Project planning

Hi everyone,

In this blogpost I want to talk about different ways a project can be planned and organised. This is a very broad topic, so I would summarised the techniques and tool that look more useful to me.

Steps of a project.

I would like to start by defining which are the different phases of a project. Typically there are 5 of them:

1. Conception and Initiation.
   The most important result of this phase is a business or use case that the project will try to tackle.
   
2. Definition and Planning
   The most important task and milestones are defined.
   
3. Launch
   Resources and personnel are allocated to the different tasks.
   
4. Performance and Control
   During this phase the project is executed and the intermediate results are monitored. In the following section I will talk about some of the tool to perform this monitoring.
   
5. Closure
   The final approval from the stakeholders about the results needs to be done here. Another important step is to reflect on the experiences gathered during the execution of the project.
   

Elements of a project plan

Now that we have seen the different phases of a project, it would be easier to identify which elements are necessary for planning a project. This elements are:

• Create Task Lists.
  From beginning to the end of the project.
  
• Establish Duration and Priorities.
  This will be very important during the monitoring of the project.
  
• Identify Dependencies.
  The goal is to prevent blocks between the different teams over resources.
  
• Develop a Resource Plan.
  Which elements will be needed and when.
  

Conclusion

In this blogpost I wanted to reflect on all the different elements that are needed to plan a project. This elements can help us to frame our project in a better way, such value can be provided on a more efficient way.

I haven't touch on the point of monitoring a project, but I will like to treat it on a different blogpost. Because we have seen that it is the next and important step on the life cycle of a project.