Project Planning Reference Files

Project Planning
Reference Files
Table of Contents
Project Management Overview Page 2
Case Study Page 11
Project Purpose Statement Page 13
Sample Project Charter Page 16
Measurable Objectives Page 18
Project Scope Page 24
Project Assumptions Page 30
Project Communications Page 33
Project Deliverables Page 40
1 By James Marlatt, 2007

Project Management Overview
Introduction:
A project is an organized activity with a well-defined
purpose, completed by a dedicated project team within a
given timeframe. In other words, a project has a beginning
and an end; the end comes when you have achieved the
project’s purpose. Once you have achieved this purpose, the
project is over. The project team may stay together and
work on extending the project’s purpose, but this is
considered another project – for example the first project
designs and implements a new self-service facility
registration system for a recreation center (the project’s
purpose) – improvements to this system after it has been
released or the addition of a new function (such as the
member changing how they pay their dues each month) which
was not included in the first project are different
projects, with a different purpose and different timeframes
than the original project.
Triple Constraint:
As a project manager you will hear this term a lot. It can
be confusing because there are four constraints, not three.
These are cost, time, quality and scope. Cost is how much

money you have to spend to complete the project; time is how
much time you have to complete the project; quality is how
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a constraint is
“the state of being checked, restricted, or compelled to
avoid or perform some action”. (see triple constraint for
more details)
A Project is Accomplished Through a Series of Processes:
According to the Project Management Institute (www.PMI.org)
a project is made up of five processes: project initiation,
project planning, project execution, project controlling and
project closing. PMI has conducted a study showing that
investing in project initiation and planning at the
beginning of a project, before you incur most of the project
cost, is the most effective way of ensuring that the project
will meet its objectives. As the figure shows, a relatively
modest investment at the start of a project will reduce by a
much larger amount the cost of rework at later stages. Also
note that the return on investment from planning is not
infinite. As the cost of planning continues to increase at
a steady rate, the cost of rework doesn’t continue to
decrease at the same rate.
--
[Impact of Investing in Project Initiation and Planning]

Cost of Initiation and Planning
Cost
Cost of Future Rework
Time
--
A project plan is not a big investment of time or resources;
it usually takes less than a couple of weeks to develop for
most projects. IT project managers often say that one day
of planning saves 2-4 days of work during the project. Who
would turn down an investment opportunity with 100% to 300%
return?
Project Initiation:
Projects can be initiated by anyone in an organization.
Regardless of who initiates a project, it is good practice
to identify a project sponsor with enough authority and
organization knowledge to do the following: make sure the
planned outcome of the project will help the organization

achieve its strategic objectives; assist in getting the
right resources for the project (money, people, equipment);
help get resolution to project issues in a timely manner
(resource conflicts, disagreement on project objectives,
changes to project scope, etc.); provide the project manager
with the authority he or she needs to successfully complete
the project.
Organizations do not have unlimited resources and invest in
projects if they believe its outcome will add value to the
organization. Typically, value comes about when you solve a
problem or exploit an opportunity, whether it is for
competitive, economic or regulatory reasons. Projects are
initiated as the direct result of opportunities or problems
within an organization. This is the project purpose.
Organizations define what business value means to them and
how to measure it. Business value can be categorized into
several broad areas including, revenue/profit growth, cost
reduction and capital utilization. Examples might be
improved customer retention, higher market share, lower cost
of goods sold, etc. In our project, the value is an
increase in gym membership as a result of better facility
utilization and the reduction in clerical cost as members
self-register for facilities.

During the initiation process, the project manager works
with management to develop the project charter, which
includes: define the project purpose; how project success
will be measured (see frame u: defining measurable
objectives); project in and out of scope (see frame v:
defining project scope); project manager authority (see
frame w: project manager authority); and project
deliverables (see frame x: project deliverables) This
process usually is a small percentage of the overall project
time and cost and at the conclusion of this step, if it
doesn’t appear a project will achieve the value expected,
the project should be cancelled. Otherwise the charter is
used as input into the more detailed project planning
process.
Project Planning Process:
The project charter is used as input into the planning
process during which the following will be determined: what
work will need to be done to achieve the project’s
objectives (see frame a: work breakdown structure); how much
time the project is expected to take; (see frame b: schedule
development); how much the project is expected to cost (see

frame c: cost estimating); what human resources will be
needed to complete the project within the planned schedule
and budget (see frame d: human resource planning); how will
the project team communicate internally and with people and
organizations that are going to be using the project’s
output (e.g. gym members) (see frame e: communications
planning); and how will the project team know if the
project’s output meets the expectations of its users?
(stakeholders such as gym members) (see frame f: quality
assurance).
Just as with project initiation, if management believes that
the project will not achieve its purpose within the time and
cost budgeted, the project should be cancelled. At this
point in time very little resources have been consumed to
create the project plan, certainly much less than will be if
the project is continued.
Project Execution:
The ongoing management of a project is also critical to keep
the project on track. Project execution includes: acquiring
the resources necessary to complete the project as defined
in the project plan (people, money, equipment); providing
any necessary training for the project team; reporting

project status to all interested parties (stakeholders)
throughout the project; and gathering and reviewing any
changes that are requested by project stakeholders to
determine whether the changes will be made or not (if a
change is made, the project plan must be updated including
at least one or more of the following cost, time, scope and
quality).
Project Controlling:
Just as with project initiation and project planning, the
project manager must be diligent in assessing whether the
project is going to achieve its purpose or not within cost,
time, scope and quality. If not, the project manager must
either identify what needs to be changed in order to correct
this or should recommend the project be cancelled. During
the controlling process the project manager should identify
experienced resources that can provide some of this
oversight. Their responsibility is to help the project
manager monitor the project scope, schedule, cost and
quality to assess whether the project is under control.
This is a continuous process that occurs throughout the
project. As problems are discovered, changes are identified
that can be made to the project plan. In the worst-case
scenario, it is determined that the project cannot achieve

its purpose within an acceptable time, cost, scope and
quality and so it is cancelled.
Project Closing:
Project closing has traditionally not been considered very
important. The project team and, indeed, management are
eager to go on to new things. However, organizations that
take the time to analyze what happened on each project and
learn from its successes and mistakes do better on later
projects. Project closing also includes some other very
important activities: getting the client to accept the
project with a formal signature; making or receiving any
final payments; releasing the project resources; and
organizing and storing the project files so they are
accessible to others as needed in the future.
Closing the Project
When a project is done – the application is implemented,
users know how to use it, and any missing documentation has
been completed – the project team will most probably be
disbanded. Part of the team may stay on to maintain the
system, but others will go on to new areas. Before this
happens, however, it is important to have a formal closing
of the project.

This closing serves several purposes. First, this is the
time to assess which of the measurable objectives have been
accomplished and which require more time before they can be
truly assessed. For the latter, you should create a benefits
realization plan to follow up on them.
Second, you should make a list of requirements that were
proposed but not implemented in the first release, as
described in Chapter 11 in more detail.
Third, the entire project team should meet as a group and
go over what happened on the project – what was done well
and where the problems were. All the lessons learned on the
project should be documented for use by future project teams
as part of a continuous improvement effort.

Case Study
The case study revolves around a private gym called Bodies
of Steel. This gym has more than 2,000 members, with more
than 60% of them being busy single, professionals who
typically use the gym before and after work. The gym
provides a variety of products and services, including
racquetball, basketball, swimming, pilates, weights,
personal trainers and a full-service restaurant and bar.
Currently the gym is experiencing several major challenges,
including: Members are complaining that it is difficult to
make reservations because the front desk personnel are
overworked and do not answer the phone quickly; and/or
without seeing what is available the members have to ask the
clerk many questions before finding a time that is suitable
to them and available. In addition, in this very
competitive environment, the gym would also like to reduce
the cost of their clerical personnel, in particular front-
desk staff. Even though the gym is facing these two
difficult challenges, it continues to be successful because
of the fun atmosphere where members can socialize with one
another while getting in a workout or grabbing a meal and a
drink. The gym wants to make sure that this fun environment

is not negatively affected by any changes to address the
above opportunities.

Project Purpose Statement
Introduction:
The project purpose statement is often the first thing that
someone interested in learning more about a project might
read or hear from a project team member or another project
stakeholder. This purpose statement, like the proverbial
elevator speech, should in a few words describe what the
project is all about. The purpose statement is part of the
project charter that is created during the project
initiation phase. (See frame: project charter)
How is it created?
A project purpose statement is relatively short, typically
just a few sentences. This is what makes writing one hard,
because these few sentences often must describe a project
that is fairly complex. In addition the audience reading it
can be from different parts of the organization or possibly
from outside the organization.
A great way to start writing a project purpose statement is

by writing down the problems and/or opportunities the
project is supposed to resolve. When writing these make
sure you demonstrate how the problems/opportunities affect
the business.
For our gym example, it is not enough to say, “This system
will improve customer service and reduce payroll costs.”
Instead you should describe the problems and opportunities
addressed by the project along the following lines:

 “Our facility is overcrowded at some times, when several
people who have been unable to make reservations show up
at the same time, and underutilized at other times, when
people who might have come haven’t been able to get
through to make reservations.
 Our front-desk employees spend an average of three hours
a day taking telephone reservations, mostly at mealtimes
and just before closing. As a result, the employees work
longer hours than scheduled (and are paid for overtime)
and are not productive at their other tasks. We therefore
have an opportunity to reduce personnel costs while
getting more work done and improving client
satisfaction.”
Project Purpose Statement
Once you have described the problems and opportunities you
can articulate the project purpose. In our example, the
project purpose is the following:
“The purpose of this project is to provide customers with

self-service registration for athletic facilities to
improve customer access, reduce clerical personnel cost
and improve facility utilization.”
You must be very careful to state the purpose in business
terms. The statement should be short, yet clearly understood
by management and other stakeholders. It is best to use the

stakeholders’ own words to describe the problems and
opportunities and how your project will address them.
What it isn’t:
You should avoid using technical terminology, as in the
following sample purpose statement:
“The gym’s server must be upgraded from a Dell Dimension

