Deliverables Based Planning?

Managing a project by controlling the consumption of funding and resources needs to be revised. However, it is surprisingly common in many business domains. We see it all the time when asked for a schedule. The schedule shows work activities and connections between these activities.

Things like

• Install Oracle database servers
• Develop business requirements
• Test integrated applications
• Conduct User Acceptance Testing

These are all excellent activities, but "here are "the "outcomes" that we can see, touch, compare to our expectations, and measure in some tangible, verifiable way.

Ten organizing principles guide Deliverables Based Planning?This approach to project planning and execution:

1. Capabilities Drive System Requirements—Establishing capabilities starts with defining the fundamental ideas about the system through operational behavior before the technical and process requirements are elicited.
2. Requirements Identify Technical And Process Deliverables - A system requirement can be derived from each system capability.
3. Work Packages Describe the Production Of Deliverables. Work Packages contain executable tasks that produce deliverables. The work contained in the WP produces a single or small number of deliverables.
4. Integrated Master Schedule Sequences Deliverables, Accomplishments, Criteria, and Work Packages into a Logical Activity Network—Work Packages are arranged in an Activity Network. This network looks like a schedule, but it describes the flow of increasing maturity of the product or service resulting from the completion of each WP.
5. Work Package Progress Is Measured As Physical Percent Complete Against The Planned Progress During the Period of Assessment - Measuring progress as Physical Percent Complete establishes a credible assessment of the increasing maturity of the product or service.
6. Work Authorization Assures that The Sequence Of Work Packages Produces The Planned Progress. Executing the Work Packages in the agreed-upon sequence assures that the program proceeds as planned.
7. Earned Value Describes Current Performance - Earned Value is cost-based. Cost Variance and Schedule Variance have units of measure in dollars. The To Complete Performance Index (TCPI) and the Independent Estimate At Completion (IEAC) are two measures of progress derived from Earned Value and measured in dollars.
8. Conformance To Technical Performance Measures (TPM) Used to Adjust Earned Value Performance Valu"s - Adjust Earned Value forecast o" future performance by the compliance with Technical Performance Measures (TPM).TPMs, when correlated to cost and schedule, provide the complete status of the program.
9. Performance Feedback From Work Package And Project Level Earned Value Used To Adjust Work Package Sequence, Resource Allocation—With the performance measures and adjustments from technical performance compliance, a new Work Package (WP) sequence may be needed.
10. New Forecast Of Future Performance Based On TCPI, IEAC, And Adjusted Work Sequence - With the new sequence of Work Packages, a new cost and schedule forecast can be developed. This forecast must be based on the To Complete Performance Index and the Independent Estimate At Complete.

These principles replace the effort-based planning styles common in many projects—replacing them with measurable outcomes as the only evidence of progress.