MGTS7527 Chap.5 Integrated Planning and Task Assignment
Integrated Planning and Task Assignment
Planning answers eight questions
The second part of Week 3 defines planning as working out the route by which a project reaches its objectives and produces value: what is delivered, how, when, with what resources, at what cost, with whom, what could affect it, and how it will be governed. The course is firm about order.
Direction and scope come first, because time, cost and resources cannot be planned until you know what has to be delivered.
One plan, not eight
Scope, schedule, finance, resources, stakeholder engagement, risk, quality and procurement plans must form one internally consistent plan, since a decision in one area moves others.
Planning is also progressive: some parts are fixed early, others are refined in a rolling wave as uncertainty falls. Stakeholder engagement is planned participation, not a mailing list.
Clear ownership of work
The third part turns plans into assignments.
Roles, responsibility, accountability, authority and competence are different things, and a RACI chart makes them explicit, with exactly one accountable owner per task.
The chapter builds a RACI for a bank-branch booking system and then tests it with the seven validation questions on capability, availability, authority, workload, dependencies, clarity and communication.
Planning in different environments
The development approach changes how much is planned up front.
In a predictive environment, the scope baseline, detailed schedule, budget and risk register can be set early; in an adaptive one, a product backlog, iteration planning and frequent reprioritisation take over; a hybrid mixes both. How much is planned, and when, should follow the level of uncertainty.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Eight questions planning answers
- 02
Confirming direction and development approach
- 03
The planning chain from scope to cost
- 04
Planning stakeholder engagement
- 05
Integrating the plan
- 06
Progressive and rolling-wave planning
- 07
Role, responsibility, accountability and authority
- 08
Building and checking a RACI chart
Worked example · free
Trace one change request through the integrated plan
- 1Schedule: two weeks must come off the critical path, by fast tracking or crashing.
- 1Resources and finance: crashing adds people or overtime, so cost rises unless scope is cut.
- 1Scope: a lower-value feature might move to a later release to protect the date.
- 1Risk and quality: overlapping work raises rework risk and squeezes testing time.
- 1Stakeholders: users, the content team and suppliers must know the new dates and their part in them.
- 1Decision: assess all of this together, then ask the sponsor to approve the change with its trade-offs stated.
Key terms
- Integrated Project Plan
- A single, internally consistent plan combining scope, schedule, finance, resources, stakeholders, risk, quality and procurement.
- Rolling-Wave Planning
- Planning near-term work in detail while longer-term work is refined progressively.
- RACI Matrix
- A responsibility assignment matrix naming who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed for each task.
- Accountability
- Owning an outcome and being the one who must answer for it.
- Authority
- The power to decide, sign off work or direct resources.
Integrated Planning and Task Assignment FAQ
Why must scope be planned before cost and schedule?
Because resource and financial plans have to rest on the work that actually needs doing. The course's chain runs from scope to activities to resources to costs, so a missing work package always reappears later as a missing cost or a late date.
How many people can be accountable for one task in a RACI chart?
One. Accountable means the sole owner who approves and answers for the outcome. Several people can be responsible for doing the work, consulted or informed, but two accountable owners blur who decides.
What does it mean to validate a task assignment?
Checking that the named person has the capability, the availability and the authority the task needs, that their workload is reasonable, that dependencies are understood, and that everyone consulted or informed knows when to take part.
What should a stakeholder engagement plan contain?
For each stakeholder, such as the sponsor, customer, team, end users and suppliers: the information they need, when they need it, how they will be engaged, who communicates with them, how much influence they have, and which concerns or expectations must be managed. It plans participation, not just messages.
Assessment move
Draw the eight-spoke integrated plan from memory and use it as a checklist: for one change in a project you know, write a consequence on every spoke. Then build a five-task RACI for that project and check each row for exactly one A and each column for overload.
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