Chapter 2: Defining Project and Developing a Project Plan

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to outline what the project is and the required steps we need to take in order to plan projects. The remainder of this chapter includes four sections. The first section gives the definition of project and what is not a project and the difference between the project and repetitive work. We provide details of scope management in the second section and creating work breakdown structure in the third section. In the fourth section, we give the details of planning a project. This section includes constructing a project network, network computation process in which forward and backward passes are explained. In addition, this section includes determining total slack and free slack times. Lastly, “Activity on Arrow” network is summarized in this section.

Defining The Project

What do the following headlines in common?

• The development of a new airplane, like the Airbus 350 XWB
• The development of the electrical new car, like the Tesla Model S
• The development of a new personal device, like the iPhone Xr
• The development of a website, or a service online, like tuik.gov.tr
• The construction of the Sydney Opera House and the pyramids in Egypt
• Recent projects, like Istanbul Airport construction
• Maastricht, Eurovision 2020 All of these developments and events emerged from the management of process.

As in the first chapter of this textbook explains; the definition of a project includes:

• An activity with a specific and unique objective,
• An activity with a start and end date,
• Typically, any non-routine activity which has never done before,
• An activity that have specific time, cost and performance requirements,
• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result (PMI®, 2008).

More clearly, a project can also be defined as follows: “A project is a non-simple, non-repetitive, one-time effort limited by budget, schedule and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs” (Larson, & Gray, 2008).

Definition of Project Characteristics

The major aim of the project is to satisfy the requirements of customers; to achieve this, a project needs to have some characteristics. First, a project has a pre-defined, specific and unique aim which describes the desired outcomes. The aim of a project must meet time, cost and performance constraints. Having a defined beginning and end point is a characteristic of a project since there is a specific aim, which is different from the ongoing duties and responsibilities of traditional jobs. Workers are generally assigned different projects after finishing the current job contrary to doing the same job in a firm. Third, a project should be non-routine and includes considerable uniqueness. This feature is often characterized by the first time of performing a job/process such as first MARS landing with NASA orbiter and development of the first laptop. Lastly, a project has specific time, cost and performance requirements. These constraints are called the triple constraints. The success of a project is defined as getting the job done on time, cost and quality/performance grid (Kerzner, 2003). In order to satisfy customer needs, the trade-offs between these triple constraints have to be balanced. Obviously, these constraints bring a lot responsibility and effort to the project than we mostly encounter in many jobs.

Ordinary Work vs. Project

What is not a Project? A project is not related with every day’s routine and repetitive/ordinary work.Whiletheroutine work, often called Business As Usual (BAU), occurs/repeats in cycles, a project is performed just once, and when the desired result is reached, the project ends.

Defining the Project Scope Management and Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

Determining the project scope brings the essential elements for developing a project plan. Its basic definition is the required work to get the expected result/outcome of a project. Therefore, project scope management is characterized by the processes to accomplish the project successfully.

There are three phases of Scope Management. The first one is the initiation/ defining phase, where the objectives and goals of the project are defined, tasks and resources are allocated, and budget & time constraints are established, and lastly the limitations of the project are identified. The second phase of Scope Management is to generate Scope Plan which includes the work breakdown structure and writing a scope statement. Scope statement clearly indicates what activities are involved in the project as well as the limitations of the project. A written scope statement is necessary for both projects and subprojects. For example, an engineering firm contracted to design a petroleum processing plant must have a scope statement for defining the boundaries of its work on the design subproject. The scope statement forms the basis for an agreement between the project team and the project customer by identifying both the project objectives and the major project deliverables (PMI®, 2008). Scope Change Controlling is regarding to the operations whether the project scope is required to be changed when some modifications are appropriate. The aim of the performance measurement in this stage is to evaluate the degree of any variations/fluctuations which happen during the project.

Defining the Peoject Scope Scope

definition is the process of developing a detailed description of the project and product. While preparing the project scope, the main decision would be what is and is not included in the project. Another definition of project scope is the work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions (PMI®, 2008). Clearly, project scope is the keystone engaging all elements of a project plan.

