The key success factors in project planning
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A project is considered successful if it achieves its set objectives on time and within budget. However, depending on the industry and statistic, between 30 and 70% of all projects fail. On the other hand, well-planned projects have a very high success rate. For successful project planning, various factors must be taken into account and carefully coordinated. With the right methods, successful planning is a structured process that is easy to implement in practice.
Defining the project structure
The basis of good project planning is a suitable project structure. Larger projects are divided into sub-projects or project phases and these in turn are divided into work packages. Smaller projects are divided directly into work packages. An important factor here is that the work packages are not too big and not too small. If they are smaller than one day, for example, the administrative effort can become too great. With 30 days, on the other hand, it is difficult to maintain an overview and reliably determine the degree of completion. There is no general rule; more specific values depend on the industry and project.
Planning work packages
In project planning, each work package is given a start and end date. Instead of a single key due date for the entire project, there are many regular deadlines that must be met. As a result, continuous progress is created.
Another aspect of project planning is the distribution of work packages among team members. The clear allocation of responsibilities avoids confusion about who is in charge. This prevents team members from unknowingly working on the same work package or work packages not being processed by anyone.
In this context, resources must be considered across all projects. Team members may be involved in other projects or tasks that restrict their working time for the current project. Staff holidays and absences must also be taken into account. Realistic resource planning ensures that the project is not delayed due to a lack of resources, when this should have been taken into account during planning.
Assigning people to work packages
Part of a good project structure is to plan the work packages in such a way that a work package is ideally assigned to one person.
A work package can also be assigned to two people as the person responsible. If possible and appropriate at the time of planning, the work package can also be further subdivided into tasks. The tasks are then assigned to one of the two persons responsible for the work package. This has the advantage that the responsibilities are clear and the resources can be planned even more precisely.
If nobody is responsible for a work package, you often realize far too late that something is wrong. Only after the planned start of the work package do you realize that no progress has been made. Good project planning software displays such problems in overviews so that you can react earlier.
The ideal case is that exactly one person is assigned as responsible for a work package.
Duration and effort
The effort is the working time required to complete the work package. The duration is the period of time in which the work package must be completed. The duration must therefore be at least as long as the effort.
If the project is a customer order, the effort is usually known, as at least a target price and therefore an effort has been agreed. For internal projects, it also makes sense to provide at least a rough estimate of the effort, if possible, as this is the only way to calculate the utilization of resources.
It is rarely possible to work on a work package full-time and without interruption. Therefore, the duration is usually planned longer than the effort. In addition, external factors, such as information or responses to be provided by the customer, can also lead to delays. If it is possible to estimate these delays in advance, it makes sense to extend the duration accordingly at the planning stage. This avoids frequent adjustments to the plan during the course of the project.
Risk analysis and management
To ensure successful project execution, it is necessary to analyze the risks that can be identified in advance and take them into account during project planning.
Buffers should be planned for work packages for which it is not sufficiently clear that they can very likely be completed within the planned timeframe. These ensure that if one work package is exceeded, another work package does not automatically fall behind schedule.
Another risk is that the client says during the course of the project: ‘This is not what I had in mind’. In this case, fixed tasks can be defined in the project plan to keep the client informed about the status of the project. Planning and considering how problems can be solved before they occur avoids stress and time overload during the course of the project.
Flexibility and adaptability
Despite good planning, changes to plans must be expected.
Possible reasons for plan changes are, for example:
- Resources become unavailable, for example due to illness.
- The customer or project owner changes their expectations of the result during the project.
- Work packages are completed earlier or later than planned (usually later...).
- Creative new ideas are developed during the course of the project, the realization of which should not wait until after the project as version 1.1, but rather be realized during the project as version 1.0.
Changing the project plan during the course of the project always involves a certain amount of risk and effort in order to recognize and resolve all possible side effects. It is therefore important to look at the project from different angles. On the one hand, the commitments made in the project order must be honoured. On the other hand, the resources must also be kept in mind so that a coherent overall picture for the project emerges.
To this end, project management software should be used that can visualize the project clearly from different angles so that flexibility is not at the expense of productivity.
The project management software should also inform the project team in real time about changes to the plan to prevent employees from working on an outdated plan.
Long-running, large projects
For long-running projects that extend over a year or more, for example, it is a common technique to only plan the next few months in more detail and everything beyond that with a lower level of detail. As the project progresses, the next few months can be planned in more detail. What should happen in detail in six months is often subject to too many uncertainties, so that detailed planning leads to the need to plan twice.
Resources are also often only specifically allocated for the next few weeks or months. Assigning one person as responsible for a work package that is planned for 12 months is often not practical, as many changes are still possible during this period.
In large projects, several specialized departments are often involved. In this case, the work package can already be assigned to the relevant department. It is helpful if not only the responsibilities can be specified in the project planning software, but also project roles can be assigned. For example, the head of the specialist department can be assigned a project role. He can then see at a glance for which work packages in the next 3 months he has not yet assigned any of his employees as responsible.
The time periods mentioned here are examples. The specific time periods used depend on the industry, the project type and the specific project. It is important that the same project types also have the same processes so that a routine can be established for those involved in the project. It makes sense to use project templates.
Experience values
Ultimately, individual experience is incorporated into project planning. The knowledge of optimal project planning is a competitive advantage for your own organization. The better the planning, the more efficiently the teams work.
Evaluations and continuous improvements
Finally, you can learn from your experiences throughout the project and try to improve the processes and methods of project planning. This way you can learn from mistakes and improve them for the next project planning.
About Octaved Flow
Octaved Flow specializes in project planning and offers all the functions mentioned above. Due to this focus, Octaved Flow offers these functions in a particularly convenient and clear manner. The comprehensive approach enables reliable resource planning in particular.
In addition to project planning, Octaved Flow also maps other project management processes, such as project controlling, KPIs, progress control, recording and billing of project times. Furthermore, Octaved Flow is able to calculate all changes to the project plan at all levels and thus helps to create a comprehensive and complete picture of the entire project portfolio.
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