Estimate the Scope of the Project

Establish a top-level work breakdown structure (WBS) to estimate the scope of the project.

The WBS evolves with the project. Typically, the WBS is a product oriented structure that provides a scheme for identifying and organizing the logical units of work to be managed, which are called “work packages”. The WBS provides a reference and organizational mechanism for assigning effort, schedule, and responsibility and is used as the underlying framework to plan, organize, and control the work done on the project.
Typical Work Products in this step are:

• Task descriptions
• Work package descriptions
• WBS

To develop a high-level WBS, project team can base on practices below:

1. Identify the product architecture.

• Identified risks and their mitigation tasks
• Tasks for deliverables and supporting activities (supporting activities can be review activities, co-operate with other group in company)
• Tasks for skill and knowledge acquisition (this can be training activities)
• Tasks for development of needed support plans, such as configuration management, quality assurance, and verification plansTasks for integration and management of non-developmental items (such as making project plan, monitoring project progress, controlling project issues etc)

2. Identify the work packages in sufficient detail to specify estimates of project tasks, responsibilities, and schedule. The top-level WBS is intended to help in gauging the project work effort in terms of tasks and organizational roles and responsibilities. The amount of detail in the WBS at this more detailed level helps in developing realistic schedules, thereby minimizing the need for management reserve.

3. Identify product or product components that will be externally acquired.

4. Identify work products that will be reused.

Example work product in this step:

Establish Estimates

The first step in implementing project planning is establish and maintain project planning parameters.

Project planning parameters include all information needed by the project to perform the necessary planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. Estimates of planning parameters should have a sound basis to instill confidence that any plans based on these estimates are capable of supporting project objectives.

Factors that are typically considered when estimating these parameters include the following:

• Project requirements, including the product requirements (functional and non-functional requirements), the requirements imposed by the organization, the requirements imposed by the customer, and other requirements that impact the project
• Scope of the project (What project will do ?)
• Identified tasks and work products
• Technical approach
• Selected project life-cycle model (e.g., waterfall, incremental, spiral, or prototyping etc)
• Attributes of the work products and tasks (e.g., size, complexity, or difficulty)
• Schedule
• Models or historical data for converting the attributes of the work products and tasks into labour hours and cost
• Methodology (e.g., models, data, algorithms) used to determine needed material, skills, labour hours, and cost

Documentation of the estimating rationale and supporting data is needed for stakeholders’ review and commitment to the plan and for maintenance of the plan during project development time.

Project Planning

Project planning is a Project Management Process Area at Maturity Level 2.

The purpose of Project Planning (PP) is to establish and maintain plans that define project activities.

The Project Planning process area involves the following:

• Developing the project plan
• Interacting with stakeholders appropriately
• Getting commitment to the plan
• Maintaining the plan

Planning begins with requirements that define the product and project. Planning includes estimating the attributes of the work products and tasks, determining the resources needed, negotiating commitments, producing a schedule, and identifying and analysing project risks. Iterating through these activities may be necessary to establish the project plan. The project plan provides the basis for performing and controlling the project’s activities that address the commitments with the project’s customer.

The project plan will usually need to be revised as the project progresses to address changes in requirements and commitments, inaccurate estimates, corrective actions, and process changes. Specific practices describing both planning and re-planning are contained in this process area.
The term “project plan” is used throughout the generic and specific practices in this process area to refer to the overall plan for controlling the project.

To make the best project plan:
- Refer to the Requirements Development process area for more information about developing requirements that define the product and product components. Product and product component requirements and changes to those requirements serve as a basis for planning and re-planning.
- Refer to the Requirements Management process area for more information about managing requirements needed for planning and re-planning.
- Refer to the Risk Management process area for more information about identifying and managing risks.
- Refer to the Technical Solution process area for more information about transforming requirements into product and product component solutions.

Specific Goal and Practice Summary for Project Planning process area

SG 1 Establish Estimates

• SP 1.1 Estimate the Scope of the Project
• SP 1.2 Establish Estimates of Work Product and Task Attributes
• SP 1.3 Define Project Lifecycle
• SP 1.4 Determine Estimates of Effort and Cost

SG 2 Develop a Project Plan

• SP 2.1 Establish the Budget and Schedule
• SP 2.2 Identify Project Risks
• SP 2.3 Plan for Data Management
• SP 2.4 Plan for Project Resources
• SP 2.5 Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills
• SP 2.6 Plan Stakeholder Involvement
• SP 2.7 Establish the Project Plan

SG 3 Obtain Commitment to the Plan

• SP 3.1 Review Plans That Affect the Project
• SP 3.2 Reconcile Work and Resource Levels
• SP 3.3 Obtain Plan Commitment