The Initial Stages of Project Planning

Employees often feel pressured by looming deadlines and little or no time to prepare and plan properly. Teams and individuals sometimes take off running in any direction, regardless of whether it’s the right direction. Before taking the first step in your journey, set aside about 90 minutes of your schedule to plan ahead properly. This will actually save time in the long run as it will ensure that you meet your deadline without wasting time going in the wrong direction. Before starting a project, you must first gather all of the information so you can see what steps you need to take throughout the project to reach your final destination.

Make a Map

When beginning a project, first identify the high level deliverable (interim deliverable) for each main subset of the project. A deliverable is something concrete (defined by a noun) that you need in order to progress to the next stage of the project. Think of the deliverable as the “product” you are producing for each stage (main subset) of your project/journey.

You must also deliver the acceptance criteria. The acceptance criteria are the measurable characteristics of what makes the final and interim deliverable acceptable. What must your “product” have or be for your team and/or client to accept it? This is often defined by what the client is expecting. If you don’t know the answers then you need to ask more questions and learn more about the goals of your project.

Sometimes, at the early stages of the project, the interim deliverables are unclear. This can lead the team and the project totally off track. There are two tried and true methods to use with your team to define the deliverable. By using team synergy, the whole group is invested in and contributes to the overall output.

If you know what your project’s “final deliverable” is and you also know what high level (main) deliverables you will need throughout the project, use the “top-down deliverables and acceptance criteria.” With this method, you start with your ultimate deliverable (final project goal) and work backwards, filling in each step and detail as you work to see how each deliverable is reached.

If you are unsure of the “high level deliverables” but know the “final deliverable,” then try the bottom-up deliverables and acceptance criteria technique. To begin, brainstorm with your team and identify all the steps of the project that need to be executed in order to reach the final deliverable. Then group the steps into logical categories trying to create no more than five main groups (this should take your team about five to fifteen minutes). Develop titles for your categories and break them into sub categories (also with titles). Finally, put the categories into logical order and fine tune by putting all the steps in each category in logical order. Now you and your team can clearly see your high level deliverables, your interim deliverables and your acceptance criteria. This method is spearheaded by the team leader using a technique called “affinity diagramming.” Finally, assign responsibility for each “high level” deliverable.

Identify Process and Conflict

Now that you’ve identified the deliverables and their acceptance criteria, you have your map in hand. It’s time to figure out how you are going to get from “point a” to the finish line. Start by identifying existing processes, if any, that need to be used to create your interim deliverables. How have other project managers and teams navigated this course? Team members who have been through this drill before can lend insight into what processes exist and work well versus what processes do not exist or just do not work well.

Identify conflicts with other projects that might impact creating the final and interim deliverables. This part of the planning section is the place where you specify what else is going on in your office and identify how it will impact your project. The team members should communicate how that will impact the project and offer a solution, or “bridges,” to continue moving forward. By making the team instrumental in these decisions early on, they will be vested in keeping the project healthy and moving forward throughout its lifetime.

Smart Tools

You’re almost there! To ensure you are going in the right direction you need to carefully examine everyone’s responsibilities. This will help you distribute work evenly and match it up with the specific talents of the project team members. One smart tool is a tree diagram. This exercise summarizes each team member’s task for creating each interim deliverable. The team can use a tree diagram to check for overlap or duplicate deliverables. The team can also identify situations where one team member is better suited than another for an assigned interim deliverable.

Much like a relay race, some team members will be relying on other members to reach a milestone before they can continue to their interim deliverable. The project team should consider having a formal review of the deliverable. To do this, create a chart with five columns titled Project Milestone Review (interim deliverable), Purpose of Review, Reviewers, Approval to Move Forward, and Date of Review. Formal reviews are perfect for keeping a clear channel open between the team members to discuss what is or is not going well.

Weigh the Risks

The last step is to figure out the risks for creating each of the interim deliverables. This is an important step, as it allows the team to take the findings and decide if the project agreement needs to be revised. You must weigh the risk versus the goal. Studying the risks also puts you in a good position to troubleshoot any issues that could arise through the duration of the project.

The entire project planning process should take less than 90 minutes to complete. Project planning empowers you and your staff to make important decisions in a time crunch and puts everyone in control of his or her own schedule. Keeping all team members “in the loop” affords all involved a clear perspective and enables them to stay on track on a daily basis. Implementing these simple steps will keep everyone on track and save hours that might otherwise be spent “lost in the woods.” So, let the first step of your journey be careful project planning and the thousand miles will be a stroll in the park.