Introduction

This chapter introduces the planning process and highlights the importance of detailed planning to successful project management. Project planning involves repeating some of the activities carried out at the previous stage in the project process, which resulted in the production of the project brief (Chapter 3). At the planning stage it is necessary to go into much more detail and work out the nuts and bolts of the project.

Small projects require an action plan with an associated plan to resource the project (people and finances) and undertake a risk analysis. Pull together this information with the original project brief (see Chapter 3) to create a project plan, which should provide sufficient information to gain approval for the plan and for the project to go ahead.

In large and complex projects Gantt charts and PERT diagrams (or equivalent tools) are required when creating a project plan, with the subsequent identification of the critical path (or their equivalent). The detail of the schedule helps you to calculate the workload of staff involved in the project and makes it possible to work out the detail of the project's documentation and communication processes and finances. The detailed plan can be pulled together as a report for the project sponsor to approve.

Researching the project

When researching the project external and internal analyses of the project environment are required.

External analysis

These are some questions to ask when carrying out an external analysis of the project environment: