Revision History

Date	Version	Description	

Jan-24, 2002	
1.0 	
Initial version.	
Feb 03, 2002	1.1	Corrected EPA and PPA in activity table.	
Feb 06, 2002	1,2	Added test plan and IM plan.
Revised the Project Log(s) output.	
Mar 15, 2002	1,3	Added “plan” to output descriptions and made deliverable description a hyperlink in output table.	

			

			

Planning the Project 

Purpose
Project planning includes development of the overall project structure, the activities and workplan/timeline that will form the basis of the project management processes employed throughout the project lifecycle.

Your approach to project planning will follow your Department’s procedures and guidelines. However, if your project requires Treasury Board Approval (detailed in the next section), you will also need to consider and address those issues outlined in the Treasury Board Project Approval submission, approval, and review processes.

Thorough Project Planning provides the structure and procedures to ensure that adequate time and effort is put into identifying the project scope, deliverables, resource requirements, and risks. The Planning Process also sets out procedures that will be used within the project for tracking progress, using tools and methodologies, communicating with the project team members, users and other stakeholders, resolving issues and problems, acceptance, performance reporting and addressing change requests.

Upfront planning alleviates the risk of the Project Manager having to operate "on the fly" to develop contingency approaches when the project execution doesn't go "as expected". Project Planning also allows for the management of expectations of all project team members and support resources by outlining exactly what is required, how it is intended to be delivered, and the timeline that will be followed.

Activities
For projects requiring TB approval, this project planning process is executed first to prepare the PPA at a sufficient level of detail to permit the initial assessment. Where TB PPA approval is attained, this planning process is executed again to produce more detailed plans and estimates required to prepare the EPA submission. 

No.	Activity	Detail of Activities and Remarks	
1	Requirements                                                                            Management 	•	Identify stakeholder needs and translate into product requirements.
•	Based on the requirements, enumerate the project deliverables.
•	Note: This is a critical project activity and should be performed rigorously.  It may constitute a significant portion of the project and a separate plan may be required depending on the project characteristics. 	
2	Identify corporate processes	•	Identify the project’s corporate processes required to meet the project requirements. 	
3	Decompose Requirements	•	Breakdown the project deliverables into manageable components thereby creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).  
•	Review WBS with project stakeholders. 
•	If requirements are divided into interdependent individual projects a multi project plans will be required to cover interdependencies and integration.
	
4	Estimate Product Size	•	Estimate Product Size for each product element using your organisation’s estimation methods, tools and techniques. 	
5	Estimate Project Resources	•	Estimate Project Resources using your organisation’s estimation methods, tools and techniques. 	
6	Develop Project Management Plan	Describe the project management processes that will be used through the project lifecycle including the ongoing management of:
•	Schedule
•	Cost budget 
•	Acceptance
•	Gating
•	Start-up
•	Tracking (reporting, issue/problem management, requirement management)
•	Change management
•	Reporting requirements
•	Note: For projects requiring TB approval, the project plan and estimates are created in preliminary (for EPA) and detailed (for PPA) versions as described in “Approving the Project”.
	
7	Develop Corporate Plans 	•	Corporate plans include Quality, Risk, HR, Communications, Performance, Configuration, Procurement, Requirements, IM/IT (Software development), and Validation and Verification plans.
•	The detail planning of the corporate processes may be documented in the Project Management Plan or in separate documents. There may be not a need to develop a Requirements plan if a Requirement Specification is produced in the Planning Stage. 
•	Depending on the project characteristics the corporate plans may be incorporated into one plan, or the overall project management plan	
8	Negotiate commitment and approval	•	Review project plan(s) with project stakeholders to obtain commitment and approval to proceed to the next project stage. 	

Inputs
No.	Input	Detail of Inputs and Remarks	Entry criteria	
1	Approved Scope Statement, or Project Charter
	•	Scope statement, that includes project justification, project scope and summary-level deliverables, in addition to product/service description 
•	Charter: for details see the deliverable description.	Yes	
2	Approved Business Case 	For details see the deliverable description. 	Yes	
3	Organization’s approaches and constraints	Project Planning needs to taken into account and be tailored to existing organization’s approaches and constraints such as:
•	Government-wide and Department specific policies and standards 
•	Pre-defined organizational processes, roles and responsibilities, tools and techniques, etc.
•	Stakeholders knowledge, skills, availability, etc.		
4	Project Characteristics
	Extent and detail of project planning activities and effort is dependent on project characteristics such as:
•	Business Impact
•	Technical Impact
•	Budget
•	Type of product/service (new system, replacement, enhancement, pilot)
•	Technology (state of the art, leading edge, proven)

Outputs

No.	Output	Detail of Outputs and Remarks	Exit Criteria	
1	Approved Project Management Plan	For details see the deliverable description.	Yes	
2	Approved Corporate process plan(s) 	For details of the:
•	Quality plans: Quality Management Plan refer to the deliverable description and for Test Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Risk Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Communications Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Performance Plan refer to the deliverable description
•	HR Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Configuration Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Procurement Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	Requirements Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
•	IM/IT plans: Software Development Plan refer to the deliverable description and for Information Management Plan refer to the deliverable description.
	Yes	
3	Approved Requirement Specification	See the Requirements Specification deliverable description.	Yes	
4	Project Tracking Log(s) & Risk Log	For details related to the:
•	Project Tracking Log refer to the deliverable description.
•	Risk Log refer to the deliverable description.

Policies & Standards
The following is a list of Treasury Board project policies and standards with a brief overview:

Policy

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Standards

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Supporting Tools and Techniques
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