Planning
The planning process includes the following actions:
Writing a scope statement
Planning for quality
Planning how to monitor and control the project
Building a project schedule
Assigning roles and responsibilities
Planning for acquiring resources
Creating a budget
Planning how and when to communicate
Planning for risk
Writing a Scope Statement
The scope statement builds upon the description created in the project charter in the initiating process. It sets the goals for what will be accomplished in your project. Aim to make your goal as specific as possible and measurable so you can determine if your goals are achieved.
A project scope statement describes the work that will be done and what will not be done to create the project’s unique outcome.
For example, you know you will need to prepare a verbal presentation, engineering portfolio and build a pit display so these items must appear in the scope statement. You also know that F1 in Schools is a team competition so no individual work needs to be submitted and individual work would not appear in the scope statement. You should read the competition regulation carefully and list all the deliverables you are going to be expected to deliver. These are your guidelines and standards.
Planning for Quality
Planning for quality is part of the normal project planning activities. You need to gather the quality standards that are required for your project and make sure you plan quality into the tasks of the project schedule. You will also build tasks that ensure or inspect the quality of the deliverable. You then need to monitor and control the quality of the deliverables of the project.
A technique you can use to verify that the quality standards have been met is called acceptance criteria. You can define acceptance criteria for the entire project or specific deliverables. The below example demonstrates the quality acceptance criteria that could be implemented for your car development.
An example of a Quality Criteria Matrix.
Planning when and how to monitor and control the project
Each part of the planning process builds on the others. You may find that you need to revisit and revise parts of your project along the way. This process of review and revision is part of monitoring and controlling your project. Monitoring and controlling will be easier to conduct with ongoing check-ins.
Take a moment to plan how frequently you will schedule check-ins with your team and project sponsor and how you will document the progress you are making. You may decide to check in hourly, daily, or weekly.
Building a Project Schedule
A project schedule needs to be created, identifying all the tasks to be completed including their start and due dates. The following steps should be undertaken:
Determine the major categories of work:
These categories can be established in several ways.
By PHASES: What should be accomplished pre competition, during competition, etc?
By MAJOR PIECES OF WORK: what should be accomplished for the design of the car, the manufacture of the car, creation of the enterprise portfolio, etc.
By MILESTONE: Milestones are the critical points in a project's timeline that can be monitored to determine if the project is on schedule. They show completion of major pieces of the project.
Define tasks:
What tasks need to be accomplished to meet each milestone? Tasks are the “to-do” list. Breaking out the categories and tasks in this way is called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Example Work Breakdown Structure
Determine the sequence:
When will each task be accomplished? To determine this sequence, you will need to assess which tasks are dependent and which are independent.
A dependent task means another task must be completed before the dependent task can begin. A very basic example… You will need to design your car in CAD before you can manufacture it so manufacture is dependent on the CAD work being completed.
An independent task means the task can be completed at any time and is not related to some other task being completed.
Estimate time:
How long will each task take to be completed? This is your best guess based, perhaps on experience or after discussion with your team, considering the amount of work to be done. Underestimating the amount of time needed to complete each task is a common error. Building extra time into the schedule can help ensure you have the time needed to complete your project on time. As you will be attending an event final you have a hard deadline that cannot be moved. Running out of time could mean not finishing your car or other judged work.
Build the schedule:
With all the above information in hand, it is now possible to build the schedule. There are many tools you can use to create your schedule such as table in Word, a chart in Excel or other project management specific software that can generate a Gantt chat such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, miro.com or projectmanager.com. Speak with you school to see what tools you are able to access.
Assigning Roles and Responsibilities
It is important to assess the strengths, skills, and abilities of each team member to effectively assign responsibilities to the best-equipped individual(s). A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) can be used to assign team members to appropriate tasks. A F1 in Schools team will be very structured, the rules and regulation documents highlight the roles that a team should have. This does not limit you assigning other roles to team members.
It is important to ensure that each activity and task identified in the project schedule is allocated to a team member.
Example Responsibility Matrix.
Planning for Acquiring Resources
Resource planning considers all the things needed to complete the project. This may include people, money, equipment or even space needed to do the work. In the planning process you will need to determine where and how you will acquire each resource, when each resource is needed and how long you will need it.
Example Resource Matrix.
Creating a Budget
A budget is a financial plan of income and expenditure for a defined period of time. You will need to:
Identify what items will cost you money and how much they will cost. It is normal for costs to initially be estimated and your budget should include the actual costs so you can identify any over or under spend.
Identify where you plan to acquire the money. A fundraising event, sponsor pitch or a donation.
Agree who will be responsible for the budget and keep a record of spending and approve any purchases.
There can be many different costs associated with an entry to F1 in Schools, some of which may not be immediately obvious or expected. For example, they may be associated with risks you have identified or unexpected changes that you need to make as you develop your car. There may also be a scenario where items cost more than you expected and you need to ensure your budget can accommodate all these. In finance this is called the budget contingency. You can decide how much contingency you need by assessing how likely each of the scenarios presented above are likely to happen.
Example Budget
Planning when, what and how you will communicate
Team members and stakeholders need information on how the project is developing and what may need to change to get all the work done. Planning for communication involves having a clear understanding of who needs to communicate with whom and how often, as well as what information would be relevant and useful to each stakeholder.
Example Communication Matrix.
It is very important to have an internal project team communication plan. You should agree how you plan to communicate, how often, where and when. Look at the various communication tools that are available to you in case you cannot always meet in person.
Planning for Risk
It is important to identify possible risks that might impact the successful outcome of the project. Identifying potential risks provides the opportunity to plan a response in advance that will help to avoid or minimise a negative impact on the project.
Risks could impact one or more areas of the project, including:
Resources: Ability to acquire people, equipment, funding, or other resources to complete project. All of these apply to F1 in Schools.
Timing: Will deliverables or the entire project be completed on schedule? This is critical for F1 in Schools as you have a hard deadline of attending an F1 in School final event.
Scope: Completing and delivering all the items named in the original scope. You may choose to change the class of the competition you have entered.
Quality: How well each deliverable meets the goals set in the acceptance criteria. Has your car been manufactured as expected?
Example Risk Matrix.
KEY TERMS:
Milestone: a significant point or event in a project, program, or portfolio
Planning process: Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve.
Project schedule: An output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, milestones, and resources.
Scope: The sum of the products, services and results to be provided as a project.
Work Breakdown Structure(WBS): A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables.