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Instructional Module in
Program and Project Development (PPD 302)

Midterm
I. Lesson Number 6
II. Lesson Title Project Activity Planning
III. Brief Introduction of the This lesson discusses project planning and outlines the key components of
Lesson project planning including developing a project charter, scope, and
management plan. It describes the nine segments of the planning process and
defines elements like the project charter, project overview section, project
approach section, and project approval section.
IV. Lesson Objectives • Analyze the nine segments based on the planning process;
• Develop the skill in writing a project charter, project scope and project
management plan;
• Design a simple Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Lesson Proper
Discussion

Before the start of any project, the first thing to do is planning to an appropriate level of detail. In order to
approximate the work required and to handle risk effectively throughout project implementation it is best to plan
time, cost and resources adequately. The failure to plan sufficiently diminishes the chances of project’s success.
Any rational project manager surely recognizes the value of planning a project well.

Project Planning in Action

- Project planning entails describing apparent, distinct activities and the work required in order to finish each
activity in a particular project. It frequently calls for making several assumptions about the accessibility of
resources like hardware, software, and personnel. It is a lot simpler to plan nearer term activities than those
happening in the future. In reality, the construction of longer-term plans is more general in scope and nearer-term
plans are more comprehensive. The recurring nature of the project management process necessitates that plan
be continuously supervised during the project implementation and from time to time updated after each phase in
accordance to the most recent information.

- Project plans are normally created by jotting down the order of activities needed to implement the project from
start to completion. The project is divided into nine segments based on the planning process leaned around the
life-cycle events frequently for software and hardware product developers:

1. Concept evaluation - A project concept evaluation is a type of evaluation in which the product/project concept
developed so far is reviewed.
2. Requirements Identification - It is determining the resources needed for the completion of the project like
labor, equipment and materials. There must also be a schedule indicating when each resource will be employed
and note any assumptions and constraints made during the resource planning process.
3. Design - It is creating the blueprint of the project with technical details that will enable the development team
to proceed with the build and/or configuration of the solution. It should be approved to ensure compliance with the
standard
4. Implementation - This is the manner of completing the project.
5. Test - This segment will detail all levels of testing to be performed during the build/configure/test phase of the
project. Iterations of testing cycles as well as environments to be utilized for the testing should be indicated.
6. Integration - It is the coordination of the various elements of the project in order to meet their mutual goals of
scope, schedule and budget to meet the entire project goals.
7. Validation - It confirms that the work being considered matches the details in the WBS, project scope and
project management plan.
8. Customer Test and Evaluation - It is a critical aspect of project management involving complex systems that
must satisfy specification requirements of the customer.
9. Preparation and maintenance - It is the guide in the preparation for the implementation of the project and the
sustenance of all resources.
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The Project Charter
- At the start of a project, the needs to be accomplished must be defined and make a decision how the project is
going to continue. Each project begins with an idea, a vision, or a business opportunity. This is the starting point
that must be associated with organization's business objectives.

- The project charter is that initial point. The project charter is a single, consolidated source of information about
the project in terms of initiation and planning. Essentially, the project charter defines the boundaries of the project.
The charter lays the foundation of the project. It includes a statement of the business's needs.

- The project charter describes the motivation behind the project and presents the business case for selecting the
project. It defines the organization's purpose in doing the project, outline the scope of the project and explain how
the project's desired outcomes strengthen the organization's goals. It also identifies the deliverables, name the
risks involved, describe the resources (both human and materials) and technologies, and reflect on task
dependencies. The charter forms a contract with all stakeholders involved in the project. Once the top
management approves the project charter, the project manager prepares the project plan that shows how to
achieve the approved project goals.

Every project charter should consist of at least three primary components which are project overview section,
project approach section and project approval section.

