Work Planning: A Project and Work Management Process Area at Maturity Level 2
Purpose
The purpose of Work Planning (WP) is to establish and maintain plans that define work activities.
Introductory Notes
Planning is one of the keys to effectively managing work. The Work Planning process area involves the following activities:
• Developing the work plan
• Interacting with relevant stakeholders appropriately
• Getting commitment to the plan
• Maintaining the plan
Planning includes estimating the attributes of work products and tasks, determining the resources needed, negotiating commitments, producing a schedule, and identifying and analyzing risks. Iterating through these activities may be necessary to establish the work plan. The work plan provides the basis for performing and controlling work activities that address commitments with the customer.
The work plan is usually revised as the work progresses to address changes in requirements and commitments, inaccurate estimates, corrective actions, and process changes. Specific practices describing both planning and replanning are contained in this process area.
The term “work plan” is used throughout this process area to refer to the overall plan for controlling the work. The work plan can be a stand-alone document or be distributed across multiple documents. In either case, a coherent picture of who does what should be included. Likewise, monitoring and control can be centralized or distributed, as long as at the work group level a coherent picture of work status can be maintained.
Work groups that respond to service requests generated over time by end users may require an entire level of detailed and frequently revised plans for resource-to-task allocation and task queue management (e.g., the assignment of repair jobs in a maintenance shop). These low-level operating plans can be considered a detailed extension of the overall work plan.
For product lines and standard services, multiple sets of work activities could benefit from the practices of this process area. These activities include creating and maintaining core assets (e.g., components, tools, architectures, operating procedures, service system representations, software) and supporting their use; developing each individual service system from core assets; and orchestrating the overall effort of developing, using, and improving standard services.
Related Process Areas
Refer to the Capacity and Availability Management process area for more information about ensuring effective service system performance and ensuring that resources are provided and used effectively to support service requirements.
Refer to the Service Delivery process area for more information about preparing for service system operations.
Refer to the Strategic Service Management process area for more information about gathering and analyzing data.
Refer to the Measurement and Analysis process area for more information about specifying measures.
Refer to the Requirements Management process area for more information about managing requirements.
Refer to the Risk Management process area for more information about identifying and analyzing risks and mitigating risks.
Specific Practices by Goal
SG 1 Establish Estimates
Estimates of work planning parameters are established and maintained.
Work planning parameters include all information needed by the work group to perform necessary planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting.
Estimates of planning parameters should have a sound basis to instill confidence that plans based on these estimates are capable of supporting work objectives.
Factors to consider when estimating these parameters include work requirements, including product requirements, requirements imposed by the organization, requirements imposed by the customer, and other requirements that affect the work.
Additional factors for services include the service strategy, identified services and service levels, and how incidents and requests are to be handled.
Documentation of the estimating rationale and supporting data is needed for stakeholder review and commitment to the plan and for maintenance of the plan as the work progresses.
SP 1.1 Establish the Service Strategy
Establish and maintain the service strategy.
The service strategy provides the business framework for planning and managing the work. The strategy includes consideration of the following factors at an appropriate level of abstraction:
• The objectives and constraints for the service
• Possible approaches to meeting those objectives and constraints
• The resources (e.g., skills, environment, tools, new technologies) that will be needed
• Risks associated with these factors and how they are addressed
The service strategy typically takes a long-term view of a service, reflects its entire scope, considers long-term risks, and addresses the roles to be played by multiple stakeholders, including suppliers, the customer, and other work groups.
The service strategy can play various roles, but typically and initially, it serves as the basis for senior management approving a service and committing resources to it. As work planning proceeds, and the solution, processes, resources, and risks are explored and developed, the service strategy may need to be revised.
For a short duration service, a strategy may not be developed or only developed once, in which case it is replaced by the work plan as the service work progresses and more detailed planning becomes possible.
For a long duration service, the strategy plays a continuing role in helping to maintain a long-term view of the service and its rationale, touching on various elements of the work plan but at a higher level of abstraction; whereas the work plan will typically reflect a much lower level of detail over a shorter time horizon.
A service strategy can initially be created by the organization or by prospective service staff perhaps in collaboration with potential customers and suppliers, or some other combination of parties with a strategic business view of the prospects for the service.
