Planning process group

The planning process group is the process where the project manager, project team decides what is required, when it required, how it required, who will do that, how much money needs, how much time needed and so on. All these things need to be documented in the planning process group.

The Planning process group consist of those processes performed to established the total scope of the effort, define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives.

We develop the project management plan and the project documents that will be used to carry out the project. The progressive detailing of the project management plan is called progressive elaboration.

Objective of planning process group

Determine how you will plan and develop the project management plan.
Develop the project requirement in detail and agree the final scope
Determine the required project activities and their sequencing
Develop schedule using estimated resource and costs
Define how project staffing will be done
Establish the communication requirements and how it will be fulfilled.
Identify what can go wrong and the plans to deal with them.
Document what products and services will be acquired from outside the project.
Gain formal approval and buy-in from everybody involved in the project.

The planning processes are iterative in nature; a project manager does not complete the planning processes and then move on to other activities within the project, never to return. Throughout the project the project manager, and the project team, will be returning to the planning processes as often as needed.

Rolling wave planning is an acceptable planning solution for long projects whose late activities in the project schedule are unknown or will be determined based on the results of early project phases.

Process comes under planning process group

Develop Project Management Plan

This process is of defining, preparing and coordinating all subsidiary plans and integrating them into a comprehensive project management plan. A Project Management Plan is a detailed report indicating the chain of events that need to happen throughout the project. This includes a timeline and clear communication with stakeholders about how the entire project in all its phases will be “planned, executed, monitored controlled, and closed.”

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Charter Enterprise Environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Meetings	Scope Management Plan Requirement Management Plan

Plan Scope management

This process is of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validate and controlled. It provides direction and guidance on how to manage the scope.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Charter Enterprise Environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Meetings	Scope Management Plan Requirement Management Plan

Collect Requirement

This process is of determining, documenting and managing stakeholder’s needs and requirement to meet project objectives. This process provides us the basis for defining and managing product scope. Its tailoring client/stakeholder needs with the objectives the project requires may necessitate additional adjusting as the project gets underway.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Scope Management Plan Requirement Management Plan Stakeholder Management Plan Project Charter Stakeholder register	Interviews, Focus groups Facilitated Workshops Group creativity techniques Group decision making techniques Questionnaires & Surveys Observations Prototypes Benchmarking Context Diagram Document Analysis	Requirements Documentation Requirement traceability matrix

Group creativity techniques include:

•Brainstorming•Nominal group techniques•Idea / Mind mapping• Affinity diagram Multicriteria decision Analysis.

Group decision making techniques include:

•Unanimity• Majority• Plurality• Dictatorship

Define Scope

This process is of developing a detailed description of the project & product. Based on the scope we can include and exclude the boundaries of the project.Producing documentation to define the scope of the project which may reflect any changes is important to maintain stakeholder confidence and client trust.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Scope Management Plan Project Charter Requirements documentation Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Product Analysis Alternatives Generation Facilitated Workshops	Project Scope Statement Project Documents Updates

Project Scope statement includes:

Project Scope Description
Acceptance Criteria
Deliverables
Project Exclusions
Constraints & Assumptions.

Create WBS

Subdividing large projects into more manageable smaller ones allows stakeholders to identify on-going progress and allows the project manager to make mid-course adjustments as necessary.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Scope Management Plan Project Scope Statement Requirements Documentation Enterprises Environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets	Decomposition Expert Judgment	Scope baseline Project Documents Updates

Scope Baseline includes

Project Scope Statement, WBS and WBS Elements

Plan Schedule Management

This process is of establishing the policies, procedures and documentation for project lifecycle. It provides guidance and direction on how the project schedule will be managed.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Charter Enterprise environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Analytical Techniques Meetings	Schedule Management Plan

Schedule Management Plan includes

Project Schedule Model development
Level of Accuracy
Unit of measure
Organizational procedure links
Project Schedule model maintenance
Control threshold
Rules of performance measurement
Reporting Method
Process description

Define Activities

This process is of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables. It breaks the work package into activities that helps in estimation, scheduling, executing, monitoring and controlling.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Schedule Management Plan Scope baseline Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Decomposition Rolling wave planning Expert Judgment	Activity List Activity Attributes Milestone List

Sequence Activities

This process is of identifying and documenting relationship among activities. It helps in providing the logical sequence of work.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Schedule Management Plan Activity List Activity Attributes Milestone List Project Scope Statement Enterprise Environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Precedence Diagramming Methods (PDM) Dependency Determination Leads and Lags	Project Schedule Network Diagram Project documents Updates

Dependency Determination includes

Mandatory Dependencies
Discretionary Dependencies
External Dependencies
Internal Dependencies

Precedence Diagramming Method Includes

Finish – to – Start (FS)
Finish – to – Finish (FF)
Start – to – Start (SS)
Start – to – Finish (SF)