Project Overview Section

1. Identification (Project Formal Name) - Give the formal name of the project. As well as any other terms that
might be used to identify the project and Primary groups that will be involved with it. With this consistent
terminology. It will be easier for all parties involved like the project team, stakeholders, and End users to discuss
and work on the project
2. Project Background and History - Give any background information that will help explain how the project
came to be.
3. Project Purpose and/or Business Need - Explain why the project is needed. If applicable, include details of
why existing tools or products are insufficient. If there are supporting documents available for any of these
reasons, list them here and include them as appendices to the charter.
4. Project Scope and Limitations - Define the project scope, being watchful to note boundaries and limitations.
The project scope should be unmistakably detailed so that all parties involved are very aware of exactly what the
project includes as well as what it doesn’t.
5. Project Goals and Objectives - Using appropriate business terminology; state all objectives for the project.
Be sure to include the project’s intended purpose in language that is both concise and self-explanatory.
6. Project Sponsorship and Major Stakeholders - Provide a list of names identifying the major parties involved
in the project, such as project sponsors, stakeholders, and eventual project owners. In addition, be sure to identify
the role of each individual listed so that there is no confusion concerning responsibilities later down the line. These
names should also be included in the Project Approval section.
7. Pertinent Documents and References - List any related documents or other resources that could be helpful
in understanding various aspects of the project, such as the scope and business need. If these documents are
particularly crucial, they can also be included as appendices to the charter.
8. Overview of Project Terminology - Provide a basic, but complete, glossary that defines special terms related
to the project. If there are any key terms, Phrases, or acronyms that might prove to be confusing or new to anyone
Related to the project, be sure to include them in this section.

Project Approach Section

1. Project Deliverables - List the major deliverables of the project and include when these goals should be
achieved. Most importantly, remember to include the key milestones of the project.
2. Responsibilities and Roles - Include a summary of all parties that will be involved in the project and what their
roles will be. Also, list the needed skills and expertise that each individual brings to the project as well as each
person’s Responsibilities.
3. Project Resources - In addition to the human component; include other resources that will be needed for
satisfactory completion of the project. Provide a list of computer equipment, raw materials, working space, and
any other resources that might be taxed during the project’s life cycle. If certain resources will only be needed
during specific phases of the project, make note of that as well.
4. Risk Management Overview - Give a summary of the risks that may be encountered during the project as well
as how these risks may be minimized. Risk mitigation and action steps can be listed.
5. Project Process Summary - Explain which of the organization’s project management methodologies will be
employed for this project. If there is a plan to deviate from standard means and methodologies, explain that as
well.
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6. Project Life Cycle Overview - Give a basic breakdown of the project life cycle, and list the various stages that
the project will go through. Make sure to include the objectives of each stage and why the stage is necessary.
7. Basic Project Control and Communication Plan - The project control component explains the tools that will
be used to assist the project manager in tracking the project’s progress. It also serves as a communication device
for communicating the project’s progress to the project team, project sponsor, and project stakeholders.
8. Project Schedule - Provide a fundamental schedule overview that lists, among other things, the key milestones
and stages of the project. Various exhibits, such as a Gantt chart (including the associated Work Breakdown
Structure) should be included in this section. Here, it can be quite advantageous to use a project management
software tool to produce a schedule that can be monitored and adjusted as the project progresses. Depending on
the size of the project, such tools can be critical to its success.

Project Approval Section

1. This section should list all of the names and roles of the major stakeholders along with their signatures,
indicating that each of these individuals with the details included in the project charter. Is satisfied with the Details
included in the project charter.
2. In addition, if the project will require resources from other departments or groups, a representative from each
of these divisions should be listed in the Approval section as well. The signatures of these individuals will signify
that they accept their own responsibilities for successful completion of the project and agree to provide needed
support.

Writing the Project Scope

- In order to identify the scope of a project, it is indispensable to first establish the project objectives. A well-defined
objective parallel to the mission, goals and strategy of the organizations a guarantee to a successful initiation of
the project. The objective of a project may be to generate a new product, make a new service to offer within the
organization, or develop the latest bit of software. There could be any number of objectives for as long as they
must be essential toa given project.

- Essentially, project scope is the description of what the project is estimated to attain and state the budget of both
time and cost that wants to be stipulated to generate the project deliverables before the project is terminated. It is
the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables,
tasks and deadlines.

- The work and resources that go into the creation of the product or service are essentially the things that frame
the scope of the project. The scope of the project outlines the objectives of the project and the goals that need to
be met to achieve a satisfactory result. Every project manager should understand how to define the project scope
and there are some steps that can be followed when doing this.

