The initial phase of a project is often characterised by inspiring motivation, while visions and goals are developed to create something new. But is it really necessary to invest a lot of time in detailed project planning? Couldn't you and your team just get started and see how things develop?
This approach can work - provided you are lucky, have plenty of time and a large budget. However, it is more likely that you will forget things in the heat of the moment or that important resources will not be available at the crucial moment because you requested them too late. And how will you communicate to your client when the project will be completed? Not to mention the fact that with this "non-project planning", the budget could be exhausted shortly before completion.
It would be justified to argue that this can also happen with careful project planning. However, this should not be a reason not to at least avoid the biggest stumbling blocks and create planning certainty for everyone involved in the project. And this is exactly what project planning is all about: as a project manager, you create a plan that serves as the basis for implementation. This not only provides structure, but also enables you to monitor the progress of the project and always know where you stand. In this blog, we give you 6 steps to make your project planning a success.
Project planning is clearly closely linked to projects themselves. But what does the term actually mean? According to Gabler Business Dictionary project" is defined as follows:
"Temporary, relatively innovative and risky task of considerable complexity, which usually requires special project management due to its difficulty and importance."
What exactly does that mean? Project planning aims to lay the foundations for the realisation of a project. This includes planning the timeline, the scope of the tasks, the budget and resources as well as defining the objectives.
"Create a project plan" can give rise to very different expectations in practice. Project planning is defined as a generic term for all activities that are to take place before implementation - the term is therefore very broad here. In this interpretation, all activities in the start or definition phase must be carried out alongside the actual planning. The 7-W questions from classic project management offer you very good support for this:
If you define the term more narrowly, then it often "only" refers to the creation of a schedule in combination with the tasks to be carried out. You can therefore either carry out project planning in great detail or in a rudimentary way. Regardless of which option you choose: For every project, ask yourself what exactly the goal should be.
In practice, you can basically divide project planning into 6 steps that can contribute significantly to the success of the project:
Delineating the individual project phases is often an intuitive step for all those involved: when do we deal with what and in what order? To ensure an optimal overview, you could, for example, create a graphical phase plan consisting of two main parts:
1. project phases: These represent time-limited phases in the course of your project in which specific activities are to be carried out and results achieved.
2. milestones: These are particularly important measurement and test points in your project at which certain results or states are to be achieved.
The first phase of project planning is therefore the project organisation. This is where you make preparations and carry out initial coordination for the realisation of the project - the rough planning, so to speak. Once this phase is complete, you present the details to all those involved in the project.
In the second section of project planning, you deal with the project content: Which tasks should be completed? And what is the best way to coordinate a large project? Break the project down into its individual components in order to better manage the tasks. You can do this with the help of a work breakdown structure (WBS). The content of the project is subdivided and displayed hierarchically in a tree structure. The work breakdown structure is made up of 3 key elements:
1. overall project: At the top is the project as the superordinate element. To keep an eye on progress at all times, you can add various statuses: in planning, in progress, in review, completed.
2. sub-projects: In the centre are sub-projects, which - depending on the scope of the project - are managed by project managers. This is where you define when a task is to be started. Keep an eye on other sub-projects so that the time budget is not exceeded.
3. work packages: At the bottom are defined tasks that are completed by project team members. Always ask yourself how extensive the individual tasks are and, if necessary, define a planned effort in order to compare how effective your planning is.
Without a clearly defined work breakdown structure, the organisation of your projects quickly becomes confusing and the process is jeopardised. With a WBS, you can organise projects - no matter how large or small they are - into a comprehensible and detailed structure, making it easier to achieve your goal.
The project schedule comes into play in the next section of project planning. While you have focussed on collecting and structuring all content and tasks in the work breakdown structure, you aim to map all resulting processes in the project schedule. The defined sequence of the individual activities takes centre stage here. This allows you to map out which processes are dependent on each other, which tasks you can work on in parallel and how relationships between the tasks can be worked out.
The project schedule ensures that all relationships between the defined work packages are clear. This not only promotes targeted processing, but also ensures that no tasks are overlooked. The so-called RACI matrix can support you in this process, as you can define exactly which project participants are responsible for what.
Responsible: Which person is responsible for realising the task? Normally you define a single person here. This person can in turn involve other people in the implementation of the task.
Accountable: Who makes the decisions as to whether the task has been carried out correctly? The "Accountable" person delegates tasks to the "Responsible" person and checks the results of the implementation.
Consulted: Who is contacted for the implementation? This often concerns technical experts or third parties who are not directly involved in the implementation, but who act in an advisory capacity, for example.
Informed: Which person is informed about the results of the task? As a rule, there is no two-way communication here, only information is transmitted.
Time planning or scheduling is closely linked to the project schedule and starts exactly where it ends in the project planning. These steps can also be easily combined with each other. In both cases, however, the aim is to map all project processes, including their sequence. When you plan a project, you also assign specific dates to the individual tasks for their sequence. A popular method for graphical representation is the so-called Gantt chart. This combines the visualisation of the individual sub-projects and their task packages with the relationships and time distribution on a timeline. As a project manager, you can therefore recognise at a glance when and for how long a task is to be processed.
A time frame is important, but who will carry out the individual tasks? Precise resource planning will answer the following questions during project planning:
1. what resources do you need?
2. what qualifications must the project participants have?
3. do you need material resources?
4. how many resources are needed?
5. at what point in the project do you need these resources?
As soon as you have clearly defined all resources, you can allocate them to individual tasks. This allows you to keep track of all the workloads of your project participants and recognise from the outset where bottlenecks could occur so that you can take countermeasures in good time if necessary.
Always keep an eye on the workload of everyone involved in the project to avoid overloads. Thorough and forward-looking capacity planning is particularly important, as resources are only available to a limited extent and may also be needed elsewhere in the company.
Have you carried out the entire project planning according to the steps described? Then budget planning and project controlling are no longer a major problem. After resource planning, you know the cost amount that a resource incurs per time unit. If you work with a tool such as ZEP, you can use the Prices & Receipts Module store individual cost rates for each individual personnel item. Budget planning then virtually takes care of itself. ZEP not only makes budget planning easier for you at this point, but also during the rough planning of your project. Project controlling thus becomes a constant instance for your project management and project control from project planning to completion.
With a Software like ZEP you can not only keep an eye on the performance of your project team, but also ensure that all targets remain within the planned time and budget.
With its six steps, project planning is at the centre of project management. With precise planning and a suitable tool such as ZEP, you create the basis for your project's success. From planning individual activities to resource planning, ZEP allows you to digitally cover the entire course of the project. This allows you to react to unexpected adjustments at any time without overloading your team.
Through the Use of ZEP you can carry out your project planning precisely, analyse all progress and track processes. Optimise your workflows to work more productively. So that your projects are a complete success!
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