Are you new to project management and you're wondering what the project planning process
is?
Well, in this video, I'm going to share with you all the key elements to the project planning
process.
Now, if you really want to master your next project, I want you to wait to the end of
this video because I have a very special download for you that is going to help you ensure your
projects are successful.
I have to tell you, this is a must watch video because I'm going to give you so much information
in regards to how to do the project planning process, because it is critical to your success.
So if you're excited as I am about this project planning process, like this video, and let's
get to it.
What is the purpose of a planning stage, also known as the planning process?
Well, it's really simple.
It's about refining and defining the scope, the objectives, and really blowing out the
project plan so that you can be successful.
And there are some really core key elements.
One of those being charter, work breakdown structure, steering committee, and kickoff
meetings.
There are some other elements, but these are definitely the four that I want you to focus
on.
So let's get into those details of the project planning process, also known as planning stage.
Project charter.
This is probably the most essential document that you need to have and create in this planning
stage.
Now, I just want to do a little disclaimer here, because for those of us who are PMPs,
and in our official pin block of knowledge that we get all our awesome information from,
theoretically this is actually supposed to happen at initiation stage.
So when I get the knock on the door from a sponsor, they're supposed to give me the charter.
So this is a little disclaimer to let you know that never happens, very rarely.
I've never come across a project where an actual sponsor has given me the charter.
So I bring this up in the planning stage because you're going to have to create it.
You cannot proceed with the project without the charter.
And why is this document so important?
Because it lays everything out for the individuals in the project, really all the major stakeholders,
going from your team, all the way to do steering committees, even to those who are accepting
the deliverables.
It really lays everything out.
It gives you the scope statement, the background information, the ins and outs, what the deliverables
are, milestone, budget, roles, responsibilities, documents you're going to use.
It's a pretty important extensive document that I highly recommend everyone must have
before you start a project.
If you lay it out here in these beginning stages of planning, it makes a huge, huge
difference and something that I highly, highly recommend.
Now, don't fret because if you look at this video over here, I actually have one that
lays out all the details of a project charter.
So that is something that you must have in project planning process.
Work breakdown structure.
This is another really core important part of the project planning process, and that
is the WBS.
Now, what is a WBS for those of you who may be newbies and are not too sure?
Well, it actually is an amazing tool and technique to break down very high level concepts, really
your scope statement, this is what you have to deliver on, and break them down into manageable
chunks.
It's really critical because if you're to just get the scope statement and saying, "Here,
you need to deliver and implement this new data warehouse management system that is being
told off from global to come and give it to your sort of country of origin," then you
may be slightly overwhelmed.
What are all the moving pieces and parts?
And the WBS allows you to break it down very systematically.
It is an amazing tool.
I use it all the time and I do it in the planning process because I sort of kick it off first
and then I bring it to my team afterwards to fill in the gaps.
Now, cool thing is I have tons of resources for you.
One of those resources here is a video which gives you a full breakdown on the WPS.
But even more so, I want you to check out on the link below, under this YouTube video,
because I have a practical online project management course which goes into great detail
on this and actually links it to a whole bunch of other things that you need in project planning
process.
Steering committee.
This is the next really important piece to the project planning process.
So steering committees, I can't tell you how important it is to start off at this stage
because you're in the stage of really trying to figure things out and really lay the law
down, so to speak, of how are you going to be executing on everything, and having your
steering committee now is really beneficial.
So what is a steering committee?
It's made up of a governing body of very select specific individuals who are there to help
move roadblocks and promote the project.
That becomes really important.
So some of those high level individuals may be senior executives, may be the person who
is going to be the head of the department that is getting the deliverable.
It could be department heads who their team members or your team members, their direct
reports, are on your project.
So it's really made up of these high level stakeholders, high level individuals who have
an understanding of the greater good of everything, can approve budgets.
There really are critical to this whole process.
Now, as I said, you really want to have one now, and why is that?
Well, I can tell you for sure, they have to be aware of some of the roadblocks that you're
going to come across.
And in the planning stage, you already have an idea of what some of those are.
You may also have some assumptions you want to clarify, and you may also have some project
risks, like we have a tendency in this organization not to put enough resourcing around this,
and I can already see the same problem happening.
And I know as a project manager, doing my due diligence, doing this planning stage,
that I can already see some of the deliverables that they want, we're probably not going to
meet.
So I need to make sure and bring it to their attention now, not six months from now when
I'm already in the midst of everything because in this beginning stage of planning, people
are apt to say yes.
People are apt to support what you need to support on.
Why?
Because it's the beginning stage.
We haven't gone into the nitty gritty detail of things and they're not feeling the pinch
of projects, which happens all the time.
Not a bad thing, just reality.
So really important to get your steering committee set up now and get the approval and buy into
what you are doing and get those senior people involved.
That is their job.
That's why they get paid the big bucks.
Ensure that they're there to help you be successful because you can't answer everything, and there's
going to be times where you have to escalate stuff because it's really in their wheelhouse.
Project kickoff meeting.
Oh, this is done in the planning stages.
But interestingly enough, not where you think it's going to happen.
It does not happen at the beginning.
It actually happens at the end of the planning stage.
This is a mistake I see way too often happen over and over, then people wonder why their
projects aren't successful or they're not delivering, or worse yet, their team members
are not really taking on the role and responsibility that they assumed they would have.
So kickoff meetings are critical.
When you get the knock on the door that you have a project, congratulations.
Do not call your team.
And you have so much work to do.
Remember, you have project charter, you have steering committee, you have your WBS.
You want to get all that stuff prepped.
Once you have all your major things prepped, then you want to call on the kick off meeting.
You want to bring your team members together.
You want to demonstrate to them everything that you have up to this point created so
that they have this package.
Oh my goodness, it is so cool when they get a package and that they now know what they're
responsible for, and you do a lot of clarity of roles, responsibilities, expectations,
what you're delivering on.
It becomes really important.
You really want to do it at the end of this planning stage when you've done all of this
pre-work that we just talked about prior to this point in this video.
Now, how long should a kickoff meeting be?
Now, this is also another issue that I see over and over again.
It is not, not one hour.
Minimum two to up to two days, actually.
Why?
Because this kickoff meeting is not just a meeting to tell you what we're doing.
That's in the charter.
I can give that to you as pre-read.
It is to actually get us going as a team.
It's to solidify thought processes, expectations, assumptions, reading the charter, probably
even to do a few exercise activities by even looking at the WBS and breaking out activities
even more so you have a really solid project plan, to look at timelines, discrepancies,
dependencies, all of that fun stuff you want to do with your team because at the end of
your kickoff, however long it is, you're going to be able to give them information and they
can start running with the activities that they are really supposed to do because you
assigned it to them.
So this is a very important meeting.
And when you set it off right, it becomes huge and it is a big critical part to the
success in the project planning process.
Now, that you know everything about the project planning process, remember what I said earlier
on in the intro, you have to know all about why projects fail and they succeed.
And the best way to do that is to go and grab this document from the link below under this
YouTube video.
It is so important that you understand this because a lot of the times the failures we
have, guess what?
They didn't have to happen if you just knew and understood.
And this document has all that information just for you.
I want to thank you.
Please like this video, share it with everybody you know.
And as I said a little bit earlier on, thank you so much for staying to the end of this
video.
It means a lot to me.
I'm passionate about this subject and I hope that you find great value in what I'm giving
you.
Until the next video, see you later.