What Are the Basic Project Planning Steps?

Team Clarizen on Friday, February 15, 2019

The basic project planning steps that every project manager needs to know can be broken down as parts of the first two
phases of project management: Initiation and Planning. While those phases give a broad outline of what should be
happening at different stages of a project’s lifecycle, they don’t provide much of a clear picture of how to go about your
project planning.
 If you’re looking for something that gives you an easier to follow roadmap, the following project planning steps should
provide one:
1. Create and Analyze Business Case
2. Identify and Meet Stakeholders for Approval
3. Define Project Scope
4. Set Goals and Objectives
5. Determine Deliverables
6. Create Project Schedule and Milestones
7. Assignment of Tasks
8. Carry Out Risk Assessment
Project planning doesn’t have to be difficult or cause any nervous stress since the beginning of every project is basically
the same. You can follow the same set project planning steps and hone them through experience of every project you are
involved with.
Breaking down the steps
1. Create and Analyze Business Case
The business case is the reason why your organization needs to carry out the project. It should outline the problem, such
as a lack of repeat customers or a day longer supply line than competitors and describe how this will be solved and how
much monetary benefit should accrue to the organization once the project is completed.
2. Identify and Meet Relevant Stakeholders for Approval
Identifying project stakeholders means listing anyone who will be affected by your project, so includes the public and
government regulatory agencies. For the project planning phase however, it should only be necessary to meet those who
will directly decide whether the project will happen or not.
3. Define Project Scope
The scope of your project is an outline of what it is and isn’t setting out to achieve. It is necessary to delineate the
boundaries of your project to prevent “scope creep”, i.e. your resources going towards something that’s not in your
project’s goals.
4. Set Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives for your project will build on the initial objectives outlined in the business plan. At this step you
will give finer detail to the initial broad ideas and set them in a project charter as reference points for your project as it
proceeds.
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It is a two-way street however, as, with growing skills shortages and the likely exodus of hundreds of thousands of EU
citizens employed by UK business and public service, the country is likely to face huge labor shortages in the near future
which threaten to derail its current high economic performance.
5. Determine Deliverables
Deliverables are the concrete results that your project produces. One of the most important project planning steps is to
decide on what these deliverables will be and who is responsible for both producing and receiving them.
6. Create Project Schedule and Milestones
Your project schedule is a very important document that outlines when different tasks of a project are due to begin and
end, along with major measurement milestones. It will be referred to when measuring project progress. It will be
available to all stakeholders and should be adhered to as closely as possible.
7. Assignment of Tasks
Within your team everyone should know what their role is and who is responsible for different elements of the project.
Assigning tasks clearly should remove any uncertainty about roles and responsibilities on your team.
8. Carry Out Risk Assessment
Having a functional risk management plan means performing a strong assessment at the planning stage of the project. All
potential risks should be identified along with their possible effect on the project and likelihood of occurring.
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Seven Steps to Successful Project Planning

MANAGING 46 Shares:
Lately, I have been part of several project teams. Some of these experiences have caused me to sit back and analyze the
project planning process to understand how project management planning and implementation could be improved.
Why do projects managed by talented people end up being delayed or not completed? Why do project teams sometimes
feel that they are shooting at a moving target? I find that the lack of proper planning or failure to create a systematic
approach can be fatal to projects.

What is project planning?

Project planning is the process of defining your objectives and scope, your goals and milestones (deliverables), and
assigning tasks and budgetary resources for each step. A good plan is easily shareable with everyone involved, and it’s
most useful when it’s revisited regularly. Simply outlining a plan and never discussing it with your team again is a
good recipe for wasted time and effort.

You can do your project planning in a simple Google doc, or you can use project management software. The benefit of
using project management software is that you’re usually able to store all of your documents and deliverables in one
place, and you can avoid losing important discussions and decisions to the email or Slack void. With a tool like
Basecamp, for example, it’s easy to track progress and keep track of conversations and items that require collaboration
with a few different people.

If you’re thinking about project management as an entrepreneur or within a fast-paced startup, it might seem like it all
takes too much time at the outset. But, you’ll actually save a lot of time and resources if you document your project
plan right from the start and use it as a roadmap to keep you and your team on track.

Here are seven keys to successful project planning to help you get started.
 1. Think of your plan as a roadmap for stakeholders

Every project needs a roadmap with clearly defined goals that should not change after the first phase of the project has
been completed. All stakeholders benefiting from the outcome or involved in executing the project should be named
and their needs stated during the initial project planning process.

