Mitigation Strategies

1.1.3Business Case—Insert the project Business Case here. You can find an explanation of the business case in Chapter 5. Briefly identify the business needs to be satisfied, the feasibility of the project, a description of internal and external forces likely to affect the project, a comparative analysis of the costs and benefits of this project over alternative solutions, and time estimates to return on investment. Identify how the satisfaction of business needs will be determined.
1.2Project Deliverables—List the major items or project features to be delivered to the client. Include sign-off documentation from client to demonstrate their concurrence with the deliverable set.
1.3Project Organization—Indicate all project team members, their specific roles, and ¬project organization hierarchy. Where appropriate, indicate joint responsibility between project manager and functional manager. Develop project team reporting structure and include sponsor and/or executive team sign-off. See Chapter 3 for examples of project ¬organization types.
1.4Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)—Insert a WBS for the project, including all key ¬deliverables and work packages. Include sign-off from project stakeholders on WBS.
1.4.1Include project task description documentation
If appropriate, complete project task description data sheets (for an example, see Figure 5.5 from Chapter 5 .
1.4.2Include an organization breakdown structure (OBS) if needed. Identify all cost accounts across cooperating departments in the organization. See Figure 5.7 from Chapter 5 .
1.5Responsibility Assignment Matrix—Include a copy of a RAM for the project identifying all team members by WBS task code, including tasks for which they assume responsibility, notification, support, or approval upon completion. See Figure 5.10 from Chapter 5 .
1.6Work Authorization—Include a copy of the contract or specific mention of contract terms and conditions. Include all penalty clauses and specific events that will trigger execution of penalties. Include all notification information, including members of the organization to be notified of changes in contract terms.
1.7Project Charter—Include a copy of the project charter here. Include the formal sanction of the project and authorization to apply organizational resources to the project’s execution. See an example in the Appendix to Chapter 5.
Risk Assessment—This section requires evidence of project risk assessment. The section is divided into subsections on identification of risks, analysis (assessment of risk probability and consequences), and mitigation strategies. See Chapter 7 for methods for risk management.
2.1Risk Identification—Identify all relevant risk variables for the project, including a brief description of the risk variable and the ways in which it is likely to affect the project.
2.2Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Qualitative)—Insert a qualitative risk assessment matrix in this space. Give evidence of how you arrived at this assessment, including sign-offs from key project stakeholders participating in the risk assessment exercise.
Low Consequences High Consequences
Low Likelihood Low Priority Medium Priority
High Likelihood Medium Priority High Priority
Sample Qualitative Risk Assessment Matrix
2.3Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Quantitative)—Insert a quantitative ¬assessment of probability and consequences, clearly identifying the criteria used for ¬determining both probability of failure and consequence of failure. Insert this analysis here.
2.4Mitigation Strategies—Identify individual mitigation strategies for each high priority risk factor. Briefly describe the strategy as either: Accept, Minimize, Transfer, or Share and specify actions to be taken in order to accomplish the strategy.
Project Schedule—This section addresses the duration estimates for all project activities, their activity networks, project critical path, and estimated project duration. A copy of the approved project schedule, including both activity network and Gantt chart, should be inserted in this section of the execution plan. See Chapters 9 and 11 for methods for project schedule development.
3.1Activity Duration Estimates—Insert table with all activity duration estimates shown. Indicate if each estimate was derived stochastically (through PERT probability estimates) or deterministically. Add sign-off documentation from key organization members, ¬including the project sponsor, that supports these duration estimates.
3.2Gantt Chart—Insert copy of project Gantt chart from MS Project output file. On the chart, make sure to identify the project critical path, estimated time to completion, and resource assignments. Indicate all activity precedence relationships, including any lag requirements. Show all milestones and other significant mid-project stages, including scheduled supplier delivery dates (where appropriate).
3.3Activity Network—Provide activity-on-node (AON) project network from MS Project output file.
Project Budget—This section includes activity cost estimation and the project budget. All direct and indirect costs should be included as well as the method used to develop fully loaded costs for all project resources. See Chapters 8 and 12 for examples of methods for cost estimation, fully loaded resource charges, time-phased budgeting, and resource leveling.
4.1Project Resources—Identify all project resources. Include employment status (full-time, part-time, exemption status, etc.). Develop fully loaded cost table for all project resources.
4.2Other costs—Identify all significant costs for materials, equipment, overhead, expediting, etc.
4.3Cost estimates—Submit ballpark, comparative, and feasibility estimates. Show all information gathered to support these estimates. Identify who participated in the cost estimate exercise. Provide final, definitive estimate with sponsor sign-off for final project budget.
4.4Time-phased Budget—Submit time-phased budget with estimated expenses costed by project duration increments (weeks, months, quarters, etc.).
Communications Management—This section identifies all critical communication channels for project stakeholders, frequency of communications, types of information to be communicated, and project status tracking plan. Where appropriate, include electronic media used for collaborative purposes (e.g., Google Docs, Yammer, Facebook, etc.). Also, in cases of geographically dispersed project teams, indicate methods for regular communication. See discussion from Chapter 6 on team communication methods. An example of a communication management protocol is shown below.
Purpose of communication Schedule frequency Media or mechanism used Called by: Participants
Status updates Weekly Meeting and/or -teleconference Project manager Full project team
Exception/variance reports As needed Meeting and/or -teleconference Project manager or technical lead Impacted team ¬members and client
Project reviews Monthly or at milestone Meeting and/or -teleconference Project manager Full project team, ¬sponsor
Configuration changes As changes are ¬approved Meeting for impacted parties; e-mail for team Project manager, sponsor or technical lead Impacted team ¬members and client
Supplier coordination As needed prior to and post deliveries Phone call Supply chain lead Project manager and supply chain lead
Emergency or critical events As needed Face to face Any team member Full project team
Tracking and Status Updates—This section of the plan indicates the methods the project team will use to regularly update the project status, including methods for tracking project progress, and which organizational stakeholders receive notification of the project status. See Chapter 13 for examples of tracking and status updating methods.
6.1Tracking method—Show the method used to track project status (S-curve, earned value, milestones, etc.). Indicate the regularity of these assessments (i.e., monthly, as needed, upon completion of major deliverables, etc.). For earned value assessments, indicate how you will provide updated cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI) data in a sample format as shown below.
Date CPI Trend SPI Trend
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
6.2Notification record—Maintain record of project status update communications. Indicate who received project updates and show sign-off by key stakeholders upon their receipt of status updates.
6.3Control systems—Indicate the forms of project control that will be used for the project, including configuration control, design control, quality control, document control, and trend monitoring. Develop control documentation for each form of control you intend to use, including a list of key organizational stakeholders who will be copied on all control documents and status updates.
Project Close-out—In this section, all necessary project close-out documentation and sign-offs must be included. Work completed or soon-to-be-complete must be identified, and configuration management changes, all sign-off documentation, warranties, notices of completion, supplier contracts, and charges for or against suppliers must be recorded and formally documented. Include copies of client sign-off, including satisfaction of contracted terms and conditions. See Chapter 14 for examples of steps in project close-out.
7.1Close cost-accounts—Complete and close all project cost-accounts and other financial closeouts.
7.2Lessons Learned—Complete a Lessons Learned assessment that identifies all exceptions and other problems, mitigation strategies employed, success of the strategies, and suggestions for the future, and include sign-off documentation that key project team members participated in Lessons Learned meetings. Develop and embed an action plan for future projects in the Lessons Learned documentation.

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