Mastering Project Planning: Schedule Last, Not First

People often start planning their projects by jotting down a schedule, but it's one of the last pieces in my project planning process.

Most other project plan elements play a role in the best way to structure a project schedule. After planning your scope, identifying stakeholders, developing a communication plan, and considering project risks, you'll be ready to start sequencing tasks into a schedule. Whenever possible, I prefer to break the schedule into pieces.

• Are there phases that provide a clean opportunity for reviews and approvals? Your stakeholder management plan can inform this.

• Can phases overlap? Be staggered? Or do they need to be sequential? Your resource plan can help answer these questions.

• Instead of phases, is this an “MVP and iterate” type of project? Revisiting your scope plan will help define your MVP and iteration requirements to work them into the schedule.

• Where do you need buffer time? Your risk plan can help answer this question.

  
  

Many other factors can impact your schedule, but the above points provide a solid start beyond merely listing tasks and calling it a Project Plan.