PM Excellence AcademyModule 5 of 12 · Planning Studio · Part A
Planning Studio 1 · Break Down & Budget the Work
Seven moves. Five artifacts. One plan. Part A carries Steps 1 to 4: set the boundary of the work, break it down, soft resource it, and turn it into a defensible labor budget. The plan carries forward to Planning Studio 2 in Part B, where you sequence it, schedule it, staff it, and draw the S-curve.
Oakhaven Public Safety Campus · GRC-26-0142 · Design Development · Oct 17, 2026 to Jan 15, 2027 · Grace phase fee $280,000
A project plan is one argument, made five times, at increasing resolution: here is the work, here is what it costs, here is when it happens, here is how the fee gets earned, and here is the line we manage to.
The Planning Studio runs across both planning modules, and it runs in seven steps. Steps 1 to 4 sit here in Part A, where you Establish Clarity about the work and its cost. Steps 5 to 7 sit in Part B, where the same plan flows into the schedule, the labor demand, the Earned Value Plan, and the S-curve. Every decision you commit here rides along.
Step 1
Scope boundary
What is in this phase, and what is not?
Step 2
WBS
What are the pieces?
Step 3
Role assignment
What kind of person does each piece?
Step 4
Labor budget
What does the plan cost, and what margin survives?
Step 5
Schedule
When does each piece happen?
Step 6
Labor demand
Which named people, in which weeks?
Step 7
EV Plan and S-curve
How does the fee get earned?
1
Step 1 · Set the scope boundary
What is in this phase, and what is not?
The SD package was approved and the DD notice to proceed is in hand. Below are the 19 work packages your team has floated for this phase.
Step
Step 1 · Set the scope boundary
Purpose
Decide what work belongs in this phase before you plan anything else. Work let into scope by mistake still gets budgeted, scheduled, and paid for out of the $280,000 phase fee.
Where it fits
This is the first of seven steps. Every step that follows, the WBS, the budget, the schedule, only covers the work you place inside this boundary.
What it generates
A scored boundary decision. You need 19 out of 19 correct before Step 2 unlocks.
The widget
19 work package cards. Each card has two buttons: In DD scope and Not this phase.
What to do
Read each of the 19 work package cards.
Click In DD scope or Not this phase on every card.
Click Check my boundary to score your answers.
Fix any card marked wrong, then click Check my boundary again.
Stuck? Click Show the answers to see the correct boundary.
At 19 out of 19, Step 2 unlocks.
Boundary set
The boundary answers what belongs in Design Development. It does not yet answer what the work is made of, which is the next move.
2
Step 2 · Break down the work
What are the pieces?
Here is your DD Work Breakdown Structure, exactly as it lives in the Oakhaven project WBS: 9 deliverables, 14 work packages, 40 tasks.
Step
Step 2 · Break down the work
Purpose
The purpose of this step is to visualize how the tasks you will plan, staff, and schedule align with the major work packages that produce the deliverables.
Where it fits
Step 2 sits between the boundary (Step 1) and every step that depends on structure. Step 3, Step 4, and Step 5 all reference this same WBS.
What it generates
A locked WBS: 9 deliverables, 14 work packages, 40 tasks.
The widget
A tree of clickable deliverable rows. There is nothing to enter, only to read and lock.
What to do
Click a deliverable row to expand it and see its work packages and tasks.
Click the row again to collapse it.
Repeat for all 9 deliverables.
Click Lock the WBS → Step 3: soft resource the work to commit the structure and open Step 3.
Challenge · Why does 3.1 Planning & Control appear in every phase?
Managing the phase is work, and work that is absent from the WBS never gets budgeted, scheduled, or earned. A PM who plans, staffs, and reports "for free" is spending fee the plan never accounted for. Level-of-effort work gets a line like any other.
3
Step 3 · Soft resource the work
What kind of person does each piece?
Step
Step 3 · Soft resource the work
Purpose
Assign a role, not yet a person, to the work. Answer at the lowest level that can still do the work right. The DD fee is $280,000. Grace's target profit is 20%, so your cost budget, everything you may spend on labor, is $224,000.
Where it fits
Step 3 turns the locked WBS (Step 2) into hours by role. Step 4, right below, reads those same hours as money.
What it generates
A table of hours per role, and a live dashboard of total hours, labor cost, planned margin, and average team loading.
The widget
A role-by-role hours table covering the Oakhaven team's eight roles, pre-populated with the hours filed in the Design Development phase of the Project Budget Spreadsheet. The dashboard updates as you type. A Suggest a starting mix button offers a benchmarked default at any time, to compare against.
What to do
Review and verify the estimated hours for the project roles. These are pre-populated from the Project Budget Spreadsheet.
Change any role's hours if you would staff it differently. Watch Total hours, Labor cost, Planned margin, and Avg team loading update as you type.
Click Suggest a starting mix at any time to see a benchmarked default and compare it to the pre-populated plan.
Continue into Step 4 below — same table, read as money.
Total hours
0
Labor cost
$0
Planned margin
not yet
Avg team loading
not yet
4
Step 4 · Build the budget
What does the plan cost, and what margin survives?
Step
Step 4 · Build the budget
Purpose
Read the hours you entered in Step 3 as money, and check whether the plan holds margin. The dashboard above and the flags below are one budget seen two ways: what the plan costs, and what margin survives it.
Where it fits
Step 4 closes Part A. Once locked, the WBS and the budget both carry forward into Planning Studio 2.
What it generates
A validated budget with pass or fail flags (for example, a flag if labor cost exceeds the $224,000 cost budget, or if a required role has zero hours), and, once available, a comparison to the plan Grace actually filed in BST.
The widget
The flags list below the budget table, and a Compare to the plan Grace filed in BST button.
What to do
Read the flags list below the table. Clear every red flag.
Once available, click Compare to the plan Grace filed in BST to check your numbers against the filed plan.
Click Lock the budget → Step 5: sequence and schedule once your margin is at or above the 15% firm floor and no red flags remain. This locks both Step 3 and Step 4.
Part A is now complete. Your WBS and budget carry forward automatically when you open Planning Studio 2.
Where this mix comes from. Project management ≈ 10% of phase labor, from PSMJ’s "10% rule" for A/E project management effort. Quality review 2 to 5% of design effort, from cost-of-quality research in design & construction (CII, Quality & Quantity, 2022). Principal oversight 5 to 8% and a roughly 1:1.5 licensed-to-design-staff production ratio, from AIA Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice staffing guidance and Deltek Clarity A&E benchmarks. It is a defensible starting point, and the work in your WBS decides where the hours go.
Challenge · The Principal in Charge wants 120 hours on this phase. What does that do?
At $310/hr, 120 Principal hours is $37,200, nearly 17% of the entire cost budget on one signature. Rate mix is a lever: the same task done one level down often protects both quality and margin. The question to ask is "is this the work only the Principal can do?"
What we know at this point in the planning process
What is the work? Scope defined by the selected “in scope” work packages.
What are the pieces? Defined by the WBS.
What does the project cost? Defined by the soft resource plan.
Now we are ready to schedule the work and finalize the Project Plan.
Part A complete · Steps 1 to 4 are saved
Everything you committed here rides forward automatically: Planning Studio 2 opens with your WBS and your budget, and turns them into a schedule, a labor demand, an Earned Value Plan, and the S-curve.
PM Excellence Academy
Module 5 of 12 · Planning Studio · Part A