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Warburton & Kanabar, 2012 (Art & Science of Project Management)

Planning
9.1 Planning Processes
In the previous chapter we identified the project objectives and obtained information about the project environment. In this chapter we focus on the planning processes which constitute the biggest group of processes that the project manager would execute. The activities that occur in the planning phase includes narrowing the objectives, determining project scope and exclusions, evaluating constraints, creating a work breakdown structure, identifying resource needs, and determining the project schedule. The primary goal of the Planning processes is to develop a comprehensive Project Management Plan. Such a project plan consists of multiple subdocuments such as risk plan, cost plan, procurement plan, quality plan, communication plan, and HR plan. Since this is a big chapter we categorize our discussion of this chapter into the following subgroups: Scope Planning Time Management Planning Cost Management Planning Quality Management Planning Human Resources Planning Communications Management Planning Risk Management Planning Procurement Management Planning

9.2 Scope Planning

Once the project charter has been established and the stakeholders have been identified we can begin three scope planning activities: Collect Requirements Define Scope Create WBS

Each of the above processes is illustrated in detail. We focus on the required inputs and key outputs.

9.3 Collect Requirements

Collect Requirements refers to the process of clearly defining and documenting stakeholders needs for the project. In order to begin this process the project charter and stakeholder register must be available. In this section we will illustrate the following key outputs associated with this process

Collect Requirements

1. Requirements documents 2. Requirements management plan 3. Requirements traceability matrix

9.3.1 Requirements Document The Requirements Management plan is used to document information required to manage project requirements from definition, through traceability, to delivery. This document lists the name of the stakeholder and identifies the key functional requirement. It should also document the acceptance criteria and priority of this requirement and list and non functional requirements such as security, performance or supportability. For the PMA case study we illustrate the requirements document below. Category Technical Requirements Requirement A form to register new members Email Newsletter to members Edit Registration Form Stakeholder PMA Director PMA Director Acceptance Criteria Should be user friendly form Should be able to send emails to up to 3000 members It should be easy to add or edit fields in the registration form. The system should be easily updated by IT Staff. They system should store membership data securely. Various types of security testing will be conducted

Maintainability

IT Staff

Update Website

IT Staff

Security

Membership data will be encrypted in the database

Information Assurance Staff

Examples of non-functional requirements which can be documented in the requirements document include items like usability stating that the system should be compliant to US Department of Justice Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Another example is Availability indicating that the website should be hosted with a reliable provider that provides access 99.9% of the time.