Specific Practices by Goal

SG 1 Establish Estimates

Estimates of project planning parameters are established and maintained.

Project planning parameters include all information needed by the project to perform the necessary planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting.

Estimates of planning parameters should have a sound basis to instill confidence that any plans based on these estimates are capable of supporting project objectives.

Factors that are typically considered when estimating these parameters include the following:

  • Project requirements, including the product requirements, the requirements imposed by the organization, the requirements imposed by the customer, and other requirements that impact the project

  • Scope of the project

  • Identified tasks and work products

  • Technical approach

  • Selected project life-cycle model (e.g., waterfall, incremental, or spiral)

  • Attributes of the work products and tasks (e.g., size or complexity)

  • Schedule

  • Models or historical data for converting the attributes of the work products and tasks into labor hours and cost

  • Methodology (e.g., models, data, algorithms) used to determine needed material, skills, labor hours, and cost

Documentation of the estimating rationale and supporting data is needed for stakeholders' review and commitment to the plan and for maintenance of the plan as the project progresses.

Table . Practice-to-Goal Relationship Table

Continuous Representation

Staged Representation

SG 1 Establish Estimates

SG 1 Establish Estimates

SP 1.1-1 Estimate the Scope of the Project

SP 1.1-1 Estimate the Scope of the Project

SP 1.2-1 Establish Estimates of Work Product and Task Attributes

SP 1.2-1 Establish Estimates of Work Product and Task Attributes

SP 1.3-1 Define Project Life Cycle

SP 1.3-1 Define Project Life Cycle

SP 1.4-1 Determine Estimates of Effort and Cost

SP 1.4-1 Determine Estimates of Effort and Cost

SG 2 Develop a Project Plan

SG 2Develop a Project Plan

SP 2.1-1 Establish the Budget and Schedule

SP 2.1-1Establish the Budget and Schedule

SP 2.2-1 Identify Project Risks

SP 2.2-1 Identify Project Risks

SP 2.3-1 Plan for Data Management

SP 2.3-1Plan for Data Management

SP 2.4-1 Plan for Project Resources

SP 2.4-1Plan for Project Resources

SP 2.5-1 Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills

SP 2.5-1 Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills

SP 2.6-1 Plan Stakeholder Involvement

SP 2.6-1 Plan Stakeholder Involvement

SP 2.7-1 Establish the Project Plan

SP 2.7-1 Establish the Project Plan

SG 3 Obtain Commitment to the Plan

SG 3 Obtain Commitment to the Plan

SP 3.1-1 Review Plans that Affect the Project

SP 3.1-1Review Plans that Affect the Project

SP 3.2-1 Reconcile Work and Resource Levels

SP 3.2-1Reconcile Work and Resource Levels

SP 3.3-1 Obtain Plan Commitment

SP 3.3-1Obtain Plan Commitment

GG 1 Achieve Specific Goals

 

GP 1.1Perform Base Practices

 

GG 2 Institutionalize a Managed Process

GG 2 Institutionalize a Managed Process

GP 2.1 Establish an Organizational Policy

GP 2.1 Establish an Organizational Policy

GP 2.2 Plan the Process

GP 2.2 Plan the Process

GP 2.3 Provide Resources

GP 2.3 Provide Resources

GP 2.4 Assign Responsibility

GP 2.4 Assign Responsibility

GP 2.5 Train People

GP 2.5 Train People

GP 2.6 Manage Configurations

GP 2.6 Manage Configurations

GP 2. 7 Identify and Involve Relevant Stakeholders

GP 2.7 Identify and Involve Relevant Stakeholders

GP 2. 8 Monitor and Control the Process

GP 2.8 Monitor and Control the Process

GP 2. 9 Objectively Evaluate Adherence

GP 2.9 Objectively Evaluate Adherence

GP 2. 10 Review Status with Higher Level Management

GP 2.10 Review Status with Higher Level Management

GG 3 Institutionalize a Defined Process

GG 3 Institutionalize a Defined Process

GP 3.1 Establish a Defined Process

GP 3.1 Establish a Defined Process

GP 3.2 Collect Improvement Information

GP 3.2 Collect Improvement Information

GG 4 Institutionalize a Quantitatively Managed Process

 

GP 4 1 Establish Quantitative Objectives for the Process

 

GP 4. 2 Stabilize Subprocess Performance

 

GG 5 Institutionalize an Optimizing Process

 

GP 5.1 Ensure Continuous Process Improvement

 

GP 5.2 Correct Root Causes of Problems

 

SP 1.1-1 Estimate the Scope of the Project

Establish a top-level work breakdown structure (WBS) to estimate the scope of the project.

