Approaches to planning, activity planning, and product flow diagrams
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Business Case should be set out. Outlines how projects benefits outweigh costs
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Project objectives should be ID'd and agreed. Objectives define successful project outcomes
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Work out activity order. Draw up an activity network diagram. There are two ways:
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1. Activity on node used in this cheatsheet
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Activities are represented on nodes
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Used by most PM tools inc MS Project
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2. Activity on arrow
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Activities are represented by arrow
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Identifying Milestones
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Events which do not take up time or energy.
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Estimating elapsed time
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Estimate how long each activity will take
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Add these to the nodes in your diagram
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If task finishes on day 4, the next task should start on day 5
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Float is leeway time between activities
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Critical path (CP)
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Chain of activities from beginning to end with no float. A CP activity delayed then project delayed. Activity span = total period during which the activity has to take place
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Earliest finish = earliest start + duration
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Latest start = latest finish – duration
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Latest finish = earliest of 'latest start' activities dependent on the activity
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Float = latest finish – earliest start – duration
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Activity span = latest finish – earliest start
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1. ID project deliverables: project outputs delivered to client. Tangible.
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2. ID intermediate products: created during project, but not delivered to client.
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3. List deliverables or display them in a work breakdown structure
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4. Produce definitions for stakeholders
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ID or name of the product
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Description
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Product/s that need to exist before this one, those it is derived from
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Components that make up the product
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Quality criteria which explain how product will be judged as satisfactory
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Resources = raw materials, staff & equip
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For each activity ID the resource type needed
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For HR identify role to carry out the task
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On activity network diagram for each node note resources needed
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Problems you may encounter
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Not enough staff available – resource clash
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Use the float to delay until staff available
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Delay start even though float used up. Will delay completion
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Buy in staff to cover deficiency. ^ cost
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Split into sub activities to spread evenly
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Need to keep workflow steady
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Put into a form that everyone will understand e.g. Gantt chart
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Activities left hand side
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Calendar units along the top
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Block symbols used to show when activities will be taken out
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Free float shown in light blocks
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Arrows show dependencies
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Very similar to 'Product based planning' but replace the products with activities
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Part of the Product approach
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Visual representation of order in which a sequence of products is created according to product based planning principles
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Should contain all of the products of the Product Breakdown Structure (equivalent to a Work Breakdown Structure) - the PFD should be kept simple
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Flows top to bottom and left to right
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Looping back is not allowed
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