According to the PMBOK2000, the project plan can contain the following elements:
1, the project scope statement
The project scope statement describes the reasons for or the significance of carrying out the project, the formation of the basic framework of the project, so that the project owner or the project manager can be systematically and logically Analyze the key issues and interactive elements in the formation of the project, so that project stakeholders can agree on the basic content and structure of the project before the start of the project or the preparation of project-related documents; the project scope statement should form a checklist of project results, as the basis for project evaluation, and after the termination of the project or before the completion of the final report of the project, as a basis for evaluating the success or failure of the project; the scope statement can also be used as a basis for project evaluation; the scope statement can also be used as a basis for project evaluation. The scope statement can also be used as the basis for monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the project throughout the project life cycle, and the basis for other project-related plans.
2, the project schedule
Schedule plan is to illustrate the order of work in the project, start time, completion time and interdependent relationship between the plan. Through the preparation of the progress plan, the project implementation to form an organic whole. Progress plan is the basis for progress control and management, can be divided into project progress control plan and project status report plan.
In the progress control plan, to determine what work should be supervised, when to supervise, supervise the person in charge of who, with what kind of method to collect and process the project progress information, how to check the progress of the work on time and what adjustment measures to be taken, and the time required for these control work and personnel, technology, material resources, etc. are included in the project master plan.
3, project quality plan
Quality plan for the specific project to be determined, the arrangement of quality control personnel and related resources, the provisions of the use of those systems, norms, procedures, standards. Project quality plan should include all activities related to ensuring and controlling the quality of the project. The purpose of the quality plan is to ensure that the quality objectives of the project are met. According to ISO9001 requirements and PMBOK2000, in order to achieve the quality objectives, the organization should follow eight quality management principles such as customer focus, leadership role, full participation, process approach, systematic approach to management, continuous improvement, fact-based decision-making approach, and mutually beneficial supplier relationships.
4, project resource planning
With the project scope plan and schedule plan, the resource plan is to decide what kind of resources (people, materials, equipment, information, funds, etc.) used in the project for each job, how many resources to use at each stage. The project cost plan includes the resource plan, cost estimation, and cost budget.
5, project communication plan
Communication plan is the development of the project process between the project stakeholders in the exchange of information on the content, scope of personnel, communication methods, communication time or frequency of communication requirements of the agreement.
6, risk response plan
Risk response plan is in order to reduce the damage of the project risk analysis of risk, the development of risk response strategy program process, including the identification of risk, quantitative risk, the preparation of risk response strategy program process.
7. Project Procurement Planning
The project procurement planning process is the process of identifying which project needs should be met by procuring products or equipment from outside the organization. In the case of procurement of software development work, i.e., outsourcing, a plan for progress monitoring and quality control of outsourcing should be developed at the same time.
8, change control, configuration management plan
Because the project plan can not guarantee that the beginning of the prediction is very accurate, in the process of the project can not guarantee accurate and strong control, resulting in the project plan and the project does not match the actual situation often occurs, so we must effectively deal with the project change. Change control plan is mainly to specify the steps and procedures for change, configuration management plan is to determine the project's configuration items and baseline, control changes in the configuration items, maintain the integrity of the baseline, to provide project stakeholders with the accurate state of the configuration items and the current configuration data.
Second, the project plan preparation process
Software development manual, individual characteristics, software development project plan can not be a static plan, once in the project startup, you can first develop a relatively coarse granularity of the project plan, the first to determine the project high-level activities and expected milestones. Coarse granularity of the project plan needs to be constantly updated and iterative, according to the size and nature of the project and the progress of the project iteration and adjustment. The period of iteration and adjustment is also developed based on the project, typically as short as one week and as long as about 2 months. After continuous plan development, adjustments, revisions, etc., the project plan goes from being initially coarse-grained, to being very detailed. Such a plan will continue until the end of the project, continued until the results of the project appear.
The process of developing the plan is a gradual understanding of the project to master the process, through the careful development of the plan, the project manager can know what elements are clear, what elements are to be progressively clearer, through the gradual clarification of the details continue to improve the project plan. Stage plan contains a report on the work and the next stage of the work schedule is to grasp the basis of the project progress, from the stage plan against the overall plan, in order to see at a glance the progress of the work. The process of making plans, but also in the progress, resources, scope of the process of seeking a balance between. The essence of planning is not to write a good-looking document, but to use your intelligence to respond to problems and risks and to be as forward-thinking as possible. Once the plan has been completed responsibly, it gives you a basis for communicating and negotiating with management or the client, helps you to guard against problems during the course of the project, and helps you to ensure that the project is completed on time.
Companies determine to start a project will generally be issued a project documents, tentatively called "project documents", the main content is to comply with the contract or related agreements, the general scope of the project, the end of the project deadlines and some key time to designate the project manager and some of the members of the project, and so on.
The next project plan is generally prepared in accordance with the following process:
1 set up a project team: the relevant departments received after approval of the "project document" and related information, the formal "project document" in the "project document". Designated project manager to organize the project team, members can join the project team with the progress of the project can be at different times, but also with the completion of the work assigned to exit the project team. But it is best to participate in the project start-up meeting when the project is launched, to understand the overall objectives, plans, especially their own goals and responsibilities, join the time and so on.
2 project development preparation: the project manager to organize the project team members to prepare for the project work required by the specification, tools, environment. Such as development tools, source code management tools, configuration environment, database environment. Pre-join the project team members mainly by the program manager, systems analysts, etc., but soon to develop a good project plan must be as far as possible after all project team members and project stakeholders in the middle of the full communication. If the project there are some key (meaning that will affect the success or failure of the project) technical risks, the project manager should be organized at this stage of the pre-study. The results of the pre-study should be left in writing for review.
Explanation: the project plan must be in the corresponding stage of the project objectives, stage goals and tasks for the precise definition, is to be further refined in the corresponding stage of the project objectives; especially in the completion of the outline design, detailed design or coding to achieve the start of the next stage before the target task should be refined. Should be fully investigated and mastered all the internal and external influences affecting the project plan; should be as full as possible to analyze the project work breakdown structure, through the analysis of the project work breakdown structure not only to obtain the static structure of the project, but also through the logical analysis, to obtain the dynamic workflow between the various work tasks of the project; should be broken down into the project objectives, tasks, and develop a detailed implementation plan.
3 project information collection: the project manager organizes the project team members through the analysis of the received project-related documents, further communication with the user and other ways, in the specified time as comprehensive as possible to collect project information. Project information collection should be concerned about the full, efficient communication, and to reach **** knowledge. Some members believe that the documents sent by e-mail (plans, requirements, weekly plans, etc.) are completed in the case of insufficient communication, the members have read the situation that they do not understand or do not match with their own ability or willingness, but the efficiency of communication through e-mail and other means is not high, this may be a matter of habit, perhaps and a specific issue itself whether it is easy to communicate clearly through e-mail. Therefore, important content needs to meet for Q&A discussion to ensure that all important issues are understood, and ultimately reach *** knowledge. What is agreed upon in the discussion should be documented in a specific document.
4 Preparation of the Software Project Plan
The project manager is responsible for organizing the preparation of the Software Project Plan. Software Project Plan" is the core output document of the project planning activities, which includes the main body of the plan and other related plans in the form of attachments, such as configuration management plan. Software Project Plan" is prepared with reference to "GB8567-88 Computer Software Product Development Documentation Guidelines" in the project development plan requirements. Each enterprise in the establishment of ISO9001 quality management system or CMM process will also establish the corresponding "software development project plan specification".
