The Importance of Planning

Welcome to episode 27 of The Everyday PM Podcast where I welcome guest host, Ryan Myers, Operations Manager/Senior Project Manager, Haven Agency to talk about the importance of planning.

The planning phase follows the first phase of a project, concept and initiation, and is one, if not THE most critical to project success. When planning for a project, a project manager in collaboration with the project team, are responsible for documenting project plans, defining the project deliverables and requirements, and creating the project schedule. This phase also involves creating a roadmap to help navigate your team through the execution, performance and control, and closure phases of the project. Not only does the roadmap serve as a blueprint for the team to execute against, it also helps you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk, stakeholders and other project-related information.

Why is it then that when project timelines get squeezed that planning is the first phase that stakeholders look at to shave time? Perhaps there is a misconception that planning can be done quickly or that the sooner the team can start executing, the faster we'll see results. However, by cutting time from planning, you are doing more harm than good. The risks that could have been flagged by the team during planning via a pre-mortem exercise will likely creep up later in the project, costing the team more time to mitigate than if the proper amount of time were given upfront for the team to come up with a preventative plan. This is just one of many examples that Ryan and I discuss in this week's podcast, which also includes insights on tools and techniques that you can utilize to to successfully plan for the most critical phase of your project - planning.

What do you think about project planning? Is it critical to project success or could you do without it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

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Follow Our Hosts on LinkedIn:

Ann Campea, MSPM, MPH, PMP

Worldwide Readiness Program Manager, Apple, Inc.

Program/Project management professional with 10 years of experience in product development, physical retail launches, health care, and tech industries.

Ryan Myers

Operations Manager/Senior Project Manager, Haven Agency

Experienced Operations and Senior Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry.