How to Develop a Robust Project Management Plan?
- Looking for effective ways to make your project a success?
- Is your project management process out of date?
- Feel like you need some insights into creating a robust project plan?
You’ve come to the right place.
A project that is coordinated to perfection and is combined with transparent communication and set goals can go a long way in timely and quality deliverables. You can choose to enrol for an Online PMP certification to gain this knowledge, but here’s a guide to get you started.
Essential Steps for Creating a Robust Project Plan
Step 1: Understand the Key Requirements of the Stakeholders
After you’ve created a project charter (a formal document that outlines the project’s purpose and objectives) and identified the key stakeholders, you need to gather requirements. The planning process cannot begin if you have not collected requirements from stakeholders.
Once you have acquired this information, you can define the project’s scope and determine exactly what you need to deliver.
Strong communication skills are a no-brainer at this stage. Without effective communication skills and understanding of the domain, you’ll not be able to gather the prerequisites. A PMP certification can help you gain insights into how to communicate with stakeholders so you don’t miss important details that could be detrimental to the project’s overall success.
Step 2: Define the scope of the project
- What does the team need to deliver the project?
- What intricacies are the stakeholders trying to solve by starting this project?
After you have acquired the answers to these questions, you can collaborate with the stakeholders to curate a comprehensive description of the project and its deliverables in the form of a scope statement. This way, you can also have a clear understanding of the boundaries of the project.
Step 3: Break Down Your Project into Smaller Groups
When you break down the project into smaller, more manageable deliverable groups, you can easily assign resources to different stages of the project based on the skills required. This can help you segregate each stage of the project, and you can analyse the progress more effectively.
All this may seem intimidating. However, with proper guidance and training, you can ace in this domain. A PMP certification is all you need. For expert guidance, you can rely on the best project management certification from XLRI. Offered on the Talentedge platform, this certification will provide exposure to every single facet of project management, allowing for a well-rounded education.
Step 4: Define Project Tasks and Activities
Once you’ve broken down the project into smaller groups, you need to define the list of tasks and activities to be performed to make this project a success. Consider this as an action plan. It can help you determine what needs to be done to achieve project goals.
Furthermore, you must also keep in mind that often in projects, everything happens in a sequence. However, the trick is to do as many things in parallel as possible. And in the end, you can put the pieces together, and voila, you’ll have a successful project ready to be delivered.
Step 5: Set a Timeline, Cost, and Resources
The duration, budget, and resources required to complete the project depend upon the scope. Proper estimation is crucial for any project, as it helps determine whether the plan is viable or not, sets expectations, and keeps the costs under control.
You can learn about the factors to be kept in mind while setting a budget & timeline and allocating resources by pursuing a PMP certification. These certifications can also help you learn about the critical challenges in project management and how to overcome them, enhancing your ability to manage the projects.
Step 6: Assign Resources According to Skills
Now you are all set. You have the goals; you have a clear vision, timeline, budget, and the number of resources required. The next step is to assign the resources to carry out tasks according to their skillsets.
Resources include labour, materials, equipment, space, and technology. After identifying which resources you need, you must discover the skill level essential for each activity. Based on these insights, the scope, and the level of complexity of the project, you can assign the resources as needed.
Step 7: Factor in the Contingencies
A plan without contingency is bound to fail.
Projects rarely go as planned. So you need to build backup plans. The contingencies can be determined by analysing historical data to identify risks that occurred on similar projects in the past.
Also, you must consider the current trends while formulating your contingencies. However, to do that, you must know the latest trends and themes of the domain. This is where the best project management certification from XLRI comes into play. By exposing you to every industry’s latest trends, this course from XLRI ensures that you are prepared to overcome the critical challenges of project management.
Step 8: Set Performance Measurement Parameters
Last but an important step is to curate performance measurement parameters. Based on the deliverables, the goals, and the tools available at their disposal, you can set a baseline to measure and manage the performance of your team.
And remember, the performance should be measured throughout the project life cycle, not just on the first and last stage. It allows you to compare actual results to their baseline values and evaluate the overall as well as individual performance.
Bottom Line
Devising a robust project management plan requires creativity, problem-solving, delegation, and an in-depth understanding of key requirements. Follow the steps mentioned above and curate the ideal project plan.
The best project management certification from XLRI can help you learn the how, why, when, and who part of project management. And not just that, there are several other benefits of pursuing the project management certification from XLRI. For instance, this course from XLRI is considered to be one of the easiest project management certifications because of the flexibility and LIVE & interactive learning it boasts.
So what are you waiting for? Scour the Talentedge website for the best project management certification from XLRI, enrol yourself, and make your way towards progression.
More Information:
Skills Required For A Career In Project Management
Benefits of Building a Career in Project Management
How to Build a Thriving Career in Project Management?
What Kind Of Jobs Can You Get With A Project Management Certification?
