The Basics of BPM Project Planning

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A project that is well planned is already halfway complete, but a project without plans will never be complete.

This is a common reminder for managers to ensure that planning around business process management projects is well performed. The success of a project largely depends on the quality of the plan you prepare. Novice managers who tend to skip planning on short duration projects to give more time to execution actually need to reverse the equation. Planning is more critical on these projects because there's little time for errors and corrections.

Determining how planning will be performed is the first step in project planning. Short duration projects need to have a clear set of goals and deliverables, a specific timeline, skilled resources, and identified project dependencies. Larger projects involve more, such as budget planning, quality planning, communication planning, process management and the preparation of other subsidiary plans.

The Project Management Institute defines a project as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product, service or result." From the definition, we can easily derive that a project plan needs to consider 1) the product, service or result; 2) the timeline, since it is temporary; and 3) the strategy in delivering the result to meet the schedule.

Although the definition sounds simple, creating a good project plan involves more than just scope and schedule. It needs to consider management areas such as project logistics, resources, communication and project risks. All of these need to be considered in a project plan.

Project Planning Areas

The following components make up a solid project plan.

Project Organization

A project organization plan contains the details on how the project team will be structured. This includes the communication structure between teams, the roles and responsibilities of each team member and their corresponding reporting line. Consider who the stakeholders will be and ensure that an executive sponsor is in place. Also consider other teams that may not be directly involved in the project, but that will affect the project. Ensure that everyone is aware of the project team organization.

Requirements Management

This explains how the requirements will be gathered, analyzed, documented, reviewed, approved and maintained, as well as how the baseline will be set. This process is usually dependent on the business process management standards of the organization. This part of the project plan also contains the different types of documents that will be used, as well as information on the following:

• Owner: the person who owns and maintains the document.
• Location: the place where the document can be found.
• Purpose: the nature of the content.

Change Management

This plan specifies the procedure on how changes will be treated before and after requirements have been measured based on the set baseline. Any change in the requirement has a positive or negative impact on the project. This impact needs to be identified, evaluated and approved. It's also important to identify the threshold level of the impact to determine if re-planning is needed. There can be multiple variations in handling these changes depending on their nature. Workflow-oriented processes would demand a different set of basic rules or procedures to follow from integration-oriented processes.

Project Resources

Identify the number and skills of resources needed. For business process management, resources usually focus on human resources; but you should consider software, hardware and other essential requirements as well. Ensure that enough resources are available and that there is a commitment to work on the project. If there is a lack of skilled resources, consider providing training for the project team members or sub-contracting particular parts of the project.

Schedule and Deliverables

The most basic part of the plan is to derive the schedule and deliverables. However, this should not be taken lightly, as scheduling determines the quality of the project. The following activities are advised to be performed in sequence:

1. Create a work breakdown structure.

A work breakdown structure breaks down a large project into smaller and more manageable pieces of deliverables. Remember that every package must be a deliverable.

2. Create an activity list.

Based on the work packages in the work breakdown structure, identify the specific activities that must be performed to achieve the result. This will decompose the deliverables into specific tasks that are small enough to be estimated, assigned, monitored and managed. Also consider indirect activities such as administrative tasks and process management.

3. Map the process diagram.

Identify the sequence of actions in the activity list by determining their dependencies. This results in a workflow or project diagram similar to the figure below:

4. Estimate the effort.

Based on the detailed activity list, estimate the effort needed for one person to complete the task. Ensure that each person has sufficient experience or historical records to prepare the estimate.

5. Assign resources.

Now, consider the resources available for the project and assign each to a person on the team. Ensure that each resource is not overloaded. The easiest way to do this is to ensure that each resource is working on one activity at a time. Alternatively, if a resource is working on several tasks, be sure to extend the timeline based on the resource's availability for the task. Each resource can only work for eight hours a day.

6. Determine critical path.

The critical path is the longest one in the project. It's important to ensure that activities in the critical path are delivered on schedule; otherwise, the overall timeline of the project will be affected. Some activities have slack times. That is, they can be delayed without affecting the project delivery time. However, activities in the critical path don't have a slack time.

7. Create a schedule.

Based on the activity network and effort estimate, you can derive the delivery dates of the project. If any of these dates don't satisfy your stakeholder expectations, consider schedule compression techniques such as Fast Tracking and Crashing. Fast tracking involves the change of activities in the critical path from sequential to parallel. Crashing, on the other hand, involves the reallocation or addition of resources to the activities in the critical path.

Once all of these tasks have been performed, you come up with a schedule based on the deliverables. You can, therefore, derive the deliverables and their respective schedules.

Communication Plan

This ensures that a proper communication process is in place to support the needs of stakeholders. A communication plan usually includes regular meeting schedules and status reporting procedures, as well as a listing of the different forms of communication available. A communication plan should be approached in a proactive manner. To check for completeness, ensure that the plan covers what, who, when, and how questions, such as how communication is performed to a specific group, when it will be performed, how follow-up on the communication will take place, etc.

Quality Management

This usually includes the policies and procedures to ensure that a project meets its intended purpose. Quality plans usually include the standard procedure, areas covered, metrics and measurements. Large projects also consider the process improvement activities in the project. Note that there are two different quality concepts that need to be distinguished. One is quality control, which involves testing of the work product for compliance with requirements. Another is quality assurance, which involves auditing of the process performed to achieve the desired result. This is usually measured against the organizational standards as defined by process management.

Risk Management

Risk management involves the identification of the project risks and the mitigations to avoid them. In general, the process of risk management is as follows:

• Identify all the risks.
• Identify the impact and probability of each risk.
• Prioritize the risk based on impact and probability.
• Plan to mitigate the risk.
• Identify contingency plans.

Risk management is a continuous process that needs to be performed even after project planning, because new risks arise as the project progresses.

Cost Management

This involves the combination of all the estimates for each activity in order to derive the overall budget for the project. Depending on organizational policies, costs can be measured in currency or earned values. A large portion of the cost comes from the effort estimates. However, it is also important to consider other factors, such as equipment, supplies, overhead costs and other indirect costs.

Procurement Management

The objective of procurement management is to ensure that the project gets the best service or product at the most reasonable price. The selection criteria need to be established to ensure that the evaluation of bids is objectively conducted.

Wrap Up: Project Planning Tips

Here are eight tips for ensuring the success of your project planning activities:

Identify project objectives. Ensure that the objective of the project is clear and that there is a need for the project. Ensure that there is a business value to the endeavor.

Acquire project approval. Get an executive sponsor. That will ensure that the resources needed by the project are assigned and allocated according to plan.

Plan the plan. Before engaging in the details of planning, know the areas of planning that need more attention and areas that are not so important. That way you can focus your effort on key planning areas.

Get stakeholder buy-in. Commitments from stakeholders are equally important. Know your stakeholders, their pain points and their needs, as this will ensure their continued interest.

Review historical records. Your organizational process management should have a standard in archiving and retrieving historical project records. Look for past projects that have similarities with your new project. Review the successes and failures of the project. Review the estimates and actuals behind the projects. Use all of this information in planning the latest project.

Support progressive elaboration. Ensure that the plan is capable of adapting to changes. Changes are inevitable, and the plan must be adjustable to these uncontrollable factors.

Know the risks. Make sure that you know the project risks and that the appropriate action is being taken for its mitigation. Also prepare contingency plans against the day when that risk becomes reality.

Review and approve. Don't work alone. Ensure that everyone in the project team agrees to the plan and that the executive sponsor approves the plan.