XPS R450 to a Sun Microsystems E450 w/2 Gig RAM, 2 X
400Mhz Processors, 4MM Tape Unit(X6261A), CD ROM, 4 X
18Gb Drives, PGX Video and Country Kit. This upgrade
will enable Bodies of Steel to implement web based
facility registration.”
While this statement would be very understandable to the IT
department and possibly to your project team, most of the
information in it would be irrelevant to other stakeholders:
management, clerical personnel and customers.
How do you know when you are done?
A great way to test your project purpose statement is to try
it out on a few people not on the project team. Share your
project purpose and ask the person you are testing it on to
describe the project to you in more detail. If a few
different people can do this to your satisfaction, you have
written a great project purpose statement.

Sample Project Charter
Draft Project Charter – February 23, 2XXX – Version 1.0

(Created by the project manager with stakeholder input and management sign-off)
Project Purpose: This project is meant to provide
customers with self-service registration for athletic
facilities to improve customer access, reduce clerical
personnel cost and improve facility utilization.
Prioritized Measurable Objectives:
 Provide a way for customers to self-register for
center facilities.
 Expand the hours where customers can make
reservations to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
 Implement the new registration system by October 1,
2XXX, in time for the busy fall season.
 Reduce clerical costs by 20% per year.
 Improve center utilization to 65% during off-peak
times (off-peak is Monday to Friday between 9 AM and
4 PM and all day Saturday and Sundays).
Project Manager Authority: In order for this project to be
successful, the project manager will need the authority
to:
 Determine the project approach, including milestones;
deliverables; and schedule.
 Determine project resource requirements, including
funding, people and equipment.
 Determine how to allocate/reallocate project
resources throughout the project.
 Fire project team members.
 Identify and communicate directly with all project
stakeholders as the project manager sees fit.
 Determine which recommendations to implement if the
project sponsor/project stakeholders do not provide
this feedback within three business days of it being
requested.
The project manager does not have the authority to do the

following without first getting the project sponsor’s
approval:
 Cancel the project.
 Increase project funding beyond what is approved in

the project plan.
 Extend the overall project timeframe beyond six
months.
Project In-Scope:
 Increase non-peak center utilization
 Decrease clerical costs
 Positively impacting the fun atmosphere
 Promote the new system with members
 Address basketball, racquetball, weight stations,
swim lanes, pilates and personal trainers
Project Out-of-Scope:
 Increase peak utilization
 Increasing the size of the gym
 Adding new products and services
 Increasing membership
 Reassign clerical staff
 Fire clerical staff
 Assist clerical staff with new employment
 Free weights, open swim, restaurant and bar
Project Assumptions:
 Utilization analysis will be conducted for five
different days/times for each product/service
offering in scope at the beginning of the project and
then again for the same days/times at the conclusion
of the project. This will be done three different
times at the beginning and at the end of the project.
An average of these wait times will be used for
comparison purposes. These days/times and locations
will be determined by the project team.
 Front-desk clerks adversely affected by the project
changes will get assistance with either finding a new
job within the gym or if they choose with another
organization. Currently we expect that 15% of our
clerical staff will be impacted by this change. This
will be clearly communicated to the staff affected at
the beginning of the project by the project sponsor.
A bonus of $500 will be paid to front-end clerks who
continue with the gym until the self-registration
system is being used by more than 50% of our members.
Deliverables:
 Analysis of current facility utilization during off-
peak times
 Analysis of clerical costs pre-implementation
 Recommendations for increasing off-peak utilization

 Self-service registration system requirements
 Self-service system technology selection
 Working self-service system
 Promotional materials/incentives to generate system
usage
 System training materials and training
 Analysis of clerical costs post system implementation
 Analysis of post-implementation facility utilization
during off-peak times
Approved by:
Project Sponsor: Date: February 26, 2XXX
-- James

Measurable Objectives
Introduction:
A good way for an organization to know if a project has been
successful is by painting a picture of what the project will
produce at its conclusion. “If you don’t have a clear
destination in mind, any old path will do.” (Source unknown)
Defining measurable objectives is a great way to paint a
picture of the project’s destination. These objectives are
part of the project charter (see project charter frame) and
are listed right after the project purpose.
You may have thought that the purpose statement will do this
for your project; although it provides important information
regarding the project’s purpose, it does not provide a way
to measure if you have accomplished your purpose at the end
of the project. The only way the organization will know if
the project has been completed successfully is if you have
established measurable objectives up front, which define how
well you have solved the problem or seized the opportunity
that made you undertake the project in the first place. As
Peter Drucker puts it, “What gets measured gets done.” By
describing the purpose and objectives in business terms, you
make clear what the stakeholders can and cannot expect of
the project.
How are Measurable Objectives Created?
Developing measurable objectives which link your project

objectives to the overall business problems and/or
opportunities is critical to making sure your project gets
the resources it needs to be successful. Otherwise

management probably won’t understand the value your project
is providing to the organization and other projects may get
their attention.
Remember what our organization’s problems are from the case:

