Articles and Tools: Selecting a Planning Styles

Consider the goals of your project - the success criteria and the situation to determine which style meets your needs. This article offers brief summaries of your options starting with the simplest, and progress through more rigorous approaches.

The "Whiteboard" or "Action Plan" Approach
In this approach, you list everything you can think of that needs to be done, and start. You may get input from others. Many managers keep the list in a document or on a white board that simply lists what is being done and who is doing them. The manager then checks off items as they are completed.

Potential Benefits

• A concise list of everything that needs doing in one place
• For small projects, if there are only 10 or 15 items that need doing, this may be sufficient and time efficient

Potential Costs

• If things change, it may be difficult to manage change, you can add more items but you can also quickly get into a cycle of reacting to more to-do's rather than achieving results
• You may lose opportunities to organize work efficiently, for example it is difficult to understand how one effort may depend on another

In eRealize you can use the Risks and Activities tab of the Project Portal™ to plan in this manner, or use the Whiteboards and Key Result Area functionality if you do not wish

Planning based on major milestones
This approach is not unlike the approach above. A project manager is generally outlining the major steps toward to achieving project goals. The difference is that additional details may underlay the milestones and these may be managed by others. This style is particularly useful in circumstances where you have a team of seasoned project managers or people who require very little management to get the job done. For example they may create their own projects using another approach, while you simply monitor milestones.

Potential Benefits

• You can plan rapidly, and add detail as needed, giving you the ability to adapt quickly
• Team members are relatively free to choose their own strategies for getting things done
• Flexibility to identify new and better ways to meet your project goals

Potential Costs

• It may be difficult to coordinate related efforts this way, and you may not work as efficiently as you can because you miss opportunities for optimizing schedules by not thinking through the plan in detail
• It may be difficult to get accurate time and costs estimates without additional detail
• Risk of misunderstandings can be increased without specific assignments or a timeline guiding effort - this also makes management more difficult and time consuming if things don't go perfectly

Organizing Related Activities Into Phases
In this approach you think in the same way you do with milestones, adding an additional level of detail. You can apply methodologies to this approach as well.

Potential Benefits.

• Diligence in planning may help you identify opportunities to deliver earlier than you might have
• Management is easier because each component of your work plan serves as a check point from which you can gauge progress

Potential Costs

• It may be tempting to spend all available time on the plan

Using a Predefined Methodology
This may be dictated by your organization to ensure diligence or certain guidelines. In this case, plans, documents and processes reflect the methodology.

Potential Benefits:

• Helps you think through what is needed in a methodical way, considering each aspect in detail
• Can ensure diligent, methodical execution and attention detail
• Many methods developed in response to common pitfalls and problems, and have been informed by a lot of trial and error and improvement from others- you so can avoid the pitfalls and benefit from the experience of others

Potential Costs:

• Some methodologies carry significant administrative overhead - it is easy to get lost in all the different methods without finding the one that is right for your project
• Older project methodologies, particularly in the software arena can "penalize" you for imperfect foresight - in other words if your market or business conditions change in an unexpected way, you may find it takes a great deal of time for your project to adapt
  

Whatever approach you choose, eRealize can help
Regardless of your planning approach, project success will can depend on clear accountability, clear goals, and clear communication. Additionally, having a clear idea of your project success criteria can be helpful in selecting an approach and informing your management decisions throughout the process.

Learn how eRealize can help whatever your preferred approach.