Project Planning Process Group – Part 3

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About this lesson

The project management planning processes integrate with each other to create all components of the project plan.  There are 24 project management planning processes. Part 3.

Quick reference

Project Planning Process Group – Part 3

The project management planning processes integrate with each other to create all components of the project plan.  There are 24 project management planning processes.

When to use

Once a project has been initiated it needs to be planned.  Projects that are very large or that are adaptive at the time of initiation will often go through a significant replan at the beginning of each phase of the project life cycle.  Of course whenever a project change is approved, the team must execute the appropriate planning processes to address the change.  

Instructions 

Planning Process Group

“Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve.” PMBOK® Guide

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017 Figure Part 2, 2-1, Page 562 and Glossary definition, Page 713.        

Every project needs to be planned.  Due to the unique nature of the project goal, objective or results, projects are full of uncertainty.  The particular set of deliverables, resources, timing and business environmental factors associated with each process requires a unique project plan.  All ten project management knowledge areas contribute to the development of the overall project management plan through the knowledge management plan.

There are 24 processes in the Planning group of project management processes.  Four of those processes are addressed in this course module and the other twenty are addressed in other modules.  The four in this module are: Plan Schedule Management, Define Activities, Sequence Activities, and Estimate Activity Duration.

Plan Schedule Management (6.1)

“The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing and controlling the project schedule.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Time Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process creates an approach for how the schedule is to be managed on the project, but not the actual creation of the schedule.  This process is often done informally based upon how project schedules have been traditionally managed.

Inputs:

  • Project Charter
  • Project Management Plan
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgement
  • Data Analysis
  • Meetings

Outputs:

  • Schedule Management Plan

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 6-4, Page 179 and Glossary definition, Page 713.

Define Activities (6.2)

“The process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Time Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process is often a further decomposition of the WBS deliverables and work packages.  They are now decomposed to the task level, which will then be used for estimating.  While the WBS work packages often have a measurable result to show completion, some of these tasks are activities without an easily measured result. 

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Decomposition
  • Rolling Wave Planning
  • Expert Judgment
  • Meetings

Outputs: 

  • Activity List
  • Activity Attributes
  • Milestone List
  • Change Requests
  • Project Management Plan Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 6-6, Page 183 and Glossary definition, Page 704. PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Sequence Activities (6.3)

“The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities.”  PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Time Mgmt Knowledge Area

Determine the logical sequence between activities and milestones.  Each activity should have a predecessor, an activity or event that triggers the start, and a successor, an activity or event that relies on receiving the result of the activity.  There is software that can assist with this.  I have found that the best approach is to use a visual tool - either software or a team storyboarding approach.  The sequence, captured in the network diagram, is required to be able to do the network scheduling activities such as critical path or critical chain.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Precedence Diagraming Method (PDM)
  • Dependency Determination and Integration
  • Leads and Lags
  • Project Management Information System

Outputs: 

  • Project Schedule Network Diagram
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 6-8, Page 187 and Glossary definition, Page 723.

 

Estimate Activity Duration (6.4)

“The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Time Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process provides the time estimate for activities.  It considers the nature of the work required to be done, the capability of the resources selected to do the work and the resource availability.  Like many of the planning processes, it is often completed in an iterative manner.  A significant element of the work of this process is to document how the estimate was derived. 

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgment
  • Analogous Estimating
  • Parametric Estimating
  • Three Point Estimating
  • Bottom-up Estimating
  • Decision Making
  • Data Analysis
  • Meetings

Outputs: 

