Project planning
A successful project should be carefully planned. Planning is carried out when initial requirements are collected, and the scope is clear. However, you can plan the process of requirements elicitation separately.
During the planning phase team should perform the following activities:
- Prepare a project plan.
- Make initial estimations on time and effort.
- Split the scope into tasks and prepare a backlog.
- Plan task delivery into sprints.
Before delivery starts, the delivery team should decide on the delivery approach that describes how the chosen solution approach delivers the solution scope.
For example, the solution approach involves partitioning the proposed project into releases that will deliver useful functionality subsets to the business. In that case, the implementation approach describes the functionality in each release and the timeframe that it is expected to be delivered in. If the solution approach involves outsourcing key processes, the implementation approach defines which processes are candidates for outsourcing or the process that will be used to identify these candidates. The implementation approach can break delivery down into specific releases or provide a roadmap that indicates the timeframe in which a capability can be expected.
Project plan
The Delivery Manager prepares a project plan while estimations and tasks are planned by the Data Analyst and the Technical Lead in the sphere of their competence.
A project plan includes a work breakdown structure, scope statement, milestones, and timelines for the project. Make sure the project plan is adjusted early during the planning process to mitigate the risk of scope creep rather than finding out later once the project starts.
All parties should understand the planned schedule of releases and identify solution capabilities that deliver the most significant business value. There can be organizational restraints or policies that need to be adhered to in any implementation, including constraints such as freeze periods for implementation, general company policies, public holidays, and so on.
The Data Analyst can prepare a separate plan of DA activities and share it with SMEs to keep them informed of the start and end of the requirements gathering phase, tagging activities, milestones, and so on.
Backlog and sprint planning
The team should decide which requirements to include in each release or sprint. Many factors guide these decisions, such as the overall project timeline, budget, complexity of the tasks, the need to implement a solution or parts of the solution by a specific date, resource constraints, client expectations, and technical needs in delivery. Tasks should be planned to fit sprints and set milestones in delivery.
The general approach of more extensive projects can be a plan on an incremental or rolling-wave basis. This approach to planning creates a high-level plan for a long-term and detailed plans to address near-term activities, with the understanding that long-term plans will change as more information becomes available.
Several approaches can be identified: a change-driven methodology, primarily short-term and long-term planning. For long-term planning, you can use a roadmap to set expectations but constantly revisit its details as priorities change. Apply the change-driven approach to a well-defined, time-limited process for developing requirements and limit each iteration to the work that can be completed in the time allotted.
Change request process
A change request process is essential to establish and transfer to all stakeholders. Clients should know how changes will be managed during delivery and in the project plan and what approvals will be needed.
Usually, this is an official procedure for clients to fill in and submit a change request form. The team reviews a requested feature, estimates the effort to deliver and the impact on the scope, clarifies additional requirements, and prioritizes.
When the client doesn't follow the established change request procedure, it is critical to identify and distinguish change requests to the initial scope in the client's feedback while delivery and sort it out appropriately.
New product features will not be a problem if change requests are submitted within the established procedure, sorted out, reviewed, and prioritized. The client should be aware that additional resources to execute the extra work might be added to the project, timelines can be extended, and the budget can increase correspondingly.