Project Planning

Every project team interviewed identified the critical importance of execution planning to achievement of project goals and objectives. However, every project team interviewed had a different definition of what constituted a project execution plan, which given the lack of a Corporate Procedure or Process is not unexpected. A project plan is a road map to execution of the entire project, regardless of the value, size or complexity of that project. In simple terms planning is determining in advance, what needs to be done, by whom, and by when in order to fulfill the project goals and objectives. The project execution plan not only describes the desired

outcomes and deliverables, it describes in appropriate detail the systems and processes by which the execution of the project will be managed and controlled.

A formal project execution plan is an essential means of communication, both among the project team responsible for management and control of the project and between the various stakeholders in the project. By establishing, distributing and following-through a project plan can significantly reduce the chance of misunderstandings between project management team members and among project stakeholders.

A formal project execution plan also sets the basis against which the management, control and execution of the project can be monitored and measured. The plan serves as a checklist of activities, processes and deliverables which may be used by the project team and senior project management to ascertain if the project is being executed per the plan and if not identifies how actual execution varies from the planned execution. This enables the project team members, project stakeholders and senior management to identify specific variations from the planned execution and determine if those deviations are (1) warranted by actual conditions and (2) if appropriate actions have been initiated to protect the attainment of project goals and objectives regardless of the change to the management and execution of the project plan.

Pegasus-Global generally found that no project had in place a project execution plan which would fully meet the minimum industry standards for a comprehensive project execution plan, those minimum elements being:

 A comprehensive project definition, both technical and functional;

 A detailed work breakdown structure of tasks and activities;

 A comprehensive risk management assessment/profile;

 Internal work functional assignments (project management staffing – Human Resource Planning);

 Consultant/Contractor functional responsibilities and obligations (i.e. abstracted from the contract document set);

 Project cost control system:

 Party responsibility definition

 Final project estimate

 Project line item budget

 Project reporting requirements (internal and external)

 Project cost monitoring plan

 Project contingency identification, monitoring and approval

 Cost overrun notification and response procedures

 Project schedule control system:

 Party responsibility definition

 Schedule format and procedures

 Original project key milestone dates

 Schedule submittal and update requirements

 Work progress reporting requirements and process

 Schedule delay notification and response procedures

 Schedule adjustment procedure

 Project scope/change management system:

 Change initiation, review and approval procedures during design

 Change initiation, review and approval procedures during construction

 Change control pricing

 Communications and document control procedures

 Quality Assurance/Quality control procedures

 Procurement management and control procedures

The projects tended to rely on the contract document set as the source for many of its procedures during interviews as the source documents from which the above noted topical areas were addressed. However, the contract document set identifies a discrete set of requirements, obligations and functions; it does not integrate those elements into a cohesive, cogent plan for the execution of the project. As there are normally multiple contracts (and multiple parties to the project) the issue becomes one of having to “conform” each of those contract document sets into a complete and comprehensive body of duties, obligations, goals,

objectives, etc., if one is then to distill a total project execution plan from those disparate document sets.

The goal should be to produce a reasonable, workable and usable project execution plan which reflects all of the elements identified earlier above, even if the information populating those elements is of varying levels of detail depending upon the size and type of project. The depth and degree of project planning can be adjusted for the realities of the project being executed; a repetitive program such as street renewal may utilize a template plan within which it essentially

“fills in the blanks” for various information, while a large complex project may have a very detailed plan which provides extensive, phase-timed procedures and processes which cover multiple parties and interlocking budgets and schedules. However, both projects should address how schedule will be managed on their respective projects.

The procedures and formats for the project execution plans should be uniform across the City so anyone reviewing (or working with) a capital project execution plan would find the format and content familiar, regardless of the Department charged with executing the project. This would also enable corporate senior management to review project status against the project plan from a standard execution framework, which would improve efficiency during periodic project monitoring and reviews.

Pegasus-Global believes that the execution plan format should be developed under the auspices of the Manager of Capital Projects, with the assistance and input of project managers representing each of the Departments and a cross section of project types. This recommendation is made in a effort to develop a format which is uniform and comprehensive but which also flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of project size and type without imposing an undue administrative burden on relatively smaller, less complex projects.