The project planning is crucial to execute and control your project. Therefore, in this article, we’ll guide you on the project planning process, its benefits, why important project planning, and 11 steps in planning.
Table of Contents
What Is the Project Planning in Project Management?
Project management is a complex process that plays a vital role throughout the project life cycle. According to the PMBOK Guide (Project Management Body of Knowledge), a project management life cycle consists of 5 phases, including initiating, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Among these phases, the planning phase is crucial because that defines the execution and control stages of a project.
Therefore, the project planning in project management is vital for any project, larger or smaller, while planning your project. Managers and other team members will determine the workflows and processes needed to meet their goals and put together ideas about how to make the project successful.
The project plan includes considerations for resources management, risk management, and communications while also addressing project baselines. It involves scope, cost, and schedule baselines. Furthermore, project managers use project management software to ensure their plans are robust and thorough.
The project plan is also called the project management plan (PMP). However, the purpose of a project plan is to guide the execution and control project phases. A project plan may consist of the following documents. Furthermore, those documents are vital throughout the project life cycle.
- Project Charter
- Work Breakdown Structure
- Statement of Work
- Project Plan
As a project manager, before starting the project, you should create a project plan and get it approved by your stakeholders.
Read More: Top 7 project planning software
Why Important Project Planning?
The project plan is essential to the success of any project. Without a project plan, project managers may face problems such as missing deadlines, project cost overrun, and scope creep. Therefore, having a project plan is essential because it will help you to stay within the project’s triple constraints and achieve acceptable project outcomes.
The project planning phase can be a challenging time for every project manager. During this phase, they have to consider so many things. However, the planning phase may differ from project to project. Typically, the following three things are worked out during this stage.
- Project Schedule – The project schedule is a timeline of the project. It includes the start date, end dates, and dates for things that will happen in between. Project managers can use time estimation techniques to determine these days.
- Project Budget – The project budget will account for the total cost to complete the project, and it needs to be broken down to determine how much has to be spent on different elements of the project.
- Risk Management – Risk management will allow searching for possible problems and planning ahead to mitigate these risks. Therefore, a good project planning means searching for places such as,
- Where might trouble occur?
- When might the schedule get off track?
- Where might the budget exceed your estimates?
As a project manager, you should work with your team members to consider answers to these questions. Then, you can prepare for the risk management plan based on whatever you discover during the project life cycle.
Accordingly, project planning is a crucial process because, as we discussed earlier, in this process, project managers need to determine their project’s schedule, budget, and risk management. These are crucial elements for the project’s success. That’s why project planning is a vital phase in project management.
The 11 Steps in Project Planning
The project planning process is crucial for the success of any project. Therefore, as a project manager, you should think about the project planning process because that makes up your project management plan. So, here are the main steps of planning your project.
- Create the Business Case
The business case shows reasons why the project is being initiated, its return on investment, and the benefits. Furthermore, this will be presented to those who make decisions at your company or organization. However, you have a project if approved this.
- Set Project Goals and Objectives
In the initiation phase, project managers made a project charter, and now they’re ready for the planning phase. So, they can use the project charter to collect goals and objectives during the project planning process. However, goals and objectives are different things when it comes to planning a project.
- Meet with Key Stakeholders
Every project has primary and secondary key stakeholders. They have a vested interest in the project. If they profit from the project, they should be responsible for its success. Therefore, as a project manager, you must identify who are the key stakeholders during the project planning process.
After identifying your project’s key stakeholders, meeting with them is crucial to provide a better picture of what the project plan should include and what is expected from the deliverables.
- Create Project Scope
Creating a project scope is another vital step of the planning process. The project scope should be defined and organized by a Work Breakdown Structure. Therefore, it includes deliverables, sub-deliverables, action items, and work packages.
In short, project scope refers to the work needed to accomplish the project objectives and generate the needed deliverables.
- Create a Project Budget
Once you define the project scope and schedule, it’s time to create a budget. The first step to create a project budget is to estimate the costs associated with each project task. After estimating those costs, you can establish a cost baseline, which is the base for your project budget.
- Determine Project Deliverables
Determining project deliverables is another vital step of the planning process. Every project can have numerous deliverables. It can be a good or service. However, deliverables are needed for project managers to complete a task, process, phase, or project.
- Assemble a Project Team
Assembling a project team is another vital step of the planning process. As a project manager, you will need a project team to help you create your project plan. As well as execute your project plan successfully.
- Assign Tasks to Your Team Members
Assigning project tasks to your team members is another crucial step of the planning process. During this process, you should clearly define your team members’ roles and responsibilities according to the project plan. Furthermore, they have a clear understanding of what to do.
- Create a Project Schedule
Creating a project schedule is another crucial step of the planning process. Project schedules are made up by identifying all the tasks or activities needed to reach your final deliverable and setting them on a project timeline that ends at your deadlines. Furthermore, schedules should broken down into phases, indicated by milestones, which mark the end of one project phase and the start of the next.
By using project management tools such as the Gantt chart, project managers can add tasks and milestones along with due dates and durations. This chart helps them clarify and map out task timelines and dependencies. Then, their team members know what to do at each stage.
Read More: 7 most popular tools for project scheduling
- Outline Risk Analysis
Every project has several types of risk, such as schedule risk, scope risk, technical risk, etc. Even if your project plan is thorough, internal and external factors can impact your project tripe constraints. Therefore, as a project manager, you must consider your planning is flexible. On the other hand, by developing a change management plan, you can prepare for risk.
However, you should track and monitor your project progress throughout the execution phase by using a project status report or project planning software. It will also help you keep the project on track if things go wrong.
- Create Your Project Plan and Report the Progress
As discussed above, a project plan is a document that consists of several steps. Before you get into a detailed explanation of each of them, you must include them all to have a solid project plan. However, during this process, you will need these project documents to create your project management plan.
- Project charter
- Project budget
- Project schedule
- Project scope statement
- Project risk management plan
- Project resources management plan
- Project cost management plan
- Project stakeholder management plan
- Change management plan
As a project manager, your main goal is to ensure a successful project for your stakeholders. Keeping stakeholders informed is crucial to managing their expectations. On the other hand, it will help you to understand they are satisfied. Having regular planning meetings are the best way to show them that everything is moving forward as planned. The stakeholder management plan will also help you with how you will engage stakeholders in the project.
By following these project steps, project managers can clarify what they need to achieve, execute the processes they should get there and develop an action plan for how they’re going to take this project plan outline forward.
The Benefits of Project Planning
- Planning helps project managers map out the big picture of their projects, and it will also help you understand the work needed to achieve your goals. Planning also helps coordinate efforts and timelines with stakeholders.
- Planning gives you time to identify and prepare for risks that could impact your project. It also allows you to brainstorm ways to mitigate or address those risks effectively and efficiently.
- Planning is teamwork, which helps project managers push their project across the finish line. It also helps your team to understand the work needed to achieve their goal.
Read More: 8 importance of project planning
