CHAPTER 3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS · · · · · Risk analysis Hardware, software, and human resource requirements Work breakdown and task estimates Project schedule Project monitoring and reporting mechanisms, collectively known as project oversight Not all of these are necessary for all projects or project methodologies. In particular, plan-driven projects will use all of them, while agile projects may use a few on a single page. Project plans are a great tool for setting down what you think you're doing, an outline of how it will be done, and how you plan on executing the outline. The problem with a project plan is that it's static. Once it's written and signed off on, upper management thinks the project will run exactly as stated in the plan. But the reality of the project often thwarts the plan. Project Organization The project organization section of the plan contains the following three things: · · · How you're going to organize the team What process model the project will be using How will the project be run on a day-to-day basis