1. From Initiating to Planning:
Building Your Project Management Plan
CCI Lessons Learned and PM Tools
For
Project Management Efficiency

2. Initiating
For contracts, the PMP “Initiating” Process has two stages:
1. Proposal Development and Submission
2. Post‐Submission/Pre‐Award Preparation

3. Proposal Development
Within Proposal Development, several key activities provide critical inputs for your tailored project
management plan.
Project Integration Management:
1. The Request for Proposal (RFP) serves as the Project Charter.
1. The Statement of Work (SOW) comprises the bulk of the charter
2. Other elements pulled from the specifics of the RFP provide key assumptions that offer
context and clarification to the items in the SOW
2. Traceability Matrix – not all RFP’s require this, but developing one in the first few days after RFP
release provides the PM with a tool for tracking all project deliverables and requirements.
1. From this, helpful tools can be derived using MS Excel, Project and Visio:
1. A detailed Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
2. A detailed Master Schedule (for a required contract deliverable or a comprehensive
detail for your personal project management schedule or both)
Human Resources Management:
1. Staffing Plan

4. Traceability Matrix
You may wish to give your program analyst this task as soon as you receive an RFP.
For a large RFP, this matrix may take a couple of days to build.
This traceability and compliance
matrix tracks requirements both
within the technical proposal and
project execution. This differs from
the compliance matrix the proposal
team will develop, which only
concerns compliance for the proposal
submission. Should a question arise
two years down the road about
execution of a PWS requirement, this
provides an accurate track back to the
paragraph in the PWS and proposal
describing how this work was
contracted to be handled. Upon
award, you may wish to ask your PA
to add the proposal paragraph text to
the matrix for side by side comparison
(rather than just reference by
paragraph number).

5. Traceability Matrix
STEP #1
Begin by dumping the entire
SOW or PWS into Excel and
assigning a line to each
paragraph (column G in the
illustration).

6. Traceability Matrix
STEP #2
Add Columns to the left for
a line number; the SOW/PWS
section or paragraph
number; the PWS topic
heading for that paragraph;
the section L reference to
that paragraph (the USG’s
numbering will differ); the
proposal outline reference
(the proposal numbering
will also differ as this must
relate to RFP compliance
requirements).

7. Traceability Matrix
STEP #3:
Additional columns might
assign other criteria, such
as phases for organizing
the work in a logical,
chronological sequence.

8. Organizing Task Assignments
With your traceability matrix in Excel, pivot
charts will then allow you to organize data
for task assignment in both proposal
development and project execution. In this
example, each of the lines in the traceability
matrix was assigned to a team member for
both writing and execution. The pivot chart
allowed the tasks then to be grouped
quickly and accurately by their assigned
companies rather than how the PWS
organized the work.
With phase or chronological keys added to your base table, arranging the entire contract
into an accurate, high‐level Master Schedule becomes much easier.
Depending upon how detailed you wish to make your tracking schedule, choose your
level of header and begin to integrate this data into your project management schedule
and staffing plan.

9. WBS in Visio from Project
From the pivot chart, one can also
upload the data into MS Project and
assign resources based upon your
staffing plan.
Then, using a free download for MS
Visio from Microsoft called “WBS
Modeler”, one can build a visual WBS.
While this is not required on all
contracts, it may prove a useful tool
for the PM when managing coverage
for vacancies and other staff
management activities.
It may also provide a more effective
drawing to give to the proposal
graphic artists, because it will detail
your execution plan for this specific
PWS.

10. Post‐Submission/Pre‐Award
Once the Proposal has been submitted, several Program Management Plan
activities will ease the stress of stand‐up should you win the contract:
Project Integration Management:
1. Prepping the build for a tailored Program Management Plan
1. Highlight areas where the RFP and the proposal lack total clarity
1. Identify where ambiguities might create misunderstandings or lead to scope creep
2. Work with Contracts on which of these should be clarified during kick‐off meeting
with the USG
2. Build a PMP Project Task Management Schedule (PTMS)
Human Resources Management:
1. Pre‐staffing Activities (see slide 14 below)
Communications:
1. Plan and Execute Award Kick‐Off Meetings
1. With USG
2. With PMO and Functional Area leads

11. Open the Excel Or MS Project master file/template on Sharepoint, then “Save As” a new file to
your server folder or to your Sharepoint site renaming it with your project name.
Project Task Management Schedule
* This is not the same as the Master Schedule that the contract might require as a deliverable for client tracking on performance of SOW/PWS tasks.
This is the PM’s tool for managing all aspects of the project/contract – to include PMO activities, like invoicing. If the MS Project version is posted in
Sharepoint, report deliverables, regular meetings and invoice delivery dates can be plugged into this schedule and, via an RSS feed, tied to your Outlook
calendar for reminders.
Use the PMP Template On Our Sharepoint Site To Begin Building Your Tailored PTMS*

12. Once you have created your own file, you can insert key
lines from your Traceability Matrix Pivot Table into the
“Execution” process group, then adjust dates and
predecessors to fit the details of your contract. If no
procurement or subcontracts are needed, those sections
(and others like that) from our template can be deleted
from your tailored PTMS.
MS ExcelMS Excel
MS ProjectMS Project
Project Task Management Schedule

13. By using our PMP PTMS template as your starting
point, then mixing in your project specific line
items, you will be able to retain the links to the
administrative process tools and diagrams built
into our Sharepoint template.
In our example here, the process for developing
a hiring matrix sheet is detailed in a PowerPoint
presentation in the PMP Resources Library
accessible through the hyperlink in our PMP PMS
template.
Once you build your own hiring matrix, you can
replace our hyperlink with one that takes you
directly to your hiring matrix.
By repeating this process throughout the PTMS,
you build step by step all the reference tools and
documents you will need to manage your project
from a single site.
Accessing Tools Via Your PMP PTMS

14. Pre‐Staffing
1. Identify any SCA positions on the contract and discuss all the implications with
HR, Finance and your PA/PMO support :
1. Leave accrued and carried over if hiring incumbents from previous contract
2. PLCs for special benefit pools
3. Spend Plan accounting
2. Create Hiring Matrix (see PPT presentation discussed above)
3. Create “contingency” PERSREQs in Résuméware for each of the positions in
your staffing plan
1. Record the PERSREQ numbers in the hiring matrix
2. Forward all automated e‐mail notifications from Résuméware and On‐
boarding to your PA and others who need to be able to track your hiring
actions
4. Begin to review résumés and conduct technical screenings for key leadership
positions and hard to fill specialties; working toward contingency offers

15. Communications
1. Identify All Stakeholders
2. Plan and Execute Award Kick‐Off Meetings using standard agenda templates
1. With USG
2. With PMO and Functional Area leads
3. Begin Building Accounting and Document Management Tools
1. Build tables and forms in stand alone or shared Access database
2. Create document folders in shared drive
3. Request or begin to build a Sharepoint site to support communications and
coordination with the field
4. Set Up Calendar Reminders for Regular CDRLs and Deliverables