Week 5 lecture Summary.

When we complete the Definition stage of a project we need to have produced a number of documents that summarize all the work to date and provide a base on which to move to the planning stage. I provided a list in Week three that clearly defined the documents and progression in their development for all the stages. You need to know what the key steps and documents are.

The Flow chart: the purpose of you creating a flow chart of steps and documents (for the Definition stage) was so you could experience putting a lot of new information into recognizable 'chunks.' If you produced your own flow chart from your PowerPoints and or the Text book it would easier to find the steps relationships between the documents and the various project stages. A flow chart also provides a guideline of how to approach a project (or any other set of tasks or procedures).

I provided a list of the Definition steps in a sequence on MS Project on the web site to help you develop your flow chart. In week 5 I provided you with my flow chart for the Definition stage and also the Planning stage. From this or (your flow chart) you can choose some of the approaches you would use to Define the project. You don''t need all of them, but on complex projects you would use all of them plus other techniques drawn from related management processes.

You would, however, always go through some procedures and always produce key Definition documents. These are the ones you need to know for the tests. For instance you would always have some meetings in which you would ask questions, make decisions and assign responsibilities. You would get a list of specifications for the deliverables - what the customer wants. You would use a formula such as S.M.A.R.T. to make sure that clear objectives are written. You would always Define the scope of the project, (time, budget, quality and hi level tasks) and also identify of major Stakeholders, then produce a Statement of Work and a Charter.

The SOW. has a number of different elements. They summarize all the contractual aspects of the Definition discussions including the final deliverable specifications. This is a critical document, and was key reason for spending so much time on the Definition stage to make sure nothing was overlooked and all Stakeholders have the same understandings Do you know what is included in it?

The purpose of asking you to find example of 4 Definition stage documents and share them was so that you would see the above in practice "real world.' This would help you in understanding application of the theory. It would also help you pass the midterm because you would reinforce knowledge of terms etc.and the Definition documents.

If you are still confused go through the flow chart and check of the documents that you would need to produce to manage a project. Check of the boxes that show procedures that think would be helpful to Define the project. You must end up with at least a S.O.W., a Charter, a Repsonsibility Matrix and a Communication Matrix. If you issued an R.F.P. to get ideas you would also be given Proposals to review. You might use a Decision Matrix to evaluate your proposals. You could use a Decision Matrix even if you were deciding what do do without input from other people. It is a tool.

When you have completed the Definition stage, and have your S.O.W. you can break the project down into smaller units using a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). You break it down until you have actual Tasks that can given to Team Members to perform (That is why you put each task on a Responsibility Matrix and then onto the GANTT chart). The GANTT chart tells the Team Member when to do the Task in relation to the other Team Member's. Tha Task must also be understood enough to be estimated for time and cost. The team member may be asked to provide the estimate or management might tell them how much is allocated for their task.

The network diagram made up from all the tasks is to help schedule the work so that it can be completed on time. To make up a network diagram (schedule) you ask what should i do first, next, before or after? Big project use MS Project or similar software to helps capture all the details. A Network diagram may have a number of different paths. This simply means that more than one tasks is being done at the same time. Add the length of time for each path. The longest path is the critical path or the length of the project.

Some tasks have flexibility in when they can be done. This is called Slack or Float. To calculate the float you need to calculate the longest path (project time - we call this calculation a forward pass) and then do a back ward pass. The forward pass start with the first task and allows us to calculate the Earliest we can start the task and the Earliest we can finish it ES and EF The backward pass is to take the last task and subtract its time from the total project time and calculate the Latest we can start the task and Latest we can finish it. You then work backwards from the end to the beginning task entering this data in the box for each tasks The float is the ES minus the Latest Start. Tasks which result in a O score have no float. They must be done on only the day they are schedule. If you get a score of one or more from the calculation it means there is a Float (flexibility )when you can do the tasks The score tells you how much, e.g. days, Float there is.

Each of the boxes on the network diagram can have seven pieces of information entered into it so that scheduling can be calculate. See the PowerPoint or book for the details. Know this. Be able to calculate a critical path (forward pass). Know what float is. You wont be required to calculate the backward pass.

When we have completed the schedule we know have all the information to communicate the details to the Stakeholders who are going to be involved in the Execution. The work packages, the people who are going to complete them, the time each one will take, the order in which they will be done (using predecessors), is entered onto a GANTT chart and distributed to the appropriate Stakeholders

Estimates are completed, budgets allocated, resources determined and obtained and we are ready to start the Execution of the project. This ends the Planning (detailed planning) stage.

The end.