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UNIT 1
Introduction to Step Wise project planning
Planning is the most difficult process in project management. The framework described is
called the Stepwise method to help to distinguish it from other methods.

Step 0: Select Project

Step 1: Identify project scope and objectives

Step 1.1 : Identify objectives and practical measures of the effectiveness in
meeting those
objectives
Step 1.2 : Establish a project authority
Step 1.3 : Stakeholder analysis - identify all stakeholders in the project and
their interests.
Step 1.4 : Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis.
Step 1.5 : Establish methods of communication with all parties.
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Step 2 : Identify project infrastructure

Step 2.2 : Identify installation standard and procedures
Step 2.3 : Identify project team organization

Step 3 : Analyse project characteristics

Step 3.1 : Distinguish the project as either objectives- or product-driven.
Step 3.2 : Analyse other project characteristics
Step 3.3 : Identify high-level project risks
Step 3.4 : Take into account use requirements concerning implementation
Step 3.5 : Select development methodology and life-cycle approach
Step 3.6 : Review overall resource estimates

Step 4 : Identify project products and activities

Step 4.1 : Identify and describe project products
Step 4.2 : Document generic product flows
Step 4.3 : Recognize product instances
Step 4.4 : Produce ideal activity network
Step 4.5 : Modify the ideal to take into account need for stages and
checkpoints

Step 5 : Estimate effort for each activity

Step 5.1 : Carry out bottom-up estimates
- distinguish carefully between effort and elapsed time
Step 5.2 : Revise plan to create controllable activities
- breakup very long activities into a series of smaller ones
- bundle up very short activities

Step 6 : Identify activity risks

Step 6.1 : Identify and quantify activity based risks
- damage if risk occurs
- likelihood if risk occurring
Step 6.2 : Plan risk reduction and contingency measures
- risk reduction : activity to stop risk occurring
- contingency : action if risk does occurs
Step 6.3 : Adjust overall plans and estimates to take account of risks

Step 7 : Allocate resources

Step 7.1 : Identify and allocate resources
Step 7.2 : Revise plans and estimates to take into account resource
constraints

Step 8 : Review/ Publicize plans

Step 8.1 : Review quality aspects of the project plan
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Step 8.2 : Document plans and obtain agreement

Step 9 and 10 : Execute plan. Lower levels of planning

Step 0: SELECT PROJECT

 It is called Step 0 because it is outside the main project planning process.

 Project evaluation may be done on an individual basis or as part of strategic planning.
Step 1: IDENTIFY PROJECT SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES

 The activities in this step ensure that all the parties to the project agree on the objectives
and are committed to the success of the project.
Step 1.1 Identify objectives and measures of effectiveness

o ‘how do we know if we have succeeded?’

Step 1.2 Establish a project authority

o Single overall project authority needs to be established so that there is unity of

purpose among all those concerned.
Step 1.3 Stakeholder Analysis - Identify all stakeholders in the project and their interests

o Essentially all the parties who have an interest in the project need to be
identified.
Step 1.4Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis

o To modify objectives to gain the full cooperation of all concerned.

o Ex adding new features to the system which gives benefit to stakeholders.
o This is dangerous as system size may increase and original objective
obscured.
Step 1.5 Establish methods of communication with all parties

o For internal staff this be fairly straight forward.

Step 2: IDENTIFY PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE

Project leaders must find out the precise nature of Infrastructure

Step 2.1 Identify relationship between project and strategic planning

o Organizations need to decide in what order these projects to be carried out.
o Needs to establish the framework within which the new proposed systems are
to fit.
o Strategic decisions to be documented in strategic business plan.

Step 2.2 Identify installation standards and procedures

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o Organization that develops software should define their developmental

procedures.
o Change control and configuration Management standards should be to ensure
changes to the requrements that are implemented in a safe & orderly way.
o Quality Standards and Procedure Manuals - Quality checks that needs to be
done at each point of the project life cycle or these may be documented.
o Measurement Programme - Dictates certain statistics have to be collected at
various stages of a project as part of monitoring and control.
o Project Planning and Control Standards - Relate to how project is controlled.
Step 2.3. Identify project team organization

o Project leader have control over the organizational structure of the project
team.
o High level managerial decision might be taken that programmers and system
analysts will be in separate groups.
Step 3: ANALYSE PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS

To ensure that appropriate methods are used for the project.

Step 3.1 Distinguish the project as either objective or product-driven

o More product driven though underlying objectives always remain.

Step 3.2 Analyse other project characteristics (including quality based ones)

o Will the system be safety critical?

o An information system to be developed or process control system or elements
of both.
Step 3.3 Identify high level project risks

o Consideration must be given to the risks that threaten successful outcome of

the project. Most risks can be attributed to the operational or development
environment, the technical nature of the project or type of product being
created.
Step 3.4 Take into account user requirements concerning implementation

o Client’s have their own procedural requirements.