The service strategy can include a top-level description of the services to be provided, the approach to developing the service system, and the approach to service delivery as appropriate.
Example Work Products
1. Service strategy
Subpractices
1. Identify the objectives of the service and the capabilities it intends to provide.
The organization can maintain an overall business strategy in which the service plays a role in establishing capabilities needed by the organization. The service related objectives and capabilities described in this subpractice can be derived from such considerations for the overall business, but will tend to have a specific or near-term set of objectives and capabilities.
Refer to the Strategic Service Management process area for more information about establishing and maintaining standard services in concert with strategic needs and plans.
2. Identify the approach used to achieve the objectives or provide the capabilities.
There will often be an approach to developing the infrastructure needed to deliver services (i.e., technical approach) and an approach to delivery that accounts for customer satisfaction, skill levels needed, skill levels available, costs, and risks.
Refer to the Service Delivery process area for more information about establishing the service delivery approach.
3. Document business considerations.
Business considerations include potential costs and benefits, intellectual property, competitive climate, aging of the industry and impact on long-term needs and profit margins, core competencies of the organization to be enhanced, core competencies needed from other parties, and future trends in society, trade, and technology.
4. Identify major resource needs.
A review of the service approach helps to identify categories of resources needed for the service and the suppliers of these resources (e.g., other business groups in the organization, specific functional groups, human resources, intellectual property experts, the legal department, the marketing department, business partners, external suppliers).
Refer to the Capacity and Availability Management process area for more information about ensuring effective service system performance and ensuring that resources are provided and used effectively to support service requirements.
5. Identify stakeholders that will play major roles in the service.
The Plan Stakeholder Involvement specific practice provides a more detailed, though perhaps shorter term, consideration of which stakeholders to involve in the service and in what way.
The service approach may be able to leverage external stakeholders (e.g., existing and potential customers and business partners) to provide some of the needed resources.
6. Identify the agreement types to be used.
To be successful, the service should establish agreements with its major stakeholders. The nature of those agreements is determined, in part, by considering each party’s needs, objectives, expectations, constraints, and risks. The types of agreements selected should be part of business considerations and thus help answer how various parties will share in the risks, costs, and benefits of the service.
7. Identify risks and how those risks can be allocated to various stakeholders.
The Identify Risks specific practice in this process area provides a more detailed, though perhaps shorter term, consideration of the risks that the service may encounter.
8. Identify the approach used to maintain safety and security in the service.
Attention to safety and security should be present in all major planning activities (e.g., those planning activities related to service objectives, resources, risks, stakeholders) but this subpractice suggests taking a holistic view and focus on safety and security issues and risks, and the activities the service might include to address them.
9. Review the service strategy with senior management and obtain its agreement.
Review the service strategy from the following key business perspectives:
• Are these objectives the right ones?
• Is the approach feasible?
• Is this strategy an appropriate allocation of the organization’s resources for a prolonged period of time?
• What is the return on investment?
• What opportunities open up as a result of this strategy?
• Will the organization be subjected to excessive risk?
• What roles might some not-yet-identified major stakeholders play in service success?
• How might customers, suppliers, and competitors react?
10. Revise the service strategy as necessary.
Depending on the duration of the service, it may be necessary to refine the service strategy to reflect changes in the objectives, approach, availability of resources, market conditions, customer needs, process and product technologies, etc.
SP 1.2 Estimate the Scope of the Work
Establish a top-level work breakdown structure (WBS) to estimate the scope of the work.
The WBS evolves with the work. A top-level WBS can serve to structure initial estimating. The development of a WBS divides the overall work into an interconnected set of manageable components.
Typically, the WBS is a product, work product, or task-oriented structure that provides a scheme for identifying and organizing the logical units of work to be managed, which are called “work packages.” The WBS provides a reference and organizational mechanism for assigning effort, schedule, and responsibility and is used as the underlying framework to plan, organize, and control the work.
The activities in a WBS can be organized in different ways but are typically scoped by time or duration and address both service system development and maintenance as well as service delivery as appropriate. Some of the services identified can be continuously delivered; others can be in response to ad-hoc requests. Both are specified in a (possibly future) service agreement.
