Project Planning

Good planning is the essence of Project Management.

Firstly, by creating and validating plans and then, by monitoring and controlling progress in line with those plans. 

All projects of all sizes need to be planned.

Even building a new flat-packed garden shed will need a sketched outline of it's location, with indications for the path leading to it, how it will be sited etc. 

If you are doing all this work yourself then these plans may well be confined to your own head. But they will exist nonetheless. 

And when your new shed arrives the first things you should find are the plans showing how it fits together with detailed instructions of how to assemble it. 

There are two types of Project Plan: 

Administrative or Management Plans - describe how the project will be run, what policies and procedures will be in place and who will be responsible for what activities. 

These remain fairly static and will rarely be amended: an example of these is your Communication Plan

Few people on the project will have, or will need, access to them. 

Detailed Technical Plans - include the infamous gannt charts and resource schedules and may be subject to many changes and updates as work progresses and problems surface. 

Many people on the project will require access to these working documents. 

Planning in Perspective. 

Plans are made by people and people are falible. 

Even with the best preparation, it is foolish to believe that everything will go according to script and it often becomes apparent that there is a better, quicker, or cheaper way to do something. 

I have seen many projects which lost an opportunity to excel simply because there was no will or abilty to stray from a less than perfect plan. 

A good Project Plan will take into account this potential for improvement and provide scope for review and reassessment.