In a new section here at Anticlue, every Friday we will be answering a reader's question. This week, our question is "What is the difference between the live plan and project plan?" from Cindy.
In PMI's strictest sense, the project plan normally refers to all of the project documentation from planning - the risk management plan, the communication plan, the procurement plan, the resource plan, ect.. However, commonly individuals refer to the project plan as the project schedule for example a microsoft project plan. This schedule commonly contains all of the work tasks for the entire project which are manageable for the project manager. I try to keep my tasks between 8 and 80 hours. This is mainly due to the fact during the implementation I find it is easiest to check up on work at this level. Therefore the project schedule has all of the tasks needed to implement the project.
One of my tasks is to develop a live-plan. The live plan is a checklist of all the activites which must occur for a successful live event. I also affectionately call the live plan the "chronolog". The chronolog is a checklist of all the approvals, tasks, validation items, and notifications for a live event. I've included a chronolog for an old SNA upgrade here. This document is developed by the team, the reviewed with the project sponsor, and affected department leadership. I commonly distribute the chronolog to the project team, leadership team, and sponsor team one last time before the event. It is helpful to keep everyone on the same page and know thier part for the live event.
Hopefully this helps to explain the difference! If you have any questions for reader question fridays, please feel free to ask. All questions are welcomed!
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2 Comments to “What is the difference between the live plan and project plan”
So I'm looking at your "Live Plan". Typically, my live plan includes more tracking of documentation artifacts, training milestones, and issue tracking/updating. Also, we typically add in some physician marketing to the mix by sponsoring lunch or something in the physicians' lounge.
Are you telling me your SNA upgrade took 20 minutes? Was that accurate? Do you use the same template when you mock your activation in the test environment?
Hi Jack,
Good Points, the practice of maintaining all these items are essential. I commonly keep these items as independent documents or artificates. There can a separate queue in the helpdesk system for go-live issues however what is important is the practice of monitoring and controlling the go-live issues. It is wise to keep the go-live marketing in the chronolog.
Yes, in this instance our SNA upgrade took 20 minutes. The level of diligence was due to the critical nature of everything which was impacted.
We do a trial run with the same template for mocking activiations. It tests out both parts. We also go back after the event and update the template for all lessons learned. Afterwards it is archived for others to view and use for their live events.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Elyse
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Welcome to the Healthcare IT Project Management Blog of Elyse Nielsen. This is the place where I share the ideas I have learned, the things I’d like to remember, and my thoughts for a brighter future. Find out more.
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