“Our facility is overcrowded at some times, when members who
have been unable to make reservations show up at the same
time, and underutilized at other times, when people who
might have come haven’t been able to get through to make
reservations;” and “our front-desk employees spend an
average of three hours a day taking telephone reservations,
mostly at mealtimes and just before closing. As a result,
the employees work longer hours than scheduled (and are paid
for overtime) and are not productive at their other tasks.
We therefore have an opportunity to reduce personnel costs
while getting more work done and improving client
satisfaction.”
From this we wrote our project purpose statement: “The

purpose of this project is to provide customers with self-
service registration for athletic facilities to improve
customer access, reduce clerical personnel cost and improve
facility utilization.”
Using this information as the starting point, we can write

measurable objectives for our project. Keys to writing good
measurable objectives include: objectives can be
accomplished by the team within the timeframe allocated;
when accomplished the project team can measure that the
objective has been completed; objectives are clear enough
that the project team understands what they must do to

accomplish the objectives. Measurable objectives for the
University Athletics system might be:
 Provide a way for customers to self-register for center
facilities.
 Expand the hours where customers can make reservations
to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
 Improve center utilization to 65% during off-peak times
(off-peak is Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 4 PM and
all day Saturday and Sundays).
20XX, in time for the busy fall season.
Each of the above objectives is measurable. At the

conclusion of the project, you can easily determine
(measure) if you have accomplished them or not. At the same
time these objectives provide enough information for the
project team to use to make decisions about how to implement
the new self-service registration system. For example, the
project team knows they must implement a system that allows
customers to self-register, and that they have to do this by
October 1st. Based on these objectives, the team can
quickly start to narrow in on solutions that meet these
requirements and eliminate others that do not.
You should also work with management to prioritize these

objectives so that the most important are given the most
attention throughout the process. For instance if center
utilization is more important than reducing clerical costs,
the team may spend more time on improving utilization than
on finding ways to reduce clerical costs. If reducing

clerical costs is more important, the team may find that
sacrificing a few percentage points of utilization helps
them achieve the cost savings. The project team will be
faced with many decisions throughout the project; these
prioritized objectives will help them make better decisions
in a timely manner.
Prioritized Measurable Objectives:

facilities.
 Expand the hours where customers can make reservations to
24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
 Implement the new registration system by October 1, 2XXX,
in time for the busy fall season.
To be convincing when you measure the project results at the

end, it is important to have collected this same data at the
start of the project for comparison purposes. In the example
of University Athletics, the team spent some time up front
actually measuring things like the time spent on hold, wait
times, actual facility utilization, and so on. You should
then ask management and other stakeholders to sign off on
these figures, which represent the “as-is” state and can
serve as a basis for comparison at the end of the project.

What Measurable Objectives are not!
Measurable objectives are still specified at a fairly high
level and have to be further defined into a set of project
specifications or requirements. For example it is clear
that a new system must be created where customers can self-
register, but it is not clear from this information the form
that this system will take. Self-registration could be
handled by a third-party, done over the telephone or by
using a web based system among other potential solutions.
These details will be determined during the project planning
phase. (See project deliverables for more information)

Review your objectives against your project purpose and the
business problems and/or opportunities. It should be clear
that once these objectives are met, the project purpose and
business problems/opportunities are also met. If this is
not the case, you need to continue to either identify
additional objectives or modify these objectives to address
these needs.
These objectives are included in the project charter. (see

project charter) Now you can start to identify project
scope. (see project scope)
Project Scope
Introduction:

Project scope is created during the initiation phase and is
part of the project charter (see project charter frame). The
project scope is simply what must be done (in-scope) and
what will not be done (out-of-scope) to accomplish the
project objectives. Since you have already defined these
objectives in measurable terms (see measurable objectives
frame), it should be relatively straightforward to identify
what is included in the scope (in-scope) and what isn’t
(out-of-scope).
In-scope is anything we will have to perform to address the

problem or opportunity we are working on during the project.
Out-of-scope is anything that is either not related to what
we are working on or which is related, but not necessary to
complete to achieve our project objectives. Although it
would be nice to be able to work on every aspect of the
project, this is not realistic. All projects have limited
time and resources (money, people, and equipment) in which
they must be completed. By limiting our scope, we can make
sure to focus on those things that must be done to achieve
our project objectives in a reasonable period of time for a
reasonable amount of resources. These out-of-scope items
can be reassessed and done during future projects if it
makes sense to do so.
How is it created?
In order to begin determining what is in and out-of-scope,
make a list of everything that you think must be done to
achieve the project’s objectives.
Our project objectives as of February 23rd, 2XXX:

facilities.
 Expand the hours where customers can make reservations
to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
2XXX, in time for the busy fall season.
Based upon these objectives, we brainstorm with our team in

order to compile a list of things to be completed in order
to achieve them.
Our list for our case:

