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Description
- The only time project planning and execution can be separated is when you need to determine the target of your project. Otherwise, they at all times should be connected. Project execution would enhance the project plan and project planning and re-planning would make project execution better organized and more effective. The worst scenario is that a person makes a project plan and throws it to another person to execute. A person can make the requirements and throw them to another person to plan and execute so that at least project planning and execution aren’t architected for separation.
- For project planning and execution software, rich functionality is a plus but the most important thing is that it can present the connected view of project planning and execution. The connected view of project planning and execution is the real-time view of their cause-and-effect relationships. Even for a 10-people 10-week project, it can have tens of activities and dependencies and hundreds of resource allocation and utilization. The information is too complicated for a human brain to process and see the cause-and-effective relationships between project planning and execution in real-time. Many project managers aren’t aware of the level of complexity because they seldom find adequate real-time tools that can truly help them with resource allocation and utilization and they can’t really do that with spreadsheets or spreadsheet-like PM tools.
- 1、Project Planning
- provides you with the following workflows for project planning:
- 2、Create Activities
- Start by creating a work breakdown structure (WBS) that decomposes your entire project into smaller actionable activities and sub-activities. For example, a product marketing campaign can be broken down into buyer persona research, choosing promotional channels, creating marketing collateral, and going live. The manager then defines the work for each activity, like buyer persona research, with details such as how to gather demographics, when to conduct surveys, and where to collate the data. This results in a streamlined process for the project.
- 3、Set up Timeline
- Set start and finish dates for each activity. No matter how small or big the activity, one has to set realistic deadline expectations for each activity. Suppose you are an IT manager with multiple service activities. You have to set the start and finish dates of each activity in your project management tool, so you can convey to users when their issues will be solved.
- 4、Document Dependencies
- Some activities and sub-activities will remain dependent on others. For example, in a web design project, the copywriter cannot create a copy without the wireframes. Likewise, the designer needs guidelines from the brand manager for creating these wireframes. can help you track these changes and automatically schedule the dependencies if one of the activities in the chain gets delayed.
- 5、Create Milestones
- A milestone is a culmination of multiple activities and sub-activities which marks an important achievement in the project. A milestone must have at least one deliverable which can be checked by one or more stakeholders. Let’s say your sales team has to generate $120,000 for the quarter. You can divide this target into 3 milestones of $40,000 each, and whenever the sales team reaches a milestone, you know you are getting closer to the end goal.