Step 3.5 Select development methodology and life-cycle approach

o Methodology – Group of methods – choice of methods is the methods that

have been used in the past.
o Generic ways of structuring such as projects life cycle.
Step 3.6 Review overall resource estimates

o Once major risk identified and broad project approach decided – re-estimate
the effort and other resources.
Step 4: IDENTIFY PROJECT PRODUCT AND ACTIVITIES
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Step 4.1 Identify and describe project products (or deliverables)

Products

o The result of an activity

o Could be (among other things)
• physical thing (‘installed pc’),
• a document (‘logical data structure’)
• a person (‘trained user’)
• a new version of an old product (‘updated software’)

o The following are NOT normally products:

 activities (e.g. ‘training’)
 events (e.g. ‘interviews completed’)
 resources and actors (e.g. ‘software developer’) - may be exceptions to
this
o Products
 deliverable– handed over to client at the end of the project.
 intermediate – used in the process of creating deliverables.
 Technical products – training material and operating instructions
 Management products – products to do with management and quality of the
project.
 PBS
 The main product will have sets of component products which in turn have
sub – component products. The relationships are documented in a product
breakdown structure.

Selection
products

Volume Office User List of potenyia; Inviatation

figures layouts requirements suppliers to tender

User’s Test
Existing system modified examples
description requirements

Product description (PD) which contain

• Product identity
• Purpose of the product
• Derivation of the product
• Composition of the product
• Form of the product.
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• Relevant standards
• Quality criteria that should apply to it.
Step 4.2 Document generic product flows
Some products need one or more products to exist before they can be created.
These relationships portrayed in Product flow diagram.

Overall system Specification

Module specification

Module Design

Module test
Code
cases
module

Tested module
Step 4.3 Recognize product instances

• The PBS and PFD will probably have identified generic products e.g. ‘software
modules’
• It might be possible to identify specific instances e.g. ‘module A’, ‘module B’ …
• But in many cases this will have to be left to later, more detailed, planning
Step 4.4 Produce ideal activity network

• Identify the activities needed to create each product in the PFD

• More than one activity might be needed to create a single product
• An activity network which shows the tasks that have to be carried out and the
order in which they have to be executed

Specify
Design Code/Test
module
Module A Module A
A

Specify Design Code/Test

module Module
B Module B
B
Integrate
Specify /test
overall System
Specify Design Code/Test
system
module Module
C Module C
C

Specify Design Code/Test

module Module
Module D
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Step 4.5 Modify the ideal to take into account needed for stages and checkpoints

• Divide project into stages and introduce checkpoints.

• This delay work on some elements of the project.
• This draw together the products of preceding activities to check that they are
compatible.
• Check point activities are often milestones.
Step 5: ESTIMATE EFFORT FOR EACH ACTIVITY

Step 5.1 Carry out bottom-up estimates

• Estimates of staff effort required, the probable elapsed time and the non-staff
resources needed for each activity will need to be produced.
• distinguish carefully between effort and elapsed time
• Effort is the amount of work that needs to be done
• Elapsed time is the time between the start and end of a task.
Step [Link] plan to create controllable activities
Long activities make a project more difficult to control.

 break up very long activities into a series of smaller ones

 bundle up very short activities which could be supplemented with a check lists

Step 6: IDENTIFY ACTIVITY RISKS

Step 6.1 Identify and quantify activity - based risks

 damage that each risk could cause and likelihood of risk occurring have to be
gauged.
Step 6.2 Plan risk reduction and contingency measures where appropriate

• possible to avoid or reduce some of the identified risks.

• contingency plan specify action to be taken if a risk materializes
Step 6.3 Adjust overall plans and estimates to take account of risks

• Change plans, by adding new activities which reduce risks.

Step 7: ALLOCATE RESOURCES

Step 7.1 Identify and allocate resources

• Type of staff needed for each activity is recorded.
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• Staff available for the project are identified and are provisionally allocated to
tasks.
Step 7.2 Revise plans and estimates to take into account resource constraints
• Ensuring staff are available to start work on activities as soon as the preceding
activities have been completed mean they are idle and therefore used inefficiently.

Step 8: REVIEW/PUBLICIZE PLAN

Step 8.1 Review quality aspects of project plan

• Each task should have ‘exit requirements’

• These are quality checks that have to be passed before the activity can be “signed
off” as completed.
Step 8.2 Document plan and obtain agreement

• Plans carefully documented

• All parties to the project understand and agree to the commitments required of
them in the plan.
Step 9 and 10: EXECUTE PLAN AND LOWER LEVELS OF PLANNING

• Plans need to be drawn in greater detail for each stage as it becomes due.
• Detailed planning of later stages will need to delayed.
• Make Provisional plans for more different tasks.