 Design a self-registration system for services that
require reservations (this is the most realistic option
for a 24/7 registration system where we are trying to
save money on front-desk staff)
 Determine how members utilize services that typically
do not require reservations such as open-swim, free
weights and the restaurant/bar
 Identify self-registration system solutions used by
other gyms or membership organizations
 Pick a self-registration system to use
 Identify new products and services which will attract
members to use our facility during off-peak times
 Develop and install the new system
 Test the new system

 Train users on the new system
 Increase membership
 Add new functions based on user feedback
 Promote the new self-registration system with members
 Survey existing center utilization during off-peak
times (9 am to 5 pm on Monday to Friday and on
weekends)
 Reassign/fire clerical staff
 Identify ways to increase utilization during off-peak
times
 Increase the size of the gym
Now review this list to determine which of these items must

be done to achieve our objectives and which ones can be put
aside or done by other project teams. Clearly we must
select and implement the new self-registration system, train
users on the system and promote its use with our members.
We also must survey member utilization during off-peak times
and identify ways to increase utilization during these times
in order to achieve our objective “improve center
utilization to 65% during off-peak times.”
At the same time increasing membership may seem like

something we must do to complete this project, but it is of
such a large scope in and of itself, we have decided to
leave this out-of-scope of our project with management’s
approval. By leaving this out, we can still achieve our
project’s objectives. In addition, by leaving it out as we
brainstorm ways to improve center utilization, the team will
know not to include any items that would require adding new
members (or at least note ideas for future projects). So
after brainstorming with our project team and reviewing this
with management, we have identified the following for
project scope.
Project In-Scope:
 Increase non-peak center utilization
 Decrease clerical costs
 Positively impacting the fun atmosphere
 Promote the new system with members
 Address basketball, racquetball, weight stations, swim
lanes, pilates and personal trainers
Project Out-of-Scope:
 Increase peak center utilization
 Increase the size of the gym
 Add new products and services
 Increase membership
 Reassign clerical staff
 Fire clerical staff
 Assist clerical staff with new employment
 Free weights, open swim, restaurant and bar
As a project progresses, the scope may need to change. The

team may discover unforeseen difficulties as they get more
and more into the details. The team may also discover that
some objectives cannot be met without compromising the
budget or the deadline. Finally, external conditions may
change: the competition or the regulatory environment may
change management’s priorities. Management may then decide
to change the objectives (and therefore the scope) of the
project. After having set the initial scope, the project
manager must therefore be prepared to maintain it over time,
continually keeping the team and other stakeholders informed
of any changes. Since scope is defined in the project
charter and the charter is approved by management, the

project manager must get approval from management for any
changes in project scope.
Changes to scope are not necessarily bad if they improve the

projects chances of success as defined in the project
charter. They are bad if you are adding additional
requirements and/or improving product quality that was not
defined in your project charter (This is commonly referred
to as gold-plating). If you are constantly changing the
project scope, you will never finish the project. As the
project manager you must be make sure that you and your team
can spot any changes to scope and assess their impact on the
project cost, schedule and quality prior to requesting the
change be approved by management (see triple constraint).
One of the biggest problems projects face is commonly

referred to as scope creep, when the scope gradually
increases over the course of the project. This usually
occurs when users and team members get overenthusiastic
about what the system can do – “If we just add one or two
simple items to the scope…” – and keep adding little items
one at a time, until the project timetable and budget must
be revised. These changes are not necessary to achieve our
project objectives. By clearly defining measurable
objectives and project scope up front, making sure your
project team and project stakeholders understand scope and
monitoring it continuously throughout the project, you can
reduce the chances of scope creep happening to your project.
For our project, the new self-reservation system can always
be improved upon, and the same is true for clerical
efficiency and center utilization. Your focus must be on
achieving the projects objectives which include schedule and

budget constraints. In order to do this, you must not allow
scope creep. A better way to handle this is by noting these
“improvements” and dealing with them on future projects.
What it isn’t:
It is easy to confuse scope with objectives. Although it is
related, it is also different in a very important way.
Scope is different than objectives because it differentiates
between work that you will and will not do to achieve these
objectives. This is not made clear in project objectives,
so scope helps you further clarify what work you will do to
achieve them. This is critical to your project if you want
to complete it within time and budget!

With scope you are never done! You must diligently watch to
make sure that only work which is in-scope is being done
throughout the project. At the same time as project team
members and other stakeholders approach you with work that
is out-of-scope, you must assess whether this will require a
scope change. Avoid this whenever possible and push for
this work to be done in another project. This is one of
your most important jobs as project manager!