Activities can be further organized along one or more dimensions. For example, in the case of product maintenance, activities could further be distinguished according to those activities that persist through the end of the life of the product (from product delivery through product disposal), activities related to managing and executing the service agreement, and activities related to an individual incident or service request.
Example Work Products
1. Task descriptions
2. Work package descriptions
3. WBS
Subpractices
1. Develop a WBS based on the service strategy.
The WBS provides a scheme for organizing the work. The WBS should permit the identification of the following items:
• Risks and their mitigation tasks
• Tasks for deliverables and supporting activities
• Tasks for skill and knowledge acquisition
• Tasks for the development of needed support plans, such as configuration management, quality assurance, and verification plans
• Tasks for the integration and management of nondevelopmental items
2. Define the work packages in sufficient detail so that estimates of tasks, responsibilities, and schedule can be specified.
The top-level WBS is intended to help gauge the work effort for tasks and organizational roles and responsibilities. The amount of detail in the WBS at this level helps in developing realistic schedules, thereby minimizing the need for management reserve.
3. Identify products and product components to be externally acquired.
Refer to the Supplier Agreement Management process area for more information about managing the acquisition of products and services from suppliers.
4. Identify work products to be reused.
SP 1.3 Establish Estimates of Work Product and Task Attributes
Establish and maintain estimates of work product and task attributes.
Size is the primary input to many models used to estimate effort, cost, and schedule. Models can also be based on other attributes such as service level, connectivity, complexity, availability, and structure.
The estimates should be consistent with requirements to determine the effort, cost, and schedule for the work. A relative level of difficulty or complexity should be assigned for each size attribute.
Example Work Products
1. Size and complexity of tasks and work products
2. Estimating models
3. Attribute estimates
Subpractices
1. Use appropriate methods to determine the attributes of the work products and tasks to be used to estimate resource requirements.
Methods for determining size and complexity should be based on validated models or historical data.
The methods for determining attributes evolve as the understanding of the relationship of service development and delivery characteristics to attributes increases.
2. Estimate the attributes of work products and tasks.
SP 1.4 Define Lifecycle Phases
Define lifecycle phases on which to scope the planning effort.
The determination of lifecycle phases provides for planned periods of evaluation and decision making. These periods are normally defined to support logical decision points at which the appropriateness of continued reliance on the work plan and strategy is determined and significant commitments are made concerning resources. Such points provide planned events at which course corrections and determinations of future scope and cost can be made.
Understanding the lifecycle is crucial in determining the scope of the planning effort and the timing of initial planning, as well as the timing and criteria (critical milestones) for replanning.
The selection of a lifecycle for development and delivery of services will depend on the characteristics of the services and their environment. Some service providers will define phases based on their standard service definitions. Depending on the nature of the service, explicit phases for “startup” and “close-out” can be included.
Refer to the Strategic Service Management process area for more information about establishing standard services.
Often, individual services have implicit lifecycles associated with them that involve points of communication, evaluation, and decision and should be considered when estimating what is required to support delivery of such a service.
Example Work Products
1. Lifecycle phases
SP 1.5 Estimate Effort and Cost
Estimate effort and cost for work products and tasks based on estimation rationale.
Estimates of effort and cost are generally based on results of analysis using models or historical data applied to size, activities, and other planning parameters. Confidence in these estimates is based on rationale for the selected model and the nature of the data. There can be occasions when available historical data do not apply, such as when efforts are unprecedented or when the type of task does not fit available models. For example, an effort can be considered unprecedented if the organization has no experience with such a product or task.
Unprecedented efforts are more risky, require more research to develop reasonable bases of estimate, and require more management reserve. The uniqueness of the work is documented when using these models to ensure a common understanding of any assumptions made in the initial planning phases.
Example Work Products
1. Estimation rationale
2. Effort estimates
3. Cost estimates
Subpractices
1. Collect models or historical data to be used to transform the attributes of work products and tasks into estimates of labor hours and costs.
Many parametric models have been developed to help estimate cost and schedule. The use of these models as the sole source of estimation is not recommended because these models are based on historical work data that may or may not be pertinent to the planned work. Multiple models and methods can be used to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimate.
