Project planning is the first essential step to start off a new project. Whether your project is big or small, a proper planning is a must for its successful accomplishment. The best part about planning is that it helps you realize the efforts, time, and resources that would be required for project completion. Also, it helps you foresee the possible challenges during the implementation and figure out alternatives for the same. That’s why even large business organizations use an online project planning software to plan and design strategies before beginning a project.
Concept of Project Planning
In simple words, project planning is about defining objectives, establishing the scope, and figuring out ways to achieve the ultimate project goals. The target of project planning is to create a project management plan which defines the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the process.
In this article, you will learn about various steps involved in creating a successful project plan that will not just deliver you quick results but also save you unnecessary wastage of time, money, and efforts.
Identify the Stakeholders
The ultimate target of any project is to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders. A stakeholder can be anybody who is directly or indirectly impacted by the project. It can be the customers, sponsors or even the project manager. So, before you begin the process of project planning, it is important to identify the stakeholders and their expectations. The best way to do this is by meeting the stakeholders and discussing their expectations from the project. This will help you create a scope statement consisting of the budget, time, and project scope.
The Crucial Step of Goal Setting
Identifying the stakeholders will help you set goals for your project. Goal setting involves prioritizing important tasks, objectives, benefits depending on their urgency, and importance. Remember, every project has unique requirements and thus you need to set goals accordingly.
Estimating Due Dates of Deliverables
Once you have identified the goals, requirements, and objectives of the project, it’s time to estimate the due dates for deliverables in your project plan. It is recommended to set firm milestones for important project deadlines and deliverables. This will ensure that all the tasks are being completed on time thereby fulfilling the needs of stakeholders.
Project Scheduling is the Next Step
Now, you need to define the order of task completion which would help you to accomplish the tasks in a given time frame. To begin with, you can determine the time required, necessary resources, and people who shall be responsible for completion.
A Gantt chart can help you in the visual representation of milestones, deliverables or any dependencies. Any good project planning software features Gantt chart which can be used for systematic project scheduling. Using such a software will also help you to collaborate with your team and encourage them to participate in project planning and scheduling.
Risk Management
It is nevertheless to say that every business or project is bound by risks and challenges. It is also true that you wouldn’t leave any stone unturned to make your project successful. But why let unforeseen circumstances affect your project?
Thus, it is important to develop a risk management strategy in advance to ensure you are prepared to win control over such situations.
Final Discussion with Stakeholders
Finally, you can share your final plan with the stakeholders. Let them know your strategy to fulfill their expectations, solutions to conflicts, roles, and responsibilities, reports, risk management plans etc. An open communication is a key ingredient to winning over your stakeholder's minds.
The next best thing you can do is to share the takeaway points from this article with your team members and enliven the teamwork spirit in them. Also, you can download a good online project management software to fasten up your planning process. Happy Planning!
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