Which one of the steps in the planning stage of the process is the most important?
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The basic project planning steps that every project manager needs to know can be broken down as parts of the first two phases of project management: Initiation and Planning. While those phases give a broad outline of what should be happening at different stages of a project’s lifecycle, they don’t provide much of a clear picture of how to go about your project planning. Show
 If you’re looking for something that gives you an easier to follow roadmap, the following project planning steps should provide one: Project planning steps
Project planning doesn’t have to be difficult or cause any nervous stress since the beginning of every project is basically the same. You can follow the same set project planning steps and hone them through experience of every project you are involved with. Breaking down the steps
The business case is the reason why your organization needs to carry out the project. It should outline the problem, such as a lack of repeat customers or a day longer supply line than competitors and describe how this will be solved and how much monetary benefit should accrue to the organization once the project is completed.
Identifying project stakeholders means listing anyone who will be affected by your project, so includes the public and government regulatory agencies. For the project planning phase however, it should only be necessary to meet those who will directly decide whether the project will happen or not.
The scope of your project is an outline of what it is and isn’t setting out to achieve. It is necessary to delineate the boundaries of your project to prevent “scope creep”, i.e. your resources going towards something that’s not in your project’s goals.
The goals and objectives for your project will build on the initial objectives outlined in the business plan. At this step you will give finer detail to the initial broad ideas and set them in a project charter as reference points for your project as it proceeds. Increase your business agility with Planview AdaptiveWork’s project management software It is a two-way street however, as, with growing skills shortages and the likely exodus of hundreds of thousands of EU citizens employed by UK business and public service, the country is likely to face huge labor shortages in the near future which threaten to derail its current high economic performance.
Deliverables are the concrete results that your project produces. One of the most important project planning steps is to decide on what these deliverables will be and who is responsible for both producing and receiving them.
Your project schedule is a very important document that outlines when different tasks of a project are due to begin and end, along with major measurement milestones. It will be referred to when measuring project progress. It will be available to all stakeholders and should be adhered to as closely as possible.
Within your team everyone should know what their role is and who is responsible for different elements of the project. Assigning tasks clearly should remove any uncertainty about roles and responsibilities on your team.
Having a functional risk management plan means performing a strong assessment at the planning stage of the project. All potential risks should be identified along with their possible effect on the project and likelihood of occurring. Starting a project without a strategy is like trying to bake a cake without a recipe — you might have all the ingredients you need, but without a plan for how to combine them, or a vision for what the finished product will look like, you’re likely to end up with a mess. This is especially true when working with a team — it’s crucial to have a shared plan that can serve as a map on the pathway to success. Creating a strategic plan not only provides a useful document for the future, but also helps you define what you have right now, and think through and outline all of the steps and considerations you’ll need to succeed. What is strategic planning?While there is no single approach to creating a strategic plan, most approaches can be boiled down to five overarching steps:
Each step requires close collaboration as you build a shared vision, strategy for implementation, and system for understanding performance. Related: Strategic Planning: 5 Steps to Creating a Resilient Product Roadmap Why do I need a strategic plan?Building a strategic plan is the best way to ensure that your whole team is on the same page, from the initial vision, to the metrics for success, to evaluating outcomes and adjusting (if necessary) for the future. Even if you’re an expert baker, working with a team to bake a cake means having a collaborative approach and clearly defined steps, so that the end result reflects the goals you laid out at the beginning. Here’s how to build and structure your strategic plan, complete with templates and assets to help you along the way. 1. Define your visionWhether it’s for your business as a whole, or a specific initiative, creating a strategic plan means you’ll need to be aligned on a vision for success. For example: We are going to revolutionize customer success by streamlining and optimizing our process for handling support tickets. It’s important to have buy-in across the board, so that all stakeholders know the overall objective and understand the roles they will play in realizing your goals. Using a platform like MURAL, you can easily capture and organize your team’s ideas through sticky notes, diagrams, text, or even images and videos, allowing you to build actionable next steps immediately (and in the same place) through color coding and tagging. This can be done in real-time or asynchronously, whether in person, hybrid, or remote. By leveraging a shared digital space, everyone has a voice in the process and room to add their thoughts, comments, and feedback. Related: Brainstorming and Ideation Template 2. Assess where you areThe next step in creating a strategic plan is to conduct an assessment of where you stand, in terms of your own initiatives, as well as the greater marketplace. One of the most common ways to conduct a strategic assessment is a SWOT analysis. What is a SWOT analysis? A SWOT analysis is an exercise where you define:
Related: SWOT Analysis Template 3. Determine your priorities and objectivesIn order to realize your vision, what will you need to prioritize, and what specific objectives can you outline to accomplish your goals? Once you’ve defined your vision and analyzed your current standing, you’ll be well positioned to start outlining and ranking your priorities, and the specific objectives tied to those priorities. This can take the form of brainstorming and ideation based on the takeaways from steps 1 and 2. Related: Project Kickoff Template 4. Define tactics and responsibilitiesWhat are the specific steps necessary to accomplish your objectives? Who will be accountable? This is the stage where individuals or units within your team can get granular about how to achieve your goals, one step at a time. It’s important to note that these may shift over time, as you launch and gather initial data about your project. For this reasons it’s key to:
One of the more common ways to define tactics and metrics is to use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method. By outlining your OKRs, you’ll know exactly what you’re looking to accomplish, and have a framework for analyzing the results once you begin to accumulate relevant data. Related: OKR Planning Template 5. Manage, measure, and evaluateOnce your plan is set into motion, it’s important to actively manage (and measure) progress. Before launching your plan, settle on a means to measure success or failure, so that everyone is aligned on progress and can come together to evaluate your initiative at regular intervals. Determine an interval at which to come together and go over results — this can take place weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the nature of the project. One of the best ways to evaluate progress is through Agile retrospectives (or retros), which can be done in real time, or asynchronously with a platform like MURAL, offering a shared digital space to gather and organize feedback. Related: Retrospective Radar Template Retrospectives are typically divided into three parts:
This structure is also sometimes called the ‘Rose, Thorn, Bud’ framework. By using this approach, team members can collectively brainstorm and categorize their feedback, making the next steps clear and actionable. Another method for reviewing progress is the quarterly business review (QBR). Like the Agile retrospective allows you to collect feedback and adjust accordingly. In the case of QBRs, however, we recommend dividing your feedback into four categories:
Using the above approach, your team can make room for new ideas within the existing strategic framework in order to track better to your longterm goals. Related: Quarterly Business Report Template ConclusionsThe beauty of the strategic plan is that it can be applied from the campaign level all the way up to organizational vision. Using the strategic planning framework, you build buy-in, trust, and transparency by collaboratively creating a vision for success, and mapping out the steps together on the road to your goals. Also, in so doing, you build in an ability to adapt effectively on the fly in response to data through measurement and evaluation, making your plan both flexible and resilient. Related: 5 Tips for Holding Effective Post-mortems MURAL unlocks collaborative strategic planning through a shared digital space with an intuitive interface, a library of pre-fab templates, and methodologies based on design thinking principles. Outline goals, identify key metrics, and track progress with a platform built for any enterprise. Learn more about strategic planning with MURAL What is the most important step in the planning process?Stage 1: Pre-Planning
The first, and in some respects, the most important stage is 'pre-planning,' or preparing to plan. This stage consists of two steps: diagnosing the community and designing the planning process.
What is the first and important step in the planning process?Setting objectives is the primary step in planning. Objectives or goals specify what the organisation wants to achieve.
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