Process provides a quality assurance measure for project performance provides an independent evaluation of project performance/documentation Quality Testing (Types Of) unit test component level integration test functionally grouped components system test the entire system as one entity user acceptance test should prove that the system operates to the specified requirements. verification alpha testing simulated environment and simulated data validation beta testing live environment and real data audit testing certifies system is ready for operation Quality Checkpoints Quality Assurance (QA) making sure standards and procedures are effective and complied with in some organizations QA is used to refer to the quality control function satisfy standards promote continual improvements Quality Control (QC) making sure deliverables comply with acceptance criteria includes testing and reviews. RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN Risk likelihood of the occurrence of an event generally, the event is a negative one like project failure event may also be a positive event, like the early completion of a task price for opportunity Risk Categories technology risk schedule risk program evaluation and review technique (PERT) Monte Carlo financial risk Choices To Handle Risk accept avoid mitigate Qualitative Risk Analysis assess likelihood and impact of identified risks Identify Potential Risks historical information nature of product and project information gathering Risk Assessment part of risk management planners identify potential risks and describe them risks usually identified in terms of symptoms causes probability of occurrence potential impact Risk Response action that can be taken to address the occurrence of a risk event Contingency Plans are collections of risk responses Risk Response Control responding to risk event occurrences throughout the project life cycle taking corrective action is an aspect of risk response control Risk Response Development part of risk management planners identify and define actions to be taken in case a risk occurs such risk may be positive or negative Six Processes Within The Area Of Risk Management: Risk Management Planning Risk Identification Qualitative Risk Analysis Quantitative Risk Analysis Risk Response Planning Risk Monitoring and Control PROJECT PLAN Project Plan – Key Concepts other documents, such as WBS and SOW are fed into the project plan very detailed and contains all the information about the project a living document in that its contents can change over the life of the project needs to be base-lined and all changes tracked closes out the planning phase Project Plan - Methods For Generating Support For requesting input from stakeholders during planning process clearly illustrating how the project relates to the company's objectives Project Plan - Included In Project Plan project scope project definition project objectives project scope analysis (inclusion and exclusions) project deliverables project assumptions project success criteria project requirements methodology description project approach work breakdown structure (WBS) project estimates project risk assessments project resources (skills set needed, etc) Project Plan : PP-TOSTR-SEE-BIST (mnemonic) (T) - Table of Contents (O) - Overview (S) - Sponsors (T) - Team Members (R)- Requirements (S) - Scheduled Tasks (WBS) (E) - Expected Resources (E) - Environmental Issues (B) - Business Requirements (I) - Implementation Plans (S) - Support Plans (T) - Training Plans - Nine Knowledge Areas, each = report, except integration (dummies pmp) Integration Scope Time Cost Quality Human Resources Communication Procurement Risk mnemonic: Rapper Ice-T seeks the HR department to take a CPR class Ice-T - IST - integration, scope, time seeks HR - CQ HR - cost, quality, HR CPR - communication, procurement, risk Project Plan - Steps To Creating A Project Plan assemble all project planning elements create an outline or table of contents review outline with key stakeholders adjust the plan according stakeholder feedback write the comprehensive project plan obtain formal approval