How to plan a project
Need to plan your project? Don't know where to start?Plan your project easily using simple steps and our proven project plan templates
Planning your project is one of the most important aspects of sucessful project management. Effective project planning follows a sequence of steps beginning with a breakdown of the project deliverables and ending with a detailed project schedule showing the resources, tasks and dependencies against a day by day calendar.
Plan projects simply is a straightforward project planning method which can guarantee improved project success through a 4 stage collaborative approach to planning your project.Plan projects simply
Plan your project simply involves 4 stages:- Stage 1 - Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Stage 2 - Project Network Diagram / Precedence Diagram
- Stage 3 - Estimate effort
- Stage 4 - Resource allocation and levelling
Stage 1 focuses on defining the project scope by developing a detailed work breakdown structure. In stage 2 you sequence the deliverables in the order in which they need to happen. This ensures that you identify all of the dependencies between each deliverable. Stage 3 involves the estimation of the effort required to deliver each deliverable and in stage 4 resources are allocated and levelled.
Each of these stages are described in detail on this site. If you are starting out in Project Management I suggest reading through each of the stages and then reviewing the planning templates. If you are an experienced Project Manager you will find plenty of useful hints and tips under the MS Project pages.
I firmly believe that Planning is the foundation of project success. I have created this project planning guide share the knowledge and experience I have gained during my Project Management career. My aim is to provide a comprehensive toolkit of information, resources and templates for Project and programme Managers. I hope you find this website useful.
