Programme

By the time you read this page, you should have at least a plan and a workable network plan. The chart we, as project managers and the supporting team follow is a Gant Chart.

Using the network diagram, activity start and end dates should calculated for each activity. Begin with the first activity and work through to the last. If an activity is not on the critical path you can be more flexible as they will not affect the overall project completion date.

To check that the dates you have calculated are realistic, refer to the Gant chart, master schedule (if other projects are running parallel to yours) and commitment matrix. Where an overlap exists check whether the same resource is required and adjust accordingly. You will probably have to adjust the start and end dates if the resource cannot be increased.

With the assistance of your Planner and Estimator (and if available, another project manager), prepare a separate draft schedule that identifies project threats. Use this schedule as a basis for your next brainstorming session, the Risk Workshop.

For the Risk Workshop, invite people from outside the project as well as within. This will encourage the team to defend the plan against constructive criticism. This will make them more determined to overcome the obstacles ahead. Deal with each threat in turn and give particular attention to those threats on the critical path. Besides the project threats, use the workshop as means to draw out potential opportunities. I strongly believe in the saying, "where there is risk there is also opportunity". Similarly if a risk is identified as too high to overcome, then change may be the only re-course. If a change to the project is inevitable then look for any opportunities that may come from the options available.

In general, the Risk Workshop has one output. The skeleton of a Risk Register.  As soon as possible after the workshop you, with the assistance of your key team, should start to put the flesh around it. Before formally issuing the document formally, ensure you have acceptable mitigated answers to all the threats identified. On your plan, provide milestones for the key dates from the identified threats so that they can be monitored and managed. It may be necessary that some of the identified threats may need to be added to your decision tree and the tree reviewed.

From the time we first used the Decision Tree we moved into the territory known as Contingency Planning. It is not possible to cover every eventuality. Within a normal project we generally only cover what we call the Credible Risks. Those risks that within reason, could conceivably occur. For example, unless we are designing a building that is to remain standing whatever its possible to be thrown at it over the next thousand years, such as a nuclear storage facility, there is no need to design it for say a 1 in 10,000 year Siesmic event. Its a possible event, but over the next one hundred years its very unlikely to happen. As we are designing the building to last for about fifty years its still possible but not really credible. Most insurance companies work with this perspective. However, for completeness, it would do no harm to list those risks that were considered as not credible so that the business as a whole can agree with its insurers.

The Risk Register will contain and mitigate (through contingency planning) the identified Credible Risks to the project. It is normal that you as the project manager are the owner of that document. Once the document is complete you need to revisit your cost-benefit analysis.

Upon satisfactory completion of this stage you can now provide the team with a "baseline" or starting point to the plan.

Time spent validating the plan is rarely wasted.