[head] Building Blocks of Project Work Planning 

[posted by] Marian Haus, PMP 

In my previous posts, I laid out the basics, the framework and the key documents for planning a project end-to-end. Now it's time to dive deeper. 

One of the most essential project planning stages is to establish the grounds for the project work. Planning and defining the project work starts with defining the "what" of the project. 

Before you can begin, you must understand the business needs and identify the project deliverables and its characteristics. You must set the boundaries of the project by establishing what the project will and will not deliver, and break down the project work into smaller and more manageable work units. 

The building blocks of project work planning have four main steps: 

1. Collect the project requirements 

2. Facilitate a requirements workshop

3. Define the project scope 

4. Break down the work in small work units 

Collecting requirements is the process of understanding the customer needs, the business use-cases or the required product features and functionality that the project will deliver. It's an elicitation process, a discovery and analysis endeavor, rather than just a gathering effort. 

The requirements elicitation process should be facilitated and not done by yourself. Therefore, do this. Get the appropriate project stakeholders together. Organize focused requirements workshops. Interview, brainstorm and job shadow to glean information. 

Defining the project scope involves prioritizing the collected requirements, and deciding what's in and out of scope based on such factors as criticality, priority, urgency, constraints, complexity, risks and costs. 

The scope covers the project deliverables and all project requirements, along with their detailed descriptions and the related constraints and assumptions. The scope illustrates the entire work that the project will carry out, as well as the project boundaries. 

The part of the work planning that generates action is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS enhances the project scope understanding by decomposing the project work and deliverables into smaller and more manageable work units, also called work packages. The WBS defines granularly the "whats" of the project.

Do you agree with these steps? How many steps do you use for project work planning?

My mother used to have a Charlie Brown pin that said, "I've never made a mistake in my life. I thought I did once, but I was wrong."



I'm not as oblivious to my mistakes. In fact, I have made quite a few, both personally and professionally. In some cases, my gut told me I was making a mistake, but I went ahead anyway. Other times, I forged ahead confidently, only to be jarred by the sudden reality that I'd done something wrong.  



This happened recently at work. I got called into the proverbial "principal, or headmaster's office" and learned something I'd done caused trouble at a sister company. Not intending to make waves, I had started a tsunami.    



If you're a new project manager, it shouldn't be a surprise that you may make some mistakes. What do you do when you are called in to discuss your fallibility on the job?   



I sat and listened to the grievance presented to me -- staying calm is always the best approach. I absorbed everything my organizational leader shared with me. The first thing I said was, "I'm sorry." I briefly explained my side of the story without fanfare or drama. If you can explain yourself with brevity, do. Rambling probably won't work in your favor.

I made it clear that I understood the other side of the story and guaranteed that I would be extra diligent in the future to avoid such mistakes. I wasn't defensive. I wasn't full of ego. I recognized my part in the issue and accepted the blame, as hard as it was.
 

My organizational leader was professional, but she also expressed her dissatisfaction and disappointment in my behavior. This was the hardest thing to hear. The importance of being able to receive harsh criticism is not touted enough. The ability to hear -- and accept -- when someone else points out that you failed goes a long way in helping you establish a fruitful project management career.

Afterward, my organizational leader followed up by saying she trusted that I had learned my lesson and would make better decisions going forward. She appreciated hearing my side because she now had full context of the incident.  



Before leaving, I asked if there was anything else I could do. In my case, the answer was no, but if there are action items for you, be diligent about accomplishing them in a timely manner. Give feedback to your organizational leader about your progress.   
 


Making a mistake as a professional is embarrassing, but most times, your career will go on. Deal with the mistake professionally and with integrity for a chance to be even better at what you do.  

Project management plays a vital role to successfully deliver IT services to customers. Each IT service -- from strategy and consulting to platform migration -- has its own life cycle and project managers must be aware of the different phases, tasks and deliverables. This means IT services organizations must be dedicated to build qualified and competent project managers.

Career paths in project management help build the competencies in project management in an evolutionary manner. Career paths also provide a clear road map for the growth of the employees in the profession.

Those IT organizations that invest on designing the project management career path and relevant skills of the employees deliver excellent business value to customers.

In my opinion, there are nine "levels" of careers in IT services organizations. Titles depend on the organization, but in my experience, these are the levels:

Level 1: Entry-level employees with either a technical education background or a functional background may have titles such as software engineer or functional analyst.

Level 2: Employees at this level participate in requirements or business process analysis, high-level design, and technical specifications.

Level 3: This could be the team leader level. He or she might manage a team of three to four members and deliver part of project deliverables.

Level 4: This could be the project leader. He or she might manage a team of about 10 members and deliver small projects.

Level 5: This would be the project manager. He or she manages a team of 20 to 30 members and delivers multiple, medium-size projects or a large project.

Level 6: This is the senior project manager level. He or she manages a team of about 100 members and delivers multiple large projects.

Level 7: This is usually the program manager level, managing a team of about 200 people. He or she delivers complex program(s) for a single customer.

A delivery manager could also be at this level, managing a delivery unit with a team of 200 members. He or she delivers logically grouped projects based on technologies, customers, verticals or regions. For example, a delivery unit could consist of projects from different customers in the Middle East region.

Level 8: Usually the head of delivery, he or she delivers multiple complex IT programs or manages multiple delivery units.

Level 9: This is the chief delivery officer. He or she takes the responsibility of overall delivery of IT organization.

To move from one level to the next in the project management career path, it requires improving current competencies and learning new competencies.

To move up the career ladder, project managers should focus on the nine knowledge areas from A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide).

They should also study The Standard for Program Management.

In addition, core competencies should include, but aren't limited to:

•    Project life-cycle management
•    Effort management
•    Software change management
•    Configuration management
•    Organization change management
•    Leadership skills
•    Multi-cultural team management
•    Global delivery model

Do you agree with these career levels? What skills should project managers focus on to move up the IT career ladder?

Editor's note:  PMI's Pathpro^® is an online tool that organizations and practitioners can use to identify the skills and competencies needed to create a successful project management career path.