Enterprise Remote Access Customer Presentation

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SWE523 Chapter 8 Project Planning
Understanding The Work Ahu EVNI 24 October,
2005
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Why Planning ?

• Developing an information system is a complex
  undertaking. There is a high probability of
  failure, if planning is not done carefully in
  advance.
• People involved in a project need to know their
  role and responsibilities. Project plan is a tool
  for communication in this respect.
• Customers want to be confident that the
  developers know what they about to do. The plan
  is a tangible demonstration that the developers
  have a clear idea of where they are going.
• Without a plan a project manager can not
  determine whether the project is on schedule,
  ahead or behind and whether corrective action is
  needed
• The planning process itself has a value
  irrispective of the plan that results.It gives
  the PM the opportunity to sit down and thing
  about the project.

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First Step Understanding The Requirements

• The starting point for a good project plan is a
  proper understanding of the requirements. If an
  IS project is to be successfull, all concerned
  must know in detail what they are trying to do.
• In practice, it may not be the case. Depending on
  the situation and type of the project, the level
  of detail we know may vary.
• If the requirements are not specified in enough
  detail, than it is project manager's
  responsibility to ensure that requirements are
  specified correctly for a clear start. For this,
  project manager should
• Conduct a thorough risk analysis, and identify
  the holes.
• Discuss the findings with the customer.
• Come to a consensus with the customer.
• Document the results and formally get approval.

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Second Step Breaking Down The Work
There are two basic approaches for breaking down
the work
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - The Traditional
Approach - Take the overall work - the project -
and break it down progressively into smaller and
smaller chunks until we end up with individual
tasks or work packages, that we can estimate
sensibly and assign to team members.
Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) - An Emerging
Approach - Similiar to WBS, progressively
decompose the project products into smaller
products until a sensible, unitary product level
is reached. Once all of the products have been
identified, associate things with them (e.g. who
will produce it, quality standarts, when will it
be produced...)
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WBS Some Highligts

• WBS is a traditional approach that has been
  widely used in many industries for many years.
• The idea in WBS is to break down each activity
  until we arrive at tasks that are
• Fairly atomic, that is do not readily lend
  themselves to further subdivision or to
  assignment to more than one person.
• Small enough to estimate with reasonable
  accuracy, say are about half a day to two day's
  duration.
• Some IT departments and system companies have
  developed standard work breakdown structures
  based on their experiences over a number of
  projects.

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WBS An Example
Figures 8.1 - 8.3 Work breakdown structures
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PBS Some Highligts

• PBS is an emerging approach to project planning
  based upon the idea of considering the products
  that will result from the project. There are
  several advantages claimed for the PBS including
  
• It ensures that the project's focus is on what is
  to be achieved rather than how , in other words
  on ends rather than the means.
• When approaching a new area of work, it may be
  more easy to consider what one has the develop -
  the products - than one needs to do - in other
  words the work.
• Project managers who have used PBS report that it
  is more difficult to forget something with this
  method as compared to WBS
• Once all of the products have been identified,
  then other things can easily be associated with
  them.

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PBS Some Highligts (continued)

• The top level of products is known as 'project
  products' which is further subdivided into two
  main categories Management products and
  specialist products.
• Management Products Products associated with
  the planning and control of the project like
  project initiation document (PID), the project
  plan and the quality plan.
• Specialist Products Things that the project has
  been set up to create.
• Project managers who have used PBS report that it
  is more difficult to forget something with this
  method as compared to WBS
• At the bottom level we find individual products
  for which we can write product descriptions.
  (Explained later)
• With the list of products we can consider the
  work we will need to do to create the products by
  using a technique known as 'product flow
  diagram'. (Explained later.)

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PBS An Example
Figures 8.5 8.8 Product breakdown structures
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Product Flow Diagrams

• A product flow diagram shows the relationships
  between the products and explains how one product
  is transformed into another.
• In a PFD , nodes represent the products and the
  arrows between the nodes represent the activities
  that are performed to transform one product to
  another.
• The product flow fiagram provides two important
  inputs to the planning process
• A set of activities for which we will need to
  estimate effort
• An understanding of the dependencies between
  activities
• The PRINCE2 manual and many of the textbooks on
  PRINCE2 provide outline PBSs for projects. These
  are quite detailed in respect of the
  management/quality products, less so for the
  specialist products (since all projects are
  different.)
• When PRINCE2 is used in association with
  structured system analysis and design method
  (SSADM), SSADM provides a more detailed PBS for
  its specialist products as well as detailed
  product descriptions.

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Product Flow Diagrams An Example
Figure 8.9 PRINCE2 product flow diagram
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Product Description

• A product description defines the characteristics
  and details of the products that are reached
  after the product breakdown, and as a minimum
  includes the following sections
• Purpose
• Composition
• Derivation
• Quality/completion criteria
• and can add
• Format
• Related products
• Review methods

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Work Packages

• A work package is a piece of work that can be
  assigned to an individual or a group of people
  for which effort and finish dates can be
  estimated.
• If a PBS is used, each product can be treated as
  a work package and assigned to individuals simply
  by adding
• 'Effort Estimated', 'Date Required' and
  'Allocated To'
• sections to the product description.
• Sometimes it makes more sense to group a set of
  products together into a work package as
  illustrated in the next slide.

