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Project Planning: Putting It All Together

The benefits of project planning

During the initiation phase, the project manager is gathering all of the necessary preliminary information needed to get stakeholder approval and plan the project.

• The project manager gets assigned;
• The goals of the project have to be approved, as well as the scope of the project and its deliverables;
• A number of people will need to be assigned to the project, and you'll have a good sense of their individual roles and responsibilities;
• You'll also need stakeholder sign off on your project charter.

If all of these criteria have been met, then you're set to begin planning. Planning is a significant part of ensuring a project's success.

Planning has many benefits. As we've discussed, planning helps you map out the full project:

• It helps you understand the work needed to achieve your goals;
• Helps coordinate efforts and timelines with other teams, contractors, and vendors;
• Planning is that it gives you time to identify and prepare for risks that could impact your project;
• Planning also gives you the chance to brainstorm ways to mitigate or address those risks;
• The planning phase can help you get "buy-in" from key members of the project team;
• Planning also demonstrates to stakeholders that the team is taking care to start the project with a detailed plan;
• Planning together creates a shared understanding among all parties involved in the project.

Launching the planning phase

The planning phase may differ from project to project, but generally three big things are worked out during this stage: