Introduction
Project planning is a critical path that when employed effectively, can greatly aid the achievement of goals. The development in technology and advancement in knowledge over the past years have also witnessed the development in planning and management of processes.
The success of any procedure highly depends on the level of organizational planning in regard to management and administration. This paper discusses the elements of a project plan.
Project Planning
The notion and basis of project planning and management can be said to have derived its principles from the armed forces’ system. Like in the armed forces, project management has seen its evolution into an almost fixed structure that has to be carefully planned and closely monitored.
The planning and management of a project process will significantly have a bearing on the overall result of the process hence an efficiently established and monitored process stands a better productivity outcome than one that is not properly planned and managed (Meredith and Mantel, 2009).
Meredith et al. (2006) have noted that the military management aspect has been accustomed by nonmilitary organizations in the private sectors, government agencies and other organizations. Meredith and Mantel (2009) explained that a project plan is an estimate of what is to be carried out and as such it must give allowance for adjustments in the execution process.
In carrying out a project plan, control measures to ensure compliance to the plan have to be put in place. Among the elements in a project plan are the establishments of its scope, duties to be undertaken, time schedule, budget estimates, established risk management group among others (Meredith and Mantel, 2009).
Project Planning and Success of Projects
Robert (2009) pointed out the following elements of a project element as being significant: “the aim of a project, Outputs, Quality criteria, Resources, Management structure, Milestones, Tolerances, Dependencies, Risks and Schedule” (P. 1).
The aim of the subject project is a statement or statements of reasons for undertaking a given project as well as the benefits that are estimated to result from the project’s realization. It must be relevant to the subject business plan and must be indicative enough of what should or must be realized at the end of the intended process (Robert, 2009).
Another element of a project plan as illustrated by Robert (2009) is the outputs. This is the specifications in clarity of the end products of the process. It indicates what the workforce must come up with at the end of the project. For example, in the event of introducing a new TV brand into a market, the statement should be indicative of the intended percentage of the particular audience to be reached.
The quality criterion is another element factored in the project plan. The quality criterion in regard to project planning is the means of checking on the evaluation of the project process. It ensures that the output meets the required standards and the criterion should be “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and well timed” (Robert, 2009, p. 1) the criteria should be reasonable to all involved parties.
Resources in the context of project planning are the set of necessities for realization of the project. It ranges from the personnel in terms of working hours, knowledge and skills to monetary needs for acquisition of all the necessities (Robert, 2009).
The management structure is an array of levels of operations in terms of decision making and implementation. It indicates the top decision makers and the chain of command in regard to decision making and implementation. The management structure also clearly indicates who is to perform what task under what circumstances and in whose collaboration.
Milestones in the plan are the significant events or sub processes in the project. Events and activities that are related should be put together under a given management. By having similar tasks grouped together specialization is created and this has been found to greatly enhance the final quality of the project results.
There is need for tolerance when executing a project; tolerance assists cater in for issues which may crop up in the course of undertaking a project. Tolerance can be seen as the level of deviations from the plan that the project can cope with.
However there is a need for a tolerance level guideline to avoid taking the project off the intended course. Dependency is the sequential relation among the processes. It is an important aspect that can help reduce wastage of time resource and raw materials (Robert, 2009).
A project plan needs to cater in for unexpected issues which might not be seen when planning for a project. Risks are perils that can affect delivery of the outputs.
They should be identified and measures to mitigate them put down. Scheduling is the time frame illustration of the processes. It is a review of activities indicating their exact timing (Robert, 2009).
Conclusion
Project planning is an important part of management. Its elements are guidelines to the management that ensures efficiency hence quality production under minimum wastages. Project planning is very significant because the success of any project will depend on how well the plans are laid down.
References
Meredith, J and Mantel, S. (2009). Project Management: A Managerial Approach. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Robert, T. (2009). Project Plans: 10 Essential Elements. Project Smart. Retrieved from: www.projectsmart.co.uk