Need for Project Planning

As you move ahead in your career, you are likely to face more complex and difficult challenges. They may involve the co-ordination of many different people, the completion of many tasks in a precise sequence, and expenditure of a great deal of time and money. You can do this well, or you can do it badly. If you do this well, you'll complete your projects on time, and with minimal wastage of resources which builds your reputation. If you do this badly, you'll lose this reputation, and your career will probably stall. This is why you need to learn how to manage projects well.

In a modern, demanding business environment, projects have to be managed and there is no acceptable substitute for getting it right. An unplanned project, besides being a mess itself, retards the growth of business. Successful and effective Project management should, therefore include Project Planning which starts with,

• A thorough appreciation and understanding of the fundamental concepts and principles

• Rigorous, disciplined application of methods such as the Critical Path Method

• Fluent and practical use of the available software tools which may include Mind Mapping.

Spot what needs to be done and then crystallize this into a formal aim. Deciding and defining an aim sharpens the focus of your plan, and helps you to avoid wasting effort on irrelevant side issues. With many ideas you may come up with less obvious but better solutions. Just as likely, you may improve your best ideas with parts of other ideas. Once you have explored the options available to you, decide which one to use. Detailed planning is the process of working out the most efficient and effective way of achieving your aim.

Once you have worked out the details of your plan, the next stage is to review it to decide whether it is worth implementing. Evaluating the plan now gives you the opportunity to either investigate other options that might be more successful, or to accept that no plan is needed or should be carried out. Once you have completed your plan and decided that it will work satisfactorily, implement it. Close the project after its achievement.