Essential Elements Needed to Successfully Plan a Project

Last year, over 70% of the projects taken on by businesses in the United States were completed successfully. One of the main reasons for this high success rate is the fact that America is home to some of the most highly-skilled workers in the world. If you are a project manager, you know how important proper planning in every facet of a new job is to its overall success. Ignoring the need for comprehensive project planning can result in lots of problems. 

The better you can plan out your project objectives and tasks, the easier it will be to achieve the success you are after. The following are some of the essential elements you need to plan a new project successfully. 

Clear Deadlines and Deliverables

Before you start the project planning process, you need to speak with your company’s stakeholders. Having a meeting with these important individuals can help you figure out what objectives need to be accomplished. Once you have this information, your main goal should be breaking down the project into smaller and more manageable tasks. The biggest mistake most new project managers make is setting unrealistic deadlines for the tasks they need to accomplish. 

By breaking your project down into a series of smaller goals and tasks, you can start to get an idea of what needs to be done to accomplish your objectives. Scheduling a meeting with the team, you will be using to work on the project is a good idea. During these meetings, you can get some input on how long each team member thinks it will take them to finish certain tasks. With this information, you can set a firm and easy to meet deadline. 

Create Well-Defined Roles and Responsibilities 

Once you know what needs to be done to complete a particular project, the next step is delegating the work you need to be done. Instead of assigning tasks to workers randomly, you need to get a feel for what each team member’s strengths and weaknesses are. Getting to know more about the capabilities your team members have can help you delegate these tasks properly. 

For instance, if a certain team member has lots of previous experience with data management, then allowing them to handle any tasks related to gathering and analyzing data within the project is crucial. Using your team to their full potential will require some time and research. However, the effort invested in this research will pay off in the long run. 

Develop a Communication Plan

Whether you are working with onsite or remote employees, staying in constant contact with them is vital. Creating a communication plan is a great way to figure out what methods of communication you will use with team members. If your team is comprised mostly of remote employees, then using things like cloud-based file-sharing systems and video chat software is a wise move.

Take Your Career to the Next Level!

If you are looking for a way to take your career to the next level, then getting your PMP certification is a great idea. Contact us to find out more about this certification and how it can benefit you.