1. Justification - A brief statement regarding the business needs the project addresses. Project justification is
simply identifying the reason for the project’s existence. It is usually a statement or two identifying why the project
is being created. It’s important to have the project justification identified because this helps to give overall direction
to the project as well as emphasizing the final goal. The project justification should be clear and precise manner
so that it identifies a quantifiable measure of success for the end of the project.
2. Product scope description - The characteristics of the products, services, and/ or results the project will
produce.
3. Acceptance criteria - The conditions that must be met before project deliverables are accepted.
4. Deliverables - The products, services, and/or results your project will produce (also referred to as objectives).
Deliverables may include any training necessary for personnel at the culmination of the project. Or deliverables
may be a final product to be provided to the stakeholders. No matter what makes up a project’s deliverables,
specific details regarding them are the golden rule. The more clearly the deliverables are identified and specified,
the less chance there will be for scope creep to occur later on.
5. Project Exclusions - Statements about what the project will not accomplish or produce.
6. Constraints - Restrictions that limit what can be achieved, how and when can it can be achieved, and how
much achieving it can cost.
7. Assumptions - Statements about how uncertain information will be addressed when conceiving, planning, and
performing the project. Once these things have been established, there is a need to clarify the limitations or
parameters of the project and clearly identify any aspects that are not to be included. In specifying what will and
will not be included, the project scope must make clear to the stakeholders, senior management and team
members involved, what product or service will be delivered.

Once these things have been established, there is a need to clarify the limitations or parameters of the project
and clearly identify any aspects that are not to be included. In specifying what will and will not be included, the
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project scope must make clear to the stakeholders, senior management and team members involved, what
product or service will be delivered.

Alongside of this, the project scope should have a tangible objective for the organization that is undertaking
the project. The purpose may be to create a better product for a company to sell, upgrade a company’s internal
software so that they can deliver better service to their customers or to create a new service model for an
organization. These things are integral to defining the project scope, because they will play a part in how project
methodologies are applied to the project to bring it to completion.

As a project manager, understanding and being able to define project scope will give you a focus and sense
of purpose when executing the project, understanding a focus and sense of purpose for managing project change
management. It enables goal setting and a timeline to work towards, as well as key points for reporting on the
progress of the project to senior management and other stakeholders.

Developing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Given a project it is too threatening if there is no known direction of efforts. In reality there is no such thing
as magic formula in project completion. It is matter of carrying out one step at a time, per activity. Therefore, one
must recognize that a project is simply a collection of a number of steps that together sum up to the overall
deliverable.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a comprehensive, systematic and major tool in project planning
that center on the actual tasks of the project. The purpose of WBS is to make certain that the entire work necessary
to meet the project objectives is acknowledged, described and delegated. It shows the subdivision of tasks,
subtasks, and work packages in terms of organizational elements associated with the project. Every downward
level signifies increasingly comprehensive definitions of project work with the lowest level giving a picture of an
individual element of work that can be identified and responsibility assigned to a particular person. The Work
Breakdown Structure ought to consist of:

1. Product/Service Delivery Tasks - The work necessary to productively describe, build and execute a product
or service is completely detailed in the Work Breakdown Structure to guarantee that all project deliverables can
be finished on time and according to conditions.
2. Project Management Tasks - Tasks that address project management activities like starting the project,
generating and tracking the project plan, supervising the project team and preserving expectations are all shown
in the Work Breakdown Structure to allocate sufficient time and resources.
3. Training Tasks - Training tasks are part of the Work Breakdown Structure so that team members and users
obtain the right training at the exact times with no negative impact on the project schedule.
4. Project dependencies - The four types of project dependencies and their deliverables are integrated in the
Work Breakdown Structure to make sure that they are followed. More levels of detail are generally required for
projects which are larger, more risky, dissimilar to past projects and difficult to define or vulnerable to change.
Overall, for a generic project, the levels of details for WBS follow this format:

Table 1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Level

Consider the illustration of a group of students preparing for a paper and final presentation for a seminar.
Before each member of the group is given the assignment, the project must be broken down into a series of tasks
or work packages. The final paper and the presentation are the overall project that when reduced into much
simpler levels or a series of meaningful action steps becomes easier to manage and complete.
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Table 2. Sample Project Breakdown

There must be a complete breakdown of activities identified at both the deliverable and work package levels.
The WBS also provides numeric codes for each activity. The assigned code for each activity aids in allocating
costs more accurately, track activities that are over or under budget and maintain financial control of the
development process.

Table 3. Example of WBS for an IT Project

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The Tree Structure View is the most well-liked layout for the Work Breakdown Structure. It is very simple to
view and understand view. However, it is complicated to construct in the absence of an application exclusively
intended for creating this organizational chart structure. The Tree Structure design of WBS can be created using
only Microsoft Word and the SmartArt graphics option under the insert menu.

Table 4. Sample of the Tree Structure View WBS for an IT Project

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Dalubhasaan ng Lungsod ng Calamba