Projects don't just happen they are planned. The whole project team should develop the plan not just the project manager. This ensures that the teams' experiences are taken into account and that everyone is fully committed and has ownership of the plan. A good project plan will provide the following:

• A roadmap everyone in the team can follow with clear milestones
  
• A realistic project timescale
  
• Details of resource requirements
  
• Validation of the estimated cost
  
• Identification of task slippage
  
• Early warning of problems

It pays to use previous experience (historical data) from similar projects.

• How long did it take?
  
• How much did it cost?
  
• What were the problem areas?
  
• What were the successful areas?

Running a project without a plan is foolish. Working without knowing where you are going is likely to lead to problems and possible failure. Running a project without a plan is like trying to find your way in a strange city without a map. As the saying has it, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

In order to identify the individual tasks in a project it is useful to create a Work Breakdown Structure. The WBS is the foundation for the detailed project plan. Get the team together and brainstorm all of the tasks and sub-tasks in the project, in no particular order. Write them down on sticky notes and put them on a whiteboard. Once everyone has thought of as many tasks as they can, arrange the sticky notes into groups under the major areas of activity. Add, modify, remove and shuffle the sticky notes until the WBS is accurate, complete and logical. The purpose of a WBS is to decompose the project into steps and sub-steps.

Logic Network (time chart)

A Logic Network shows the sequence of activities in a project across time. It shows which activity logically precedes or follows another activity. Create a start (left) and end (right) sticky note and put them on the board. Arrange the WBS sticky notes in the logical sequence of activities from left to right. Join the notes with an arrow in and out; some may have more than one arrow. All connecting lines on a network enter at the left (beginning) of the activity box (sticky note) and exit at the right (ending). Lines do not enter the top or exit the bottom of the activity box. No unconnected lines are allowed. All activities must connect to another activity or the start or end of the project. Add the amount of time every activity will take on each sticky note to calculate the project duration. You have created a Logic Network that will help you understand the dependencies in your project, timescale and its workflow. This technique can reveal important information that could otherwise be overlooked.

Milestones

Look for milestones in your Logic Network. A natural milestone may occur any time a series of parallel activities come together in a point. Control the project by defining a concrete deliverable for each milestone. A concrete deliverable is something you can see or touch such as a design specification, prototype, report, software module etc.

Using Project Management Software

The information from your WBS and Logic Network can be input into a software package such as Microsoft Project to provide a detailed plan. Enter the tasks, predecessors, resources and time estimates into the software. Once entered the software will create the charts and graphs automatically. Don't expect the software to plan or management the project; it's just a tool.

Checklist

Here is a checklist to help you create a well thought out, detailed project plan while building a committed high performing team.

1. Define what needs to be done using a Work Breakdown Structure
   
2. Determine the best approach to get everything done by developing a Logic Network
   
3. Establish responsibilities and develop work and duration estimates of how long each team member requires for each task
   
4. Calculate how long the project will take to complete, its critical path and milestone schedule using the Logic Network
   
5. Calculate and chart how many people will be needed and the percentage of each team member's time for each phase of the project
   
6. Adjust and refine the project plan to level individual workloads and smooth the number of people needed during the project
   
7. Creatively optimise trade-offs to deliver the best results in the shortest time
   
8. Use the joint planning process to intensify team members' commitment and ownership