Planning the project

Planning is of major importance to a project because the project involves doing something which has not been done before. The planning phase of the project identifies the processes and procedures that will complete the project, ideally, on time, within budget, and with the agreed requirements. The amount of planning performed should be commensurate with the scope of the project and the usefulness of the information developed. During the planning phase of the project, the project manager plus key members of the project team use the project charter and the preliminary project scope statement, developed in the initiation phase, to develop a project management plan. The project management plan may be a sizeable document or report with multiple tabs for each relevant plan or the project plan may be brief in the form of an e-mail or memo containing only a paragraph covering each of the plans. Figure 3.1 identifies inputs to the planning process as well as suggested contents for the project management plan. Figure 3.1 Input to and output from the planning process.