Project Plan & Resources

The first step is to document the Project Plan. In most cases a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities, and tasks to be undertaken on the project:

After the WBS has been agreed upon, an assessment of the effort required to undertake the activities and tasks is made. The activities and tasks are sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the Project Manager to assess the progress of the project.

Immediately after the Project Plan is formed, it is necessary to develop a Resource Plan to allocate the resources required to undertake each of the activities and tasks within the Project Plan. Although general groups of resources may have already been allocated to the Project Plan, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:

• Types of resources (labor, equipment, and materials)
• Total quantities of each resource type
• Roles, responsibilities, and skill-sets of all human resources
• Items, purposes, and specifications of all equipment resource
• Items and quantities of material resource

Similar to the Resource Plan, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labor, equipment, and materials is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which provides the Project Manager with an understanding of the forecast spending vs. the actual spending throughout the project. Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely important as the project’s success will depend on whether or not it is delivered within the ‘time, cost and quality’ estimates for this project.