The WBS evolves with the project. Initially a top-level WBS can serve to structure the initial estimating. The development of a WBS divides the overall project into an interconnected set of manageable components. Typically, the WBS is a product oriented structure that provides a scheme for identifying and organizing the logical units of work to be managed, which are called "work packages." The WBS provides a reference and organizational mechanism for as signing effort, schedule, and responsibility and is used as the underlying framework to plan, organize, and control the work done on the project.

Typical Work Products
  1. Task descriptions

  2. Work package descriptions

  3. WBS

Subpractices
  1. Develop a WBS based on the product architecture.

    The WBS provides a scheme for organizing the project's work around the products that the work supports. The WBS should permit the identification of the following items:

    • Identified risks and their mitigation tasks

    • Tasks for deliverables and supporting activities

    • Tasks for skill and knowledge acquisition

    • Tasks for development of needed support plans, such as configuration management, quality assurance, and verification plans

    • Tasks for integration and management of nondevelopmental items

  2. Identify the work packages in sufficient detail to specify estimates of project tasks, responsibilities, and schedule.

    The top-level WBS is intended to help in gauging the project work effort in terms of tasks and organizational roles and responsibilities. The amount of detail in the WBS at this more detailed level helps in developing realistic schedules, thereby minimizing the need for management reserve.

  3. Identify work products (or components of work products) that will be externally acquired.

    Refer to the Supplier Agreement Management process area for more information about acquiring work products from sources external to the project.

  4. Identify work products that will be reused.

SP 1.2-1 Establish Estimates of Work Product and Task Attributes

Establish and maintain estimates of the attributes of the work products and tasks.

Size is the primary input to many models used to estimate effort, cost, and schedule. The models can also be based on inputs such as connectivity, complexity, and structure.

Examples of types of work products for which size estimates are made include the following:

  • Deliverable and nondeliverable work products

  • Documents

  • Operational and support software

Examples of size measures include the following:

  • Number of functions

  • Function points

  • Source lines of code

  • Number of classes and objects

  • Number of requirements

  • Number of interfaces

  • Number of pages

  • Number of inputs and outputs

  • Number of technical risk items

  • Volume of data

The estimates should be consistent with project requirements to determine the project's effort, cost, and schedule. A relative level of difficulty or complexity should be assigned for each size attribute.

Typical Work Products
  1. Technical approach

  2. Size and complexity of tasks and work products

  3. Estimating models

  4. Attribute estimates

Subpractices
  1. Determine the technical approach for the project.

    The technical approach defines a top-level strategy for development of the products. It includes decisions on architectural features, such as distributed or client/server; state-of-the-art or established technologies to be applied, such as robotics, composite materials, or artificial intelligence; and breadth of the functionality expected in the final products, such as safety, security, and ergonomics.

  2. Use appropriate methods to determine the attributes of the work products and tasks that will be used to estimate the resource requirements.

    Methods for determining size and complexity should be based on validated models or historical data.

    The methods for determining attributes evolve as our understanding of the relationship of product characteristics to attributes increases.

    Examples of current methods include the following:

    • Number of logic gates for integrated circuit design

    • Lines of code or function points for software

    • Number/complexity of requirements for systems engineering

    • Number of square feet for standard-specified residential homes

  3. Estimate the attributes of the work products and tasks.

  4. Estimate, as appropriate, the labor, machinery, materials, and methods that will be required by the project.

SP 1.3-1 Define Project Life Cycle

Define the project life-cycle phases on which to scope the planning effort.

