Steps to a Well-Defined Project Plan

Fortunately, the project management discipline has defined standard project planning processes that are intended to provide project teams with guidelines for developing a well-defined and realistic project plan. Though elementary in nature, the following steps are beneficial in formulating a comprehensive and workable plan.

• Define the scope
• Identify the steps, sequence the work, and determine the timeframe
• Allocate the resources

Once the organization's management has formally authorized a project to proceed, it is imperative that the scope is properly defined. The scope definition and decomposition processes are designed to help the project team establish the boundaries of the project. Essentially, this is the phase of project planning where the organization answers the "what" questions associated with the project.

The primary technique for defining and decomposing scope is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the project components that illustrates and depicts the scope of the project. In essence, it serves as the organizational chart for a project by taking deliverables and breaking them down into smaller, more easily managed pieces. A Work Breakdown Structure working session not only allows the team to define the content of the project (general rule: if it is not in the WBS, it is not in scope), but it also encourages early buy-in from key stakeholders as they contribute to the project planning process.