Project Management Cheat Sheet

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Project management quick reference guide

Business Guide Management Project

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WBS Deliverables

1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

One of the main reasons for producing a WBS is to focus your thinking. Take a top down view and document the major work areas. You can then subdivide further if the major work areas are too big.
Level-1	Start with an overall project
Level-2	Determine major deliverables / products to be produced. What major intermediate or final products or deliverables must be produced to achieve the project’s objectives?
Level-3	Divide each major deliverable into its component deliverables in the same manner.
Level-4	Divide each of these work pieces into its component tasks. What deliverables must I have to complete these components?

2. Start the project plan

1. All deliverables go into the project plan as milestones
2. A second set of milestones are the deliverables ready for QA. For example 'Brief ready for approval'. These occur close to the final deliverable but allow time for rework.
3. Add all the tasks or actions required to produce these deliverables. Estimate the time for each task.

Important notes:
• Don’t fall into the trap of thinking ‘if all goes well it will take #’. Be realistic. Some tasks will go to plan and some will take longer. Some may take less but these rarely cancel out the overruns.
• There will be tasks that become evident only after the project is underway. Consider making allowance in the plan for unspecified tasks. Look for any milestones along the way. Add these to the plan.

Key terms and definitions

Work Breakdown Structure
Project
Deliverables	Deliverables are milestones, not tasks
Includes internal and external deliverables
External deliverables	things the project produces for the organisation
Internal deliverables	Things the project produces to enable the project to continue towards completion
Major Deliverables	Major areas of work within the project. One or two words.
Intermediate Deliverables	Component deliverables to be completed for each major deliverable
Milestones	completion of a deliverable. Starts with a noun.
Tasks	Work packages for each Intermediate Deliverable. It must start with a verb.

3. Dependencies

Now start to add dependencies:
1. Look for what needs to be done before each step can be undertaken
2. Create your dependencies	a. May lead to changing the order in your Gantt chart to make it more logical
	b. Might need to create another level in your WBS to clearly identify a group of activities

Example: WBS heading “Feasibility”. When you add your tasks and milestones, you realize that there are two major chunks of work: Plan and carry out workshops, and write a report. It may be worth creating two levels called “Workshops” and “Report”

4. Resourcing

1. You can now work out who is going to do all this work
2. Add resources to the tasks
3. Next to milestones only put one name, the person responsible for delivery

5. Review the Plan

Check the plan to make sure it is well structured. Here ten checks to carry out:

Are all deliverables included as milestones?

Do they have a quality check scheduled if required?

Is there time for rework after QA?

Are the work too big? Can you go down another level with the WBS?

Do all the tasks start with a verb

Do all the mile stone start with a noun?

Milestones keep focus, are there regular milestones?

Are all dependencies in place?

How reliant is the timing on everything going exactly as planned? Is there a buffer when something doesn't go to plan?

Are resources assigned to all tasks and milestones?

Big Verbs

Finalise	Resolve	Handle
Look into	Submit	Maximise
Organise	Design	Complete
Ensure	Roll out	Update
Install	Implement	Set-up
Develop	Construct	Define

Note: Most big verbs pop open to reveal they contain lots of little verbs

Little Verbs

Call	Organise	Review
Buy	Fill out	Find
Purge	Look into	Gather
Print	Take	Waiting for
Load	Draft	Email

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Comments (4)

veritevie 05:20 17 Nov 2021

thank you very much for this

Blizz 15:27 2 Oct 2021

Well organized, useful

Mriganka Mandal 09:00 29 Sep 2021

Very precise and useful one.

DaveChild 12:27 15 Jun 2014

Another great cheat sheet! I hope all of your hard work pays off in your exams!