Project Planning 101

A number of years ago, my 11 year-old son came to me and asked me to sign his homework. Being an engaged parent, I decided to actually look at his work. To my surprise, he had been asked by his teacher to complete a project plan for his upcoming math project.

I looked at his paper and realized it asked for the following:

• A list of materials (“resources”)


• Steps to complete the project (“tasks”)


• A draft drawing (“milestone”)


• Due date (“deliverable”)


• His name (“project manager”)


• Parent signature (“signoff”)

I immediately asked when he found the time to go to Microsoft Project training

and how he managed to connect to Project Server so he could allocate enterprise resources to his project plan. He turned to me and asked whether I had been “inhaling” (this was when Bill Clinton was running for president) and then proceeded to tell me that he simply wrote down what he needed to complete his math homework. When asked how long it took, he told me 5 or 10 minutes, but that included keeping his lines straight.

While I poke fun, I wanted to share the importance of starting simple. Many technical managers become overwhelmed when asked to do project plan. They don’t understand how to use Microsoft Project and believe it is the key to building a project plan. Understanding your project and articulating what needs to be done (tasks) and the people required (resources) are the building blocks to a robust project plan. These can be documented in a Word document or and Excel spreadsheet. Think about logical sections of your project and you will start to develop phases. Each phase should have at least one deliverable. Document this deliverable and it becomes a milestone. Printing these documents and drawing lines between tasks and phases will create dependencies. Now you have what you need to use a project management tool, such as Microsoft Project.

People believe project management tools are all about building project plans. They force a their project plan into the tool, rather than using the tools to help them predict deliverable dates, resource levels, conflicts, budget issues, and project risks. A well designed and implemented project plan is a living document used to clarify project roles and responsibilities for the project manager, participants, and management. If done correctly, it can save time and provide real-time views of project status.

So, when starting any project, take the time to create a simple plan. Be comfortable and confident in the tools used to create the plan. Remember, the content is much more important than the presentation. If the tool you have selected is not a project management tool, then spend the time insuring your plan is comprehensive and robust before transferring the data to a project management tool. Use the project management tool to help you estimate key project metrics, and you will be successful.