The determination of a project's life-cycle phases provides for planned periods of evaluation and decision making. These are normally defined to support logical decision points at which significant commitments are made concerning resources and technical approach. Such points provide planned events at which project course corrections and determinations of future scope and cost can be made.

For Software Engineering

The determination of project phases for software typically includes selection and refinement of a software development model to address interdependencies and appropriate sequencing of software project activities.

For Systems Engineering

Identify the major product phase (e.g., concept exploration or development) for the current state of the product, expected future phases, and the relationships and effects among phases. Adjust planning parameters to account for relationships and effects among phases.

The project life cycle consists of phases that need to be defined depending on the scope of requirements, the estimates for project resources, and the nature of the project. Larger projects may contain multiple phases, such as concept exploration, development, production, operations, and disposal. Within these phases, subphases may be needed. A development phase may include subphases such as requirements analysis, design, fabrication, integration, and verification. Depending on the strategy for development, there may be intermediate phases for the creation of prototypes, increments of capability, or spiral model cycles.

Understanding the project life cycle is crucial in determining the scope of the planning effort and the timing of the initial planning, as well as the timing and criteria (critical milestones) for replanning.

Typical Work Products
  1. Project life-cycle phases

SP 1.4-1 Determine Estimates of Effort and Cost

Estimate the project effort and cost for the work products and tasks based on estimation rationale.

Estimates of effort and cost are generally based on the results of analysis using models or historical data applied to size, activities, and other planning parameters. Confidence in these estimates is based on the rationale for the selected model and the nature of the data. There may be occasions when the available historical data does not apply, such as where efforts are unprecedented or where the type of task does not fit available models. An effort is unprecedented (to some degree) if a similar product or component has never been built. An effort may also be unprecedented if the development group has never built such a product or component.

Unprecedented efforts are more risky, require more research to develop reasonable bases of estimate, and require more management reserve. The uniqueness of the project must be documented when using these models to ensure a common understanding of any assumptions made in the initial planning stages.

Typical Work Products
  1. Estimation rationale

  2. Project effort estimates

  3. Project cost estimates

Subpractices
  1. Collect the models or historical data that will be used to transform the attributes of the work products and tasks into estimates of the labor hours and cost.

    For Software Engineering

    Within the software engineering area, many parametric models have been developed to aid in estimating cost and schedule. The use of these models as the sole source of estimation is not recommended because these models are based on historical project data that may or may not be pertinent to your project. Multiple models and/or methods can be used to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimate.

    Historical data include the cost, effort, and schedule data from previously executed projects, plus appropriate scaling data to account for differing sizes and complexity.

  2. Include supporting infrastructure needs when estimating effort and cost.

    The support infrastructure includes items needed from a development and sustainment perspective for the product.

    For Software Engineering

    Consider critical computer resources in the host environment, in the test environment, in the target environment, or in any combination of these. Computer resource estimation typically includes the following:

    • Identifying the critical computer resources for the software project

    • Basing estimates of critical computer resources on allocated requirements

    For Software Engineering

    Examples of critical computer resources include the following:

    • Memory, disk, and network capacity

    • Processor power

    • Communications channel capacity

    • Workstation power

    • Peripheral capacity

    For Software Engineering

    Examples of software engineering facilities include the following:

    • Host computers, peripherals, and networks

    • Software test computers and peripherals

    • Target computer environment software

    • Software engineering environment (i.e., software tools)

  3. Estimate effort and cost using models and/or historical data.

    Effort and cost inputs used for estimating typically include the following:

    • Judgmental estimates provided by an expert or group of experts (e.g., Delphi Method)

    • Risks, including the extent to which the effort is unprecedented

    • Critical competencies and roles needed to perform the work

    • Product and product-component requirements

    • Technical approach

    • WBS

    • Size estimates of work products and anticipated changes

    • Cost of externally acquired work products

    • Selected project life-cycle model and processes

    • Life-cycle cost estimates

    • Capability of tools provided in engineering environment

    • Skill levels of managers and staff needed to perform the work

    • Knowledge, skill, and training needs

    • Facilities needed (e.g., office and meeting space and workstations)

    • Engineering facilities needed

    • Capability of manufacturing process(es)

    • Travel

    • Level of security required for tasks, work products, hardware, software, personnel, and work environment

    • Service level agreements for call centers and warranty work

    • Direct labor and overhead

SG 2 Develop a Project Plan

A project plan is established and maintained as the basis for managing the project.