Historical data should include the cost, effort, and schedule data from previously executed work and appropriate scaling data to account for differing sizes and complexity.
2. Include supporting infrastructure needs when estimating effort and cost.
The supporting infrastructure includes resources needed from a development and sustainment perspective for the product.
Consider the infrastructure resource needs in the development environment, the test environment, the production environment, the operational environment, or any appropriate combination of these environments when estimating effort and cost.
3. Estimate effort and cost using models, historical data, or a combination of both.
SG 2 Develop a Work Plan
A work plan is established and maintained as the basis for managing the work.
A work plan is a formal, approved document used to manage and control the execution of the work. It is based on requirements and established estimates.
The work plan should consider all phases of the lifecycle. Work planning should ensure that all plans affecting the work are consistent with the overall work plan.
SP 2.1 Establish the Budget and Schedule
Establish and maintain the budget and schedule.
The budget and schedule are based on developed estimates and ensure that budget allocation, task complexity, and task dependencies are appropriately addressed.
Event driven, resource-limited schedules have proven to be effective in dealing with risk. Identifying accomplishments to be demonstrated before initiation of an event provides some flexibility in the timing of the event, a common understanding of what is expected, a better vision of the state of the work, and a more accurate status of the work tasks.
The subpractices and example work products of this specific practice should be interpreted both at the overall service level and within each service type as appropriate. That is, individual service requests (e.g., to repair a piece of equipment in a remote facility, transport a package to a destination) can have individual milestones, task dependencies, resource allocations, and scheduling constraints that should be considered together and in coordination with the larger budgeting and scheduling activities.
Example Work Products
1. Schedules
2. Schedule dependencies
3. Budget
Subpractices
1. Identify major milestones.
Milestones are pre-planned events or points in time at which a thorough review of status is conducted to understand how well stakeholder requirements are being met. (If the work includes a developmental milestone, then the review is conducted to ensure that the assumptions and requirements associated with that milestone are being met.) Milestones can be associated with the overall service or a particular service type or instance. Milestones can thus be event based or calendar based. If calendar based, once agreed, milestone dates are often difficult to change.
2. Identify schedule assumptions.
When schedules are initially developed, it is common to make assumptions about the duration of certain activities. These assumptions are frequently made on items for which little if any estimation data are available. Identifying these assumptions provides insight into the level of confidence (i.e., uncertainties) in the overall schedule.
3. Identify constraints.
Factors that limit the flexibility of management options should be identified as early as possible. The examination of the attributes of work products and tasks often bring these issues to the surface. Such attributes can include task duration, resources, inputs, and outputs.
4. Identify task dependencies.
Frequently, the tasks for a project or service can be accomplished in some ordered sequence that minimizes the duration. This sequencing involves the identification of predecessor and successor tasks to determine optimal ordering.
5. Establish and maintain the budget and schedule.
6. Establish corrective action criteria.
Criteria are established for determining what constitutes a significant deviation from the work plan. A basis for gauging issues and problems is necessary to determine when corrective action should be taken. Corrective actions can lead to replanning, which may include revising the original plan, establishing new agreements, or including mitigation activities in the current plan. The work plan defines when (e.g., under what circumstances, with what frequency) the criteria will be applied and by whom.
SP 2.2 Identify Risks
Identify and analyze risks.
Refer to the Risk Management process area for more information about identifying potential problems before they occur so that risk handling activities can be planned and invoked as needed across the life of the product or work to mitigate adverse impacts on achieving objectives.
Refer to the Monitor Risks specific practice in the Work Monitoring and Control process area for more information about risk monitoring activities.
Risks are identified or discovered and analyzed to support work planning. This specific practice should be extended to all plans that affect the work to ensure that appropriate interfacing is taking place among all relevant stakeholders on identified risks.
Example Work Products
1. Identified risks
2. Risk impacts and probability of occurrence
3. Risk priorities
Subpractices
1. Identify risks.
The identification of risks involves the identification of potential issues, hazards, threats, vulnerabilities, and so on that could negatively affect work efforts and plans. Risks should be identified and described understandably before they can be analyzed and managed properly. When identifying risks, it is a good idea to use a standard method for defining risks. Risk identification and analysis tools can be used to help identify possible problems.
