I'm emailing you to request your assistant with one of my assignments. I am an Online Graduate student with Drexel University in the City of Philadelphia. For the next couple of weeks my class will be studying Project Planning and Scheduling, and have been given special assignments as well as regular class work.
If at all possible could you or someone respond to my email for this assign by Friday 01/29/10? Here is the assignment, "Contact a seasoned project manager and ask him/her what percent of the project effort should be devoted to planning and why planning is so important."
Thanks
Planning is synonymous with "WHAT" is to be done and "HOW". But for me planning really starts with the "WHY". The "WHY" helps refine the scope and set the correct project parameters, culture and expectations. It’s the time to get team and stakeholder buy-in and gain commitment moving forward. Projects rarely are linear, at least from my experience. They zig and zag based on varying risks and unknowns. Therefore the process of planning is ongoing, and adjusts are made as needed to stay the course, to validate the expectations set forth in the initial planning phase. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
I'm not exactly into PM but let me tell ...'If one is given 6 hrs to cut a tree, spend 5 hrs sharpning the blade'....!
Planning is required at all levels of Where, Why, What, When, Whom etc... Saving Changes...
Anonymous
In a typical project, there is a Project Initiation & Planning Phase - about 5% of the total effort.
Throughout the plan the PM is to constantly told to Plan the Work and Work the Plan. You can assess project status at intervals - weekly, monthly producing revisions to the plan. Anywhere from 2- 4 hrs per week for a typical project. Saving Changes...
Jerry MulenburgRetired| Mulenburg-QuixoteFairfield, Ca, United States
Although the specifics may not apply to all disciplines and industries, NASA found (a long time ago) that the amount of planning for their projects has a definite impact on project cost overrun (which is an indirect measure of schedule as well). I'm enclosing the original graphic that, with a little imagination, shows that the knee of the curve at about 5% -10% of project budget dedicated to planning gives the project the best chance of coming in closest to its estimated budget. All of the projects came in over cost but NASA projects are on the cutting edge and therefore very complex so that is not so unusual. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Why is planning important? Quite simply, if you don't know what you are doing, how do you know when you have finished?
Drawing up a plan forces you to think about what needs to be done, by who, in what sequence. This allows you to identify the critical path, duration and ultimately the resource cost associated with the project.
Tracking progress against your plan means that you know where you are up to and can then communicate this confidently to your stakeholders.
A very brief response to a massive subject area! Saving Changes...
Eric BilodeauProject Manager| Bombardier AerospaceSaint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada
It is difficult for me to say what is the percentage you should spend on planning since in most projects you are continuously doing the PLAN-EXECUTE-CONTROL loop. Only on rare occasions will you be able to follow your first plan: You go off your initial plan, which forces you to re-plan, re-execute per this new plan and re-control. This goes on and on until project closure... I could also add that as the project progresses in time and towards completion, your plan should become more accurate then when compared to any previous plan (EG: Your initial plan done at kick-off)
I will also refer you to one of my favorite quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower: In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
Saving Changes...
Ajan FofanahHSEA Technical Specialist| Network RailLondon, United Kingdom
Project management is a very unique process, which can be hampered by many risks. Planning in a project is most important, because if you do not plan, you would not know whether the project has been executive or not. In this case, it is true to say that ' You plan to fail if you fail to plan'. Planning a project is very important because the plan tells the project team how things should be done, what should be and when. It also helps you to harness the resources that are needed to execute the project. The plan also tells the project team what activities should be done first or last - this is more less the sequence. So when it comes to executing to project, there is a yardstick to measure whether the project is being implemented as planned. The plan will also help you to know whether the project is within budget or schedule. You can only tell that a project is creeping if you have a project plan. Otherwise, how would you know that the project is being executed accordingly? The plan also reminds you that things are going out of track, so that you can implement a change control process, to get things back on track.
In terms of the time needed for planning, it would be difficult to pinpoint an answer, since the project lifecycle is a reiterative process: Initiation, Planning, Implementation and termination phase. I would assume that initiation takes about 20%, planning 30%, implementation 40 and termination 10%. However, this assertion would depend on the nature of the project. Most importantly, planning goes on till the termination phase of a project. The 20% that I have quoted is presumably for an intial planning, but not the entire planning of a project, because if things go wrong, you have to correct them by replanning and plan how to monitor your project. I hope this information is helpful. Saving Changes...