A project plan is a formal, approved document used to manage and control the execution of the project. It is based on the project requirements and the established estimates.

The project plan should consider all phases of the project life cycle. Project planning should ensure that all plans affecting the project are consistent with the overall project plan.

SP 2.1-1 Establish the Budget and Schedule

Establish and maintain the project's budget and schedule.

The project's budget and schedule are based on the developed estimates and ensure that budget allocation, task complexity, and task dependencies are appropriately addressed.

Event-driven, resource-limited schedules have proven to be effective in dealing with project risk. Identifying accomplishments to be demonstrated before initiation of the event provides some flexibility in the timing of the event, a common understanding of what is expected, a better vision of the state of the project, and a more accurate status of the project's tasks.

Typical Work Products
  1. Project schedules

  2. Schedule dependencies

  3. Project budget

Subpractices
  1. Identify major milestones.

    Milestones are often imposed to ensure completion of certain deliverables by the milestone. Milestones can be event based or calendar based. If calendar based, once milestone dates have been agreed on, it is often very difficult to change them.

  2. Identify schedule assumptions.

    When schedules are initially developed, it is common to make assumptions about the duration of certain activities. These assumptions are frequently made on items for which little if any estimation data is available. Identifying these assumptions provides insight into the level of confidence (uncertainties) in the overall schedule.

  3. Identify constraints.

    Factors that limit the flexibility of management options need to be identified as early as possible. The examination of the attributes of the work products and tasks often will bring these issues to the surface. Such attributes can include task duration, resources, inputs, and outputs.

  4. Identify task dependencies.

    Typically, the tasks for a project can be accomplished in some ordered sequence that will minimize the duration of the project. This involves the identification of predecessor and successor tasks to determine the optimal ordering.

    Examples of tools that can help determine an optimal ordering of task activities include the following:

    • Critical Path Method (CPM)

    • Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

    • Resource-limited scheduling

  5. Define the budget and schedule.

    Establishing and maintaining the project's budget and schedule typically includes the following:

    • Defining the committed or expected availability of resources and facilities

    • Determining time phasing of activities

    • Determining a breakout of subordinate schedules

    • Defining the dependencies between the activities (predecessor or successor relationships)

    • Defining the schedule activities and milestones to support accuracy in progress measurement

    • Identifying milestones for delivery of products to the customer

    • Defining activities of appropriate duration

    • Defining milestones of appropriate time separation

    • Defining a management reserve based on the confidence level in meeting the schedule and budget

    • Using appropriate historical data to verify the schedule

    • Defining incremental funding requirements

    • Documenting project assumptions and rationale

  6. Establish corrective action criteria.

    Criteria are established for determining what constitutes a significant deviation from the project plan. A basis for gauging issues and problems is necessary to determine when a corrective action should be taken. The corrective actions may require replanning, which may include revising the original plan, establishing new agreements, or including mitigation activities within the current plan.

SP 2.2-1 Identify Project Risks

Identify and analyze project risks.

Refer to the Risk Management process area for more information about risk management activities.

Refer to the Monitor Project Risks specific practice in the Project Monitoring and Control process area for more information about risk monitoring activities.

Risks are identified or discovered and analyzed to support project planning. This specific practice should be extended to all the plans that affect the project to ensure that the appropriate interfacing is taking place between all relevant stakeholders on identified risks. Project planning risk identification and analysis typically include the following:

  • Identifying risks

  • Analyzing the risks to determine the impact, probability of occurrence, and time frame in which problems are likely to occur

  • Prioritizing risks

Typical Work Products
  1. Identified risks

  2. Risk impacts and probability of occurrence

  3. Risk priorities

Subpractices
  1. Identify risks.