2. Document risks.
3. Review and obtain agreement with relevant stakeholders on the completeness and correctness of documented risks.
4. Revise risks as appropriate.
SP 2.3 Plan Data Management
Plan for the management of data.
Data are forms of documentation required to support the work in all of its areas (e.g., administration, engineering, configuration management, finance, logistics, quality, safety, manufacturing, procurement). The data can take any form (e.g., reports, manuals, notebooks, charts, drawings, specifications, files, correspondence). The data can exist in any medium (e.g., printed or drawn on various materials, photographs, electronic, multimedia).
Data can be deliverable (e.g., items identified by contract data requirements) or data can be nondeliverable (e.g., informal data, trade studies, analyses, internal meeting minutes, internal design review documentation, lessons learned, action items). Distribution can take many forms, including electronic transmission.
Data requirements for the work should be established for both data items to be created and their content and form, based on a common or standard set of data requirements. Uniform content and format requirements for data items facilitate understanding of data content and help with consistent management of data resources.
The reason for collecting each document should be clear. This task includes the analysis and verification of deliverables and nondeliverables, data requirements, and customer supplied data. Often, data are collected with no clear understanding of how they will be used. Data are costly and should be collected only when needed.
Example Work Products
1. Data management plan
2. Master list of managed data
3. Data content and format description
4. Lists of data requirements for acquirers and suppliers
5. Privacy requirements
6. Security requirements
7. Security procedures
8. Mechanisms for data retrieval, reproduction, and distribution
9. Schedule for the collection of data
10. List of data to be collected
Subpractices
1. Establish requirements and procedures to ensure privacy and the security of data.
Not everyone will have the need or clearance necessary to access data. Procedures should be established to identify who has access to which data as well as when they have access to which data.
Requirements and procedures can cover service staff who will have the responsibility for the security of data under the terms of a service agreement.
2. Establish a mechanism to archive data and to access archived data.
Accessed information should be in an understandable form (e.g., electronic or computer output from a database) or represented as originally generated.
3. Determine the data to be identified, collected, and distributed.
4. Determine the requirements for providing access to and distribution of data to relevant stakeholders.
A review of other elements of the work plan can help to determine who requires access to or receipt of data as well as which data are involved.
5. Decide which data and plans require version control or other levels of configuration control and establish mechanisms to ensure data are controlled.
SP 2.4 Plan the Resources
Plan for resources to perform the work.
Defining resources (e.g., labor, equipment, materials, methods) and quantities needed to perform work activities builds on initial estimates and provides additional information that can be applied to expand the WBS used to manage the work.
The top-level WBS developed earlier as an estimation mechanism is typically expanded by decomposing these top levels into work packages that represent single work units that can be separately assigned, performed, and tracked. This subdivision is done to distribute management responsibility and provide better management control.
Each work package in the WBS should be assigned a unique identifier (e.g., number) to permit tracking. A WBS can be based on requirements, activities, work products, services, or a combination of these items. A dictionary that describes the work for each work package in the WBS should accompany the work breakdown structure.
Example Work Products
1. Work packages
2. WBS task dictionary
3. Staffing requirements based on work size and scope
4. Critical facilities and equipment list
5. Process and workflow definitions and diagrams
6. Work administration requirements list
7. Status reports
Subpractices
1. Determine process requirements.
The processes used to manage the work are identified, defined, and coordinated with all relevant stakeholders to ensure efficient operations during work execution.
2. Determine communication requirements.
These requirements address the kinds of mechanisms to be used for communicating with customers, end users, service provider staff, and other relevant stakeholders.
Communication mechanisms can be created during service system development and should be regularly reviewed, tailored, and possibly supplemented to meet ongoing service delivery needs.
3. Determine staffing requirements.
The staffing for work depends on the decomposition of requirements into tasks, roles, and responsibilities for accomplishing requirements as laid out in the work packages of the WBS.
Staffing requirements should consider the knowledge and skills required for each identified position as defined in the Plan Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.
Refer to the Capacity and Availability Management process area for more information about ensuring effective service system performance and ensuring that resources are provided and used effectively to support service requirements.
