Project plans for the rest of us

There are very few people I have encountered in my career that have seen project planning as a truly joyful exercise.  Some professional consultants live and breathe projects, and therefore the prospect of a well executed project plan may elicit anticipation of success, or a sense of accomplishment in a plan in a well designed plan.  And there are others that can simply crank plans out in their sleep; having done so many throughout the course of their careers that it becomes second nature.  And perhaps a select few project management professionals eagerly anticipate putting together that next glorious plan, the next chance to show off their skills.

But for the rest of us, project planning is often a necessary evil.  So evil in fact, that I have seen many projects within my own corporation fail or miss project targets because the project champion decided to do as little as humanly possible in planning.  These pseudo-plans contain the bare minimum tasks, responsibilities and due dates, without much else.  And this comes out of successful managers and contributors, even star employees.  Because project planning is only done as a perfunctory step, rather than actually managing the plan.

From what I’ve seen, this is most often due to managers not realizing that an in-between project plan is possible.  That it doesn’t have to be either a list of tasks or a monumental MS Project disaster.  That is the reason most often given when the managers I’ve worked with (and myself included) discuss why a better plan was not created.  “The plan will take longer than the project” or “I don’t know how to use MS Project” or “No one follows those things anyway” are all common excuses given.

So instead of pushing my colleagues towards a full blown project plan, I believe there are a few key additions that could take the basic task list to a true project plan:

1. Add links between tasks & precedents-

Many projects have been postponed or delayed only because the sequence of events was not well defined.

2. Include actual effort estimates in the task, not just calendar days to complete-

Many people don’t actually add up the hours needed to complete a task – they just pick a random calendar day

3. Make more detailed tasks-

Broad tasks that people don’t even remember what they mean two weeks later don’t help anyone

 

These simple additions can go a long way towards taking a task list and making it a reasonable plan.

7 thoughts on “Project plans for the rest of us

  1. Thanks for sharing these thoughts. I have also experienced and have been guilty of not having robust project plans in place, primarily because it often seems like it will take too much time to formally document. I think your three bullet points are a great suggestion to simplify thinking about at least putting some minimal structure around projects. One additional comment I would add is to make only one person accountable for ensuring a task is complete. I have seen many cases where an action item will be listed and include 3-4 names. In my experience many times these don’t get done or take longer for action to be taken as everyone waits for someone else to take the lead. By making one person accountable, they can coordinate with others as necessary, but it is clear who is responsible for ensuring the action gets completed.

  2. I think this is a really beneficial post, it is easy to relate to and also to understand where you are coming from. Even when it comes to group projects in school, it is hard to assign people to specific tasks, especially when they use the excuse “I dont know how to do it….” And as Ann said, it is more beneficial to assign one person to getting a specific task done because then they can be the ones held accountable for it. Great suggestions.

  3. I think that is a great idea, laying things out clearly for people is the easiest way to get the task understood. If you can list out details of each task within a project it can give the employee a better understanding of what they are going to be doing, and it also will help eliminate tasks that people say they “can’t do.” I believe that having this criteria to project plans will make everything run efficiently and effectively.

  4. Thank you for putting this post together. I have also experienced not only the excitement of a starting new project, but also the excuses of creating a project plan being too overwhelming and why should we bother because it will change anyways. I’ve also seen many projects where the delivery date is determined by upper management before the full scope of the project is even identified. This places the team in scramble mode right from the beginning of the project and can lead to cost over-runs, wrong priorities being worked on first and duplicate efforts to name just a few. It is situations like this where the project manager needs to be extra diligent in putting a plan together and notifying management of any issues delaying project deliverables within the first week of the project launch. Your key additions are great for beginning that basic construction of a project plan and diffuse the excuse that there is not enough time to construct one.

  5. I love that you were able to simplify the basics to three main tips. I will definitley take those into consideration in my next project as they are practical for real-life use. I have seen many projects fail, or become frustrating quickly, because the team was vague and avoided planning next steps. Often, the projects that start out vague, remain vague and unclear throughout. Without specific tasks/responsibilities, people are less accountable and able to veer off track more often than when the tasks are clearly defined. I agree that most people do not want to spend an abundance of time planning a project, however, more planning on the front end often helps make execution more seamless.

  6. I agree strongly with Irini. Having 3 basic steps is a great way to get your message and project across. In a previous MBA class, our professor preached about how greater than 70% of projects fail either due countless reasons. I believe that is more project managers and team members included your simple 3 steps, the percentage of failing projects would drastically decrease.

  7. I apologize for the above post. It accidentally sent and I was not finished writing. I agree strongly with Irini. Having 3 basic steps is a great way to get your message and project across. In a previous MBA class, our professor preached about how greater than 70% of projects fail due countless reasons. I believe that if more project managers and team members included your simple 3 steps, the percentage of failing projects would drastically decrease. Another key component of assuring projects are successful is communication. Communication can mean a wide variety of things, but more specifically project managers and team members need to have open lines of communication regarding the plan. Perhaps the project manager prefers a highly detailed plan and the team members do not; this is something that should be discussed and handled at the beginning of the project as opposed to halfway through when the project is failing and it is too late. There are other examples of how essential communication is to a project, this is simply one.

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