It sounds so obvious that we should have structures for doing our project planning. However, the project team jumps straight into arranging the details of the project, without giving any thought to how the project should be approached.
There are eight steps we can consider when we begin working on a project.
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?
Step 2: Analyse where we are with the “as is”. This is our current reality, our circumstances at the start of the project. What is the situation in our broader work demands, beside this new initiative? What resources and time frames have we been given?
Step 3: We need to set our goals for the project. Are the goals Specific in terms of processes and resources? Are the Measurable, allowing us objective data to gauge progress? Are the goals Attainable, something the team can be motivated to pursue? Are the goals Relevant to the vision of the project sponsors or are we heading off course? Finally, are they Time-Specific with clear deadlines and milestones with which the check our progress?
Step 4: Have we chosen the right “action steps”? In order to achieve the goals we have set, there must be priorities established and flowing from that, the action steps developed. We need to clearly set the requirements of the job, noting who will do which tasks and how the tasks should be completed. We must also think about how we will need to communicate the results on the way through and again at the end.
Step 5: What are the costs? People, money and time are the usual resources we are normally short of when trying to do projects. We need to estimate how much of each we will need and do this at the start.
Step 6: Timetables are key to checking progress. Clear deadlines, well communicated and understood will be broken out into stages throughout the project. We set them at the beginning. As we move forward, we need to check against the completion of work, compared to the original time estimate to understand our progress.
Step 7: Implementation of the plan necessitates that everyone in the team understands their role, the specific goals, the timelines and the WHY we are doing this. This WHY part is often just assumed and not actually communicated.
Step 8: Upon completion we need to celebrate, then go back and check the reality against what we presumed would occur. It is time consuming to do this and after the project everyone is usually tired and worrying about their next project. This is such a valuable part of the project structure though, because it produces templates, checklists and insights that make the next project that much easier to do.
This eight step progression is not a complex process, but it will save a lot of panic, late-nights, wasted efforts and stress, if we go through it from the start. We can do it the hard way or the easy way, so let’s choose the structured way and make life a bit easier for ourselves.
