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Project Plans

  • Management Plans
    • Considering how you will do the work
    • Strategy for managing, monitoring, and controlling scope, schedule, and cost
    • Update Management plans when requirements change
  • Scope
    • Managed through the Scope Management Plan, involving processes for defining, monitoring, and controlling scope
    • Changes are managed via formal change control​​.
  • Schedule
    • Controlled using the Schedule Management Plan with tools like Gantt charts and schedule compression techniques​​
  • Cost
    • Managed through the Cost Management Plan using methods like Earned Value Management (EVM) to track performance​​

  • Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)
    • Organizational knowledge repositories: Processes, procedures, policies owned by the PMO
  • Organizational Structure:
    • Functional
      • Common org. structure; grouped by specialization (accounting, marketing, etc.); PM has little to no power.
  • Project-Oriented
    • Organized by projects; PM has control; team members have “no home.”
  • Matrix
    • Team members report to both PM and functional manager.
  • Strong Matrix
    • Power with PM.
  • Weak Matrix
    • Power with Functional Manager; PM is part-time; PM’s power over resources is low

  • Performance Measurement Baselines
    • Scope, schedule, cost; included in the PM plan
    • Actual performance vs planned performance
    • Performance bad = risk analysis bad = visit risk management process
  • How to Answer Questions:
    • Technique or Process?
    • Document, Plan, or OPA?
    • Initiating and Planning?: No change request required to change anything
    • Next Action or Best Action?: Record the issue, but this doesn’t solve it

WBS Dictionary

  • Provides detailed deliverable, activity and scheduling information for each component in the WBS

Change Management plan

  • Outlines the procedures and policies for handling changes including:
    • Change Control Procedures - General policies for change approval, validation and implementation
    • Change Control Board (CCB) - Rules and responsibilties for the board that approves changes
    • Change Authorization procedures - Levels of authority for authorizing changes
    • Change Control System - Part of project management information system (PMIS) for tracking and controlling changes

Cost Management plan

  • Describes how the project cost will be planned, structured and controlled
  • Includes variances and threshold estimates - determines what estimating methods to be used
  • Cost Estimates (Total cost of everything)
    • Qualitative assessments of the costs required to complete project work as well as contingency reserves for identified risks and management reserves for unplanned work and unidentified risks
  • Basis of estimates
    • Amount and type of additional details supporting the cost estimates
    • Used as a reference for the evaluation of performance
  • Cost Baseline
    • Approved version of the project's budget excluding management reserves
    • Actual performance is measured against this
    • Can only be chnaged through formal change control procedures
  • Cost Budget
    • Cost baseline + Management reserves
  • Management reserves
    • Funds set aside for unforeseen risks that are not identified in the risk register
    • Not included in the cost baseline but are part of the overall project budget
  • Contingency reserves
    • Included in the cost baseline
    • Funds allocated to address identified risks
    • Risks are controlled by the project manager
  • Value Analysis or Value Engineering
    • Finding the lowest cost method to do the work without affecting the scope
  • Earned Value analysis
    • Compares the performance measurement baseline vs the actual schedule and cost performance

Quality Management Plan

  • Describes how policies, procedures and guidelines will be implemented to achieve the quality objectives
  • Includes quality standards
  • describes what to do with non-conforming products and what corrective action to implement
  • Control quality
    • Ensuring product meets quality standards
  • Cost of quality (CoQ)
    • Performed during the Plan Quality Management process
  • Quality Marginal Analysis
    • Quality vs Cost
    • Too much emphasis on quality may not produce a higher value
  • Check Sheets
    • Tally sheets used for collecting useful data about a potential quality issue
  • Control Charts
    • Sigma Standard Deviation
    • To achieve organisational correctness with extremely reduced variances
  • Quality Improvement Methods
    • Six Sigma
      • 5 phases - Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control
    • Flowcharts
      • Display the sequence of effects that led to a defect
  • Quality Control Measurements
    • Cause and Effect Diagrams
      • Fishbone diagrams or Ishikawa diagrams
      • Break down the cause of problems in to discrete branches
    • Histograms
      • Graphical representation of numerical data with three categories
    • Pareto Chart
      • Bar chart used to identify which root causes are resulting in the most problems (80/20)
    • Scatter diagrams
      • Graphs showing relationship between two variables
  • Total Quality Management
    • All members participate in improving processes, culturem products and quality

