Description
Objective
To
- develop a time schedule and budget for the next stage of the project,
In a way that
- defines the tasks necessary to carry out the next stage of the project,
- determines the best approach to completing each activity,
- identifies the tools for performing the project work,
- identifies actual resource requirements,
- determines task and resource dependencies,
- creates an estimate for the cost of the stage,
- creates an estimated completion date for the stage,
So that
- a schedule is available to guide the next stage and to use as a benchmark by which progress on the project can be monitored and controlled.
Overview
An overall project schedule is required to determine complete project timescale, resource requirements and costs. A more detailed schedule is required to manage and control the project. This more detailed schedule is developed progressively through the project by producing a schedule for the next stage during Project Initiation and towards the end of subsequent project stages.
The overall project schedule provides a overview of the activities in the stage. These activities need to be further defined to the point where all necessary tasks have been identified. This should use the same approach as for developing the overall project schedule. That is, using a proven process, or developing the process if one does not exist.
Once this has been done it is necessary to estimate the resources required for the stage. This should cover all personnel resources required, both full and part time, and other types of resource such as office space and equipment. A time line and cost estimate for the stage can then be developed.
The development of the stage schedule is an iterative activity during Project Initiation. The other steps carried out in Project Initiation will affect the schedule.
For single stage projects, the stage plan is both the project and stage plan.
Task .010 Determine Next Stage Activities
Based upon the project and stage objective, scope, constraints and assumptions, tune the stage work breakdown structure to:
- Add new steps and/or tasks,
- Remove unnecessary steps and/or tasks,
- Merge steps and/or tasks,
The project plan identified the probable steps within the stage. Now is the opportunity to reassess the steps and their associated objectives and products. Removing steps and tasks may increase project risk. Document these risks and identify proposed countermeasures, which may include additional quality assurance tasks.
Determine the products to be produced by each step. Start at the end of the stage with the final deliverable, and work forwards to the beginning. Describe the objective, outline and content of each product. Validate the final product against the project and stage objective.
Within each step, identify the tasks or activities required to produce the step products. A task will have the following characteristics:
- Reference
- Name
- Description
- Input
- Output or product
- Technique (optional)
- Tool (optional)
- Role / responsibility assignment
- Resource / responsibility assignment
- Effort estimate
In this task define the Task Reference, Name, Description, Product, Techniques and Tools.
Record all assumptions and issues identified.
Software Guidelines
Task .020 Determine Product Workflow
Chart the sequence of stages and steps to reflect the intrinsic and architectural dependencies inherent in the project.
An output or product of one task will usually be the input to another, and this will be the primary driver in determining the task dependencies and workflow.
Determine whether the successor task references (throughput) or updates (entry requirement) the input product.
Some inputs may be sourced from outside the project. Identify these External Inputs (e.g., Long Range System Plan, Standards, Project Initiation report of another project, etc.).
Review the dependencies determined by the task inputs and outputs. Review the dependency types between the tasks. Tasks are not necessarily finish-start, but may be in parallel or phased. Where appropriate, define lags (both positive and negative) between tasks. Remove any step dependencies. It is recommended that the dependencies be kept simple and reduced to a minimum, otherwise the schedule will be very difficult to execute and will probably be abandoned.
Ensure that all dependencies with other projects are identified. Examine other Project Initiation Reports to assess interproject dependencies.
Record all assumptions and issues identified.
Software Guidelines
Task .030 Estimate Effort
Stage schedule estimates will be determined as effort time (or work). Determine the total effort per task. Remember to include peer review and revision time if such activities are not identified as specific tasks. It is recommended that you estimate in units of an hour. Avoid estimating tasks to less than one hour. It is advisable to estimate in units of 4 hours. No task should be longer than 80 hours.
By combining small tasks and including a detailed description of the task it will be possible to simplify the schedule merely by reducing the number of tasks in the Gantt.
The task effort estimates will be apportioned to individual roles and resources in the next task.
Record all assumptions supporting the estimate in the task description. This is very important because it will enable you to recreate and substantiate the estimate. It will also ensure that you have thoroughly thoughout what is to be done, and that it is communicated clearly to the Team. Estimating takes time, but it will validate the tasks, products, techniques and assumptions.
