Project Planning

1- Project Team

Successful team members have the following characteristics:

• shares and supports the vision and the goals of the team
• takes responsibility for both the task needs and the relationship needs of the team
• possesses the skill to manage his/her own parts of the project and to support others’ contribution
• demonstrates superior skill in interpersonal communication.

So to have a “good” team you need:

Knowledge

Each member must know:

• What the goal is
• What his or her role in the completion of the goal is
• How internal or external constraints affect the process
• Possible obstacles to the success of the project

Skills

• Project–task-related skill
  Skills related to the task needing to be accomplished
  Just because a group gets along well, it does not mean they will be productive
• Group harmonizing skill (interpersonal relationship skill)
  The ability to help maintain the relationship aspect of the team

Attitude

• The goal of the team is in the best interest of the project
• The project is indeed doable with the skills and materials available

Intimacy

• Personal Connections
• Trusting and valuing team members’ ideas.

Supportive Organizational Climate

• Guidance - Faculty supervisor, company contact
  and the SE office
• Convenience -Meeting rooms
• Celebrating achievements – SE celebration!

If one element is too light or is removed, the whole team dynamic gets out of balance and doesn't function properly.

2 - Defining the goals, objectives, tasks and activities in the project.

Work Breakdown Structure

• Goals
• Tasks
• Activities
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• WBS – A schedule that shows each step of the project

Hierarchy of work

• A job must be broken down into objectives, then into tasks and finally into activities.
• Using a hierarchy simplifies the process and ensures that you do not miss any activity.

Objectives

• Big “chunks” of the project – e.g. research, first draft, presentation

Broad area of focus

• Set by the team and with the approval of the faculty supervisor and the company contact.

Other important points:

• Objectives are defined along the dimensions of time, specs, and cost
• Distribute responsibility for each objective among the team members
• Ask each objective owner to formulate the tasks.

Tasks

• Represent one or several major deliverables towards an objective
• Sub-objectives or work packages each made up of multiple activities
  e.g. table of content, bibliography, abstract

Activities

• Activities are the basic building blocks of a project
• The name of each activity is exactly the same as the desired result
• At this point just list the activities (not necessary to list the precedence information)
• Comprehensive
• Small enough details to see the work involved!

Rule of Thumb:

• Duration Rule
• Define activities that will take several hours to a couple of days to complete.
• Allows visibility of progress – if it is delayed you will know in a day or if it becomes overdue.
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• WBS – A schedule that shows each step of the project

Project Management
Project Planning
Project Scheduling
Project Controlling

Wikipedia: Project Planning

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