Project Planning and Scheduling

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Steps for Developing Project Plans

1. Planning and Scheduling: Task Identification and Work Breakdown
Guidelines for developing a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to identify all the activities required to complete a project, with examples. First in a series.
2. Planning and Scheduling: Assigning Resources
Guidelines on identifying resources needed for each item in a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), including a sample tracking worksheet. Second in a series.
3. Planning and Scheduling: Identifying Dependencies
How to identify and capture dependencies in a work breakdown structure (WBS). Third in a series.
4. Planning and Scheduling: Estimating Work and Costs
Guidelines on estimating effort, duration, and costs for items in the work breakdown structure (WBS). Fourth in a series.
5. Planning and Scheduling: Project Schedule and Critical Path
Guidelines on scheduling activities to perform on WBS tasks in order to arrive at an integrated schedule in calendar time. Fifth in a series.
6. Planning and Scheduling: Make Trade-offs and Optimize
Guidelines for making trade-offs and optimizing the first-pass base schedule, to address conflicts among the scope, time, and resources/costs. Sixth in a series.
7. Planning and Scheduling: Create Project Plan Document
Guidelines for creating a project plan document providing project essentials like objectives, justification, and how the objectives are to be achieved, and describing how the project will be managed. Seventh in a series.

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Other Guidelines and Tools for Project Planning

Burning Questions on Planning and Scope
Jump from the fire to the frying pan? Been asked to firefight a project crisis? Here's the what, why, how and when of planning and setting scope on a project.
Iterative Project Planning Approach
Cascade/Waterfall model got you in a head-spin? Here's an example of an iterative/spiral development model drawn from real experiences as an alternative the same ol' same ol'.
Software Release Life Cycle Phase 3: Planning and Negotiation
Get in there and get the release pinned down with the stakeholders. Use the Planning and Negotiation section to do your tradeoffs and see-sawing to get agreement.
Software Release Life Cycle Phase 4: Release Plan Refinement
Best laid plans of mice and project managers... Seems true that "the plan won't survive the first shot?" Proactively improve it with the Release Plan Refinement section.
Project Alternatives Tradeoff Table
Use this template to cut through all the complex decisions that can plague the front end of a project. The table gives your team a concise way to document (and communicate!) the alternatives you are considering for scope and features, and the impact of various combinations on the project's cost, schedule, resources, and risk. Getting it all onto a page or two can really help a cross-functional team reach agreement on a reasonable scope that meets most important customer requirements.

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