Planning Process Group

The Planning Process Group consists of those processes that define and mature the project scope, develop the Project Management Plan, and identify and schedule the project activities that occur within the project. The Planning Process Group facilitates the project team’s documentation of the processes and interactions that the project

management team determines are needed to plan and manage a successful project for the organization. This Project Process Group asynchronously gathers information from many sources with each having varying levels of completeness and confidence. As new project information is discovered, additional dependencies, requirements, risks, opportunities, assumptions, and constraints will be identified or resolved. The multi-dimensional nature of project management causes repeated feedback loops for additional analysis; as more project information or characteristics are gathered and understood, follow-on actions may be required. Significant changes to the project occurring throughout the project life trigger a need to revisit one or more of the planning processes and, possibly, some of the initiating processes.

The frequency of planning iterations can also be affected if the project is divided into phases. For example the Project Management Plan developed as an output of the

Planning Process Group, will have an emphasis on exploring all aspects of the scope, technology, risks, and costs. Updates arising from approved changes during project execution may significantly impact parts of the Project Management Plan. Project Management Plan updates provide greater precision with respect to schedule, costs, and resource requirements to meet the defined project scope as a whole. Updates for a phase can be limited to the activities and any issues associated with the execution of that specific phase. This progressive detailing of the Project Management Plan is often called

“rolling wave planning,” indicating that planning is an iterative and ongoing process (Figure 3-6).

The project team should involve all stakeholders in project planning. Every stakeholder has skills and knowledge that can be leveraged in developing the Project Management Plan and any constituent plans. The project team must create an

environment in which all of the stakeholders can contribute appropriately.

Guidelines, either set by the organization or established by the project team, identify when the planning effort ends, since the feedback and refinement process cannot continue indefinitely. These guidelines will be affected by the nature of the project, the established

project boundaries, appropriate monitoring and controlling, and performance parameters set by the organization.

Other interactions among the processes within the Planning Process Group can be more dependent on the nature of the project. For example, on some projects there will be little or no identifiable risk until after most of the planning has been done, and the team recognizes that the cost and schedule targets are aggressive, thus involving considerable risk.

The Planning Process Group facilitates project planning across multiple processes.

The following list identifies the required processes addressed during the planning

process. The results of replanning are documented as updates to the Project Management Plan. The Planning Process Group includes:

.1 Develop Project Management Plan

This is the process necessary for defining, preparing, integrating, and coordinating all constituent plans into a Project Management Plan. The Project Management Plan becomes the primary source of information for how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled.

.2 Scope Planning

This is the process necessary for creating a Scope Management Plan that documents how the scope will be defined, verified, and controlled, and how the Work Breakdown

Structure will be created and defined.

.3 Scope Definition

This is the process necessary for developing a detailed project scope statement as the basis for future project decisions.

.4 Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

This is the process necessary for subdividing the major project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.

.5 Activity Definition

This is the process necessary for identifying the specific activities that must be performed to produce the various project deliverables.

.6 Activity Sequencing

This is the process necessary for identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies.

.7 Activity Resource Estimating

This is the process necessary for estimating resources required for each activity.

.8 Activity Duration Estimating

This is the process necessary for estimating the number of work periods that will be needed to complete individual activities.

.9 Schedule Development

This is the process necessary for analyzing activity sequences, activity durations, and resource requirements to create the project schedule.

.10 Cost Estimating

This is the process necessary for developing an approximation of the costs of the resources needed to complete project activities.

.11 Cost Budgeting

This is the process necessary for aggregating the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish a cost baseline.

.12 Quality Planning

This is the process necessary for identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them.

.13 Human Resource Planning

This is the process for identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships, as well as creating the staffing management plan.

.14 Acquire Project Team

This is the process necessary for obtaining the human resources needed to complete the project.

.15 Communications Planning

This is the process necessary for determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders: who are they, what is their level of interest and influence on the project, who needs what information, when they will need it and how it will be given to them.

.16 Risk Management Planning

This is the process necessary for of deciding how to approach and conduct the risk management activities for a project.

.17 Risk Identification

This is the process necessary for determining which risks might affect the project and documenting their characteristics.

.18 Qualitative Risk Analysis

This is the process necessary for prioritizing risks for subsequent further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability and impacts.

.19 Quantitative Risk Analysis

This is the process necessary for analyzing numerically the effect on overall project objectives of identified risks.

.20 Risk Response Planning

This is the process necessary for developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to project objectives.

.21 Plan Purchases and Acquisitions

This is the process necessary for determining what to purchase or acquire and when.

.22 Plan Contracting

This is the process necessary for documenting material, products, goods and services requirements, and identifying potential sellers.