Project Plan for Prince2 Project

Project Plan

The Project Plan is a mandatory element within PRINCE2 and is used to outline the whole project. It is a part of the Project Initiation Document and provides input to the Business Case. The Project Plan identifies the project goals, resources needed, projected costs, and is used by the Project Board as a baseline against which project progress is measured.

Contents

The Project Plan is a part of the Project Initiation Document and contains

• a brief description of what the plan covers
• prerequisites required for the project
• external dependencies
• planning assumptions
• project level reports such as

·   

o    Management stages Gantt chart

o    Product Breakdown Structure

o    Product Flow Diagram

o    Product Descriptions

o    Activity network

o    Financial budget

o    Change budget

o    Table of resource requirements

o    Specific requested resources

o    Project tolerances or limitations

• contingency plans for identified risks

Derivation

The Project Plan is derived from the Project Brief.

Quality criteria

• presents a feasible plan
• supports the Project Initiation Document

CFO Roles and Responsibilities

There are five main CFO roles or responsibilities that a functional manager should understand in order to develop a CFO mindset. These are maximizing shareholder value, which is the underlying goal of all CFOs, managing cash and working capital, risk management, ensuring compliance and financial reporting, and strategic planning and decision making.

CFO roles and responsibilities.
Role	Aspects of this role
Maximizing shareholder value	Maximizing shareholder value involves managing and controlling costs and budgets, evaluating and approving purchases, increasing operational efficiency, and allocating funds to build capacity. This is the underlying and most important CFO responsibility.
Managing cash and working capital	Effectively managing cash and working capital involves careful and meticulous forecasting of cash requirements. These forecasts must be checked against actual results to monitor and improve the accuracy of the forecasting.
Risk management	Effective risk management involves identifying and measuring risks, deciding whether to retain or transfer risks, and mitigating risks.
Ensuring compliance and financial reporting	Ensuring compliance and financial reporting involves tax and regulatory compliance, adherence to accounting standards, and communication and reporting to stakeholders.
Strategic planning and decision making	Strategic planning and decision making involves resource allocation and budgetary planning, decisions about capital investments, and decisions on strategic investments.

Mintzberg's Management Roles

Mintzberg's management roles

Interpersonal role – communicating and negotiating with others

• Managers have formal authority. They may also have to represent the department or organization.
• Managers have to give direction to their teams so that organizational objectives can be met.
• Managers must maintain relationships with others both inside and outside of the organization.

Informational role – gathering and distributing information

• Managers need to pass on information to those who need it.
• Managers have to seek and gather relevant information from inside and outside of the company.
• Managers have to speak for their departments and occasionally their organizations.

Decisional role – decision-making

• Managers have to make decisions about things that can change, and implement the changes.
• Managers continually have to react to events.
• Managers have to make decisions about the resources that they need.
• Managers have to negotiate with others for resources and to meet objectives.

The Business Case for Prince2 Project

Business Case
Reasons	A list of reasons for producing the end product and why the project should be undertaken.
Options	A list of the different options considered to carry out the project indicating the chosen option and including "do nothing".
Benefits Expected	A list of the expected benefits expressed in measurable terms and compared to the current status.
Risks	A list of the key project risks.
Cost and Timescale	Information from the Project Plan identifying the expected cost and timeline of the project.
Investment Appraisal	The benefits of the end product expressed in financial terms and the investment required.
Evaluation	An evaluation of the expected benefits and investment appraisal in order to determine project feasibility and plan accordingly.

Project Overview for Agile Project

Project Overview

Problem / Opportunity

• Outsourcing inbound technical support administration to customer's office in India

Vision

• To successfully migrate all technical support helpdesk functions to Indian office by November

Objectives

• Link the offshore facility to the corporate computer network using WAN technology, firewall, and secure VPN for remote access
• Install a multiplex management system that will be designed and configured by the offshore facility to provide tailored technical support services through e-mail, chat, voice, and the Web to customers worldwide
• Compile all product-related queries and problems in usage posed by customers to the offshore facility into database which can be fed back into the development process to make product and service improvements
• Train offshore agents on all in-house products and services

Scope

• The offshore facility will provide customized technology to support services through e-mail, chat, voice, and the Web. This software will include real-time and historical reporting functionality to control and monitor quality.
• Offshore agents will receive training via e-learning videos, web-based training software, and online manuals to provide high-quality technical support to global customers.

Timing

• Phase 1: Analyze the current system (Jan)
• Phase 2: Create a shared vision for the new system (Feb-Mar)
• Phase 3: Blueprint for future tech support operations (Apr-May)
• Phase 4: Train offshore agents (June)
• Phase 5: Implementation and rollout (July-Oct)

Technologies

• VoIP setup for client support with secure VPN access
• Backend database (customer queries, reports, etc)
• UNIX-driven infrastructure
• Code to build software for backend and agent/customer forms

Customer contact

• Gabriel Montoya (gmontoya@brocaderotech.com | 212-555-8354)

Tools and Techniques for Cost Budgeting

Tools and Techniques	Explanation of Use
cost aggregation	Cost aggregation involves totaling the cost estimates for the activities in each work package, based on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS indicates how costs should be grouped by work packages and components. Project managers use cost aggregation to determine total costs for deliverables and for an entire project. The final sum of the cost estimates is then used for the cost baseline.
reserve analysis	Reserve analysis helps project managers determine a project's contingency reserves. Contingency reserves are amounts of money set aside for unplanned changes to costs; they are part of the total budget, but they are not part of the cost baseline. The total budget is the approved cost estimate for the entire project. The cost baseline is a tool project managers use to monitor and control project expenditures.
parametric estimating	Parametric estimating is a technique that uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to calculate an estimate. Project managers use parametric estimating to predict total project costs.
funding limit reconciliation	Project managers use funding limit reconciliation to reconcile the expenditure of project funds with the funding limits set by the customer. Reconciliation necessitates the revision of project schedules to regulate expenditures; this in turn impacts the allocation of resources. When using funding limit reconciliation, project managers may have to repeatedly conduct a reconciliation, update the schedule, and then conduct a new reconciliation. The result of these planning iterations is a cost baseline.