  • Activity Duration Estimates
  • Basis of Estimates
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 6-13, Page 196 and Glossary definition, Page 706. PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc
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  • 00:05 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 Let's talk some more about project management planning processes.
  • 00:09 This is part three out of six and, in this lesson,
  • 00:12 we'll focus on scheduling processes.
  • 00:15 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines the first process,
  • 00:20 plan schedule management, as the process of establishing the policies, procedures,
  • 00:24 and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and
  • 00:28 controlling the project schedule.
  • 00:31 Inputs for this are the project charter and project management plan and,
  • 00:35 of course, our enterprise environmental factors and
  • 00:37 our organizational process assets.
  • 00:40 And the output is the schedule management plan which is incorporated into
  • 00:44 the project management plan.
  • 00:46 Tools and techniques are expert judgement, data analysis, and
  • 00:50 meetings which means that we'll need to coordinate this with the project team and
  • 00:54 get agreement on the scheduling approaches that are used.
  • 00:58 The next schedule process is a transition process.
  • 01:01 It contains the building blocks used in scheduling but it does that by determining
  • 01:05 all the activities necessary to complete the scope.
  • 01:08 This process is called define activities.
  • 01:11 The project management body of knowledge,
  • 01:13 the PMBOK Guide, defines it as the process of identifying and documenting
  • 01:17 the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables.
  • 01:23 The inputs are the project management plan,
  • 01:25 along with the enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets.
  • 01:30 Recall that the project management plan had
  • 01:31 incorporated the work breakdown structure, which was the scope baseline.
  • 01:35 The outputs are the milestone list, the activities list, and
  • 01:38 the activity attributes.
  • 01:40 All of which become project documents and will be used by other processes.
  • 01:44 In addition, this process can generate a change request for
  • 01:48 the integrated change control process.
  • 01:50 And finally, there can be updates to the project management plan.
  • 01:54 The tools and techniques for this process are decomposition
  • 01:57 which breaks deliverables and activities into their component parts.
  • 02:02 Rolling wave planning, which is sometimes called progressive elaboration, and
  • 02:06 refers to the planning project one phase at a time.
  • 02:09 And of course, meetings and expert judgement.
  • 02:12 The project management body of knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines the next process,
  • 02:17 which is sequence activities, as the process of identifying and
  • 02:21 documenting relationships among the project activities.
  • 02:25 The inputs for this process are the project management plan and
  • 02:27 the project documents.
  • 02:29 Now, don't forget from the previous process,
  • 02:31 we just added the activity list to the project documents.
  • 02:35 So this process now has plenty to work with.
  • 02:38 Also we have enterprise environmental factors and
  • 02:40 organizational process assets as inputs.
  • 02:43 The outputs of the process are the schedule network diagram which is the flow
  • 02:47 chart of the project activities and updates to other project documents.
  • 02:52 The tools and techniques are the precedence diagramming method
  • 02:56 which is the most commonly used flowcharting method.
  • 02:59 Dependency determination which focuses on clarifying predecessor requirements,
  • 03:04 leads and lags, which are the modifications to timing of
  • 03:07 these relationships and your Project Management Information System.
  • 03:12 The final schedule process is estimate activity duration.
  • 03:16 The Project Management Body of Knowledge,
  • 03:17 the PMBOK Guide, defines this as the process of estimating the number of work
  • 03:22 periods needed to complete individual activities with the estimated resources.
  • 03:28 So we are creating an estimate in terms of time, not money.
  • 03:31 Inputs for this process are the project management plan, project documents, and
  • 03:36 enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets are, again,
  • 03:41 inputs to a planning process.
  • 03:43 The outputs of this process are the activity duration estimates and
  • 03:46 the basis for those estimates.
  • 03:48 There's also the output of updates to other project documents.
  • 03:52 Tools and techniques are the typical estimating techniques
  • 03:55 which I assume everyone is familiar with.
  • 03:58 These include analogous estimates, parametric model,
  • 04:00 three-point estimates, and bottom-up estimating.
  • 04:04 Other techniques that are useful when debating estimates are data analysis,
  • 04:08 decision making, meetings, and expert judgement.
  • 04:13 These processes allow us to develop the schedule portion
  • 04:16 of the project management plan.
  • 04:17 The next lesson, we'll focus in on cost and resources.

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PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

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