Planning

Why, What, How?

Planning a project is where the Project Manager must bring together the complete understanding of the project's requirements with a deep understanding of all the elements that are required to conduct a successful project. In many ways, it is the center-piece for the Project Manager's skills. Of course, it all counts for nothing unless it leads to a successful project!

Planning, estimating & resourcing - available as a PowerPoint slide Planning, estimating and resourcing may be viewed as separate issues, but they need to be conducted in parallel as they directly affect each other.

* Planning is the definition of work to be done, including resource requirements, dependencies and timing.
* Estimating is the calculation of the amount of time and effort that will be required per type of resource for each part of the work to be done.
* Resourcing is the allocation of actual resources (usually the project's workforce) to the plan.

The availability of resources will always be limited. Resources may be required in greater quantities than are available or have competing demands on their time. It may be necessary to make compromises or move work between different potential resources to make best use of the resources available. As these practical adjustments are made, there will inevitably be an impact on the duration and timing of tasks. It may also affect the project's predicted costs.

Here are some of the key issues in deciding what approach to take:

* top down or bottom up?
* all in one go or exploding detail in stages?
* fully detailed or streamlined / summary?
* one plan or several sub-plans?
* automated scheduling or manual scheduling?
* activity, process, deliverable, outcome, or milestone-focused?






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