Project Assumptions
Introduction:
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary an assumption
is: “to take as granted or true.” We all make assumptions
every day; unless we confirm these assumptions with whomever
we are working, these may in fact be false and could have a
significant negative impact on our project success. What
makes assumptions difficult to identify is that they are
largely made at the unconscious level; they define who we
are and how we think often based on our cultural background.
When you bring different people together to work on a
project, they typically come from different backgrounds
(cultures) and therefore make different assumptions. These
assumptions must be made explicit so that the project team
and other stakeholders have a clear understanding of one
another and of the project.
How are Assumptions Identified?
Let’s start with our project. As we define the elements in

our project charter, we must ask ourselves what must happen
for this element to be true. One of our objectives
explicitly stated that we will reduce clerical costs by 20%.
For this to be true a number of things must happen. This
includes a new system that members can use to register must
be accessible to and used by our members. These things are
explicitly stated in our charter. At the same time for this
to be true, we can’t lose all of our clerical staff during
the transition to the new system. If we do, we will have to
hire and retrain new staff along with dealing with other
disruptions to customer service. This will cost us money,

distract us from our project and create customer service
problems during the transition to the new system. Of course
this makes perfect sense and everyone on the project team
was aware of this, even though it wasn’t explicitly stated;
maybe or maybe not.
Either way, this assumption must be stated explicitly so we

can manage it during the project. Our assumption is as
follows and noted in our charter:
“Front-desk clerks adversely affected by the project changes
will get assistance with either finding a new job within the
gym or if they choose with another organization. Currently
we expect that 15% of our clerical staff will be impacted by
this change. This will be clearly communicated to the staff
affected at the beginning of the project by the project
sponsor. A bonus of $500 will be paid to front-end clerks
who continue with the gym until the self-registration system
is being used by more than 50% of our members.”
What Assumptions are not!

Project assumptions are not the objectives, deliverables or
requirements. Assumptions simply help clarify for our
project team and stakeholders what we mean when writing
these objectives and other elements of our project plan.

Most of the assumptions you will identify will be during the
project planning phase as you are defining the project. A
great way to confirm that the project team and your
stakeholders understand the plan (and therefore all critical
assumptions have been made explicit) is by having them tell

you in their own words what the project outcome will be.
This will be a back and forth discussion during which either
additional assumptions will surface or no additional
assumptions will be identified. You will need to do this
with all project team members and key stakeholders. We have
found that doing this as a group both saves time and creates
an environment more conducive to identifying implicit
assumptions.

Project Communications
Introduction:
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary communication
is: “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a
common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.” We all communicate every
day both verbally and non-verbally. In fact ineffective
communications is one of the top reasons projects get into
trouble. A key to your success as a project manager is
knowing whom you need to communicate with, in what form and
how often. This information is the basis of your
communications plan.
How Do You Communicate on a Project?
Communications can take many forms both formal and informal.

Formal communications include project kick-off meeting,
status reports, roles and responsibilities matrix,
presentations, project deliverables, change requests, etc.
Informal communications are just as important, if not more
important and typically occur more often. These might
include dropping in on a project team member to see how
things are going, a chance meeting in the hall with a
project stakeholder who asks for a quick project update,
etc. A key to effective communications in these situations
is to do more listening than talking. Since communications
includes both verbal and non-verbal elements (non-verbal
makes up more than 50% of the communications signal), e-mail
is not a very effective tool to use for communicating.
Whenever possible it is better to meet face-to-face with the
people you are communicating with. If this is not possible,

or practical, meeting over the phone is better than via e-
mail.
Communicating regularly with your project stakeholders is

one of if not the most important things you can do as a
project manager. It keeps you in touch with your team, it
helps you surface issues earlier than if you wait until the
regularly scheduled status meetings, and if you also use
informal communications methods you often learn things that
you might not have using formal channels.
There are many tools you can use to manage project

communications; the two that I have found to be the most
effective and easiest to use are the stakeholder’s analysis
and a roles and responsibilities matrix. A stakeholder’s
analysis includes information about who we are communicating
with, what needs to be communicated and how often.
Stakeholder Analysis
One of the first things a project sponsor and/or manager
must do is a stakeholder analysis. These individuals will
provide important information during the development stage
and throughout the project. A stakeholder is anyone who
will be affected by the project. It is important to conduct
a stakeholder analysis to identify these individuals or
groups including their name, organization, role on the
project, level of interest, level of influence, unique
facts, expectations (how they define success) and ways to

