Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, Tenth Edition

Planning

11.0 INTRODUCTION

PMBOK^® Guide, 4th Edition

Chapter 5 Scope Management

5.2 Define Scope

The most important responsibilities of a project manager are planning, integrating, and executing plans. Almost all projects, because of their relatively short duration and often prioritized control of resources, require formal, detailed planning. The integration of the planning activities is necessary because each functional unit may develop its own planning documentation with little regard for other functional units.

Planning, in general, can best be described as the function of selecting the enterprise objectives and establishing the policies, procedures, and programs necessary for achieving them. Planning in a project environment may be described as establishing a predetermined course of action within a forecasted environment. The project's requirements set the major milestones. If line managers cannot commit because the milestones are perceived as unrealistic, the project manager may have to develop alternatives, one of which may be to move the milestones. Upper-level management must become involved in the selection of alternatives.

The project manager is the key to successful project planning. It is desirable that the project manager be involved from project conception through ...