To guarantee that scope definition is complete, the following checklist can be used:

1. Project objective
2. Deliverables
3. Milestones
4. Technical Requirements
5. Limits and Exclusions
6. Reviews with customer (Larson, & Gray, 2008).ork Breakdown Structure

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure

After identifying scope and deliverables in a project, the work breakdown structure is defined. The task of work breakdown structure is to divide the project into smaller and manageable work elements. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the output of this hierarchical decomposition process. The WBS organizes and defines the total scope of the project, and represents the work specified in the current approved project scope statement (PMI®, 2008). To define the final deliverable is the first step of WBS. First, the major project deliverables are defined; to accomplish these larger deliverables, the subdeliverables are identified. This process continues until the subdeliverable can be tackled by one person and is small enough to be manageable. Then, the subdeliverable is broken down into work packages. While creating WBS, work packages are the lowest components that a project can be subdivided.

Seven important points about defining a project work package are as follows (Pinto, 2016):

• The work package typically forms the lowest level in the WBS. Although some projects may employ the term subtask, the majority leave work package–level activities as the most basic WBS step.
• A work package has a deliverable result. Each work package should have its own outcome. One work package does not summarize or modify another. Together, work packages identify all the work that must be contributed to complete the project.
• A work package has one owner assigned—a project team member who will be most responsible for that package’s completion. Although other team members can provide support as needed, only one person should be directly answerable for the work package.
• A work package may be considered by its owner as a project in itself. If we adopt the notion that all work packages, because they are of finite length and budget and have a specific deliverable, can be considered miniature projects, each package owner can view his activities as a micro project.
• A work package may include several milestones. A milestone is defined as a significant event in the project. Depending on the size and complexity of a project work package, it may contain a number of significant checkpoints or milestones that determine its progress toward completion.
• A work package should fit organizational procedures and culture. Tasks undertaken to support project outcomes should be in accord with the overall cultural norms of the project organization. Performing a work package should never lead a team member to violate company policy (either codified or implicit); that is, assigned activities must pass both relevant legal standards for ethical behaviour and also adhere to the accepted behaviours and procedures of the organization.
• The optimal size of a work package may be expressed in terms of labour hours, calendar time, cost, report period, and risks. All work packages should be capable of being tracked, meaning that they must be structured to allow the project manager to monitor their progress. Progress is usually a measurable concept, delineated by metrics such as time and cost.

Developing the Project Plan

The WBS provides information to the project network and it is a graphical illustration of activity flow in the project. An activity is an element that defines the amount of work performed and it consumes time in order to convert work packages to appropriate outputs. In the project network, the logical sequence of project activities which sum up to the longest total duration, gives the “critical path.” The critical path is the shortest possible time to complete the project, which also includes the interdependencies of activities and their start and finish times. The project network gives information to the project managers with respect to whether the project is on time, within budget and the performance measure. In order to develop project networks, there are two approaches that can be used: activity-on-node (AON) and activity-on-arrow (AOA) methods. In the first one, a node represents an activity, while in the latter, an arrow represents an activity. The AON method is generally used by most projects. Therefore, the AON method will mostly be tackled in this book. In the last part of this section, the AOA method is also explained briefly . To draw an AON project network, one needs to obey the following general rules:

• A network commonly flows from left to right.
• When all preceding connected activities have been performed, a new activity can start.
• Precedence relations and flows are represented by arrows on networks, arrows can also cross over each other.
• An identification number should be given to each activity.
• Activity numbers should be given in an order; it is not convenient to give a smaller number to an activity if other activities follow it.
• Any loop of activities is not allowed in the network.
• There should be no conditional statements between activities.
• A typical begin and end node should be used to depict the start and end dates of the project.

Constructing a Project Network

There are some terms in the project management that allow project workers and managers to interact with each other easily. Explanations of these terms are given below, and these fundamentals are also shown in Figure 2.5. (Larson, & Gray, 2008):

