Project Planning and control in Software Engineering

• What is a project plan?
• A project plan is a model of the process that the
project team intends to follow to realize the project
objectives. It brings together a number of important
aspects of this process including its scope, timing,
cost, and associated risks.
• The project plan can be viewed as a type of
“contract” between the project team members and
other stakeholders. It defines” the process by which
the objectives will be achieved, and the
responsibilities in carrying out this process.
• Project plans also underpin a number of other key
project management functions including estimating
and forecasting, options analysis and decision-
making, and performance monitoring and control.

• Who is responsible for planning?
• Everyone in the project team should be
involved in developing the plan. It
should be a collaborative effort.
• The project manager should provide
leadership in this area but may delegate
some of the administrative aspects and
detailed analysis to a project support
role.
• On larger projects there may be one or
more dedicated planners.

• What are the benefits of planning?
• It is more likely to lead to success and
is more cost-effective than a “just do it”
approach.
• It develops greater mutual
understanding and more commitment
to achieving the objectives within the
project team.
• It provides an “early warning system”
so that problems ” are identified while
there is still time to do something about
them.

• Key elements of a plan
• Products – What products must the project
deliver? What are the quality requirements
associated with the products?
• Activities – What activities are needed to
deliver the products?
• Resources – What resources are needed to
carry out the activities?
• Schedule – In what sequence should we carry
out the activities? How long will the activities
take to complete? Are the required resources
available? How long will the project take overall?

• Budget – What are the time-phased
resource requirements and financial
costs? How much will the project cost
overall?
• Risks – Are we taking unnecessary risks?
Is the level of risk – exposure
commensurate with the risk appetite? Are
there any opportunities that could be
exploited?
• Assumptions – What are the underlying
assumptions associated with the plan?

• The planning process:
• What is the process for developing a
plan?
• There are four key stages in developing a
robust plan:

• STAGE 1
Identify, structure and define the products
needed to achieve the project objectives.
Break down the work needed to deliver the
products into discrete work packages.
Define the responsibilities of the
individuals or teams who will deliver the
work packages.

• STAGE 2
Identify the activities and resources
needed to deliver the work packages.
Construct a schedule that takes account of
the logical dependencies between
activities, and the availability of resources.
• STAGE 3
Estimate the quantity of resources and
financial costs associated with each work
package, and use this information in
conjunction with the schedule to develop
time-phased budgets.

• STAGE 4
Identify and analyse the risks associated
with each work package and evaluate a
range of options for handling them. Select
the most cost-effective combination of risk
management actions and incorporate
them into the plan.

• Stage 1 – Defining scope and
responsibilities

• Objectives
• To ensure that all the work and products
needed to achieve the project objectives
are included in the plan.
• To develop a hierarchical framework for
integrating the key planning and control
functions (scope, quality, cost, time, risk)
at different levels of management.
• To specify the organisation and
responsibilities for managing the work and
delivering the products.

• Fundamental principles:
• Break down the project work into cohesive
work packages
• Define the required results (i.e., the
products) before considering how to
achieve them.
• Encourage collaborative planning and
commitment to achieving results by
negotiating and agreeing responsibilities at
an early stage.

• Process description
• Identify and structure the products needed to achieve the
project objectives using a Product Breakdown Structure
(PBS). Define the products and specify their purpose,
quality requirements and acceptance criteria, using
Product Descriptions (PD).
• Break down the work needed to deliver the products into
discrete work packages using a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS). Define the work packages and specify
their products, quality requirements, acceptance criteria,
assumptions, risks, and opportunities, using Work
Package Descriptions (WPD).
• Specify the organisation that will carry out and manage
the work contained in the WBS, using an Organisational
Breakdown Structure (OBS). Define the responsibilities
of individuals or teams in the OBS (with respect to
elements of the WBS) using a Responsibility Assignment
Matrix (RAM).

• Stage 2 – Scheduling and time/resource
analysis

• Objectives
• To identify the activities needed to deliver
each work package, and sequence them
according to their logical dependencies.
• To estimate the time and resources
needed to carry out the activities in the
specified sequence.
• To construct a schedule that takes
account of logical dependencies and
resource availability.

• The time and resources needed to
complete each activity usually depend on
the sequence in which the activities are
carried out.
• Since the time and resources needed to
complete an activity are usually
interdependent, it makes sense to
estimate both of these at the same time.
• Scheduling must take account of resource
availability.

• Process description
• Identify the activities needed to deliver each work
package. Also identify any key events (milestones)
associated with the delivery of products, important
decisions, or external dependencies. Sequence the
activities and milestones according to their logical
dependencies, to create an activity network.
• Estimate the time and resources needed to complete each
activity and record the underlying assumptions as a Basis
of Estimate (BoE).
• Develop an initial schedule that takes account of the
logical dependencies between activities. Calculate the
Total Float for each activity and identify the Critical
Path(s). If the initial schedule does not meet the required
timescales then investigate alternative schedules or
consider making tradeoffs. Analyse the time-phased
resource requirements and, if necessary, adjust the
schedule to take account of resource availability or to
improve resource utilisation.

