THE TYPE OF PROJECT determines how much and what type of planning you need to do to ensure that your project runs smoothly. Planning requirements depend on the amount of coordination needed to keep everyone working in unison. Let’s examine the three project types and their planning requirements.
In a Type 1 project, project team members do the work of the project during the project team meetings. Examples of Type 1 projects are process improvement, reengineering and most strategic planning projects. Because the deliverables are created by all of the team members, working together, there is little need for coordinating the work except during the team meetings. This means that Type 1 projects have minimal planning requirements (see exhibit).
If team members do their project work outside of the project team meetings, it’s a Type 2 project. Most small projects (projects with three to 12 people) fall into this category. Since team members go off and create their own deliverables (the work of the project), the team must plan how the work will be coordinated—who will do what, by when, and where the handoffs or interdependencies are. Thus, Type 2 projects require more planning than Type 1 projects (see exhibit).
Is your project Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3? And what difference does it make anyway?
The third project type, Type 3, is for large projects, projects that have more than 12 people. Once a project requires more people than can comfortably participate in a team (maximum 12), it needs to be broken into manageable chunks, called subprojects. Just as organizations create a hierarchy in order to manage large numbers of people, Type 3 projects must do the same. The main project is broken down into subprojects. Each subproject is led by a subproject leader who also sits on the main project team. Subproject team members participate on the subproject team and do the work of the subproject. (In very large projects, more than one level of hierarchy or subproject may be required.)
Paula Martin and Karen Tate, of Martin Tate (www.projectresults.com), a project management training firm, are the authors of the Project Management Memory Jogger™ (available through the PMI Bookstore. Comments on this column may be sent to [email protected].
Planning for the Three Project Types
Exhibit 1. Here are examples of project types and the required planning level—project level (PL) or subproject level (SPL).
Type 3 projects require coordination at both the project level (PL) and the subproject level (SPL). You need to determine which subprojects will do what, by when and what the interdependencies will be. You also need to break the scope, budget, and staffing estimates down by subproject. Each subproject must also know who needs to do what, by when, and what the interdependencies are. Therefore, each basic planning activity must be done by the main project team and by each subproject team (again, see exhibit).
In a Type 3 project, planning usually starts at the project level, where the overview for each subproject is developed. Then each subproject goes off and drills down into the details. The subproject data is then brought back to the project level and compiled into project data.
It’s important to delegate detailed planning and accountability to the subprojects, because by doing so, you empower them to take care of their own parts of the project, freeing the main project team to stay focused on what should be of prime importance to them—the interdependencies between the subprojects. This also keeps the project team focused on what’s really important to the project.
SO BEFORE YOU START planning your next project, take a minute to determine what type of project you’re working on. Maybe you will need less planning than you thought; maybe you will need more!