    The identification of risks involves the identification of potential issues, hazards, threats, vulnerabilities, and so on that could negatively affect work efforts and plans. Risks must be identified and described in an understandable way before they can be analyzed. When identifying risks, it is good to use a standard method for defining risks. Risk identification and analysis tools can be used to help identify possible problems.

    Examples of risk identification and analysis tools include the following:

    • Risk taxonomies

    • Risk assessments

    • Checklists

    • Structured interviews

    • Brainstorming

    • Performance models

    • Cost models

    • Network analysis

    • Quality factor analysis

  2. Document the risks.

  3. Review and obtain agreement with relevant stakeholders on the completeness and correctness of the documented risks.

  4. Revise the risks as appropriate.

Examples of when identified risks may need to be revised include the following:

  • When new risk is identified

  • When risks become problems

  • When risks are retired

  • When project circumstances change significantly

SP 2.3-1 Plan for Data Management

Plan for the management of project data.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, project data includes data developed and used solely within a particular team as well as data applicable across integrated team boundaries if there are multiple integrated teams.

Data are the various forms of documentation required to support a program in all of its areas (e.g., administration, engineering, configuration management, financial, logistics, quality, safety, manufacturing, and procurement). The data can take any form (e.g., reports, manuals, notebooks, charts, drawings, specifications, files, or correspondence). The data may exist in any medium (e.g., printed or drawn on various materials, photographs, electronic, or multimedia). Data may be deliverable (e.g., items identified by a program's contract data requirements) or data may be nondeliverable (e.g., informal data, trade studies and analyses, internal meeting minutes, internal design review documentation, lessons learned, and action items). Distribution can take many forms, including electronic transmission.

The data requirements for the project should be established for both the data items to be created and their content and form, based on a common or standard set of data requirements. Uniform content and format requirements for data items facilitate understanding of data content and help with consistent management of the data resources.

The reason for collecting each document should be clear. This task includes the analysis and verification of project deliverables and nondeliverables, contract and noncontract data requirements, and customer-supplied data. Often, data is collected with no clear understanding of how it will be used. Data is costly and should be collected only when needed.

Typical Work Products
  1. Data management plan

  2. Master list of managed data

  3. Data content and format description

  4. Data requirements lists for acquirers and for suppliers

  5. Privacy requirements

  6. Security requirements

  7. Security procedures

  8. Mechanism for data retrieval, reproduction, and distribution

  9. Schedule for collection of project data

  10. Listing of project data to be collected

Subpractices
  1. Establish requirements and procedures to ensure privacy and security of the data.

    Not everyone will have the need or clearance necessary to access the project data. Procedures must be established to identify who has access to what data as well as when they have access to the data.

  2. Establish a mechanism to archive data and to access archived data.

    Accessed information should be in an understandable form (e.g., electronic or computer output from a database) or represented as originally generated.

  3. Determine the project data to be identified, collected, and distributed.

SP 2.4-1 Plan for Project Resources

Plan for necessary resources to perform the project.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, planning for project resources has to consider staffing of the integrated teams.

Defining project resources (labor, machinery/equipment, materials, and methods) and quantities needed to perform project activities builds on the initial estimates and provides additional information that can be applied to expand the WBS used to manage the project.

The top-level WBS developed earlier as an estimation mechanism is typically expanded by decomposing these top levels into work packages that represent singular work units that can be separately assigned, performed, and tracked. This subdivision is done to distribute management responsibility and provide better management control. Each work package or work product in the WBS should be assigned a unique identifier (e.g., number) to permit tracking. A WBS can be based on requirements, activities, work products, or a combination of these items. A dictionary that describes the work for each work package in the WBS should accompany the work breakdown structure.

Typical Work Products
  1. WBS work packages

  2. WBS task dictionary

  3. Staffing requirements based on project size and scope

  4. Critical facilities/equipment list

  5. Process/workflow definitions and diagrams

  6. Program administration requirements list

Subpractices
  1. Determine process requirements.

    The processes used to manage a project must be identified, defined, and coordinated with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure efficient operations during project execution.