• Activity: For project managers, an activity is an element of the project that requires time. Typically, an activity consumes time—either while people work or while people wait. Examples of the latter are waiting for contracts to be signed, materials to arrive, drug approval by the government, budget clearance. Activities usually represent one or more tasks from a work package. Descriptions of activities should use a verb/noun format e.g. developing product specifications. An activity is generally shown by a node (box). Arrows indicate the dependencies and relations among activities as well as the sequence in which works must be performed (Figure 2.5.a.). The letters in the boxes represent the activities. Figure 2.5.a. is similar to a list of things to do where you complete the task at the top of the list first and then move to the second task, etc. This also tells the project manager that activity A must be completed before activity B can begin, and activity B must be completed before activity C begins.
• Burst activity: This activity has more than one activity immediately following it (more than one dependency arrow flowing from it). Figure 2.5.b. shows that activities Y and Z cannot begin until activity X is completed. This figure also indicates that activities Y and Z can occur concurrently or simultaneously if the project manager wishes; however, it is not a necessary condition. For example, activity X can take place while activity Z is being accomplished, but activity X must be completed before activities Y and Z can start. Activities Y and Z are considered parallel activities. Activity X is referred to a burst activity because more than one arrow bursts from the node.
• Merge activity: This is an activity that has more than one activity immediately preceding it (more than one dependency arrow flowing to it). Figure 2.5.c. shows us that activities J, K and L can occur simultaneously if desired, and activity M cannot begin until activities J, K, and L are all completed. Activities J, K and L are parallel activities. Activity M is called a merge activity because more than one activity must be completed before M can begin.
• Parallel activities: These are activities that can take place at the same time, if the manager wishes. However, the manager may choose to have parallel activities not occurred simultaneously. In Figure 2.5.d., X and Y are parallel activities that can take place at the same time; activities Z and AA are also parallel activities. However, activities Z and AA cannot begin until activities X and Y are both completed.
• Path: A sequence of connected, dependent activities.
• Critical path: When this term is used, it means the path(s) with the longest duration through the network; if an activity on the path is delayed, the project is delayed for the same amount of time.
• Event: This term is used to represent a point in time when an activity is started or completed. It does not consume any time.

Network Computation Process

lculating the right start and end time. Expected activity times are then added to the network. Forward and backward pass calculations will help to observe the project manager whether everything is going on right over the life course of the project. These are given below. Forward Pass: Early Start Time and Early Finish Time

1. What is the earliest possible time that an activity can be begun? (the early start time- ES)
2. What is the earliest possible time that an activity can be finished? (the early finish time- EF)
3. What is the earliest possible time that a project can be finished? (expected time- TE)

In the forward pass, one begins with the first project activity/ies and goes along the other sequential activity/ies through the network to the last activity/ies. Moving left to right, the successor activity times are added to the predecessor activity times along the path. The longest path indicates the project completion time and is called the critical path (CP).

Backward Pass-Latest Time

In the backward pass, one begins with the last project activity/ies and goes along the other sequential activity/ies through the network through the first activity/ies. Moving from right to left, the predecessor activity times are subtracted from the activity times along the path to find the LS and LF. Before the backward pass can be calculated, the late finish for the last project activities must be determined. Suppose that the project duration (TE) is the same as the EF (245 days). For activity H, the LF then is 245 days. The backward pass is similar to forward pass; you need to remember three things: To be able to compute latest in the backward pass, there are three characteristics that need to be remembered;

1. Throughout each path in the network, starting with the last activity, the activity times are subtracted (LF-Duration=LS).
2. The late finish (LS) is passed into the next preceding activity in which it turns to the next preceding activity’s late finish (LF), except for;
3. If the next preceding activity is a burst activity; the LF of that activity depends on the activity’s immediate successors, the choice would be the smallest of LS

Determining Slack

Once the forward and backward passes have been calculated, now we can decide whether any activity can be delayed without delaying the duration of the project or not by computing the slack or float. We can compute the total slack of an activity by subtracting early start from latest start or by subtracting latest finish from early finish (Total Slack=LS-ES=LFEF). Another explanation of slack is that the amount of permissible difference between when an activity must start at the latest and when it can start at the earliest. Briefly, total slack gives the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion. The activities that have total slack are the noncritical activities on the project network. If an activity has zero slack, it can be said that it is a critical activity. Therefore, if any critical activity is delayed, the project completion will be delayed.

Free Slack (Float)

Although total slack can be identified the amount of allowable time a noncritical activity can be delayed without delaying the project completion, the free slack can be defined as the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any successor activity. Free slack is computed by the following formula: Free slack for activity= ES (earliest start of the successor)- EF (activity)

Activity on Arrow (AOA) Diagrams

Activity on Arrow (AOA) or arrow diagramming technique is the most common method for diagramming networks. The main difference between AOA and AON is to show the activities and events in the network

Dummy Activities

In AOA diagrams, a dummy activity depicts the precedence relationships. It behaves as a link, but it is not a “real” activity, so it does not have time duration. In the following example, the requirement for dummy activities in an AOA network can be observed.