These stakeholders might include:

 The project manager or the person ultimately responsible for completion

 The “customer” who receives the deliverables—this can be someone on your team (internal) or an actual paying
customer.

 The team, or the people responsible for any tactic that’s part of the plan.

Don’t assume that you automatically understand each stakeholder’s needs and goals. Before you get too far into
documenting your project plan, talk to them to make sure you really understand the project and abilities and resources
of everyone on the team.

2. Break the project into a list of deliverables

Develop a list of all deliverables. This list should break down the larger project into smaller tasks that can be assigned
to specific team members, and you should include estimated deadlines associated with each deliverable or task.
Make sure that you understand and document the approval process for each deliverable. If your project is for an
external customer, make sure you are clear on their internal approval process, so that you’re not surprised by delays or
slowed down with wading through competing opinions.

3. Talk to your team

Identify by name all individuals and/or organizations involved in each deliverable or task, and describe their
responsibilities in detail. Otherwise, miscommunication can lead to delays and situations where team members may
have to redo their work.

Hold a kickoff meeting to talk to your team about your intended plan of attack. Ask them to help you think about the
best way to get the work done. Not only will this help you be more efficient, it will help you get their buy-in because
they’ll feel more ownership over the process. Using a project management tool like Basecamp can be helpful keeping
everyone on track and storing documents and conversations all in one place.

If you use email to communicate about projects, consider using a team inbox email solution that will allow you to
assign emails that need project-related attention to team members as appropriate, rather than endlessly forwarding huge
conversation threads back and forth.
4. Identify risks

Determine the risks involved in your project. Think through what you’ll do if something takes much longer than
expected, or if costs end up being much more than you initially anticipated.

You don’t have to have a specific course of action identified for every possible negative outcome, but you should spend
some time with your team, thinking through what could go wrong. Then, you can do as much as you can to mitigate
those risks from the outset, rather than being caught off guard later. Risk factors can also have some influence on how
you budget.

5. Create a budget

Attached to your list of milestones and deliverables should be information about the project cost and estimated budget.
Resist the urge to assign large dollar amounts to big projects without identifying exactly how the money is intended to
be spent. This will help your team understand the resources they have to work with to get the job done. When you’re
setting your initial budget, these numbers might be ranges rather than absolutes.

For certain items, you might need to get quotes from a few different vendors. It can be helpful to document the agreed
upon project scope briefly in your budget documentation, in case you end up needing to make changes to the larger
project based on budgetary constraints, or if your vendor doesn’t deliver exactly what you expected.
 6. Add milestones

Use your list of deliverables as a framework for adding milestones and tasks that will need to be completed to
accomplish the larger goal. Establish reasonable deadlines, taking into account project team members’ productivity,
availability, and efficiency.

Think about your milestones within the SMART framework. Your goals should be:

 Specific: Clear, concise, and written in language anyone could understand.

 Measurable: Use numbers or quantitative language when appropriate. Avoid vague descriptions that leave success
up to personal, subjective interpretation.

 Acceptable: Get buy-in from stakeholders on your goals, milestones, and deliverables.

 Realistic: Stretch goals are one thing, but don’t set goals that are impossible to achieve. It’s frustrating for your
team and for your stakeholders, and might ultimately delay your project because accomplishing the impossible
usually costs more and takes longer.

 Time-based: Set concrete deadlines. If you have to alter deadlines associated with your milestones, document
when and why you made the change. Avoid stealth changes—or editing deadlines without notifying your team and
relevant stakeholders.
7. Set progress reporting guidelines

These can be monthly, weekly, or daily reports. Ideally, a collaborative workspace should be set up for your project
online or offline where all parties can monitor the progress. Make sure you have a communication plan—document
how often you’ll update stakeholders on progress and how you’ll share information—like at a weekly meeting or daily
email.

Use the framework you set up when you identified your milestones to guide your reports. Try not to recreate any
wheels or waste time with generating new reports each time you need to communicate progress. Keep in mind that
using a project management software like Basecamp can keep stakeholders in the loop without cluttering up your
inbox, or losing conversations in long Slack chats.

The secret to effective project planning and management is staying organized and communicating well with your team
and stakeholders. Whether you decide to use project management software or not, think about where and how you store
all the materials and resources that relate to your project—keep everything in one place if you can. Good luck!