Project Planning

• Draft Schedule

1. Analyse the schedule and determine the type of resources and time required.
2. Negotiate involvement for those resources.

• Resource Requirements Document
• Facilities Plan

The first step is to come up with the type of skills required for resources. If you say you want a business user, what skills should that user poses's? If you do not specify the skills, you may end up with a user who cannot do the job or does not have the authority to make decisions.

Your approach to negotiation should be that there is a constant that is the product of:

• The number and type of resources
• The scope of the project
• The time available
• The amount of money you spend
• The quality you deliver

If one factor changes, something else has to change to maintain the constant. For example, if you cannot get the number of resources you want, will the scope be reduced or the time be extended? Obviously you do not want to reduce quality and throwing more money at the project may be useful only if you can employ more resources.

If you know resource availability is going to be an issue, present a number of options. With 3 people we can finish by June or with only 2 we will finish in October.

The next step is to identify the facilities required for the resources. Obviously if there are a number of options, you should not complete the facilities plan until after the number is agreed. The facilities plan will identify where the people will be located, what equipment they will require, access to systems and software etc.