Release burndown charts Example

You can use information in the release burndown charts to track the progress in a project, and determine the amount of work remaining.
The project consists of ten iterations, and the number of story points remaining throughout the first six iterations was

• Iteration 1 – 100
• Iteration 2 – 80
• Iteration 3 – 55
• Iteration 4 – 65
• Iteration 5 – 50
• Iteration 6 – 45

There were also a few changes to the project scope.

Story points remaining

	Iteration 1	Iteration 2	Iteration 3	Iteration 4	Iteration 5	Iteration 6
Progress	100	80	55	65	50	45
Scope change	0	0	15 points added	10 points added	25 points added	0

Now consider three possible release burndown charts and determine which chart corresponds to the data provided about each iteration.
In chart A, the bar for iteration 1 extends from zero to 100 points, and the bar for iteration 2 extends from zero to 80 points. The bar for iteration 3 extends from -15 to 55 points. The bar for iteration 4 extends from -10 to 65 points. The bar for iteration 5 extends from -25 to 50, and the bar for iteration 6 extends from 0 to 45.

Chart A

In chart B, the bar for iteration 1 extends from zero to 100 points, the bar for iteration 2 extends from zero to 80 points, and the bar for iteration 3 extends from zero to 55 points, with 15 points highlighted in red. The bar for iteration 4 extends from zero to 50 points, with 10 points highlighted in red. For iteration 5, the bar extends from zero to 50, and 25 points have been indicated in red. For iteration 6, the bar extends from zero to 45.

Chart B

In chart C, the bar for iteration 1 runs from zero to 100 points and the bar for iteration 2 runs from zero to 80 points. The bar for iteration 3 extends from -55 to 15 points, with 15 points indicated in red above the X-axis. For iteration 4, the bar extends from -65 to 10 points, and 10 points are highlighted in red above the X-axis. For iteration 5, the bar extends from -50 to 25, and 25 points are highlighted in red above the X-axis. The bar for iteration 6 extends from zero to 45.

Chart C

Task Board Example

The task board for the second iteration includes five columns – Story, To Do, In Progress, Ready for Testing, and Done. One story is listed in the Story column – "As a client, I want to buy and sell orders for stock." The To Do column includes the "Edit database" task, estimated at 5 story points, and the "Perform testing" task, estimated at 2 story points. The In Progress column includes the "Develop backend business logic to notify client and broker" task, estimated at 4 story points and with the initials JG. It also includes the "Develop web site" task. The Done column contains the "Update help information" task, which is estimated at 1 story point and contains the initials SC and PL.

Task board for iteration 2

Iteration 2
Product backlog item	Iteration task	Initial estimate of effort	Effort remaining after day 1	Effort remaining after day 2	Effort remaining after day 3	Effort remaining after day 4	Effort remaining after day 5	Effort remaining after day 6
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	Edit database	5	5	5
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	Develop web site	3	3	4
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	Develop backend business logic to notify client and broker	3	3	3
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	Perform testing	2	2	2
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	Update help information	1	1	1
As a client, I want to buy or sell orders for stock	...
	Total (person hours)	60	55	51

Example of a burndown chart

You can develop a burndown chart using data from the iteration backlog, which is constantly updated.

Updates of work remaining at the end of each day in an iteration
Product backlog item	Task	Team member	Initial estimate of effort	Effort remaining after day 1	Effort remaining after day 2	Effort remaining after day 3	Effort remaining after day 4	Effort remaining after day 5	Effort remaining after day 6
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Edit database	Jonathan	6	5	4	1	0	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Develop web site	Jennifer	4	4	4	3	0	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Create backend business logic	Neil and Sally	3	3	3	3	1	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Perform testing	Simon and Peggy	4	5	5	5	4	0	0
As a client, I want to transfer money into my account	Update help information	Jennifer	2	2	2	2	2	0	0
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Modify database	Jonathan	6	6	6	6	6	6	4
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Develop web page	Sally	4	4	7	7	7	7	5
As a client, I want to check my account balance	Develop business logic	Peggy	5	5	5	5	5	5	3
As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Create database	Jonathan	6	5	4	4	3	3	2
As a client, I want to search for services and products. As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Develop web page	Jennifer	5	5	4	4	3	2	1
As a client, I want to search for services and products. As a client, I want to search for services and products.	Update search features	Simon and Sally	4	4	4	3	5	4	2
	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
		Total (person hours)	50	48	42	35	30	27	20

Based on information in the iteration backlog, you can plot the effort remaining at the end of each day on a burndown chart.

Burndown chart

In this chart, you plotted the estimates of effort remaining at the end of each day in the iteration so that the team could view its progress. The idealized line illustrates the desired level of progress, if the team is to complete the iteration successfully. In this case, the team's progress is ahead of schedule, so by day 10 of the iteration the effort remaining should be zero.