Tasmanian Government Project Management - Small to Medium ...



PM 904 Project Business Plan

(Small to Medium Sized Projects)

Template & Guide

This guide is intended to be read in conjunction with the following template for the development of a Project Business Plan for a small project.

As such, the Guide should be removed from the front of your final document.

Another template for the development of a Project Business Plan for a larger, more complex project (PM 004 Project Business Plan) has also been developed.

The project management templates are being continuously improved. Feedback on suggested improvements to this Template would be appreciated, and may be made to Project Services by emailing PMInfo@dpac..au.

DISCLAIMER

This material has been prepared for use by Tasmanian Government agencies and Instrumentalities. It follows that this material should not be relied upon by any other person. Furthermore, to the extent that ‘this material is relied upon’, the Crown in Right of the State of Tasmania gives no warranty as to the accuracy or correctness of the material or for any advice given or for omissions from the material. Users rely on the material at their own risk.

Version 1.0 (December 2002)

What is a Project Business Plan?

A Project Business Plan is the management document for the project. It is owned, maintained and utilised by the Steering Committee to ensure the delivery of project outputs and the realisation of project outcomes. In the case of small to medium sized projects it is also the management document for the Project Manager as opposed to a separate Project Execution Plan.

The Fact Sheet on Project Sizing defines what may be considered a small and medium sized project.

Why would you develop a Project Business Plan?

A Project Business Plan is developed to provide:

• An overview of all the project components, how you intend to produce the outputs and briefly describes the roles and responsibilities of each of the parties;

• the project’s Sponsor/Steering Committee with a documented framework to ensure the delivery of defined project outcomes and to effectively monitor the project from start to finish; and

• a formalised agreement between the Project Sponsor/Steering Committee and the Project Manager of what needs to be done and when.

The document may expand upon the original Project Proposal or the approved option in the Project Business Case if these exist, enabling further definition of the scope of the project.

When would you develop a Project Business Plan?

Approval to develop a Project Business Plan for a small project may come from senior management or be obtained from the acceptance or approval of a preceding stage such as a Project Proposal[1], or Project Business Case.

What you need before you start:

• Agreement to proceed with the development of the Project Business Plan from the Project Sponsor.

• Knowledge and understanding of the development of a Project Business Plan, as outlined in the Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines.

Optional

• Endorsed document establishing the scope of the Project Business Plan, which could be a Project Proposal or a Project Business Case.

• Knowledge and understanding of project planning, scope definition, stakeholder identification, risk identification and the development of work breakdown structures.

• Awareness of the environmental factors that may affect the project such as political, industrial, legislative, technical, financial, social, cultural and security/privacy.

• Corporate/Business Plan for the Department/Business Unit.

• Departmental Project Management Guidelines.

What you will have when you are finished:

A complete Project Business Plan for a small to medium sized project that is ready for acceptance by the Project Sponsor or Project Steering Committee.

How to use this template?

The template contains sections which are either optional or can be developed at a number of levels of detail depending upon individual need.

The resulting document should be brief. Sections that are not required may:

• be deleted;

• indicate that the section is not applicable; or

• refer to another document.

All documents developed based on this template should include an appropriate acknowledgement.

A number of different text styles have been used within the template, as follows:

• Text in italics is intended to provide a guide as to the kind of information that can be included in a section and to what types of projects it might be applicable.

• Text in normal font is intended as examples.

• Text enclosed in is intended to be replaced by whatever it is describing.

.

Project Business Plan

Organisational Unit

DEPARTMENT OF ...

Version 0.A (dd mmm yyyy)

Acknowledgements

The contribution of the following individuals in preparing this document is gratefully acknowledged:

The following paragraph should be included in the documents where these templates have been used as a basis for development.

This document has been derived from a template prepared by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania. The structure is based on a number of methodologies as described in the Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines.

DOCUMENT ACCEPTANCE and RELEASE NOTICE

This is of the Project Business Plan.

The Project Business Plan is a managed document. For identification of amendments each page contains a release number and a page number. Changes will only be issued as a complete replacement document. Recipients should remove superseded versions from circulation. This document is authorised for release once all signatures have been obtained.

PREPARED: DATE:___/___/___

(for acceptance) (, Project Manager)

ACCEPTED: DATE:___/___/___

(for release) (Project Sponsor,)

1. BUILD STATUS:

The most recent amendment first.

|Version |Date |Author |Reason |Sections |

| | | | | |

2. AMENDMENTS IN THIS RELEASE:

|Section Title |Section Number |Amendment Summary |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

3. DISTRIBUTION:

|Copy No |Version |Issue Date |Issued To |

|1 | | | |

|2 | | | |

| | | | |

|Electronic | | | |

Table of Contents

1. Overview 5

1.1. Project Title 5

1.2. Project Background 5

2. Objectives and Scope 5

2.1. Objective(s) 5

2.2. Outcome(s)/Benefits 5

2.3. Output(s) 5

2.4. Assumptions and Constraints 5

3. Project Management Plan 6

3.1. Governance 6

3.2. Project Sponsor/Steering Committee 6

3.3. Project Manager 6

3.4. Project Team 7

3.5. Quality Consultants 7

3.6. Reference Groups 7

3.7. Working Parties/Groups 7

3.8. Reporting Requirements 7

4. Stakeholder Management & Communication 7

4.1. Related Projects 8

5. Resourcing Requirements 8

5.1. Budget and Expenditure 8

5.2. Other Resources 8

6. Risk Management Plan 8

7. Quality Management 8

8. Project Closure & Outcome Realisation 9

9. Project Activities and Milestones 9

10. Appendices 9

Appendix 1 - Risk Analysis 10

Overview

1 Project Title

(XYZ) – Abbreviation and Long Title.