• Stage 3 – Cost estimating and
budgeting

• Objectives
• To develop a hierarchical framework for
planning and controlling resource
consumption and financial costs.
• To estimate the quantities and financial
costs of the resources needed to deliver
each work package.
• To develop time-phased budgets as a
basis for performance monitoring and
control.

• Fundamental principles
• Since budgets are normally constrained,
we need to monitor actual costs against
planned costs on a regular basis to ensure
that timely corrective action can be taken if
there is a significant variance.
• Making good progress against the
schedule is often not enough to guarantee
success. It is also important to monitor the
planned and actual resource consumption
(or financial costs) in relation to the
progress made.

• Stage 4 – Risk analysis and response
planning

• Objectives
• To identify the risks associated with each
work package.
• To determine the overall risk exposure and
the contribution of individual risks.
• To prioritise risks for further management.
• To develop cost-effective risk
management actions (responses) and
incorporate them into the plan.

• Once the plan has been developed it
should still be considered a draft until its
risk content has been analysed. This
analysis may lead to the plan being
modified to include risk management
actions.
• Plans should be risk-efficient (i.e., should
include no more risk than is necessary to
provide a given level of “return”), and the
risk exposure should be commensurate
with the risk appetite.

Objectives - Fundamental
principles

• To inform decision-making processes at all
levels in the organisation.
• Apply the principles of closed-loop control to
monitor project in the organisation, and to take
any corrective action. To review the
performance against the plan at regular
intervals, and needed corrective actions to
ensure that objectives are achieved. Take any
corrective action needed to achieve the plan

• To identify problems and emergent risks
early enough objectives while there is still
time to do something about them.
• Monitor trends in performance over a
period of time as the project progresses
• To communicate regular progress to the
project team and other stakeholders as
well as the “spot” performance with
respect to an activity in order that
confidence and baseline is maintained.
This allows us to distinguish between
commitment and reality and the focus
towards the project is maintained

• Identify the objectives and constraints, and develop a
plan. Review and baseline the plan. Obtain authorisation
to proceed.
• Do some work.
• Measure performance and update the original estimates
and forecasts. Update the schedule and budget forecasts
to take account of the latest information.
• Investigate the causes of any significant variations with
respect to the baseline. Review the associated risks and
assumptions. If necessary, develop options for taking
corrective action.
• Agree on any corrective action that is required and
update the plans (via Change Control if the baseline is
changed).
• Confirm that the objectives have been achieved and that
the required products have been delivered.
• Obtain formal sign-off if appropriate.

Performance monitoring
techniques
• Schedule analysis – Monitor variations in the forecast schedule
with respect to the baseline, as well as changes to the critical
path(s) and remaining float of activities.
• Budget analysis – Monitor variations in the forecast budget with
respect to the baseline.
• Milestone trend charts – Monitor the forecast dates and actual
dates of key milestones as a function of time.
• Earned Value Management (EVM) – Monitor “earned - value” and
actual cost against planned value/cost
• Risk analysis –Monitor confidence values or probability
distributions associated with key elements of the schedule or
budget, as a function of time.
• Buffer management “fever charts” – Monitor the consumption of
schedule and budget contingency buffers as a function of time.

• Techniques for planning larger projects
• Staged planning – The project is split into a number of
discrete stages. An outline plan is developed for the
project as a whole, together with more detailed plans for
each stage. The plans for each stage are usually
developed towards the end of the preceding stage. This
approach is a useful way of limiting risk exposure when
there is uncertainty about the requirements, the work to
be performed, the available resources, or the project
environment.
• Hierarchical planning – Planning and control is carried
out in a hierarchical fashion so that lower level plans and
their associated control systems are nested within
elements of the higher-level plans.
• Rolling Wave planning – Only the near-term work
packages are planned in detail, while the far-term work
packages (sometimes called Planning Packages) are
planned in outline only.

• Principles of effective planning and control
• Divide-and-conquer – Manage complexity by breaking
down the various elements of the plan in a structured way.
But don’t forget to keep track of the dependencies between
elements as you go.
• Integrated approach – Don’t plan and control the various
project functions in isolation (e.g., scope, quality, cost, time,
risk), as they are all interdependent. Instead, adopt a more
integrated approach by bringing them together at key
control points on the WBS (e.g., work packages or control
accounts).
• Keep it simple, systematically – Only add more detail to
the plan where the cost of doing so and the increased
complexity it brings with it is justified by the amount of
information it provides.
• Team collaboration – Don’t forget that the plan represents
the team’s vision for achieving the objectives. So make sure
they are involved in its development and any subsequent
changes during the monitoring and control process.

RECAP
• Activity – A task, operation, or process consuming time
and possibly other resources.
• Baseline – A snapshot of a plan (or element of a plan)
that is used as a point of reference.
• Budget – The agreed cost or quantification of resources
needed to complete an activity by a set time.
• Critical Path – A sequence of activities through an
activity network where each activity in the sequence has
zero or negative total float.
• Duration – The estimated or actual time required to
complete an activity.
• Milestone – A key event selected for its importance in
the project.
• Product – The measurable output of an activity.
• Resource – Anything other than time that is necessary
for carrying out an activity.

Project Planning and control in Software Engineering

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