Small Project Management

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Project Planning

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An Old Adage:

Fail to Plan . . .

and You Plan to Fail!

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Project Planning –
5 Stages

  • Prepare project overview
  • Develop activity plan
  • Assign responsibilities
  • Put plan into action; track progress
  • Prepare closeout report

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  • High-level summary of the project
  • Sets the overall scope
  • Clearly written to communicate
  • Team leader responsibility
  • Critical to get this right!

Stage One:
Project Overview

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What’s In a Project Overview?

  • Statement of Problem (or Opportunity)
  • Goals and Objectives
  • Measures of Success
  • Approach, Process, and Timing
  • Assumptions and Risks

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Let’s Use the Following Example

In your course materials, and pull out Appendix pages A26 – A28.

You have taken a new job, and it is a significant distance from home. You are concerned your current car will not be reliable given its age.

 

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Questions –

    • What is our problem, or opportunity, or situation to be changed?

 

  • What is our goal?

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Goals and Objectives

  • Goals and objectives describe what we want to achieve to solve the problem or take advantage of the opportunity
  • Keep them simple
  • Focus on the important items
  • Collectively, they define the scope
  • They must be measurable for success
  • Clearly written

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6.psd

Goals and Objectives
– Use the SMART Test

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Time-Based

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Question –

  • Based on our project goal,

What are our most important objectives?

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Measures of Success

  • Our desired results that can be quantified

Numbers, frequency, degrees of change

  • Avoid intangible measures

Make it “better”

  • Superlatives can be hard to achieve!

Avoid use of “all” or “never”

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Question –

  • What measures of success should we use in our project example?

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Approach, Process, & Timing

  • Describe how we will go about our work – what will we do?
  • Define the schedule you will follow
  • Consider how success was achieved in similar projects
  • For a new project – be creative!

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Video Presentation

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Video Review

  • What approaches did the team consider?
  • What assumptions were challenged?
  • What was necessary for the novel approach to be considered?

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Question –

  • What approach should we follow for our project?
  • What schedule do you want to meet?

 

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Assumptions and Risks

  • We need to consider the things we expect to happen, and the “what ifs”
  • Assumptions

Things we believe will happen

Things needed to be true for success

  • Risks

Undermine success

Actions can be planned to offset risks

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Assumptions and Risks

Might Include:

  • Resources needed
  • Timing of resources
  • Events outside our control
  • Potential delays and their effect

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For your Patrol’s project idea:

  • Together, quickly outline a Project Overview for your project
  • Be prepared to share your solution

Take 5 minutes to complete

Patrol Activity –

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  • Who would like to share?

Patrol Activity –

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Project Overview . . .
. . . A Quick Review

  • Defined our problem
  • Listed goals and objectives
  • Decided on measures of success
  • Described our approach and timing
  • Considered assumptions and risks

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A Project Overview . . .

  • Helps ensure success
  • Helps get everyone on “one page”
  • Helps prevent

Getting off track

Scope creep

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Stage Two:
Activity Plan

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Activity Plan

  • Define the activities and tasks needed to achieve our goals
  • Organize & Prioritize activities and tasks
  • Identify which tasks depend on others
  • Assign team members to activities
  • Define dates to begin and finish

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Activity Plan

 

Goal

Activity

Activity

Activity

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Task

Activity

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Activity Plan

 

Replace Car

Choose Make/Style

Shop for Car

Make Purchase

Mileage

Space

Features

Cost Limit

Body

SUV?

Make?

Colors

Negotiate

Finance

Prep

Receive

Online

Dealers

Buyer

Set Price

Define Needs

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Project Activities and Tasks Should . . .

  • Pass the “SMART” test
  • Have clear start and stop times
  • Include estimated time and cost to complete
  • Be assignable and manageable

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Video Presentation

This clip will help illustrate the second stage of project planning – Activity Plan

 

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“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done . . .
. . . You will keep on getting what you’ve always got.”

  • We must challenge assumptions
  • We must think outside the box

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Stage Three:
Activity Assignments

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Assign Activities

Team Leader Should –

  • Confirm availability of resources
  • Understand team member skills
  • Match skills to tasks
  • Establish progress milestones and reporting procedures

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Assign Activities

Team Members Should –

  • Know project’s purpose
  • Understand their assignments
  • Know the availability of resources
  • Be clear about deadlines
  • Understand how to address issues

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Stage Four:
Putting the Plan
Into Action

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Work the Plan

    • Now is the time to let the team do its job!
    • Staying to the plan is the clearest path to success!
    • A well-laid plan will help ensure a team is performin’ . . . not stormin’!

 

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Work the Plan

  • Get the project going
  • Provide leadership to the team
  • Assist with decisions & problems
  • Obtain additional resources
  • Monitor progress of activities
  • Monitor team performance

The Leader Should –

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Stage Five:
Project Closeout

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Closing Out the Project

  • Recognize team members
  • Prepare After-action report
  • Goals and objectives met?
  • Completed on schedule?
  • Lessons learned?
  • Ideas/recommendations for future projects

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Summary

Five Stages of Project Planning

 

 

  • Develop a Project Overview
  • Plan the Work
  • Make Activity Assignments
  • Put the Plan into Action
  • Prepare Project Closeout

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A Different Adage:

If you plan the work . . .

. . . you plan for success!

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