  2. Determine staffing requirements.

    The staffing of a project depends on the decomposition of the project requirements into tasks, roles, and responsibilities for accomplishing the project requirements as laid out within the work packages of the WBS.

    Staffing requirements must consider the knowledge and skills required for each of the identified positions, as defined in the Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.

  3. Determine facilities, equipment, and component requirements.

    Most projects are unique in some sense and require some set of unique assets to accomplish the objectives of the project. The determination and acquisition of these assets in a timely manner are crucial to project success.

    Lead-time items need to be identified early to determine how they will be addressed. Even when the required assets are not unique, compiling a list of all of the facilities, equipment, and parts (e.g., number of computers for the personnel working on the project, software applications, and office space) provides insight into aspects of the scope of an effort that are often overlooked.

SP 2.5-1 Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills

Plan for knowledge and skills needed to perform the project.

Refer to the Organizational Training process area for more information about knowledge and skills information to be incorporated into the project plan.

Knowledge delivery to projects involves both training of project personnel and acquisition of knowledge from outside sources.

Staffing requirements are dependent on the knowledge and skills available to support the execution of the project.

Typical Work Products
  1. Inventory of skill needs

  2. Staffing and new hire plans

  3. Databases (e.g., skills and training)

Subpractices
  1. Identify the knowledge and skills needed to perform the project.

  2. Assess the knowledge and skills available.

  3. Select mechanisms for providing needed knowledge and skills.

    Example mechanisms include the following:

    • In-house training (both organizational and project)

    • External training

    • Staffing and new hires

    • External skill acquisition

    The choice of in-house training or external outsourcing for the needed knowledge and skills is determined by the availability of training expertise, the project's schedule, and the business objectives.

  4. Incorporate selected mechanisms into the project plan.

SP 2.6-1 Plan Stakeholder Involvement

Plan the involvement of identified stakeholders.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, stakeholder involvement needs to be planned down to the integrated team level.

Stakeholders are identified from all phases of the project life cycle by identifying the type of people and functions needing representation in the project and describing their relevance and the degree of interaction for specific project activities. A two-dimensional matrix with stakeholders along one axis and project activities along the other axis is a convenient format for accomplishing this identification. Relevance of the stakeholder to the activity in a particular project phase and the amount of interaction expected would be shown at the intersection of the project phase activity axis and the stakeholder axis.

For the inputs of stakeholders to be useful, careful selection of relevant stakeholders is necessary. For each major activity, identify the stakeholders who are affected by the activity and those who have expertise that is needed to conduct the activity. This list of relevant stakeholders will probably change as the project moves through the phases of the project life cycle. It is important, however, to ensure that relevant stakeholders in the latter phases of the life cycle have early input to requirements and design decisions that affect them.

Examples of the type of material that should be included in a plan for stakeholder interaction include the following:

  • List of all relevant stakeholders

  • Rationale for stakeholder involvement

  • Roles and responsibilities of the relevant stakeholders with respect to the project, by project life-cycle phase

  • Relationships between stakeholders

  • Relative importance of the stakeholder to success of the project, by project life-cycle phase

  • Resources (e.g., training, materials, time, funding) needed to ensure stakeholder interaction

  • Schedule for phasing of stakeholder interaction

Conduct of this specific practice relies on shared or exchanged information with the previous Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.

Typical Work Products
  1. Stakeholder involvement plan

SP 2.7-1 Establish the Project Plan

Establish and maintain the overall project plan content.

For Systems Engineering

Systems engineering planning details the work activities and work products of the integrated technical effort across the project.

For Systems Engineering

Examples of plans that have been used in the U.S. Department of Defense community include the following:

  • Integrated Master Plan an event-driven plan that documents significant accomplishments with pass/fail criteria for both business and technical elements of the project and that ties each accomplishment to a key program event.

  • Integrated Master Schedule an integrated and networked multi-layered schedule of program tasks required to complete the work effort documented in a related Integrated Master Plan.

  • Systems Engineering Management Plan a plan that details the integrated technical effort across the project.

  • Systems Engineering Master Schedule an event-based schedule that contains a compilation of key technical accomplishments, each with measurable criteria, requiring successful completion to pass identified events.