Aggregate the task estimates and compare against the original top-down step and stage estimates. If the detailed estimate is substantially different from the original top-down estimate it may be necessary to refer to the Project Board and consider revising both the project and stage plans.
Software Guidelines
Task .040 Allocate Resources
Assign roles and their associated responsibility to each task. In order to avoid overwhelming the plan with complexity focus on the "produce", "consult" and "review" responsibilities. The "approve" responsibility will generally apply only to the Project Board. The responsibilities are defined as follows:
- Produce: to create the product of the task. Usually applies to Project Team Members like Business Analysts, Systems Analysts and Programmers. The schedule will be simpler to balance if only a single role is assigned per task.
- Consult: provide information required to produce the task. Usually applies Coordinators and Key Resources.
- Review: review the product for correctness, accuracy and completeness. Usually applies Coordinators and Key Resources.
- Approve: official signoff. Usually applies to the Project Board.
Assign resources to the roles and responsibilities.
Apportion the total task effort estimate to the resources. As a tip, the schedule will be much easier to balance if the task effort estimate is apportioned entirely to the a single "produce" resource. Therefore this estimate should include time for the other "consult" and "review" resources, e.g., Client review, DBA review. Although this is a simplification, it is still applicable if the non-project team costs are excluded from the plan, since the estimates are primarily for the Project Team. The "consult", "review" and "approve" resources still need to be assigned to tasks, albeit at zero work, in order for them to be included in the schedule.
Define by task the resources availability (unit). The scheduler will calculate task duration as effort / unit.
Software Guidelines
Task .050 Prepare Stage Schedule
Develop an initial schedule of project activities.
Determine the proposed stage start date and use the scheduler to calculate the step and task start and end dates. Validate these dates against the project constraints.
Review the project objective, constraints and control factors before attempting to balance the plan. Deadline, resource utilization and costs can be adjusted as follows:
- Modify dependencies,
- Modify dependency type (finish-start, lag, etc.),
- Modify tasks and therefore the effort estimate (avoid arbitarily reducing estimates),
- Assign more resources (task duration will theoretically be reduced if more resources are applied to the task),
- Reassign more proficient resources,
- Provide productivity enhancing tools,
- Train and coach team members,
- Motivate team members,
- Increase resource availability.
Modify task descriptions and assumptions to record all the adjustments to the plan. Failure to do this will result in a mismatch between the original plan and the current schedule, and reduce the probability of project success.
Software Guidelines
Task .060 Prepare Stage Budget
Determine staff costs at the task level. This is a function of the resource work and chargeable rate. The Process Manager will supply standard hourly rates for both Internal Staff and External Contractors.
Determine non-staff costs for the stage by category. The categories are:
- Hardware & Network
- Software
- Project Training, training the project team to execute the project
- Installation Training, training the clients, operations, etc. to use the application
- Miscellaneous, includes supplies, copying of training materials, accommodation, subsistence, travel, or other costs which cannot be classified above.
Software Guidelines
Task .070 Baseline Stage Schedule
Once a satisfactory balanced stage schedule and budget has been achieved, baseline it. This will retain a record of the original start and end dates, work and duration estimates, and staffing costs
Actual progress will be monitored against this baseline.
Software Guidelines
Task .080 Create Stage Schedule Products
Produce and collate the project schedule documents at the step and task level:
- WBS Description Report,
- Products Report,
- Resource Report,
- Baseline Stage Estimates,
- Baseline Resource Work
- Cost Workbook,
- Gantt chart,
- PERT chart,
- Resource Usage
- Project Summary Report
Software Guidelines.
Task .090 Review Stage Schedule Products
Conduct a product review of the Stage Schedule Products with the Process Management Group to ensure that the scope meets the business needs and that all technical standards are met.
Communicate the plan to the Project Board since it is a "contract" stating what is to be done, how, when and by whom. If the Project Board accepts the plan, then they are committed to supply the resources, both client and technical.
The Project Board will assign a project or stage start date for the schedule when they authorize the project to proceed. This may require some minor adjustments to the schedule.
Communicate the plan to the Project Team since it defines exactly what is to be done. Hopefully they will have been heavily involved in producing the plan so there should be no surprises and they will have already bought in to it.
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