Lesson 5: Managing Your Project: Part 1
Step 4: Planning
We started with an idea that responded to a need, developed a strategic lens to view the problem statement, and evaluated some positive and negative forces that might have an impact. Now we venture into that jungle called the project plan.
Now, there is no model that I know of that will tell you what precisely should go into a project plan. After much deliberation, I believe it would be misleading for me to offer you a project plan’s table of contents, and then feel like I’ve covered this critical topic. You can easily find a list of things that could be in a plan by looking in the PMBOK, the AMA Handbook of Project Management, or virtually any other book that is accessible to new Project Managers.
What I’d like to do instead is, based on the James P. Lewis' insights and those offered by the PMBOK, is convey to you an introductory sense of the broad topic areas that your plan should cover. If will be up to your team to determine what specific information will be covered. The size, complexity, and nature of your project itself will also directly inform what goes into a project plan. For example, a project to plan a wedding probably doesn’t need to answer a volume of quality management questions in the project plan, but a project to build a skyscraper would have several sections of the plan devoted to quality management of the project.
Very generally then, your project plan should cover the following areas:
- Who is working on the project? What are the key personnel? How will people be brought into/taken off of the project?
- How will the project be completed? What activities will take place to complete each deliverable?
- When is the project being completed? What is the schedule for each activity?
- What resources will each activity require? How will those resources be assigned to each activity?
- Where will the project activities take place? What are the locations?
- What are the risks? What are the contingency plans to manage those risks?
- How much is the project going to cost? What are the costs for each resource we need (both human and nonhuman)? What is the total cost?
- What kind of quality management does the project want to perform? How will quality be monitored?
- What subcontractors does the project need? What kinds of contracts will the project use?
- How will the project communicate with its staff? With stakeholders? How frequently?
The planning stage, therefore, defines very clearly in a coordinated document what the project is going to do, how it is going to do it, when, where, and with whom.
There are several sources of information that will help you develop your understanding of this critical planning step, and the resources for this course have been carefully selected to help you in this specific task.
Again, as much as I might like to, it is well beyond the scope of this introductory course to teach you how to develop a project plan. As you can see from the above suggested project plan components, there is a lot of GOOD STUFF that can go into these things. What I really want to do is simply convey to you that the project plan is a critical tool that a Project Manager will use to do her/his job. Most would say it is the most critical tool, and I'd agree.
Your experience and further learning in the field of project management will equip you with the awareness and instincts you’ll use to really flourish in this challenging planning stage.
References used in this section (these books are available for order via the Resources link above):
The Project Manager’s Desk Reference, by James P. Lewis. Chapter 2; Chapter 6.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, by the Project Management Institute. Chapter 3.