2 Project Background

Briefly describe the reasons for establishing the project and how it was initiated, include any relevant background information. This should be less than half a page long.

Objectives and Scope

1 Objective(s)

What is the goal of the project, what is it expected to deliver? A high level description of the objective(s) of the project (a one-liner).

2 Outcome(s)/Benefits

List the target outcomes/benefits, the measures which will be used to measure success and the dates for achievement.

3 Output(s)

Outputs (deliverables) describe what new products, services, businesses, or management practices will need to be implemented to meet each identified outcome. List all of the deliverable adding details as required.

4 Assumptions and Constraints

It is important that assumptions made during the planning process are identified and recorded in the Project Business Plan along with any constraints. This may include deadlines, financial and budgetary, legislation, resource availability, environmental, technology, security etc.

Project Management Plan

1 Governance

[pic]

[pic]

Figure 1: Governance Structure for the Project

Determine what parties you require from the figure above, list them in the paragraphs below and detail their responsibilities. Dotted boxes indicate Optional Groups.

2 Project Sponsor/Steering Committee

Small to medium sized projects may have a Steering Committee or may just have a Project Sponsor/Line Manager. The Project Sponsor may be the Business Owner of the project. The Project Sponsor is a member of the Steering Committee, usually the Chair, and has delegated authority of the Steering Committee to assist with issues that arise outside the formal business of the Steering Committee.

Project Sponsor (Chairperson):

Members:

3 Project Manager

The Project Manager delivers the defined project outputs. They manage the day-to-day aspects of the project, resolving planning and implementation issues, budgeting, and monitoring and reporting progress.

Nominee:

4 Project Team

The Project Manager leads the project team. It is desirable that the project team includes representatives from the business unit(s) affected by the project. The selection of people with the requisite skills for a project is critical to its overall success.

Contractors may be employed, external to the business area, to provide a specified service in relation to the development of project outputs.

The proposed project team is:

Nominee(s): [Name], [Title], [Section/Company] – [full time or part time]

5 Quality Consultants

Significant projects may engage a Quality Consultant to advise and undertake formal quality reviews of the project processes and/or outputs. These Consultants work independently of the project team and may be employed from outside the organisation. The Quality Consultants usually report directly to the Project Sponsor/Steering Committee.

For more information, refer to Appendix 1 in the Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines.

6 Reference Groups

Reference Groups provide forums to achieve consensus among groups of stakeholders. They may already exist, have an indefinite life span and may continue for the life of the project.

7 Working Parties/Groups

These consist of small specialist groups dedicated to producing well-defined output(s) within a specific time frame and in accordance with the project plan requirements. A working party has no life beyond the delivery of that output.

8 Reporting Requirements

Project reports for the Project Sponsor/Steering Committee are required to concentrate on the management issues of the project. The reporting frequency, the format and to whom the report goes should be described.

A template for Project Manager’s Status Report is available.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

List the key stakeholders who will impact the project or be impacted by the project and describe how they will be engaged. A summary of the overall key communication and management issues for the project, concentrating on what will contribute to the project’s success or where a lack of communication can lead to failure may assist.

For further information on stakeholder management, refer to the Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines, Communication Planning Fact Sheet or the Large Project Business Plan etc.

1 Related Projects

Identify any related projects and what the relationship is. The relationship refers to whether:

• a related project is dependent on or interdependent with this project; or

• whether this project is dependent on another project.

The nature of a dependency can include a shared relationship with data, functionality, staff, technology and/or funding.

Resourcing Requirements

1 Budget and Expenditure

Summarise the project’s budget and expected expenditure.

2 Other Resources

List other resourcing requirements, for example human resources, accommodation, IT equipment, information requirements.

Risk Management Plan

A risk analysis is to be undertaken upon commencement and regularly reviewed throughout the project life cycle. The results of the initial analysis should be included as an appendix.

Include here a summary of the major risks, mitigation strategies, costs and an assessment as to the overall risk associated with the project. Also discuss how risks will be managed in relation to risk identification, reviews and reporting.

For further information on assessing the project’s exposure to risk, refer to the Tasmanian Government Project Management Guidelines and the Risk Management Resource Kit.

Quality Management

Quality Management should contain project specific information describing the:

• methodologies and standards;

• monitoring procedures;

• the review processes to be used to capture lessons learnt throughout the project;

• change/issues/problem management;

• review and acceptance procedures; and

• documentation and record keeping.

Project Closure & Outcome Realisation

Describe how the targeted outcomes (from paragraph 2.2) are going to be measured, by whom, when and reported to whom.

How are the outputs going to be handed over to the Business Owner? What are the training requirements and what ongoing provisions (for resources) have been made/are required? At what point will the project be closed?

Will a review be held to capture the lessons learnt from the project. If so describe the process.

Project Activities and Milestones

List the major activities and milestones for the project. Milestones are indicated by a blank scheduled start date. Activities in the predecessor column must be completed prior to this activity commencing.

|Id |Description |Who |Scheduled Start |Scheduled Finish |Predecessor |

|1 | | | | | |

| | | | | | |

Appendices

The documents and forms may be attached to the Project Business Plan as appendices to enhance or meet specific project requirements. For example:

• Risk Analysis

Provides ‘snapshot’ details of the current risk assessment and risk management strategies.

• Project Plan

A ‘snapshot’ Gantt Chart, or similar, of major project milestones and processes.

Appendix 1 - Risk Analysis

Copy in the Risk Management Template here and complete as per the Risk Management Fact sheet, both available from projectmanagement..au.

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[1] For a definition of these underlined terms, refer to the Project Management Glossary

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