4. Determine facility, equipment, and component requirements.
Most work groups are unique in some way and require a set of unique assets to accomplish work objectives. The determination and acquisition of these assets in a timely manner are crucial to work success.
It is best to identify lead-time items early to determine how they will be addressed. Even when required assets are not unique, compiling a list of all facilities, equipment, and parts (e.g., number of computers for the staff working on the work group, software applications, office space) provides insight into aspects of the scope of an effort that are often overlooked.
5. Determine other continuing resource requirements.
Beyond determining processes, reporting templates, staffing, facilities, and equipment, there may be a continuing need for other types of resources to effectively carry out work activities, including the following:
• Consumables (e.g., electricity, office supplies)
• Access to intellectual property
• Access to transportation (for people and equipment)
The requirements for such resources are derived from the requirements found in (existing and future) agreements (e.g., customer agreements, service agreements, supplier agreements), the strategic approach, and the need to manage and maintain operations for a period of time.
SP 2.5 Plan Needed Knowledge and Skills
Plan for knowledge and skills needed to perform the work.
Refer to the Organizational Training process area for more information about developing skills and knowledge of people so they can perform their roles effectively and efficiently.
Knowledge delivery to work groups involves training staff and acquiring knowledge from outside sources.
Staffing requirements are dependent on the knowledge and skills available to support the execution of the work.
Planning for training addresses the knowledge and skills required by work group members and support staff to perform their tasks. Knowledge and skill needs can be derived from identified risks.
Training can also include orientation in the work group’s processes and the domain knowledge required to execute work tasks. The work group can also identify and plan for the knowledge and skills needed by its suppliers. Planning includes ensuring that costs and funding sources to pay for training are available and lead times are sufficient to obtain funding and training.
For long-duration and continuous-operation services, the knowledge and skills needed will evolve as the following occur:
• Staff members rotate in and out of the work group (or from one service type to another)
• The technology used in the service system or an individual service changes
• The processes and technology used in the development or customer environments change
Refer to the Service System Transition process area for more information about preparing for service system transition and preparing stakeholders for changes.
Example Work Products
1. Inventory of skill needs
2. Staffing and new hire plans
3. Databases (e.g., skills, training)
4. Training plans
Subpractices
1. Identify the knowledge and skills needed to perform the work.
2. Assess the knowledge and skills available.
3. Select mechanisms for providing needed knowledge and skills.
The choice of in-house training or outsourced training for needed knowledge and skills is determined by the availability of training expertise, the work schedule, and business objectives.
4. Incorporate selected mechanisms into the work plan.
SP 2.6 Plan Stakeholder Involvement
Plan the involvement of identified stakeholders.
Stakeholders are identified from all phases of the work lifecycle identifying the people and functions that should be represented in the work and describing their relevance and the degree of interaction for work activities. A two-dimensional matrix with stakeholders along one axis and work activities along the other axis is a convenient format for accomplishing this identification. Relevance of the stakeholder to the activity in a particular phase and the amount of interaction expected would be shown at the intersection of the phase activity axis and the stakeholder axis.
For inputs of stakeholders to be useful, careful selection of relevant stakeholders is necessary. For each major activity, identify stakeholders who are affected by the activity and those who have expertise that is needed to conduct the activity. This list of relevant stakeholders will probably change as the work moves through phases of the work lifecycle. It is important, however, to ensure that relevant stakeholders in the latter phases of the lifecycle have early input to requirements and design decisions that affect them.
Refer to the Service Delivery process area for more information about establishing service agreements.
Implementing this specific practice relies on shared or exchanged information with the previous Plan Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.
Example Work Products
1. Stakeholder involvement plan
SP 2.7 Establish the Work Plan
Establish and maintain the overall work plan.
A documented plan that addresses all relevant planning items is necessary to achieve the mutual understanding and commitment of individuals, groups, and organizations that execute or support the plans.
The plan generated for the work defines all aspects of the effort, tying together the following in a logical manner:
• Work lifecycle considerations
• Tasks
• Budgets and schedules
• Milestones
• Data management
• Risk identification
• Resource and skill requirements
• Stakeholder identification and interaction
• Infrastructure considerations
Infrastructure considerations include responsibility and authority relationships for work group members, management, and support organizations.
Example Work Products
1. Overall work plan
Subpractices
1. Document the work plan.
Work groups can consist of other, lower level work groups. A service can consist of a service system development work group and a service delivery work group. Service delivery can consist of several services that can benefit from separate planning and the practices of this process area. When work groups consist of other groups, the overall work plan should refer to the plans of the lower level work groups and all related plans should be compatible and appropriately support one another.
2. Include, reference, and reconcile the results of planning activities as appropriate.
To gain the support of relevant stakeholders, the work plan should document a realistic and sensible approach to meeting their needs, expectations, and constraints. Such a plan requires various planning elements to be reasonably complete and consistent (at least until the next plan revision, which may be weeks or months away).
If implemented appropriately, the specific practices of this process area address the Plan the Process generic practice as applied to other process areas within the scope of the process improvement effort, but otherwise the results of implementing that generic practice should also be considered in this subpractice.
3. Review the work plan with relevant stakeholders and get its agreement.
The specific practices of the next specific goal, Obtain Commitment to the Plan, describe activities to help ensure that the work plan describes a realistic approach for meeting the needs, expectations, and constraints of relevant stakeholders and to help ensure that these relevant stakeholders will fulfill their roles as described in the work plan, including the provision of resources and other forms of support during work execution.
4. Revise the work plan as necessary.
In general, when revising the work plan, it may be necessary to repeat many of the planning activities described in this process area to help ensure that relevant stakeholder commitments to the plan are maintained.
SG 3 Obtain Commitment to the Plan
Commitments to the work plan are established and maintained.
To be effective, plans require commitment by those who are responsible for implementing and supporting the plan.
SP 3.1 Review Plans That Affect the Work
Review all plans that affect the work to understand work commitments.
Plans developed in other process areas typically contain information similar to that called for in the overall work plan. These plans can provide additional detailed guidance and should be compatible with and support the overall work plan to indicate who has the authority, responsibility, accountability, and control. All plans that affect the work should be reviewed to ensure they contain a common understanding of the scope, objectives, roles, and relationships that are required for the work to be successful. Many of these plans are described by the Plan the Process generic practice.
Example Work Products
1. Record of the reviews of plans that affect the work
SP 3.2 Reconcile Work and Resource Levels
Adjust the work plan to reconcile available and estimated resources.
To establish work that is feasible, obtain commitment from relevant stakeholders and reconcile differences between estimates and available resources. Reconciliation is typically accomplished by modifying or deferring requirements, negotiating more resources, finding ways to increase productivity, outsourcing, adjusting the staff skill mix, or revising all plans that affect the work or its schedules.
Example Work Products
1. Revised methods and corresponding estimating parameters (e.g., better tools, the use of off-the-shelf components)
2. Renegotiated budgets
3. Revised schedules
4. Revised requirements list
5. Renegotiated stakeholder agreements
SP 3.3 Obtain Plan Commitment
Obtain commitment from relevant stakeholders responsible for performing and supporting plan execution.
Obtaining commitment involves interaction among all relevant stakeholders, both internal and external to the work group. The individual or group making a commitment should have confidence that the work can be performed within cost, schedule, and performance constraints. Often, a provisional commitment is adequate to allow the effort to begin and to permit research to be performed to increase confidence to the appropriate level needed to obtain a full commitment.
Example Work Products
1. Documented requests for commitments
2. Documented commitments
Subpractices
1. Identify needed support and negotiate commitments with relevant stakeholders.
The WBS can be used as a checklist for ensuring that commitments are obtained for all tasks.
The plan for stakeholder interaction should identify all parties from whom commitment should be obtained.
2. Document all organizational commitments, both full and provisional, ensuring the appropriate level of signatories.
Commitments should be documented to ensure a consistent mutual understanding and for work tracking and maintenance. Provisional commitments should be accompanied by a description of risks associated with the relationship.
3. Review internal commitments with senior management as appropriate.
4. Review external commitments with senior management as appropriate.
Management can have the necessary insight and authority to reduce risks associated with external commitments.
5. Identify commitments regarding interfaces between work elements and other work groups and organizational units so that these commitments can be monitored.
Well-defined interface specifications form the basis for commitments.