Estimate Activity Resources

Process of estimating type and quantities of resources required to perform each activity. This will help us to provide accurate cost and duration estimates.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Schedule Management Plan Activity List Activity Attributes Resource Calendar Risk Register Activity cost estimates Enterprise environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Alternative Analysis Published estimating data Bottom up estimating Project Management Software	Activity resource requirement Resource breakdown structure Project Document Updates

Estimate Activity Duration

Process of estimating number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. It helps to calculate the time to complete each activity.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Schedule Management Plan Activity List Activity Attributes Resource Calendar Risk Register Resource breakdown structure Enterprise environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Analogous estimating Parametric estimating Three Point estimating Group decision making techniques Reserve Analysis	Activity Duration Estimates Project Documents updates

Three point estimating includes

Most Likely (tM)
Optimistic (tO)
Pessimistic (tP)

Triangular Distribution: tE= (tO+tM+tP)/3

Develop Schedule

Process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model. It helps to generate schedule with planned dates for completing project activities.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Schedule Management Plan Activity List Activity Attributes Project schedules network diagrams Activity resource requirements Resource calendars Activity duration estimates Project Scope statement Risk register Project Staff Assignment Resource Breakdown Structure Enterprise environmental Factors Organizational Process Assets	Schedule Network Analysis Critical Path Method Critical Chain Method Resource optimization Techniques Modeling techniques Leads and Lags Schedule compression Scheduling tool	Schedule baseline Project Schedule Schedule data Project Calendars Project Management Plan Updates Project Documents updates

Schedule Compression Techniques includes

Fast Tracking
Crashing

Modeling Technique includes

What-if scenario analysis
Simulation
- Resource Leveling
- Resource Smoothing

Resource optimization techniques includes

Plan Cost Management

Process that establishes the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, managing, expending and controlling projects cost. It provides the direction on how the project cost will be managed.

Expert Judgment
Analytical Techniques
Meetings

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Charter Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Cost Management Plan	Cost Management Plan

Estimate Cost

Process of developing an approximation of the mandatory resources needed to complete project activities. It helps in determining the cost required to complete the project work.

Estimating costs accurately is a skill that comes with increasing practical experience. Coordinating all estimates needed to complete each phase of a project requires great attention to detail and a well-developed set of multi-tasking skills.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Cost Management Plan HR Management Plan Scope Baseline Project Schedule Risk Register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Analogous estimating Parametric estimating Bottom-up estimating Three point estimating Reserve Analysis Cost of Quality Project Management Software Vendor Bid Analysis Group Decision Making Techniques	Activity Cost Estimates Basis of Estimates Project Document updates

Determine Budget

This process is of aggregating the estimated cost of individual activities or work package to establish an authorized cost baseline. Creating accurate budgets means having the experience to know when to add in allowances, change orders, or other details gained through experience with similar projects. At every stage of the Planning Process Group documentation is necessary, but in the estimating and budgeting areas, project managers need to be able to understand the details logically to secure quick and trustworthy authorization from related stakeholders.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Cost Management Plan Scope baseline Activity Cost estimates Basis of estimates Project Schedule Resource calendars Risk register Agreements Organizational Process Assets	Cost aggregation Reserve analysis Expert Judgment Historical relationship Funding limit reconciliation	Cost Baseline Project Funding requirement Project Documents Updates

Plan Quality Management

This process is of identifying quality requirement and standards for project deliverables. It provides guidance and direction on how quality will be managed and validated for project. It determines what the project’s quality requirements and specifications are, and how all they will be met to ensure that the project end product has an acceptable level of quality.To ensure that quality is planned in from the very beginning, this process is performed early in the project and in parallel with all of the other planning processes. The reason why this is important is that the required quality will dictate other performance aspects of the project such as time, cost, scope and risk.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Stakeholder Register Risk Register Requirements Documentation Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Cost Benefit Analysis Cost of Quality Seven Basic Quality Tools Benchmarking Design of experiments Statistical Sampling Additional Quality Planning tools Meetings	Quality Management Plan Process improvement Plan Quality Metrics Quality Checklist Project Document updates

Plan Human Resource Management

This process is of preparation of competency chart and staff management plan. This process establishes project roles and responsibilities, Project organization charts, staff acquisition and release plan. Plan human resource management process describes how the project manager will staff, manage, team build, assess and improve the project team. This process is executed early within the project and is performed iteratively and interactively with other aspects of planning such as time, cost and scope.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Activity Resource requirements Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Organization chart and position description Networking Organizational Theory Expert Judgment Meetings	Human Resource Management Plan