  • Systems Engineering Detailed Schedule a detailed, time-dependent, task-oriented schedule that associates specific dates and milestones with the Systems Engineering Master Schedule.

For Software Engineering

For software, the planning document is often referred to as one of the following:

  • Software development plan

  • Software project plan

  • Software plan

A documented plan that addresses all relevant planning items is necessary to achieve the mutual understanding, commitment, and performance of individuals, groups, and organizations that must execute or support the plans. The plan generated for the project defines all aspects of the effort, tying together in a logical manner: project life-cycle considerations; technical and management tasks; budgets and schedules; milestones; data management, risk identification, resource and skill requirements; and stakeholder identification and interaction. Infrastructure descriptions include responsibility and authority relationships for project staff, management, and support organizations.

Typical Work Products
  1. Overall project plan

SG 3 Obtain Commitment to the Plan

Commitments to the project plan are established and maintained.

To be effective, plans require commitment by those responsible for implementing and supporting the plan.

SP 3.1-1 Review Plans That Affect the Project

Review all plans that affect the project to understand project commitments.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, their integrated work plans are among the plans to review.

Plans developed within other process areas will typically contain information similar to that called for in the overall project plan. These plans may provide additional detailed guidance and should be compatible with and support the overall project plan to indicate who has the authority, responsibility, accountability, and control. All plans that affect the project should be reviewed to ensure a common understanding of the scope, objectives, roles, and relationships that are required for the project to be successful. Many of these plans are described by the Plan the Process generic practice in each of the process areas.

Typical Work Products
  1. Record of the reviews of plans that affect the project

SP 3.2-1 Reconcile Work and Resource Levels

Reconcile the project plan to reflect available and estimated resources.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, special attention needs to be paid to resource commitments in circumstances of distributed integrated teams and when people are on multiple integrated teams in one or many projects.

To obtain commitment from relevant stakeholders, it is important to reconcile any differences between the estimates and the available resources. Reconciliation is typically accomplished by lowering or deferring technical performance requirements, negotiating more resources, finding ways to increase productivity, outsourcing, adjusting the staff skill mix, or revising all plans that affect the project or schedules.

Typical Work Products
  1. Revised methods and corresponding estimating parameters (e.g., better tools, use of off-the-shelf components)

  2. Renegotiated budgets

  3. Revised schedules

  4. Revised requirements list

  5. Renegotiated stakeholder agreements

SP 3.3-1 Obtain Plan Commitment

Obtain commitment from relevant stakeholders responsible for performing and supporting plan execution.

For Integrated Product and Process Development

When integrated teams are formed, the integrated team plans will need buy-in from the team members, the interfacing teams, the project, and the process owners of the standard processes that team has selected for tailored application.

Obtaining commitment involves interaction among all relevant stakeholders both internal and external to the project. The individual or group making a commitment should have confidence that the work can be performed within cost, schedule, and performance constraints. Often, a provisional commitment is adequate to allow the effort to begin and to permit research to be performed to increase confidence to the appropriate level needed to obtain a full commitment.

Typical Work Products
  1. Documented requests for commitments

  2. Documented commitments

Subpractices
  1. Identify needed support and negotiate commitments with relevant stakeholders.

    The WBS can be used as a checklist for ensuring that commitments are obtained for all tasks.

    The plan for stakeholder interaction should identify all parties from whom commitment should be obtained.

  2. Document all organizational commitments, both full and provisional, ensuring appropriate level of signatories.

    Commitments must be documented to ensure a consistent mutual understanding as well as for tracking and maintenance. Provisional commitments should be accompanied by a description of the risks associated with the relationship.

  3. Review internal commitments with senior management as appropriate.

  4. Review external commitments with senior management as appropriate.

    Management may have the necessary insight and authority to reduce risks associated with external commitments.

  5. Identify commitments on interfaces between elements in the project, and with other projects and organizational units so that they can be monitored.

    Well-defined interface specifications form the basis for commitments.



CMMI (c) Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement
CMMI (c) Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 378

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