Project Planning

Planning: if you don't know where you're going, no road will take you there

The planning process, the 7 planning steps, Gathering requirements, Stage management, The project process diagram, Why planning often fails

Scope and requirements: measure twice, cut once

Project scope, Organisational structure and roles, High-level requirements, How requirements arise and how to word them, Project/Product Description

Products, PBS and quality: from the whole to the detail

Moving from requirements to products, Product Breakdown Structure, Product description, Quality and acceptance criteria, The link between requirements and quality

Activities: divide the work so it can be managed

Turning products into activities, WBS, Estimating activities, Project scheduling, Splitting the project into streams and stages

Plan levels: the same project plan at several levels of detail

High-level plan, Stage plan, Detailed/team plan, Stage management, The difference between a roadmap and a detailed plan

Resources and budget: paper will take anything, capacity won't

Resource management, Capacity, Planning by roles and tasks, The project budget, Assigning resources

Risks: identify them, price them into the plan, prepare the response

Identifying and assessing risks, The impact of risks on the schedule and the budget, Risk responses, Adjusting plans in line with risks

Monitoring the plan and reporting progress: the project report – what is it even for?

Checking project progress, Plan versus reality, EVM, Core metrics, Tolerances and escalation