Project Planning & Scoping

Project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a project manager, as you need to make an educated guess about the staff, resources, and equipment needed to complete your project. It outlines the steps and resources necessary to achieve the project’s objectives, including identifying the project’s scope, establishing a timeline, assigning tasks and resources, and budgeting for the project.
The basic processes of project planning are:
• Scope planning – specifying the in-scope requirements for the project to facilitate creating the work breakdown structure
• Preparation of the work breakdown structure – spelling out the breakdown of the project into tasks and sub-tasks
• Project schedule development – listing the entire schedule of the activities and detailing their sequence of implementation
• Resource planning – indicating who will do what work, at which time, and if any special skills are needed to accomplish the project tasks
• Budget planning – specifying the budgeted cost to be incurred at the completion of the project
• Procurement planning – focusing on vendors outside your company and subcontracting
• Risk management – planning for possible risks and considering optional contingency plans and mitigation strategies
• Quality planning – assessing quality criteria to be used for the project
• Communication planning – designing the communication strategy with all project stakeholders