157: How to Make Project Planning Simple

<p>It sounds so obvious that we should have structures for doing our project planning.  Projects are part and parcel of the fabric of work life and they constantly arise.  It is surprising though that so many teams are busily working away with no structure whatsoever.  The project team jumps straight into arranging the details of the project, without giving any thought to how the project should be approached in a holistic manner.  Think about your own experience?  Can you rattle off a structure for how projects should be planned, because you have always done it that way in the past?  Probably not!  I was the same.  In one of my previous organisations, we actually completed a lot of projects and yet we never did anything apart from some very basic planning.  We didn’t even think of them as projects – we just saw these activities as work.  We would have done a lot better, if we had done some simple planning.</p> <p> </p> <p>So let’s all get better organised.  There are eight steps we can consider when we begin working on a project.  Let’s assume that the team has been created, hopefully a great match up between resident skill sets and the tasks required to successfully complete the project.  Even if you don’t have all the bases covered through your team, a good structure will help to overcome many of the gaps.</p> <p> </p> <p>Step 1: Define what is the “should be”.  This is the project scope and must be in harmony with the project creator’s vision.  What will success look like to the project client?  If we don’t have a clear idea of what we are supposed to achieve then trouble is close by.  Often though, the project goals are vague and very “big picture”.  We need to push hard at this point to attain greater clarity about the end result we need to produce.  Are we asking the right questions? If we are inheriting a project objective, we need to make sure what we are being asked to deliver.</p> <p> </p> <p>Step 2:  Analyse where we are with the “as is”.  This is our current reality, our circumstances at the start of