manage their expectations. This information is important
because it is these individuals who will identify the system
requirements and provide project resources and support. If
the team misses an important stakeholder or doesn’t manage
the stakeholders’ expectations, these individuals could work
against the project and keep it from achieving its
objectives.
Stakeholder information is collected by interviewing the
stakeholders. It may be sensitive and should be tightly
controlled. At the same time it is vital so that the
project team can understand and manage these key
stakeholders expectations.
An example stakeholder analysis follows:
Name Organization Role Interest Influence Unique Expectations Ways to Manage Expectations
Facts (success means)
Jim Chief Project High High Very demanding likes to Jim sold this to Currently Jim’s objective of a
Operations Sponsor know the details. management and his 20% reduction in payroll costs for
Officer for Expects to get this job is at stake if the clerical staff is considered
Bodies of information verbally. project isn’t aggressive. Meet with Jim as
Steel successful. He soon as possible to discuss this
expects the project and agree on how to best
will reduce payroll approach achieving this or
costs by 20% for making adjustments to it.
customer service
employees.
Sue Chief Steering Medium High Not interested in details, Not convinced this is Make sure that the project
Executive Committee just results and how this a good investment, objectives are clearly tied to
Officer affects the bottom line but is willing to let Jim improving customer relations.
take this risk. Of Get a quick win or two, which
course if it doesn’t shows how customer relations
work, Jim may lose will be improved by the new
his job. She expects system. Show how the project
that the project will team will also manage project
reduce costs, but also costs and provide a good return
significantly hurt on investment.
customer
relationships and
loyalty.
Clerical Customer System High Low Customer Support is Most of these people Get this group involved early in

Staff Support Users mostly made up of are very afraid of the identifying system requirements
people who have been new system. They while helping them to understand
around for a long time think they may lose the project purpose and their role
and have poor computer their jobs because in the project. Make sure they
skills the new system will receive sufficient training and are
replace them. involved in all aspects of the
project.
Customers N/A System High Medium In general your The customers aware Based on the customer’s
Users customers are very of the new system feedback, there are some
sophisticated. Many are are excited. They incorrect expectations. When
professionals with very hate the current the registration process is
little spare time. They process and expect automated it will be first come
want things to be easy the new system will first serve and customers will not
and fast. They also let them register for always get their court
expect things to work on available facilities at preferences merely the time and
the first try. their leisure. They type of facility if they are
also expect that like available.
with the current
system, the old timers It will be important to regularly
will continue to get communicate with stakeholders
their court and hold several open houses to
preferences. discuss project plans.
Don Information Steering Low Low Don is busy with several He is unfamiliar with Get Don involved early. Try to
IT Manager Technology Committee other initiatives that he the new technology demonstrate why this project is
believes are higher being implemented so important to the company.
priority. but has heard from Get some quick technology wins
his friends at other to build his confidence in the new
companies that it system and the project team.
doesn’t work. He
expects that he will
have to save the
customer service
folks again on this
project.
Mary Customer Process Medium Medium Mary designed the She doesn’t know Get with Mary as soon as
Support Owner current process and what to expect and is possible to discuss and address
forms. She doesn’t see unclear about her role her concerns. Make sure she is
the need to change it on the project team. clear about her role on the
and is afraid she may project team.
lose her power as a
result of this project.
HR Human Steering Low Low HR is too busy with Unclear Schedule a meeting with the
Resources Committee many other more head of HR to discuss the project
and Human important initiatives and find out more about their
Resource needs and expectations.
Allocation
It is common for the project manager(s) to schedule face-to-

face meetings with key stakeholders at the beginning of the
project. One of the most important things to get from these
meetings is how the stakeholder defines project success
(their expectations). This information can then be used to
refine the project purpose and objectives. If for some
reason the stakeholders’ expectations are different than
those of the project team, this is an opportunity to
communicate this and begin to manage these expectations.

These will also need to be managed throughout the project,
as stakeholder expectations often change over time. By
including key stakeholders in regular status meetings and
sending this type of information to other stakeholders as
part of the project communications plan, the project manager
can better manage these changing expectations.
Decision Making
A key to project success is having a defined timeframe in
which decisions are made by management. It is common to
require all project decisions be made within three business
days of being presented to management. This is referred to
as decision time boxing. If management doesn’t decide
within three business days, the team goes ahead with the
recommended solution. In addition to time boxing,
management should make sure the project team is clear about
which decisions they can make on their own and which ones
would require consulting management.
A simple table can be used to clarify this for the team:
TEAM EMPOWERED TO MAKE TEAM MUST CONSULT MANAGEMENT

DECISION
No change to project time or Change will require
resource estimates additional time and/or
resources
No change to project Change to project objectives,
objectives and/or measures and/or measures
Change only effects Change will effect processes,
processes, technology or technology and/or departments
departments within scope outside project scope

The project team discovered that current athletic facility
usage is not being captured on a regular basis. For the
project to be able to achieve its objectives, this
information must be collected. Either the project team
would have to develop a way to collect this information or
the department responsible for this will need to start doing
it more regularly.
The team realized they need to get management approval to

collect this data since capturing facility usage would
require additional time and resources to accomplish. Until
this is decided no further work can be done on this part of
the project. Fortunately the team had already agreed with
management how the team would make these decisions and who
was empowered to make them. Based on this agreement, the
team pulled together a presentation showing three different
ways to solve this problem, including the pros and cons of
each scenario and the team’s recommendation. These were
immediately sent to the decision makers via e-mail. A
meeting was also requested at which time a decision would be
made.
What a Communications Plan is not!

