admindocumenting and managing project activities, difficulties in project planning, and too many projects or investing in the wrong projects.
In terms of documenting and managing project activities it has been discovered that this occurs in 24 percent of organisations, while difficulties in project planning is prevalent in 20 percent of companies and investing in too many projects or investing in the wrong projects accounted for 17 percent of companies.
Very low on the list of problems is the issue of projects always late and over budget accounting for 7 percent.
Not only was this issue not one of the biggest problems, it was seldom a problem at all at only 16 percent.
These conclusions are among the results of a 2009/10 survey of 74 project management practitioners by the US Centre for Business Practices, the research arm of the consulting and training organisation, PM Solutions.
A similar survey conducted in Zimbabwe using the same criteria would probably yield similar if not more distressed results.
Companies and Government are keen to implement several projects without paying details to formal documentation required upfront in appropriate detail before implementation.
In this installment we shall discuss the project plan, one of the three fundamental documents that must be produced in a series as part of the road map to implementation of any formal project that is guaranteed to obtain buy-in from the stakeholders and minimum failure possibility.
Well before a project plan is drawn up, the project business case and the project charter must have sailed through as the first and second documents respectively.
The project plan is the most common document that most project managers and usually rush to sponsors to table without consideration of the other two preliminary documents that give birth to the planning.
In the previous articles we have elaborated what the Business Case is and the Project Charter, their purpose and structure, today we will examine the project plan.
Project planning is one of the most difficult tasks for a project manager as it represents the creation of the project baseline that will be used to manage the development effort.
Even with a correct estimate of effort and time, it is easy to forget tasks, incorrectly allocate effort among tasks, or fail to allow enough resources for maintenance.
The project management environment is awash with literature and consultancy services on how to plan effectively, but we still find that many people still plan to manage their projects by writing stacks of outdated to-do lists and colourful hand-drawn wall charts.
They scribble notes on calendars in pencil, knowing – more often than not – that dates and tasks will change over time.
They hold numerous meetings to keep everyone in the project informed. People have developed these simple organisational tools because projects typically have so many bits and pieces that no one can possibly remember them all.
Even state-of-the-art project management software installed and made available on their notebooks and desktops is not utilised.
Project Planning is a primary function of project management, which involves deciding in advance the future course of action for the desired project.
The process of project planning is to define each major task, estimate the time and resources required and provide a framework for management review and control.
Planning will involve identifying and documenting scope, tasks, schedule, risks, quality and staffing needs.
An adequate plan process and project plan will ensure that resources and team members will be identified so that the project will be successful.
During the planning process the sequence and the logical inter-relationships between the various activities may be established.
The process of project planning involves the following steps, defining the objectives and goals of the project, making forecasts for achieving the goals, identifying the various courses of action through available alternatives and assumptions.
In addition it also includes evaluating the resources available, evaluating and selecting the available course of action for achieving the desired objective under the resource constraints.
About 60 percent of studies to do with assessing the causes of project failure always discover that one of the major causes of project failures is poor planning.
Actually, I am being kind. Most of the time the problem is due to no planning at all!
The team simply tries to “wing it,” to do the work without doing any planning at all.
As I have explained earlier, many of us are task-oriented, and we see planning as a waste of time, so we would rather just get on with the work.
Failing to develop a plan means that there can be no actual control of the project.
The project plan is the output document of the project planning process. The project plan is a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control.
The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, to facilitate communication among stakeholders, and to document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines.
The project plan represents the basic tool for successfully executing a project. It forms the basis for all management efforts associated with the project.
It is a record of plans that is expected to change over time. The project manager and the project team are responsible for bringing out the project plan, which should be accurate and complete as far as possible without being several volumes in length.
It is a document that allows the project manager to manage the details, and not be managed by the details. Without a plan everything is a deviation!
- Peter Banda is the Secretary General & Chief Executive of the Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe (PMIZ). Send your views & comments via email; [email protected] website link www.pmiz.org.zw
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