Page 147 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Activity Planning

Notes
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Caution Skipping this step increases the risk of project failure due to insufficient information
from which to formulate your overall project plan.

Define Success

An often overlooked software project planning activity is defining what success looks like
before the project begins. In a 2007 Gartner research study on why information technology
projects succeed or fail, survey participants indicated that, in part, failure resulted from
inadequately defining “critical success factors” at the start of the project. Without stakeholder
agreement, some degree of failure is likely, especially in complex projects.

Select Team

Selecting the right team members depends on a clear understanding of the project scope and
success criteria. Team members define the work that needs to be done throughout the course of the
project. They provide estimates of how much time each piece of work takes and what they need in
order to complete their assignments. Team members define all dependencies between each work
product. Highly experienced and qualified experts make the planning process more reliable.

Finalize Project Plan

As project manager, your job is to tie together all the information you have collected from your
sponsor, team members and other stakeholders. Combine this information with your project
management requirements into a comprehensive document or computerized project management
system, and present the overall project plan to your sponsor. Negotiate resolutions to outstanding
issues and fine-tune the plan. Obtain sponsor approval, funding and team members, and then
commence with the project.

Project Planning Iterations

Project planning activities are never fully done until the project is complete. Throughout the
project, issues arise that require you to adjust the plan. Just as with the initial planning phase,
you must seek input from team members to understand the nature of the work and how much
time to assign to it, defining requirements and dependencies accordingly. Present the revised
plan to your sponsor for approval. Never fear negotiating things you need to complete the
project successfully.

Task In your words explain what have you understood by aims in activity planning.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Developing the project implementation schedule is the ………………….. group.
2. Without ………………….. agreement, some degree of failure is likely, especially in complex
projects.

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