A communications plan is just that, a plan. It is not a
substitute for getting out and talking to your stakeholders
and project team members on a regular basis. You may
remember the old saying written about by Tom Peters called
“Manage by walking around.” This is just as relevant today
as it was back then; your communications plan simply
supports you while you are out meeting with your team and
project stakeholders.

You are done with communications at the end of the project
and never before! This is an on-going process during which
you will regularly communicate with your project
stakeholders and team members. On any project things are
constantly evolving, you must keep yourself, your project
stakeholders and team informed of these changes in a timely
manner for your project to have a better chance of achieving
its objectives.

Project Deliverables
Introduction:
A deliverable is the output of a project. These are the
things that you must create and deliver to your project
stakeholders in order to achieve your project purpose and
objectives.
How are Deliverables Identified?
Start with the project’s purpose, objectives and scope, use

this information to identify what you will need to produce
for your stakeholders in order to complete the project.
Some of these deliverables will be very similar to your
project objectives. For instance one of our deliverables
for our project will be creating a system that members can
use to make reservations for our facilities. Others will
not be so obvious but absolutely necessary for the project
to be successful. An example might be promoting the new
system with members so they will use it. Remember what
Steven Covey said “Begin with the end in mind.”
Deliverables help you and your stakeholders visualize the
end of the project.
After reviewing the project purpose, objectives and scope,

the project team developed a list of project deliverables as
follows:
 Analysis of current facility utilization during off-
peak times
 Analysis of clerical costs pre-implementation
 Recommendations for increasing off-peak utilization
 Self-service registration system requirements
 Self-service system technology selection

 Working self-service system
 Promotional materials/incentives to generate system
usage
 System training materials and training
 Analysis of clerical costs post system implementation
 Analysis of post-implementation facility utilization
during off-peak times
What Project Deliverables are not!

Project deliverables are not a list of detailed work that
has to be done to complete the project. You will use these
deliverables to develop that list when you create your
project work breakdown structure. (See work breakdown
structure)

The way you will know when you have completed your project
is when your stakeholders tell you that you have delivered
on your promises. They will do this by reviewing your
deliverables and providing you with their signature of
acceptance. This occurs throughout the project not just at
its completion. Note that many of the deliverables are
completed and delivered to the stakeholders during the
course of the project. An example is the self-service
registration system requirements. By developing these and
getting approval as early as possible in the project, we
reduce our risk of producing a system that does not meet our
stakeholder’s needs.

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Project Planning

Project Management Overview Page 2

Case Study Page 11

Project Purpose Statement Page 13

Sample Project Charter Page 16

Measurable Objectives Page 18

Project Scope Page 24

Project Assumptions Page 30

Project Communications Page 33

Project Deliverables Page 40

1 By James Marlatt, 2007

A project is an organized activity with a well-defined

purpose, completed by a dedicated project team within a

given timeframe. In other words, a project has a beginning

project’s purpose. Once you have achieved this purpose, the

project is over. The project team may stay together and

work on extending the project’s purpose, but this is

considered another project – for example the first project

designs and implements a new self-service facility

registration system for a recreation center (the project’s

purpose) – improvements to this system after it has been

released or the addition of a new function (such as the

was not included in the first project are different

projects, with a different purpose and different timeframes

than the original project.

As a project manager you will hear this term a lot. It can

be confusing because there are four constraints, not three.

2 By James Marlatt, 2007

much time you have to complete the project; quality is how

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a constraint is

“the state of being checked, restricted, or compelled to

avoid or perform some action”. (see triple constraint for

A Project is Accomplished Through a Series of Processes:

According to the Project Management Institute (www.PMI.org)

a project is made up of five processes: project initiation,

project planning, project execution, project controlling and

project closing. PMI has conducted a study showing that

investing in project initiation and planning at the

beginning of a project, before you incur most of the project

cost, is the most effective way of ensuring that the project

will meet its objectives. As the figure shows, a relatively

modest investment at the start of a project will reduce by a

much larger amount the cost of rework at later stages. Also

note that the return on investment from planning is not

infinite. As the cost of planning continues to increase at

a steady rate, the cost of rework doesn’t continue to

decrease at the same rate.

3 By James Marlatt, 2007

Cost of Future Rework

A project plan is not a big investment of time or resources;

it usually takes less than a couple of weeks to develop for

most projects. IT project managers often say that one day

of planning saves 2-4 days of work during the project. Who

would turn down an investment opportunity with 100% to 300%

Projects can be initiated by anyone in an organization.

Regardless of who initiates a project, it is good practice

to identify a project sponsor with enough authority and

organization knowledge to do the following: make sure the