What is a project plan?
Project plans and when do you need. Let’s say you have submitted a proposal and you have won the job now. What do you need to do to make it all happen there are lots of moving parts and lots of interdependencies?
What goes on in running a project and that is all captured in a project plan in a project plan you must organize a lot of things like who is going to be doing the work. How are they going to be doing it? When are they going to be doing it by?
Project planning importance
How is that work going to be presented to the client. Who’s going to be signing off on that work how is the work going to eventually in the end. When it’s final be delivered to the client there are a lot of moving parts, and the client must be constantly informed. Where you are going with the project and your team who’s working on it. You must always know as well, where you are in the project. What the next steps are so what’s included in the project plan the project plan is made up of three main parts. It’s made up of the parts that are make up the proposal number.
Create a project plan
One is the project goal or the purpose and this includes the phases of work of the project number two is input number three is output number two input are things like research or audits or stakeholder interviews or you’re getting up to speed on their business reading all of them brand and business documentation number two are the output. That’s the activities the work the deliverables the presentations. The signoffs the timeline of each of those phases as well as the fees that are associated with those phases. So now let’s create the project seclude.
Step 1: identify
There are ten main things that you must capture that you must get together then you must define. When you are creating a project schedule is number one is what this is the scope of work the phases the deliverables all these things broken down into process steps and this includes all the input and all the output and then you add all of that to the calendar number two is when so that’s the calendar itself.
Step 2: Roles and Responsibility
This is laying out the phases of work on a calendar I personally like to use Gantt charts, and these are charts that you overlay all the phases of work all the steps all the processes. Who’s doing those things on a calendar to see the relationship as they go through the timeline of the project.
Step 3: keep Meeting
You add critical milestones who’s doing the work. Where the meetings are where the presentations. Where is the sign offs and then you also add the racy RACI which is the people? Who are responsible accountable consulted and informed along every step of the way number three is the WHO and that’s the team’s your project team?
Step 4: Scop and Timeline
So here is your partners your resources your specialists whoever it is even if it’s just you who’s going to be working on the project and then there are the client teams so who is the project team on the client side or there are multiple people is that just one do they have extended stakeholders do they have deciders or senior executives who have to be brought into the process at some later stage of the game number four is the how so this is the communication plan and the preferences for how communication is going to take place.
Step 5: Set a goal
That is are you going to be emailing people is it going to be phone conversations are there going to be video conferences what are the preferred forms of communication with the client are these communication points going to be scheduled. You must make these decisions as you build the plan the fifth part of creating a project plan is what you need. This is the resources the
interdependencies the vendors the contractors the sample makers the coders.
Step 6: Clear a Strategy
The animators whoever it is going to be doing the work whatever resources that you need that are going to go into creating that deliverable you want to map those on to the calendar map those onto the Gantt chart and every step and every phase of the way and finally number six is infrastructure these are the things that go into the machination’s actual workings of the project.
Step 7: Project Seclude
It could be file management so are you going to be sharing some sort of Drive like Dropbox with the client or with your team so everyone can access information in a particular way or in a particular place thing like are you going to be using project management software things like Zoho or Mila note or asana or Trello.
There are million kinds of project management software’s out. There are you going to be you know sharing to-do lists with your team or with the clients are you going to use a Gantt chart do you want to give that visibility to that chart to the client things like memos and notes. Where those going to be shared who’s going to develop them. Where are they going to be kept things like Chad?
How are you going to have kind of constant immediate communication both with your team and with the client? You are going to be a be using so are you going to be using Google Documents are you going to be using Microsoft Office are you going to be using Adobe Creative Suite.
Step 8: Take a Risk
What sort of applications are you going to be using and how can both your team access those as well as the client what is the infrastructure that’s going to be needed for the project. You have done all this work after you’ve put all this structure together you have to remember that project plans are living documents they are always changing.
Step 9: Maintain Project Plan
They’re always being updated So, you may have it set but it’s not going to be set in stone I guarantee you want to allow for constant changes and shifts and updates with the client there may be client delays with your team there may be resource delays or work delays you must adjust the project plan as you go along. One of the most important things about any project is communication this is communication for your team as well as communication for the client you want to make sure that the client and your team always know.
Step 10: Tasks
Here when you are in the project what is the stage, you’re in what is the next deliverable what is the next to-do item. What is the next step you never want a client reaching out to you and saying? Where are we in the project. What’s supposed to be going on you want to make sure that everyone is constantly in the know about where you are in the project and to succeed in any project.
