| Planning can make or break a project. Good planning | | | | You can show on an alternative schedule that the |
| not only make sure that your project gives the | | | | project could be delivered by the deadline if certain |
| desired result, but also having it done as expected. | | | | (specified) resources are given to you or if other |
| When you are planning a project, it is important to | | | | projects are rescheduled. Another possibility is to |
| make sure that the project can be evaluated in order | | | | apply a different strategy, or more resources, to |
| to make sure that the project has the desired result. | | | | such activities to minimise the disruption. Within this |
| You or the project manager can work on planning a | | | | phase, the people, resources, finances, suppliers and |
| project by creating new milestones and tasks in the | | | | tasks must be correctly scheduled, in order for the |
| planning section. But before it's all done there are | | | | Project Manager to be able to monitor and control |
| several things to consider to be included in your | | | | the project delivery effectively. Following the creation |
| project planning: | | | | of a Project Plan, a detailed assessment of the |
| Bringing organization to a project | | | | resources required to undertake the project should |
| Planning a project and developing baselines | | | | be made. The Financial Plan describes the total |
| Allocating resources across several projects | | | | quantity of financial resources required during each |
| Monitoring milestones and the earned value concept | | | | stage of the project. Project management tools such |
| Creating Status reports and briefing all levels of | | | | as Microsoft Project provide significant functionality |
| management | | | | such as development of Gantt charts (timelines), |
| Project management support: Automated and | | | | comparison of planned to actual results, development |
| administrative. | | | | of PERT charts (network diagrams), definition of |
| The reasoning behind this is that the human brain | | | | tasks, definition of dependencies between tasks, |
| (even yours) can only take in and process so much | | | | assignment of resources to tasks, and resource |
| information at one time. Managing Project Risk is a | | | | balancing. Each deliverable has associated with it a |
| critical process within the Project Lifecycle. Again, | | | | work flow template identifying the activities, |
| very appropriate for all team members, in-house | | | | resources, and other deliverables that will be required |
| customers, marketing, and management, to learn | | | | to complete this deliverable. |
| how the process works and what their part in it is. | | | | Step |
| Schedule | | | | In planning any project, you follow the same simple |
| Guesstimating schedules is notoriously difficult but it is | | | | steps: if an item is too complicated to manage, it |
| helped by two approaches: | | | | becomes a list of simpler items. As a manager you |
| - Make your guesstimates of the simple tasks at the | | | | have to look far beyond the single project; indeed |
| bottom of the work | | | | any individual project can be seen as merely a single |
| - Break down structure and look for the longest path | | | | step in your team's development. One idea is to start |
| through the sequence diagram | | | | with the number of steps -guess that if you can. |
| Use the experience from previous projects to | | | | These can be found by identify stages in the |
| improve your guesstimating skills. | | | | development of a project which are recognizable as |
| Resources | | | | steps towards the final product. |