Plan Communication Management

This process is of developing an appropriate approach for project communication. This helps us to communicate most effectively and efficiently with stakeholder. Plan communication management plan an important role as project manager spent lots of time in communication with team members and project stakeholder and effective communication created a bridge between diverse stakeholders.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Stakeholder Register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Communication requirement Analysis Communication technology Communication Models Communication Methods Meetings	Communication Management Plan Project Document Updates

Plan Risk Management

Project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives such as scope, schedule, cost and quality. Plan risk management is a process defines how to conduct risk management activities.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Project Charter Stakeholder Register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets Analytical techniques Expert Judgment Meetings	Analytical techniques Expert Judgment Meetings	Risk Management Plan

Identify Risk

Process determines which risk may affect the project and documenting their characteristics. If we know the risk characteristics we can plan for risk mitigation. Positive and negative risks are commonly referred to as opportunities and threats. The project may be accepted if the risks are within tolerances and are in balance with the rewards that may be gained by taking risk.

To get successful, a project manager should be committed to address risk management proactively and consistently throughout the project.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Risk Management Plan Cost Management Plan Schedule Management Plan Quality Management Plan HR Management Plan Scope baseline Activity Cost Estimates Activity Duration estimates Stakeholder Register Project Documents Procurement Documents Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Documentation reviews Information gathering techniques Checklist Analysis Assumption Analysis Diagramming Techniques SWOT Analysis Expert Judgment	Risk Register

Diagramming Techniques

Cause & Effect Diagram
Process flow charts
Influence Diagram

SWOT Analysis

Strength
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Brainstorming
Delphi Techniques
Interviews
Root Cause Analysis

Information Gathering Techniques

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis

This process is of prioritizing risk for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact. It reduces the level of uncertainty because it assesses the priority of identified risk using their relative probability of occurrence.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Risk Management Plan Scope baseline Risk Register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Risk Probability and impact assessment Probability and impact Matrix Risk data quality assessment Risk Categorization Risk urgency assessment Expert Judgment	Project Documents Updates

Establishing definition of level of probability and impact can reduce the influence of bias. Perform qualitative risk analysis is a rapid and cost effective process.

Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis

This process is of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives. It helps in decision making in order to reduce project uncertainty.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Risk Management Plan Cost Management Plan Schedule Management plan Risk Register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Data Gathering and representation techniques Quantitative risk analysis and modeling techniques Expert Judgment	Project Documents Updates

Plan Risk Response

This process is of developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to project objectives.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Risk Management Plan Risk Register	Strategies for negative risks or threats Strategic for positive risk or opportunities Contingent response strategies Expert Judgment	Project Management Plan Update Project Documents Updates

Plan Procurement Management

This process is of documenting project procurement decisions, specifying the approach, and identifying potential sellers.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Requirements Documentation Risk Register Activity resource requirement Project Schedule Activity Cost estimates Stakeholder register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Make or Buy Analysis Expert Judgment Market Research Meetings	Procurement Management Plan Procurement Statement of Work Procurement Documents Source Selection criteria Make-or-buy Decision Change request Project document updates

Plan Stakeholder Management

This process is of developing appropriate management strategies to effectively engage stakeholder throughout project lifecycle.

Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project Management Plan Stakeholder register Enterprise environmental factors Organizational Process Assets	Expert Judgment Meetings Analytical Techniques	Stakeholder Management Plan Project document updates

Example of engagement level of stakeholders:Unaware, Resistant, Neutral, Supportive, Leading

Questions & Answers

Which of the following is NOT part of Define Scope Process
- Facilitated Workshop.
- Identifying Alternatives
- Product Analysis
- Inspection
Correct Answer: D
Inspection is a tool which is used on Monitoring and controlling process.
What might historical records from previous projects used as an input to Define Activities Process include?
- Activities
- Resources
- Costs
- Schedule
Correct Answer: A
The project schedule constraints have just been determined, what project management group you are in?
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitoring and Controlling
Correct Answer: A
All of the following are input to Plan quality Management process EXCEPT:
- Enterprises Environmental Factors
- The project scope statement
- The schedule baseline
- Project work results.
Correct Answer: D
Project work results obtained during quality management, not before the plan quality process.
All of the following needs to create WBS EXCEPT
- Organizational Process Asset
- Quality Measurement
- Requirements Documentation
- Project Scope statement
Correct Answer: B

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About the Author
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About Sparsh Goyal

A passionate IT professional, Sparsh Goyal boasts of 4.3+ years of experience. He has worked for various projects under AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Spring Boot, Python, Microservices, RESTful, RESTFUL APIs/SOAP, Scripting, Shell and JAVA. He is also working towards gaining proficiency in Oracle Cloud PaaS, DevOps, SaaS and Docker/Kubernetes. His primary and secondary skills validate his relentless pursuits of expanding his horizon and developing more as an IT person. He boasts of the following certifications: *Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer. *AWS Cloud Solutions Architect Associate. *Oracle certified JAVA programmer.

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