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Work Packages An Example
Figure 8.10 Work packages for a training course
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Work Package Assignments To Roles Or Individuals

• After identifying the work packages, project
  managers assign work packages to roles or
  individuals.
• Linear responsibility charts are widely used for
  that purpose.
• A Linear responsibility chart is a two
  dimensional grid with the list of products or
  work packages on one axis, and the roles
  identified in the organization chart on the
  other. Where each work package and roles
  intersects role's responsibilities are recorded
  including
• Responsible For actually creating the work
  package
• Accountable Managing creation of the work
  package
• Consultation Will provide information for
  creating the work package
• Information Will be kept informed about
  progress.
• Or alternatively
• Initiatin Starts the process off.
• Execution Carries out work
• Approval Reviews the results
• Consultation Is consulted during the work
• Supervision Manages the work

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Linear Responsibility Charts An Example
Figure 8.11 Linear responsibility chart
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Dependencies And Network Diagrams

• Understanding dependencies is very simple. If
  activity B can begin only when activity A is
  complete, then we have a dependency.
• Dependencies are visualized and analyzed by using
  network diagrams.
• There are two basic types of network diagrams
  Activity On Arrow and Activity On Node.

Activity On Arrow Diagrams On AOA diagrams,
lines represents project tasks and the circles
represents the connections or dependencies
between tasks.
Activity On Node Diagrams On AON diagrams,
circles represents project tasks and the lines
connecting circles represents the dependencies
between tasks.
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Activity On Arrow Network Diagrams An Example
A dummy activity is an activity with zero
duration, which is used to represent dependencies
among tasks, indicated by the dotted line
Figure 8.12 Network diagram (activity-on-arrow
format)
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The Critical Path
Critical Activity Activities that are on the
critical path of the project. In other words,
those that, if they are delayed, will delay the
whole project. Critical Path The series of
activities that determines the duration of the
project. The critical path is usually defined as
those activities with float equal to zero. It is
the longest path throug the project.
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Activity On Arrow Network Diagrams An Example
(Durations And Critical Path Added)
Figure 8.13 Network diagram with durations
critical path added
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Activity On Node Network Diagrams An Example
Analyse
requirements (3)
Conduct
interviews (8)
Investigate
Start
Produce report (5)
Finish
packages (8)
Investigate other
systems (4)
Investigate
hardware (5)
Figure 8.15 Network diagram (activity-on-node
format)
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How To Find The Critical Path With The Activity
On Node Method ?

• With the activity on node method, critical path
  is found by making two passes.
• In the forward pass we establish the
• Earliest Start Time (EST) and record it in the
  top left hand box.
• Earliest Finish Time (EFT) and record it in the
  top right hand box. Obtain EFT by adding the
  duration to the EST.
• for each activity.
• In the backward pass establish
• Latest Finish Time (LFT) and record it in the
  bottom right hand box.
• Latest Start Time (LST) and record it in the
  bottom left hand box. Obtain LST by subtracting
  the duration of the activity from the LFT.
• Subtract EST from the LST, or equally gettig the
  same result, subtract the EFT from the LFT. If
  difference is zero, the task is on the critical
  path.

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How To Find The Critical Path With The Activity
On Node Method An Example
Step 1 - Forward pass EST's and EFT's are
calculated
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Analyse
requirements (3)
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Conduct
interviews (8)
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Investigate
Start
Produce report (5)
Finish
packages (8)
0
4
Investigate other
systems (4)
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Investigate
hardware (5)
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How To Find The Critical Path With The Activity
On Node Method An Example (continued)
Step 2 - Backward pass LST's and LFT's are
calculated
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Analyse
requirements (3)
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0
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Conduct
interviews (8)
0
8
8
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16
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Investigate
Start
Produce report (5)
Finish
packages (8)
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16
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0
4
Investigate other
systems (4)
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8
8
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Investigate
hardware (5)
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How To Find The Critical Path With The Activity
On Node Method An Example (continued)
Step 3 - Critical activities are determined and
highlighted
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Analyse
requirements (3)
0
8
13
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Conduct
interviews (8)
0
8
8
16
16
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Investigate
Start
Produce report (5)
Finish
packages (8)
0
4
8
16
16
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Investigate other
systems (4)
4
8
8
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Investigate
hardware (5)
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Bar Charts
A bar chart or often called a gant chart, is a
graphic display of schedule related information.
In the typical bar chart, activities are listed
down the left side of the chart, dates are shown
across the bottom (or top) and activity durations
are shown as date-placed horizontal bars.
Activities
Conduct interviews
Investigate other
systems
Analyse requirements
Investigate packages
Investigate hardware
Produce report
Days
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
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Bar Charts (continued)
Bar charts showing parallel activities. (Dotted
lines shows floats for the activities)
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Bar Charts (continued)
Bar charts showing dependencies between activities
Activities
Conduct interviews
Investigate other
systems
Analyse requirements
Investigate packages
Investigate hardware
Produce report
Days
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
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Other Points

• Planning For Quality Decide how to cary out the
  work, methods, techniques and quality standarts
  that will be applied. Prepare a quality plan to
  document this. Monitor the quality through out
  the project.
• Tolerances
• Projects are set up in order to achieve some
  objectives with associated constraints on time,
  cost and quality. There is a tolerance on those
  constraints.
• If constraints are violated, it should be
  communicated with the project board for approval.
• Using Planning Tools There are many commercial
  tools for project planning such as MS Project.

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Thank You