ICDL Project Planning (ICDL) cheat sheet

A project is temporary, creates a unique output and has a defined start and finish; operations are ongoing and repetitive.

The triple constraint links scope, time and cost, with quality at the centre: a change to one normally forces adjustment of at least one other.

Generic life cycle phases are initiation, planning, execution and closure; monitoring and control runs across all of them.

Process groups (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, closing) are not the same as phases; they overlap in time.

The project charter authorizes the project, names the project manager, and states objectives, high-level scope, budget, milestones and constraints.

SMART objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound; each objective needs an acceptance criterion.

Progressive elaboration (rolling wave planning) means detail and estimate accuracy increase as the project moves forward.

A phase gate or stage gate is a formal review where governance decides to continue, revise or terminate; money already spent is irrelevant to that decision.

The sponsor funds and authorizes the project and owns the benefits; the project manager delivers the agreed scope within the approved constraints.

The scope statement records product scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, exclusions, assumptions and constraints.

The WBS is deliverable-oriented and hierarchical; decomposition stops at work packages that can be estimated, scheduled and assigned.

100% rule: the children of every WBS node must sum exactly to the parent, covering all scope and nothing beyond it.

A work package is the lowest WBS level, commonly sized at roughly 8 to 80 hours of effort; the WBS dictionary defines its content in detail.

A deliverable is a tangible output requiring formal acceptance; a milestone is a zero-duration marker of a significant point or event.

Stakeholder analysis maps power and interest: high power/high interest stakeholders are managed closely, low power/low interest are simply monitored.

RACI assigns one Accountable per activity, a Responsible doer, two-way Consulted parties and one-way Informed parties.

Scope creep is uncontrolled scope growth without change control; gold plating is unrequested extra features added by the team.

Every scope change follows: request, impact analysis on scope, time, cost and risk, approval, then baseline update and communication.

Scheduling sequence: WBS, activity list, sequencing with dependencies, duration estimates, then the schedule baseline.

PDM dependency types are finish-to-start (most common), start-to-start, finish-to-finish and start-to-finish (rare); dependencies can also be mandatory, discretionary or external.

Lead overlaps a successor with its predecessor; lag inserts waiting time between them.

The critical path is the longest path through the network, gives the shortest possible project duration, and has zero total float.

Total float = LS minus ES = LF minus EF; free float = early start of the successor minus early finish of the activity.

The forward pass sets early start and early finish; the backward pass sets late start and late finish; float is the difference between them.

PERT expected duration = (O + 4M + P) / 6; standard deviation = (P minus O) / 6.

Crashing adds resources or cost to critical activities; fast tracking runs sequential activities in parallel and raises risk and rework.

Resource leveling resolves over-allocation and may extend duration; resource smoothing uses float to flatten peaks without moving the finish date.

Estimate accuracy improves over the life cycle: rough order of magnitude (minus 25% to plus 75%), budgetary (minus 10% to plus 25%), definitive (minus 5% to plus 10%).

Analogous estimating uses a similar past project (fast, low accuracy); parametric uses unit rate times quantity; bottom-up sums work-package estimates (most accurate, most costly).

Three-point or PERT estimate = (O + 4M + P) / 6, weighting the most likely value and expressing uncertainty through the range.

The cost baseline is the approved, time-phased budget excluding management reserve; it is the reference for measuring cost performance.

Contingency reserve covers identified risks (known unknowns), sits inside the baseline and is controlled by the project manager.

Management reserve covers unidentified risks (unknown unknowns), sits above the baseline and is released by senior management.

Risk process: identify, analyse by probability times impact, plan responses, implement, then monitor and review.

Threat responses are avoid, mitigate, transfer and accept; opportunity responses are exploit, enhance, share and accept.

EMV = probability times monetary impact; the sum of EMVs of identified risks approximates the contingency reserve needed.

EVM inputs: PV (planned value), EV (earned value), AC (actual cost) and BAC (budget at completion).

SV = EV minus PV and CV = EV minus AC; negative values mean behind schedule or over budget.

SPI = EV divided by PV and CPI = EV divided by AC; above 1 is favourable, below 1 is unfavourable.

EAC = BAC divided by CPI when current cost performance continues; ETC = EAC minus AC; VAC = BAC minus EAC.

TCPI = (BAC minus EV) divided by (BAC minus AC): the cost efficiency needed to finish within the remaining budget.

Percent complete = EV divided by BAC; S-curves compare planned, earned and actual values over time.

Variance thresholds defined in the plan trigger exception reports and escalation to the sponsor or steering committee.

Change control: request, impact analysis, CCB decision, baseline and plan update, then communication to stakeholders.

Closure: confirm deliverable acceptance, close contracts, release resources, archive records, record lessons learned and issue the final report.