The process of preparing a project plan should be divided into the following steps:
a, determine the project deliverables. Here the project's deliverables not only refers to the final product of the project, but also includes the project's intermediate products. For example, usually the project products of software development projects can be: requirements specification, outline design specifications, detailed design specifications, database design specifications, project phase plan, project phase report, program maintenance manual, test plan, test report, program code and program files, program installation files, user manuals, acceptance reports, project summary reports and so on;
b, task decomposition: starting from the project objectives, from top to bottom, layer by layer decomposition, to determine the realization of the project objectives must be done to do the work, and draw a complete work breakdown structure chart. Software development projects at the beginning may only be divided from the point of view of the stage, such as requirements analysis work, architectural design work, coding work, testing work, etc., of course, when the scale of the larger requirements, design can also be split into different tasks. But especially in the completion of the outline design can be the next phase of the target task for horizontal refinement.
c, under the assumption of resource independence to determine the interdependence of the tasks, in order to determine the sequence of the start and end time of each task; to obtain the dynamic workflow between the tasks of the project.
d, determine the time required for each task, that is, based on experience or the application of relevant methods to give the task needs to consume time; determine the human resource requirements needed for each task, such as what technology, skills, knowledge, experience, proficiency and so on.
e. Determine the time available to project team members, i.e., the exact amount of time each project member specifically spends on the project; Determine the composition of roles, responsibilities, interrelationships, and communication methods of each project team member.
f, determine the management work, management work is throughout the project life cycle, such as project management, project meetings, etc., prepare phase reports. Communication time between project team members, project team members and other project stakeholders between the communication time is also relatively easy to be ignored, and communication time is also relatively easy to quantify and schedule fixed. However, these efforts in the plan should be fully taken into account, and then back to the division project plan more reasonable, more effective in reducing the project schedule delays caused by the unreasonable plan.
g, based on the results of the above preparation of the overall project schedule, the overall schedule should reflect the task name, the responsible person, start time, end time, should be submitted to the checkable results of the work.
h, consider the cost budget of the project, possible risk analysis and its countermeasures, the need for coordination or support within the company or the client or other parties.
5 software project plan review, approval
Project plan review, approval is to make the relevant personnel to reach **** knowledge, reduce unnecessary errors, so that the project plan more reasonable and more effective.
Project manager to complete the "software project plan", first of all, the organization of the project team within the project team leader, the person in charge of testing, the person in charge of system analysis, the person in charge of the design, the quality supervisor, etc. to review the project plan, the review can be taken electronically or in a meeting, and stage results of the project team within the review of the records. All relevant personnel should be asked to provide feedback on the software project plan within an agreed period of time after receipt of the plan. The project manager ensures that there is agreement with all personnel on what is outlined in the project plan. This consistency requires that all project team members commit to the content of the project plan, and where commitment or agreement is not possible, either the project plan is modified to accommodate certain project team members, or compromises are made by certain project team members to accommodate the requirements of the project plan.
The project manager will have reached agreement on the software project plan submitted to the project senior management or its authorized personnel for approval, the approval of the completion of the time can not exceed the pre-agreed time. For projects of great significance, the process control department such as the Quality Management Department and the project leader at the same time for approval of the Software Project Plan.
The approved Software Project Plan serves as the basis for project activities and the basis for project control and checking by the enterprise, and plan changes are implemented when necessary based on project progress.
Project quality supervisor according to the "software project plan" and "software development project quality plan specification" to prepare software development project quality plan. Large projects should prepare a separate "software development project quality plan"; smaller can be in the "software project plan" in a chapter of the "software development project quality plan", can also prepare a separate document similar to the "software development project quality control table "
Configuration
Configuration manager to prepare the "Project Configuration Management Plan" according to the plan. Based on the phase results in the project work plan, prepare a configuration management plan according to the configuration management plan specification, the project manager approves the configuration management plan, and is responsible for the effectiveness of the configuration management plan.
Project planning work is completed, the software project plan through the review, in general, for software development projects, the work is transferred to the requirements analysis phase.
Three, the project plan to determine the content
The determination of the content of the project plan is generally in accordance with the following process:
1 Determine the project profile
Contractual projects based on the contract and bidding documents, non-contractual projects based on the feasibility study report or the project's pre-project research results, to specify the scope of the project and constraints, and based on the same, to specify the project deliverables. Further define the scope of work of the project and the responsibilities of all parties involved in the project.
2 Determine the project team
Determine the organizational structure of the project team and the functional bodies related to project development, including management, development, testing, QA, review and acceptance. Determine project team personnel and division of labor. Consult with relevant personnel to determine the composition of the project team personnel. If internal staffing needs cannot be met, then submit a request for staffing support.
