The Project Planning Process Step By Step
The Project Planning Process
The project planning process involves several important factors and considerations broken down into a series of tasks or steps. Moreover, the project planning process takes nine steps, including the identification and analysis of the project scope, stakeholder identification and consultation, goals and objectives, and determination of deliverables. Creating the project schedule, allocation of tasks, risk assessment, development of contingency plans, and communication or presentation of the project plan to stakeholders are also important steps in project planning.
Steps I take for planning my projects
Step 1
Identification and analysis of the project scope: The first step in the project planning process is to identify and analyze the project scope along with all the prominent components, resources, and tasks necessary for completing the project. The scope provides an outline or framework of the individual elements along with the boundaries and limitations of the project.
Step 2
Identify and consult with stakeholders: The identification of the stakeholders involves determining the people that will affect or will be affected by the project, including all individuals or groups that will determine or influence the outcome of the project.
Step 3
Development of project objectives and goals: The third and very important of project planning is to develop and identify the goals and objectives of the project. The goals and objectives should be realistic, practical, and achievable by employing the available material and human resources.
Step 4
Determine project deliverables: The deliverables include the outcome of the project in the form of completed services or products along with any other form of results stemming from the completion of the project. Project managers have to determine the deliverables during the project planning process specifically to avoid any misunderstandings or inefficiencies during the project.
Step 5
Create project milestones and schedule: The fifth step of the project planning process is to develop a schedule and milestones for individual components or tasks. The Gantt chart is one of the most useful tools and approaches to develop and design project milestones.
Step 6
The allocation of tasks is an important scenario that allows the project manager and the decision makers to assign tasks to different members associated with the project. This is an important task because it sets up the tone for different other tasks.
Step 7
Risk assessment as implied by the name is the evaluation of different risk-based scenarios that might create hurdles for the project. These risks can occur at any time frame and their magnitude varies with respect to the operations of the organization. The risk assessment allows project manager to keep an eye on every step and attain beneficial results in both the short and the long run.
Step 8
The development of different contingency plans is important in most of the projects and this would allow the decision makers to develop different make up plans for the benefit the project. Different managers at times skip this step and they face negative outcomes in the longer run.
Step 9
The communication and presentation of the plan to stakeholders is the most important step because major decisions are based on their discretion. It is also possible that the stakeholders might also give their suggestions on certain issues that would be beneficial for the overall planning linked with the project.
Having followed all the steps above, you should have a good project plan. Just remember to update your plan as the project makes progress, and continually measure progress against the plan. Our “italy2california” Instagram and this blog have been planned and realized by putting the project steps above into practice.
by Severino Ricci
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