Project Planning and Scheduling

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Steps for Developing Project Plans

1. Plan/Schedule Development: Task Identification - Work Breakdown Structure
How-to process steps for developing a complete and thorough Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
2. Plan/Schedule Development: Task Assignment and Deliverables
A table used to track the assignment of project tasks to specific individuals. Provisions for the description of the deliverable and the work effort required.
3. Plan/Schedule Development: Logical Relationships/Dependencies
How-to process steps for identifying task dependencies. (And it may lead to some repartitioning of items in your WBS.)
4. Plan/Schedule Development: Task Duration
How-to explanation of the steps used to assign durations to tasks in a project schedule.
5. Plan/Schedule Development: Project Schedule and Critical Path
Checklist of activities for scheduling tasks in the plan, resulting in a task schedule in calendar time, with a critical path showing the longest path through the schedule.
6. Plan/Schedule Development: Optimizing Project Plan Tradeoffs
List of activities that can help you optimize the Project Plan after your initial baseline schedule has been developed.

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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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