Chapter 3: Planning

Planning The Project

Control of the project starts with planning. It's impossible to do a good job of control if you don't do a thorough job of planning at the beginning. Likewise, a project which is a political orphan will quickly spiral out of control unless steps are taken at the beginning to manage the political issues. The initial steps in a project need to take both of these elements into account.

Planning has to start with a goal - the exact goal. The first question to ask when defining your project is WHAT. What is it you are trying to accomplish? Can you define the primary achievement of the project? . Precisely what do you want to do? Is the goal to build a new system? To alter the old system? Exactly what is the extent of that goal? Is only to conduct a study of the current system? Does it include analysis, design and development? How many departments does the project include? How many people? What are you creating or building. This is not as simple as it seems. You need to think very clearly about your business goal.

Once you have a clear achievement in mind you can move on to define the other elements of the “what.” Tied to the goal should be a set of objectives and milestones that help you define what is needed in order to achieve that goal. What are the major components of the project? Will it include links to other projects? Is it going to be a "turnkey" project? What does that encompass?

In addition, the goal and objectives should include measures. How will you know if you accomplished the goal? Are there time measures? What about specific performance measures?

Once you have defined the goal and objectives, put them in writing. Note also if there are constraints or limitations which need to be considered as you plan the project. Defining the goal and objectives will not be easy. It also can not be done by only one person. You will need to get ideas from many people - and those ideas will differ! Your job is to act as the facilitator who solicits those ideas, returns to clarify them, and then synthesizes them into a recognizable whole.

In order to define the goal and objectives you will need to work with the clients, upper management, and your project team. Seek out the people who will be using the system. What do they want? Have you talked to all the users who have a perspective on what should be built? Talk to upper management. Hopefully they have a strategic vision of what should be built. Does their vision match the needs of the organization? If it doesn't then you may have some political battles to fight.

Your project team should be involved right from the start in helping you define the project goal. If they help shape the goal and understand the implications from the start they will be much more likely to have ownership of that goal. They will be more likely to support the plans and efforts which grow naturally from the initial definition stages.

Setting Goals

One of the first problems you will probably run into as you begin defining the project goal and objectives will be semantics. For some reason, it is difficult for people to define exactly what they mean by a goal or an objective. Try to eliminate some of the arguments by knowing exactly what you mean by goal and objectives.

The logic of planning requires several questions to be asked in order to begin the process. Here is an outline for a partial list of questions to help define project goals:

1. Environmental Analysis

Where are we?

How and why did we get here?

2. Define the Goal

I s this where we want to be?

Where would we like to be? What is it we want to accomplish?

3 . Define the objectives

What needs to be done to accomplish the goal?

4. How will we know when we get there?

What measures will we use?

How will we know if we're on course?

5. Define the milestones

What are the key points in the project

How do you know when your reach key points

6. Define Strategies

What are we going to do to get where we want to go?

Are there alternative strategies ?

The goal is a broad general statement of what you would like to accomplish. Tied to the goal are objectives which things need to be done in order to reach the goal. The goal statement (with objectives) are likely to be realized if they are measurable, attainable, acceptable, congruent and compared against alternatives. The goal also must be clear and easy to understand. The goal and objectives define the "what" of the project - what will you be trying to accomplish.

Measurable

Objectives which are specific and identify clearly what needs to be accomplished are more likely to get accomplished. This measurement may be quantitative or qualitative.

Attainable

Setting an objective to accomplish a project within an unworkable, arbitrary deadline may lead to a project which is incomplete or lacks quality. Objectives should be challenging and push the project team to get things done efficiently, yet be attainable.

Acceptable

The goal and objectives should be acceptable to the team. They should be involved in the process of setting the goal and objectives and be able to see that they have or can acquire the skills to get the job done.

Congruent

The goal and objectives should be internally consistent within the project. Each objective should support the other objectives within the project, not detract from them. To the degree possible, the goal for the project should also be congruent with other organizational goals.

Compared with Alternatives

The selected goal automatically implies that you have rejected other goals. You have chosen to do certain things and not to do others. The opportunity cost of those goals you have chosen not to do should be examined.

Goals vs. Steps

When defining the goal and objectives, you are creating an overview of what the project is all about. You should not get into a definition of what the steps or the program for accomplishing the goal and objectives. Defining the "how" of the project , set of tasks and subtasks to be accomplished comes next - but only after a clear statement of the goal and objectives has been made.

Include all the dimensions of the end result in your definition of the project.

The end result of this project will be....

We must do these things in order to reach that result...

If your goal and objective statements of the project are complete they will pass the SMART criteria.

Setting A Tentative Date

Once you have defined the goal, objectives and initial measures, you need to set a date. You need to do three things:

Get other people to help you with the estimate

Set the date

Tell other people about it

The date may change as you get further into detailed planning, but for most systems, you need to define a date when the project will be finished. The reality is that at the beginning of a project you don't have enough information to provide an exact date. It is wise to make sure that everyone knows that the date might change - particularly if you have a project which is risky because you will be using new technology which has implications you don't yet understand.

Another problem which causes initial estimates to be faulty is a lack of clear project objectives on the part of the client. If the client does not have a real clear idea of what needs to be developed, they are likely to change the project parameters along the way. Give people a date which is reasonable and let them know you will be returning to the time estimate as you gather more information.