The purpose of the project planning phase is to plan and organize the project. The steering group and the project manager are nominated as soon as the project has received approval from the portfolio management.
Project planning is based on the approved project charter. The project manager and the team have to keep the achievement of the project objectives in their mind while doing the project planning. The project must select the project life cycle model – agile, waterfall, hybrid or other – that best serves the achievement of the objectives. The way to execute the project may vary, but the final deliverables are the same in every life cycle model.
The project plan has different parts:
- The schedule tells what and when. The focus must be on the deliverables.
- The budget defines how much it costs to implement the needed change
- The resource plan tells who will do the change
- The project management plan defines the how part of the project
- Risks must also be analyzed and preventative actions planned
- Quality management must also be planned as part of the project management plan and the schedule
- The principles for change management activities will be defined as a part of the project management plan. The communication plan is the most important part of the change management. Communication must already be at full speed during the project planning.
- The project team will be collected and organized based on the needed competencies. All key resources must be allocated to the project. Training activities already start during the planning phase as the project team training needs are analyzed.
The outcome of the project planning is a good plan covering the whole project life cycle with all of the needed resources. The content of the project plan varies depending on the selected project life cycle model (e.g. Agile, Traditional Waterfall), but the plan must always tell how the project will achieve the project objectives thus enabling the business benefits realization. This is Milestone M1: planned and organized.
Steering group / Business owner
Project steering group presentation template: Project steering group agenda and the steering group presentation material.
Steering group minutes: Minutes of the project steering group meeting.
Project management
Project management plan: Definition of the ways of working in the project. Tells how we do the project.
Project schedule: Project Tasks and Deliverables by Phase including the schedule and resources and Quality assurance all in one template. Tells what and when on detailed level.
Project summary template: Summary of the project done before closing the project by documenting what has been achieved, learnings and the future development plan.
Resource plan template: Planning, allocation and management of internal and external resources within the project. Tells who will do the project.
Project status template: Project status report for the project steering group and the portfolio management.
Issue log: For identification and management of the project issues
Change Management
Project kick-off template: Complete material for the project kick-off done in less than one hour by utilizing existing material.
Training needs analysis template: Analysis of the training needs covering everybody affected by the project or needed to support the project.
Training plan: A detailed plan for training session objectives, planning, preparation and execution including the monitoring of the realized training and learning.