inspiring your next success! ® company confidential - copyright 2008 hitachi consulting 1 work plan...

Inspiring Your Next Success!® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting1

Work Plan Development

Or answering the question:

“So . . . what do we do now?”

Inspiring Your Next Success!® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting2

Today’s Agenda

> Converting Project Charters into Work Plans

> Creating a Work Breakdown Structure – The “Nouns”

> Break

> Creating an Activity List – The “Verbs”

> Next Steps

Inspiring Your Next Success!® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting3

Work Plans

Work Plans identify sequenced activities that

must be completed to fulfill Project Charter contents

Project Charter

Work Plan

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Converting Charters into Work Plans

1. From the project charter and scope statements, create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

2. From the WBS, identify the activities needing completion

3. From the activity list, develop a network diagram, identifying the sequence of activity completion

4. From the network diagram, develop a preliminary project schedule and assign resources

5. Iterate the above with key stakeholders until acceptance (a set of baselines) is agreed upon.

You

Your WBS

Our Focus Today

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The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

> The WBS = your “Nouns”

» WBS = The work being delivered

» Hierarchical representation of work elements needing completion—deliverables themselves or deliverable components

» Single most important tool in scope definition, scope control, and communications

» What about a ‘survey’?

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The Noun Workshop

> Goal

» Develop hierarchical definition of the project (30 minutes)

» “Divide and conquer”

> Materials:

» Sticky notes, tape, and pens

» Wall or desk

> You’ve gone deep enough in the hierarchy when:

» Bottom level work—the work package level—requires ~ 4 total hours to complete

» And/or adequate planning and control is achieved

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Tips for Creating the WBS

> Start with the major work of the project first (top down)—e.g. deliverables» This is level 1, then proceed downward; this level establishes the framework for the entire

project so be smart here

» Figure out if the project is analogous to something else and cherry-pick the approach to the project

• Use the Internet or other available expertise

> If you’re tempted to think at the activity level (bottom up), that’s ok» Find a common theme to multiple activities, then convert to one or more nouns

> Start an Open Items log now

> No “Gold Plating”» Make sure to complete the work necessary to achieve the level of scope, quality, time and

cost expected, no more and no less

> 100% Rule» Child elements within a single parent element should represent 100% of the work

envisioned in the parent

> Continually ask: “What work is missing”?

> All projects should include “Project Management” as a Level 1 work package

Start Now(30 minutes)

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WBS Template

Today

Consider completing and summarizing results before the next customer meeting

Inspiring Your Next Success!® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting9

Break

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The Activity List

> Activities = your “Verbs”

» List of things to do to complete the work packages

» Feeds into activity sequencing (network diagrams), scheduling, and resourcing process

» Have durations, owners, and specified outputs

» An activity should not be performed within your project unless it is specified

Note: Activities are defined only at the lowest level of the WBS

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The Verb Workshop

> Goal

» Capture as many project activities as possible (30 minutes)

> Materials:

» Sticky notes, tape, and pens

» Wall

> Reminder: Activities should be placed only below the lowest level of your WBS

=

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Tips for Activity Definition

> Look Out!!

» You will likely find a need for additional WBS elements through the activity definition process

» All activities must fit logically into the WBS

> Identify good opportunities to insert major milestones, which are defined as zero-duration activities

» Indicates that a major block of work has been completed. Milestones are also good status reporting mechanisms when talking to customers

> Consider strongly the role that quality and risk should play in activity definition

> Update your Open Item log with issues

> Exclude incidental or trivial activities

Start Now(30 minutes)

Inspiring Your Next Success!® Company Confidential - Copyright 2008 Hitachi Consulting13

Activity Template

Today

Consider completing and summarizing before the next customer meeting

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Next Steps

> Ensure that today’s WBS and activities have numbers assigned

> Finish this exercise to completion before next class

> Scope Iterations» Complete the first version of the WBS and Activity List as a team

» Share WBS and optionally the activity list with customer to confirm scope

» Re-define scope until complete

> Schedule Iterations» As scope is progressively elaborated, continue to add appropriate activities

» Use activity definitions to sequence activities (network diagrams)

» Apply the concept of “critical paths”

» Keep an eye out for new WBS or activities that might crop up

» Assign dates and owners to activities

» Share schedule (milestone-level) w/customer

» Re-define until complete

> Lock down scope and schedule; manage risk, quality, and change aggressively

Alignment is everything