Project planning " 6 steps to project success ✓ + tips

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.

Table of contents - What you can expect:

Successful project planning in practice
6 steps in project planning
Project planning with ZEP - All the advantages
Aim of project planning

What is project planning?

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:

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.

How does successful project planning work in practice?

"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.

6 steps in project planning

In practice, you can basically divide project planning into 6 steps that can contribute significantly to the success of the project:

Step 1: Phase planning

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:

The first planning phase 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. After completing this phase, you present the details to all project participants in a project plan structure.

Step 2: Project structure planning

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:

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.

Step 3: Project schedule

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 phase plan for your project management, so to speak. The defined sequence of 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 help you with this Process optimisation as you can define exactly which project participants are responsible for what.

Step 4: Scheduling

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.

If you are planning a project, 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.

Step 5: Resource planning

A time frame is important, but who will carry out the individual tasks? A precise Resource planning answers the following questions during project planning:

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.

Step 6: Project controlling

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 software like ZEP, you can not only optimise your team's performance thanks to precise Project time tracking but also ensure that all targets remain within the planned time and budget.

How does project planning software improve your project management? All the advantages of ZEP at a glance!

Project planning software is a crucial tool for efficient project and programme management. Multi-project management. It enables teams to systematically plan, organise and execute their projects. One of the most powerful solutions on the market is ZEP, a software that offers numerous advantages for managing projects more successfully. The most important advantages of ZEP are listed below:

Conclusion

With its six steps, project planning is at the centre of the project management. With precise planning and a suitable tool such as ZEP, you can create the basis for your Project success. From planning individual activities to resource planning, ZEP allows you to cover the entire project process digitally. 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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