|
|
|
|
|
|
|
other with the minimum amount of delay and with as much parallel work as feasible. One of the project manager's prime responsibilities is to ensure that every person involved in the project has the information necessary for contributing in the best and most timely manner. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The whole team should discuss every aspect of the plan in detail to address all possible effects of a particular experimental design or time plan in one area on the tasks under the responsibility of the other departments. Especially, regulatory consequences of, e.g., changes in study protocols or in formulation composition, must be carefully addressed to prevent later delays because of the need to repeat or add studies. This is of equal importance for plan adjustments reacting to technical or organizational problems which the executing department too often considers solely its own responsibility. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Furthermore, the team should not focus early on a single option for the whole or parts of the development plan but must outline several alternatives and consider their impact and consequences. To do this efficiently, team members must be open to proposals made by colleagues from other disciplines. For the same reason, the plan should not be kept secret but rather be openly available, e.g., in an electronic information system, to all stake-holders of the project. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
For duration and completion planning of work packages, the project manager must, in principle, rely on the estimates given by the responsible team member. The project manager, however, should investigate the potential for time reduction especially if the activity is on the critical path and if the estimate is significantly longer than the duration given in the standard plan. In an optimized plan, it is normal that many work packages are very close to the critical path, i.e., their buffer times are only a few weeks or even days. Delayed start or small delays in their execution may quickly put them on the critical path. Therefore, it is essential that the project team and the project manager give the same attention to these activities as to the true critical path activities. Whenever possible, these activities should be started on the early start date, and any indications of threatening delay must be quickly communicated and acted on. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IV.
Planning Tools and System Support |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The concept of network plans was developed in parallel with general project management systems and is often wrongly taken as the essence of project management. Network plans are an extremely useful tool to organize most |
|
|
|
|
|