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The Project Plan

THE PROJECT PLAN

Planning, scheduling, and controlling is often referred to as the project management cycle. Each of these phases of the management cycle are closely linked together. One objective of this chapter is to illustrate approaches for developing schedules and budgets, and for monitoring and controlling a project.

One of the first of many challenges faced by a project manager is the development of a project plan. A project plan is not a single document. It consists of a Work Breakdown Structure, a responsibility chart; a schedule in the form of a bar chart and a network diagram, and supporting documentation, describing costs and budgets.

The manager and the members of the project team prepare project plan as a road map to provide them with direction and guidance from project kickoff to the day of delivery. The length and complexity of the project plan depend entirely on the type of project and the level of investment being made in it. For example a real estate developer might only prepare a Work Breakdown Structure and a schedule of sub controller due dates when building a single house. However, when the same contractor is building a 300-unit condominium complex, the work is broken down to a level of detail that will assist in developing detailed schedules and responsibility matrices.

After you complete the study of this chapter, you should know how to do the following:

• Participate in the preparation of written specifications.
Subdivide a project into a hierarchy of tasks and work packages.
Write clear task descriptions.
• Prepare a Work Breakdown Structure and the associated documentation.
• Create a responsibility• matrix.
• Develop a Gantt chart for timing the project.
• Draw a network diagram for analyzing the project.
• Apply the Critical Path Method of analysis to develop a schedule for the project.
• Adjust a project schedule to match customer, needs.
• Understand the budgeting process.
• Realize the complexities...