Resources Management

  • Resource requirements
    • Identify the types and quantity of resources needed for each work package or activity
    • Requirements Traceability Matrix
      • Links product requirements to deliverables
    • Resource breakdown structure
      • Hierarchical representation of resources by category and type
  • Resource Management methods
    • Just in time manufacturing
      • Receiving goods only as they are needed
      • Reduces inventory costs
    • Kaizen
      • Continuous improvement
      • Everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas for improvement
    • Total productive maintenance (TPM)
      • Emphasizes preventing breakdowns, eliminating defects, proactive training and automation/maintenance
    • Theory of constraints
      • Managing most significant limiting factor that hinders achieving the goal
  • Resource Management Plan
    • Provides guidance on how project resources should be categorised, allocated, managed and released
    • Recognition Plan
      • Details which recognition and rewards/punishment will be given to team members and when
  • Team Charter
    • Establishes team values, agreements and operating guidelines for the team
  • Tuckman Ladder
    • Managing a team has 5 stages
      • Forming - Members are polite and behave independently
      • Storming - Tension, disagreement, conflict
      • Norming - Begin to work together
      • Performing - Efficiency
      • Adjourning - Disbands after project completion
  • Maslow's hierarchy of needs
  • McClelland theory of need
    • People are motivated by three factors:
      • Affiliation
      • Power
      • Achievement
  • Herzberg's two factor theory
    • Hygiene (Salary, status and security)
    • Motivation (recognition and self-actualization)

Communications management

  • Project Communcations
    • Reports on all aspects of projects such as performance reports, deliverable status, schedule progress, cost incurred, presentations and other informations required by stakeholders
  • Communication Channels
    • Channels = n(n-1)/2
    • n represents number of individuals who could potentially communicate with one another
  • Stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
    • Displays gaps between the current and desired engagement levels of individual stakeholders
  • Communication Management Plan
    • Describes how the project communications will be planned, structured, implemented and monitored for effectiveness

Risk Management

  • Risk Workshop
    • Qualitative risk analysis step
    • Special meeting to discuss identified individual project risks
  • There can be Individual Project Risk or an Overall Project Risk
  • Variability Risk
    • Weather, Market changes etc
    • Monte Carlo Analysis
      • Analyses costs, schdule risk using computer simulation
      • Can address variability risks and others
  • Ambiguity Risk
    • Addressed through incremental development, prototyping or simulation
  • Risk Management Plan
    • Describes how risk management activities will be structured and performed
  • Risk Probability Assessment
  • Risk Impact Assessment
  • Risk Register
    • Details of identified individual risks
    • Includes short risk titles, category, current status, risk owners, potential risk responses
  • Risk Report
    • Presents information on sources of overall project risks together with summary on identified individual project risks
  • Perform Qualitative risk analysis - Focuses effort on high-priority risks
    • Decision Tree Analysis
    • Expected Monetary value (EMV) = Probability (P) * Impact (I)
  • Risk Data Quality Assessment - Evaluates the degree to project risk accuracy/reliability
  • Sensitivity Analysis (Tornado diagram)
    • Which individual risks have the most potential impact on the project outcomes
  • Influence Diagram
    • Represent a project or situation as a set of entitites, outcomes and influences
  • Monitor Risk Process
    • Monitors the implementation of risk response plans, tracks identified risks, and identifies new risks
  • Residual Risks
    • Remain after the risk response strategy was implemented
  • Secondary Risks
    • Arise when the risk response strategy was implemented
  • Risk Audit
    • Done during monitor risk process
  • Risk Breakdown Structure
    • Hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk
  • Delphi technique
    • Used to build consensus on project risks
    • Based on a result of multiple rounds of questionnaire sent to a panel of experts
  • Risk Triggers
    • Events or conditions that indicate that a risk is about to occur