Planning - It’s Easier Than You Think (And More Important Too)
Sunday, January 27th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
It’s almost impossible to overemphasize the importance of planning. The planning process can seem very daunting to many people who are new to project management. How can I plan something if I’ve never done it before? How do I know what needs to be done? The short answer to this is, you just do it, even though you don’t really know. Of course, there is also a longer answer to this question.
I’m going to do something that drives some people nuts, but please play along anyway. I’m going to answer this question with a question. How can you plan a trip to Phoenix if you’ve never been there before? So, what do this imaginary trip to Phoenix and an internet marketing project (or any other project for that matter) have in common? They are all projects.
It occurs to me that up until this point, the only place where I have posted a definition of a project is on the “Why Project Management?” page. As I stated on that page, a project is a temporary and one-time endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, which brings about beneficial change or added value. (Thanks to Wikipedia for this definition.)
So, back to our trip to Phoenix. Unless you are planning to start driving there once a month, we can consider this a temporary and one-time endeavor. Also, the vacation or business trip or family obligation that brought you to Phoenix is the unique product, and hopefully it was at least intended to bring beneficial change or add value. So we can consider this a project.
Where should we begin in the planning process? I’m sure most people have their own preference, but I like to determine the reason for going first. I would call this our primary objective for the project. For the sake of argument, it is a vacation. There are so many other questions to answer though. Where will you stay? How long will you be there? Are there any specific things you have planned to do while you are there? What clothes do you need to pack? What route will you take to get there? This is all part of the planning.
Most of us don’t give this type of planning a second thought, because we have planned dozens of vacations in the past, so we have an idea of the things we need to plan, and we use that as a starting point. Then we research and find the answers to our questions and possibly find more questions to answer. Eventually, we have it planned down to the point where we have our suitcase packed, we are in the car with a map and a triptik from AAA with the route highlighted. We are leaving at about the time we had planned, and we know about when we will arrive. Our hotel is booked, and we even have restaurant reservations for that evening.
If planning a trip is just like planning any other project, why does it seem so hard? In actuallity, if you have been involved in internet marketing for any length of time, and you have launched a new product or built a web site or started a new marketing campaign, you are probably already planning in an informal way, similar to how you plan a vacation. Very few people write out a project plan for their vacation.
Planning keeps you on course. Planning a project is like writing a list before going to the grocery store. I don’t know about you, but if I didn’t make out a list, it is unlikely I will get even half of what I need. Also, I end up spending more because I buy things I don’t need. Planning keeps you on course.
Hopefully by now you understand that planning is not as hard as you might think, and it is vitally important to the overall success of your project. In my next post, I will talk about the tools you need and how to go about planning your project.
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