Project Planning

Project Planning

Verner Commander (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Project Planning

Response to Question 1:

Project planning is the most important part of any project, and it is essential for the success of the project. Project planning is conducted to avoid issues in the project at later stages. A good plane ensures availability of the project resources and provides guidance at all the stages of the project. The project manager and team need not worry about the project finances, quality standards, human resources, budgets, and everything if it is well planned in the planning phase of project management. Project plans set out the processes that have to be followed and the time that will be allocated to each activity. The plan is essential for project efficiency and overall success CITATION Ser12 \l 1033 (Serrador, 2012). However, there are certain problems and issues that may encounter at this stage such as lack of resources, less time for planning and changes made by the clients in requirements.

Response to Question 2:

Schedule planning is one of the most important phases of project management, and it is bigger than any other phase. Project managers have to analyze the schedule of the project every day. The first step in schedule planning is defining the activities and procedures, and then the activities are organized in the right order to estimate the resources and time needed to complete the activity. The activities that are done to establish policies for planning, developing and managing the schedule of a project is referred to as project schedule management. Project schedule management takes PMP, charter and the enterprise environmental factors as the input and after applying the expert judgment and techniques, the final outcome is the schedule management plan. An effectively made project schedule gives an overview of the starting and ending dates along with the budget of the project.

Response to Question 3:

Estimating is one of the most difficult steps in project management and planning. Estimating is tough because there are different things that undermine the accuracy and validity of project estimates. One of the common pitfalls when it comes to estimating include the poorly defined scope of the project, and it occurs when the project is not broken down into activities. There can be the omission of some important factor, failure to estimate risk, time pressure and external stakeholder pressure, which impacts estimation negatively ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a5ebtpnohh","properties":{"formattedCitation":"{\\rtf (\\uc0\\u8220{}Estimating Project Effort - PM Tips,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)}","plainCitation":"(“Estimating Project Effort - PM Tips,” n.d.)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1384,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/9WPYPHKP"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/9WPYPHKP"],"itemData":{"id":1384,"type":"webpage","title":"Estimating Project Effort - PM Tips","URL":"https://pmtips.net/article/estimating-project-effort","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",3,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Estimating Project Effort - PM Tips,” n.d.). Good estimating practices include having a database of all the information, making use of planning documents and using multiple methods to make the final estimation. Detailed analysis of the tasks is also a good practice which ensures estimation success.

Response to Question 2:

Scope statement. A project scope statement gives an overview of the deliverables of the project and identifies the key success factors. An excellent scope statement outlines the project boundaries and the project team, and members need to agree to the scope statement before the project begins.

Work Breakdown Structure. WBS or a work breakdown structure is the visual hierarchical representation of the project deliverables, and it organizes the work of the project into small manageable tasks.

Expert Judgment. A judgment that is based on a specific set of expertise and criteria in a specific knowledge area or application. It can be provided by anyone in the project team has the right skills or experience.

Response to Question 5:

Resource planning is a vital part of project planning. The basic step to effective resource planning is looking at its prerequisites; different documents are needed to create a good resource plan such as a Work Breakdown Structure which illustrates the project, its deliverables, and activities. Other documents include a PMP and project charter and scope. Resource planning also depends on expert judgment and estimating alternatives. Resource planning also needs effective cost management.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Estimating Project Effort - PM Tips. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://pmtips.net/article/estimating-project-effort

BIBLIOGRAPHY Serrador, P. (2012). The importance of the planning phase to project success. Project Management Institute.