COURSE 4300 | 3-DAY SESSION
Rapid Project Planning

---

Course Outline

I. The Project Planning Process
For some project managers, project planning is little more than an educated guess. We'll start our workshop with an overview of just what planning entails, where it fits in the project management life cycle, and what estimates do, and do not, tell us.

A. Integration with the Project Management Methodology
B. Reliability vs. Accuracy

II. Scope Definition I
Activities exist to produce deliverables. Deliverables are identified through the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). But the WBS ultimately is derived from the proper understanding of project requirements.

Practice Exercise: We'll utilize the tools of Business Analysis (In-Out Diagrams, Context Diagrams, and Use-Cases) to develop the scope baseline of our project.

Practice Exercise: We'll use external estimating techniques (i.e., Function-Point Analysis) to provide first-cut project estimates.

III. Scope Definition II
In this section of the course, we'll learn how to use the deliverables oriented WBS as the foundation of the estimation processes.

A. Product Scope, Project Scope, and WBS

Practice Exercise: We'll develop a WBS for our project against which we can reliably estimate time and cost.

IV. Activity Definition and Sequencing
The WBS is a decomposition of deliverables for the purpose of estimating time and cost. In order to successfully control a project, WBS Work Packages often must be further decomposed for purposes of manageability. In this section we'll define what our activities are and then sequence them using the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM).

Practice Exercise: We'll take our already developed WBS and decompose it for purposes of Activity Definition. These activities will then be sequenced to yield a Schedule Network Diagram showing predecessor-successor relationships.

V. Activity Resource and Duration Estimating
There are a number of sources from which activity effort estimates can be collected - Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), historical figures, and published or online estimating data. But collecting data is most often not enough. Activity effort estimates are not duration estimates. In order to produce activity duration estimates, effort must be adjusted (compensated) for issues such as worker skill, work-place inefficiencies, etc. We'll show you several techniques that you can use to apply these real world considerations to more accurately estimate your activity durations, then adjust those efforts using various estimation methodologies (i.e., analogous, parametric, 3-point estimation).

A. Alternative methods for estimating project staffing
B. Compensating Effort for project member skill levels
C. Compensating Effort for work-related inefficiencies
D. Compensating Effort for non-work-related inefficiencies

Practice Exercise: We'll estimate the overall resource requirements for a project.

Practice Exercise: We'll utilize the Delphi method to gather activity estimates from SMEs and then apply 3-point estimation techniques to these estimates to produce activity estimates with different levels of assurance.

Practice Exercise: We'll use the estimates of Effort developed in our previous exercise to arrive at reliable duration estimates.

VI. Risk Management Planning
One constant companion of the project manager is risk - technical risks, external risks, organizational risks, and project management risks. In this section we'll look at how the project manager identifies, analyzes, and manages project risk. Learn how to quantify risk in terms that can be utilized in activity estimation.

A. Risk Identification
B. Risk Analysis

Practice Exercise: We'll run both qualitative and quantitative risk analyses on simulated project activities.

VII. Schedule Development
It may seem that once duration estimates have been produced, the estimation process is nearly complete. However, activity duration does not add up to project duration until the estimates are applied to the schedule of activities. In this section we'll build a schedule network diagram, apply to it our duration estimates, and determine the critical path/critical chain of your project.

A. Building the PERT/CPM Schedule Network
B. Identifying Critical Path and Critical Chain
C. Building Risk Estimates into the Schedule

Practice Exercise: We'll apply our duration estimates to the Schedule Network Diagram to establish the critical path of the network. We will then reconcile this schedule to an actual calendar to determine project length.

VIII. Cost Estimating
Time is only half of the estimating process. Just as important is cost estimation. In "Cost Estimating" we'll learn how to gather data on costs and integrate that information with the activity duration estimates to produce reliable cost estimates.

A. Activity Cost Estimating and Cost Summarization

Practice Exercise: We'll collect cost estimates for the production of the project's Cost Baseline.

IX. Cost Budgeting
Putting a budget together would seem to be the last step in the estimation process. By the same token, it would seem to be fairly simple; just totaling up the numbers. In this section, you'll discover the feedback relationship between budgeting and scheduling as you reconcile the funding requirements of the project by making scheduling changes.

A. Reconciling Funding and Expenditures
B. Budget feedback to Schedule

Practice Exercise: We'll construct a Time-Phased Cost Budget from schedule and cost estimates and then perform a funding reconciliation exercise.

X. Schedule and Cost Control
If estimation has been done correctly, those estimates have more than historical interest to the project manager. They also serve as a baseline for measuring schedule and cost performance as well as projections of the budget at completion of the project. In this final section, we'll use the cost and time estimates, compare them with actual figures, and produce meaningful reports you can use immediately to manage your project.

A. Schedule and Cost Variance
B. Cost Projecting

Practice Exercise: We'll evaluate the progress of our project using the Earned Value Technique (EVT), as to both budget and schedule adherence.