3 Clarify the collaboration and communication within and outside the project team
Clearly define the communication method with the user unit. Clearly end users, direct users and where the enterprise / department name and contact phone number. More customer participation is an important driving force for the success of the project, to strengthen the development process with the user side of the project manager or with the initiative of the staff to communicate, will help to strengthen the degree of customer participation in the project. It is recommended to use weekly or monthly reports to notify the progress of the project and the next phase of the plan, the emergence of the need for customer coordination or understanding of the problem.
When the project team needs to collaborate with external organizations to develop the project, it should be clear how to communicate with the collaborators. Determine the name of the collaborative unit, the name of the person in charge, the content of the work undertaken, as well as the name of the implementation of the person, the contact telephone number.
Define the name of the department of the internal collaborative development of the enterprise, the name of the manager, the content of the work undertaken, as well as the name of the person responsible for the implementation of the work, contact telephone. Clear project team communication activities. Project team members in the size of more than 3 people in the project should be organized weekly meetings of the project team, the project team to use a unified communication system to establish the project team's communication space.
4 planning the development environment and specifications
Description of the system development of the various tools used, development environment, test environment. List the project development to comply with the development of technical specifications and industry standards. For the enterprise has not regulated the development of technology, the project manager should be organized to formulate the rules that will be observed in the project.
5 Prepare the work schedule
Determine the workflow of the project according to the regulations of the enterprise and the actual situation of the project. Preparation of the project's work plan, this plan is a high-level plan, the work schedule for each phase to include the completion of the stage of the document results, the document results submitted for review and revision of the time, the end of each phase is marked by the release of the stage results. Requirements in the plan to specify the following:
a, the division of work tasks;
b, a time line or Gantt chart showing the allocation of time for each phase or iteration of the project;
c, identifying the major milestones, phase results;
d, requires an explanation of the project work plan in words. Ultimately, a time table to complete the entire work plan; for iterative development projects, the first phase of the phase plan should be prepared. Tasks within the phase split to 2-5 days is appropriate, the time span of special tasks within two weeks; in the course of the project, the project manager to prepare a biweekly work plan to guide the specific work of members.
6 Prepare a monitoring plan for the project. This describes schedule control, quality control, version control, budget control, and so on.
7 Prepare the project's risk plan, analyze the risks that may arise during the project and the corresponding risk response. For large projects, it is recommended to prepare in the form of an annex to facilitate continuous updating.
8 Develop supporting work plans. According to the needs of the project, the preparation of such as training plans, recruitment plans.
9 Planning development support work, such as supply-side management program.
10 planning project acceptance: the development of the project acceptance plan. This work can be cut back as needed.
11 Planning for project closeout and handover activities. Develop project acceptance, training, and handoff to Technical Support as the project moves into the maintenance phase. References
Managing Software Development Projects (2nd Edition) Neal Whitten (Software Project Management Series, translated by Yanchun Sun, et al.);
IT Project Management by Kathy Schwalbe (Project Management Translation Series translated by Jinyu Wang, et al.);
Project Management - A Systematic Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Project Management - A Systematic Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Control (7th Edition) by Harold Kerzner (Electronic Industry Publishing House, translated by Yang Aihua, etc.);
Practical Software Engineering (2nd Edition) by Zheng Renjie, Yin Renkun, and Tao Yonglei (Tsinghua University Publishing House).
Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach (5th Edition) by Roger S. Pressman;
Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach (5th Edition) by Roger S. Pressman;
The Requirements of ISO9001:2000 Quality Management System;Fundamentals of Advanced Project Management (Training Handout for Senior Project Managers of Computer Information System Integration, Ministry of Information Industry);
Successful Project Management by Trevol L Young (Times Business, translated by Yim Hong Juan);
Successful Project Management. Jack Gido & James P. Clements (21st Century Management Classics Textbook Series, translated by Jincheng Zhang, etc.);
How to Do Project Management Well by Stanley E. Portny (IDG New Economy Business Practice for Dummies Series, translated by Jun Ning, etc.);