Project Planning: Focusing on the Right Areas

By Chris Regis, PMP

Have you ever been caught by surprise when a project you were managing failed or fell behind due to an avoidable planning oversight? A project manager might also focus too much energy in one area to the detriment of another. For example: A cost conscious project manager could spend so much time developing a budget that they fail to identify a risk that results in increased project cost. The Planning Process Group contains half of the PMBOK Knowledge Areas and a project manager may not invest the proper amount of time in each area. Understanding what planning activities are most relevant to a project and planning accordingly set a strong foundation for project success.

I documented some of my own project planning experiences and results to identify trends over the course of my career. Two areas of opportunity that became obvious involved planning risk responses and plan quality management. Some shortcomings that I have witnessed in each area have allowed me be more self-aware of their impact on my projects. Project managers should have a keen understanding of these planning activities, and I will explain them in more detail.  

Project managers can often easily determine and quantify internal sources of project risk. Identifying external risk factors can be more challenging, but many struggle the most in planning risk responses. This is common in a software project implementation when project requirements are delivered late or are changed significantly during project execution. It is easy to become consumed with a potential risk and how it might impact a project’s outcome versus proactively planning for risk responses. Having proactive conversations with stakeholders about risk responses and ‘what if’ contingency plans can be painful, but is necessary. The following steps have helped me grow in my ability to plan risk responses:

1.    Engage your entire project team to identify and plan risk responses. Other project team members might have more experience in the functional area than the project manager and can draw from past experiences about the best risk response strategies.

2.    Be clear during the planning phase about the possible consequences of how a risk will impact a project if it actually occurs. This gives project managers leverage during the execution and monitoring phases. For example, If requirements are not signed off by a certain date, then the project live date is delayed by ‘x’ days.

3.    Do not be afraid of this type of planning and have these difficult conversations with key stakeholders. This is especially important if there is a risk that has a high probability of occurring. This speaks to the fact that a successful project manager has to be able to communicate both positive and negative messages effectively.

One of my biggest takeaways from studying for the PMP exam and my own career is the difference between planning on how to deliver a quality product versus planning for which quality process to use. Software implementations often include testing quality metrics. Some common examples included a 95% or greater pass rate during client acceptance testing or that the number of system defects found during internal testing had to be less than ten. It is easy to get lost in hitting these metrics instead while not spending enough time implementing testing processes that more efficiently utilize time, resources, and budget. An example of this is the use of an automated testing tool versus manual test case execution. Some important lessons are:

1.    If you are certain that a manual or automated testing approach will       yield the same level of quality, then using the automated approach may result in the more efficient use of time, resources and budget.

2.    The quality processes being used for testing should resemble how the product will function once delivered as closely as possible. For example, if we are testing a software update that relies on data from a third party vendor, it is best to test once we receive the real data versus making assumptions or creating our own data.

3.    When planning out the quality process, it is important to deliver well overall, but an end user may have specific sensitivities or perceptions about what defines quality for the product. These needs should be taken into account when selecting a quality management process. For example, if someone is managing a project to deliver a software tool where a user logs in to view health insurance claims data, an end user might value data security above all other aspects of the project. Our approach to quality assurance should reflect the client’s concerns.

Any experienced project manager is aware of the many factors involved in planning. We have all likely developed strengths in certain planning knowledge areas, but hopefully not to the detriment of others. Planning risk responses and selecting the best quality assurance process are two areas that I have strived to grow in over the years. Having a solid understanding of how stakeholders view quality assurance and being able to effectively communicate planned risk responses with stakeholders will keep everyone on the same page. We should all take time to reflect on what aspects of this project phase we need to improve as time goes on.