Developing the Project Plan
| To begin the process of planning the project, it is necessary to gather as much information concerning the new project as you can. Because projects are not exactly the same time after time, you can get information from other projects that will at least give you guidelines to follow. These guidelines will not be plans that you can follow exactly because there are by definition differences between projects. But other plans used in the past can be valuable if you use them with the caveat that your project is not the same as what you are examining. The first place to go for information is other project managers who have planned and executed projects like the one you are about to undertake. This is particularly true if these project managers are also PMPs. I have had many good conversations with other project managers about projects I was about to undertake, and I know that I saved a great deal of time by using other PMPs as a resource. If nothing else, I get a sounding board for my planning and also experience with a similar project. Ideas and tasks almost always come up that I had not thought about in any depth or at all. There is nothing quite like a conversation with another project manager about risks he or she overcame during the execution of his or her project. You may also be able to find databases of formally recorded information. This information can include how the estimating was done as well as how the project was executed against its original baseline. Any information that has been kept on former projects can be very useful to you as you plan and execute yours. A very valuable addition to your information can be the WBS of a previous project. These can be very helpful in defining tasks and sequencing. One of the problems with looking at a previous project's WBS, though, is the trap of using the numbers in the WBS you are examining. These were probably different people in a different time setting who almost certainly had deliverables other than those that your project has now. Although using a previous WBS for task identification on a current project is an excellent idea, remember that your project is unique, so there are likely to be significant differences in how your WBS is created.
The answer is B. Each individual project is unique and should be thought of as a new planning and execution problem. Although past project plans can be helpful, they are not the exact same plan that you will be using.
The answer is D. Using any information that will make your project run more effectively is a good idea. Other people and other information about previous projects that are similar to yours are all useful tools. Another set of information used within a project plan is plans from other knowledge areas, such as a risk plan or quality plan. A very valuable figure to examine is Figure 3-7 from the third chapter of the PMBOK. Rather than reproduce it here, you should look at it in the PMBOK. There is relevant information around section 3.2.2 of the PMBOK that is well explained. All of the planning done in preparing sub-plans of the project plan will be useful input to the overall project plan. These sub-plans will be created by subject matter experts in each planning area and will reflect the best thoughts on those knowledge areas. There are plans that need to be managed as well as the overall plan. The project manager's job is to integrate all of these plans into a coherent project plan so that the project can be managed as efficiently as possible. Another topic that appears on the exam deals with the organizational policies as they relate to writing a project plan. As the organization becomes more complex, all major policies will need to become fixed. The major policies are written down, and they form a constraint on the project because they determine certain ways that the organization wants to handle operations. The policies may include personnel issues, quality issues, how controls are to be handled, and even how to dress in the organization. Policies tell anyone dealing with the organization how that organization expects different actions to be taken. If you are a project manager, your major project plan will be influenced by all the different policies the organization has.
The answer is B. The hiring and firing of employees and the way to handle these two extremely important tasks is a major part of organizational policy. This policy may affect whom you hire and the pool of people that you have to work with on your project. It is a good practice to understand any organizational policies that will affect your project before you start to formalize the project plan. The PMBOK defines a constraint as "An applicable restriction that will affect the performance of the project." Many different types of constraints are involved in executing a project. Among the most obvious are the available budget, the time when the project is expected to be done, and the expected quality level. All three of these constraints are major considerations for a project manager. Certainly these constraints not only will act as inputs to the development of a project plan but also will become guidelines for you to follow throughout the project. As with organizational policy, constraints exist throughout the project, and understanding how they work and the ways in which they affect your project is a major task of the project manager.
The answer is C. Any contract with another organization or individual has provisions that are constraints. All contracts should be cleared through your own legal department so that you can be certain that you are complying with the contract. The project manager is not expected to be a legal expert, so he or she should rely on professional help to understand the provisions of the contract.
The answer is D. All of these sub-plans are used in the project plan and are important for the execution of the project. In order to do project planning, it is necessary to have some type of methodology to follow. Some of the tools you use may be "hard" tools, such as project management software. Some may be "soft" tools, such as facilitated startup meetings. The quotation marks come from the PMBOK, and they indicate that software and mechanical tools are considered "hard," whereas human resource management is considered "soft." You may also use templates that are provided by your organization or forms that have become standard for project planning. These would all be a part of the organization's methodologies and can be useful to the project manager as he or she begins to do project plan development. As mentioned in Chapter 2, "Initiation and Planning," the software that is most often used in the project management area is Microsoft Project. Specific types of management use other tools, such as Primavera, but MS Project is generally the electronic planning device that is found in most organizations.
The answer is B. In the language of the PMBOK, mechanical tools are described as hard tools.
The answer is C. Any resource that can be reused as a useful tool is part of the total methodology of project planning. Templates are forms that an organization can use to plan a variety of projects. Each project manager can make up his or her own tools, but in general, standard tools will be available to use as a part of the project planning. A second set of tools available to the project manager consists of the project stakeholders' skills and background. Each stakeholder will have some useful special skills or experience, and a good project manager should always work to get this information from the stakeholders into the project plan. A given stakeholder might have been on a similar project before, or he or she might have specific training or education that is useful for the rest of the project team. No matter what, the better the project manager is at getting the stakeholders' skills and knowledge revealed for the whole team to see, the better the chances for project success. These are the most overlooked tools in project management. The Asian cultures look to people with experience for help and guidance. We should do the same on a project. On the other hand, a person does not have to have many years of experience to be useful to the project team. Sometimes the fact that one of your stakeholders has not had a great deal of experience may be useful. These people think in different ways than people who have done the same types of projects over and over again. Young blood is just as necessary as more experienced people. A good project manager looks for skills and experience. The appropriate skills may be available from people of any age.
The answer is A. The engineer is a stakeholder and a part of the project team. Using stakeholder skills is an important part of project success. The Project Management Information System (PMIS) was discussed in Chapter 4. It is everything that you use to collect and disseminate information about the project. As with almost all the planning parts of a project, there are both manual and automated systems that you can use. PMIS is the system that supports the project from the Planning phase to the Closing phase.
The answer is A. There are many useful types of systems in the Project Management Information System; some are manual, and others, such as software, are automated. After you have gone through project plan development, the major output is the project plan itself. Here is a list of the parts of the plan. This comes from the PMBOK, page 89:
The project plan includes all of these different parts, and if you are doing a comprehensive project plan, you should include the items from this PMBOK list. The subsidiary plans will be discussed in each of their specific knowledge areas, so they will not be discussed here. The project plan therefore shows how work will be controlled and how change control will occur during the project. In addition, it includes the specific selected processes that will be used to manage the project. There are other parts to the project plan, and you should refer to page 88 of the PMBOK for more information. The other output of project plan development is supporting detail. This includes a variety of information that is available in the sub-plans but not included in the project plan itself. The plan would become enormous if all the supporting detail was included. As the project manager, you should make sure you know where supporting detail is for the parts of the overall project plan. If there is insufficient detail to allow you to understand a particular sub-plan, go to the writers and get it. This information will help you understand how the various parts of the project plan have been put together. Technical documentation should be part of the supporting detail as well. This means that the designs, requirements, and specifications for the project need to be placed in the plan. Finally, you need to include any relevant standards that will be used in executing the project as a part of your supporting material. Supporting detail is just that, detail. You do not need to have all the detail in the main project plan, but it is good project management practice to have your detail organized so that you can use it as needed on the project.
The answer is C. You should have detail concerning all of the three areas in order to refer to the baseline used as your technical guide. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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