A project plan should not be a document to be filed and forgotten. It becomes the basis for execution and the baseline for documenting changes. In this lesson, we discuss how the project plan is used most effectively.
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
See the checklist page for readings, quiz, and assignment work in this Lesson.
If you have any questions or would like to brainstorm ideas, please contact the instructor by phone or email. Also feel free to communicate with your fellow students via the General Discussion Forum or email.
Lesson 10 is one week in length. (See the Calendar for specific due dates.) To finish this lesson, you must complete the activities listed below. You may find it useful to print this page out first so that you can follow along with the directions.
Step | Activity | Directions |
---|---|---|
1 | Reading | Lesson 10 online course content |
2 | Complete and Submit Assignment 8 (Integrated Project Plan) | See Canvas Course Calendar for due date |
3 | Submit Course Evaluation Survey | Access Survey |
4 | Complete Penn State's Student Educational Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ) | Access SEEQ |
Execution of a well-written project plan should be relatively straightforward. The plan offers guidelines and metrics for every aspect of the project foreseen by the project manager. For example, in Lesson 6, you used earned value management (EVM) with data from the project plan's schedules and budgets to find how closely a project was tracking the planned value. This is a valuable tool during the execution of a project that is not possible without a project plan that includes a detailed schedule and budget.
Unlike EVM analysis, which is straightforward to quantify, change control is often difficult for project managers to evaluate in a systematic manner. While tracking a project's progress may depend more on a project manager's skills with scope, cost, and timing, change control may depend more on a project manager's people skills, such as human resource and communication management. One way to think about change is in terms of the resources that have already been defined for the work scoped in the project plan. Any change will likely be the result of negotiations between project managers, clients, the team, stakeholders, and sponsors.
Communication serves a vital function in the change control process. Much of this communication may be informal, but three types of documents frequently used in change control are the project plan, status reports, and change requests. A project unaltered from its plan requires no change or change control. In this sense, it's tempting to think of the project plan as a closed system. This strategy, however, does not allow the flexibility required within the larger system of the organization(s).
Most effective project managers instead use the project plan as a path drawn on a map into unknown territory. If all goes as planned and no unexpected landscape is encountered, they will end at the proper destination and at the predicted time. Project managers, however, must be militant about reporting the actual path and schedule, including any unplanned deviations. Status reports are an effective method of communicating with all stakeholders regarding how the predicted path compares with the actual. With these reports, any issues with the scope, cost, or timing of a project can be communicated early on and help to redefine the best path for the remainder of the project.
Alternatively, stakeholders may become interested in locales off of the path outlined by the project plan as the project progresses. Unforeseen opportunities may present themselves during the project, or unpredicted obstacles may occur. In this case, the path can be officially altered with change requests. These requests are often negotiated by stakeholders in the project. They may include changes in scope, timing, cost, or quality of the project.
Some of these change requests may not alter the resource requirements of a project. For example, a GIS project may concentrate more resources on data analysis and less on data capture compared to the project plan. Other change requests may require additional time or money for the completion of work.
It has been a pleasure working with you over the last 10 weeks. We've covered a lot of ground, and I hope this course, and your interaction with peers was helpful, enjoyable, and adds some things to your PM toolbox. All of you have worked very hard and have done a great job in balancing coursework with the other parts of your professional and personal lives. After the close of the class, if I can be of any help to you, please feel free to contact me.
Find time before the end of the course to complete the end-of-course Student Educational Experience Questionnaire (SEEQ).
We value the feedback we receive in the SEEQs to help us revise and update the course to make it better in future semesters.