Risk management - Project Life Cycle - plan
Project Life Cycle
PLAN
Design
Having received a GO decision from the ‘concept’ stage the Design stage is there to put more meat on the bones on the concept.
Increase in the resource will be required compared to that used in the ‘concept’ stage.
Objectives and performance criteria outlined in the ‘concept’ stage will be developed a little further. This may involve the identification of additional ones.
In much the same way as for the ‘concept’ the discussion steps in this stage will lead to a review of the design in respect of a GO / NO GO / MAYBE decision.
The MAYBE decision may lead to a the need for extra data, a revisit of the design discussion steps or even a revision of the ‘concept’ itself.
We need to test the reliability and feasibility of the design.
Having identified the performance criteria in the ‘concept’ stage they should be ‘set’ here.
An assessment of potential costs, benefits and implications for design changes should be carried out.
Plan
Once the ‘design’ stage has been given the GO decision then the ‘plan’ stage here will generate a BASE PLAN.
This affords an indication of HOW the product will be made, using which RESOURCES and a good idea of the WHEN in terms of the timing.
Note: The use of the term BASE plan can be ambiguous. It will be the plan (schedule) that will be used to begin the ‘execute’ phase. However, this assumes that there has already been a risk management process input. If this is the case an ‘INITIAL’ summary plan will be required to start the risk management process which may be modified to a ‘REFERENCE’ plan and then end up as a ‘BASE’ plan. See elsewhere for more detail [see Types of plans].
Deeper consideration will be given to project targets and milestones.
This must be detailed enough to properly consider the targets and milestones and to allow the ‘allocation’ stage to proceed.
Resource will need to be assessed together with any for contingency with associated costs.
Involvement of external personnel may be required here.
Don’t forget to allow for regulatory issues and constraints.
The feasibility, cost and duration of the plan requires review.
Again, in similar vein to the ‘design’ stage the discussion steps for this stage will lead to a review and a possible GO / NO GO / MAYBE decision.
Should a MAYBE decision be forthcoming then this may require an elaboration of the ‘plan’ steps in terms of the targets and milestones and may even necessitate going back to the ‘design’ steps or even the ‘concept’ stage.
Allocate
This stage requires a detailed allocation of resource.
It is not just a case of numbers but WHO will actually carry out the activities within the plan.
In fact, the RISK in the plan is being shared out. The Project Manager’s choices here can greatly influence the success of the plan.
It will involve allocation of contracts leading to potential sub contracts. Included within this will be the setting of target costs and bid prices for the tenders.
Within this the actual sharing of any risk will need to be agreed.
We will look at this elsewhere [see The contractor].
There will be a need to assess contractor tenders for the project. Let’s not forget to assess some idea of projected profit from the exercise.
Procurement methods should be assessed.
Again, in similar vein to the ‘plan’ stage the discussion steps for this stage will lead to a review and a possible GO / NO GO / MAYBE decision.
As usual, a MAYBE will see further analysis of the allocation discussion steps. Any revisit of the ‘plan’ or ‘design’ stage could lead to problems whereas a revisit of the ‘concept’ could prove fatal to the project.