In fact, even a new project manager can do anything. Follow these six steps to create a perfect project plan and let others have confidence in you.
The project manager must remember that stakeholders exist not only to hire you to manage the project, but also to get results from the project, which means any stakeholders affected by the project, including customers and end users.
Then when you create a project plan, you need to identify all stakeholders and let them know where the benefits are in the project.
The project manager should communicate face-to-face with the project sponsors and major stakeholders to discuss their needs and expectations for the project, and determine the project scope, budget, timetable and related baselines.
Then form a scope statement document to determine and record the detailed information of the project scope, so that everyone can understand that the goal of the project at the beginning is the same, which can reduce the chance of changing the project scope later.
It should be noted here that in order to obtain good customer satisfaction in the project, it is necessary to understand the customer's expectations, and the benefits obtained in the actual project far exceed the customer's expectations.
Once the project manager has obtained a list of all aspects of the project stakeholders' requirements, the next step is to prioritize these requirements and determine the project goals to achieve them.
Or the benefits that can be brought by achieving these goals. By writing these into the project plan, it is convenient to communicate with various stakeholders.
Although we may all think that everything in the project is important, if there is a problem, we can start the auction according to the urgency and importance, or help the project manager determine the priority through time management priority matrix. This method can be used not only in planning, but also in the daily tasks of the project.
Some project deliverables are visible products and some project deliverables may be invisible services, but both tangible products and intangible services need to correspond to the project objectives.
Whether the deliverables meet the original goal of the project, or whether they are consistent with the original expected deliverables, it is particularly important to note that there may be more than one deliverable.
After the deliverable is determined, the next step is to determine the deadline of each deliverable in the project plan, or the date can be determined in the later project progress, but in either case, it can be pushed back in advance according to the deadline of the whole project.
In this way, once the work starts, it can ensure that the project team completes the key tasks according to the time node and tracks the progress on time.
The project manager needs to define a series of tasks to see the completion of each deliverable. In order to complete each task, it is necessary to determine the time required for each task, the resources required and who is responsible for completing it.
Since project delivery is a team work, it may also involve various links or departments, so it is necessary to determine the dependency of each task.
What tasks need to be completed before others start? Which tasks are critical and cannot be delayed? How do people communicate with each other? Managing deliverables, dependencies and milestones through tables or software can facilitate subsequent progress management.
The project manager can involve the project team in some planning processes. They are the people who receive tasks, so they will have important insights on how to complete these tasks, how long it will take and who is the best person to handle a specific task.
Using their knowledge also requires them to agree to the progress of the project, so that the work can proceed smoothly. Therefore, the key is to involve them from the beginning.
No project is risk-free, and the project manager can't hope that the problem can be solved by himself in the best way through prayer. Then the project manager must know what problems will affect your project in the middle and early stage of the project.
For example, a key member may not be in place immediately? Will the recent flu cause a large-scale infectious disease like SARS? If it is a transnational project, we need to consider the local political situation and so on.
The project manager should consider what measures can be taken to prevent the occurrence of certain risks or limit their negative effects, and then formulate risk management strategies through risk assessment, so as to describe them in the plan and ensure that they are prepared.
If possible, we can create appropriate buffer time for some high-risk tasks in the project schedule to ensure that there is a certain processing time when problems occur.
The project manager needs to explain how his plan solves the expectations of stakeholders, and propose solutions to any possible conflicts in the plan, and at the same time ensure that the documents provided should not be simple demonstrations of PPT, but more detailed discussion results.
At this time, the project manager also needs to divide the roles of project stakeholders, such as who needs to read the relevant reports of which projects and how often? Who has what authorization in which link?
The project manager must clearly express the project plan. Some things are obvious to themselves, but it doesn't mean that others can see clearly and clearly at once.
If the plan made by the project manager conflicts with the initial expectations of the stakeholders, it is necessary to communicate immediately and tell them that their expectations are unrealistic. What should be done to increase these expectations? How much time, money and manpower? Let them decide whether it is worth investing these extra resources.
After completing your project plan through the six steps of the project, the next step is to prepare for the project kick-off meeting, inspire the team through inspiring words and start the project.
However, it should be noted that no matter how perfect the project plan is at the beginning, when the project is officially delivered, the implementation of specific details will definitely be biased. At this time, the project manager needs to keep rolling and refreshing periodically. Of course, different project managers may adopt different management methods, and the specific steps will not be consistent.