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How to Create the Perfect Project Plan
Article

How to Create the Perfect Project Plan

The Definitive Guide


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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

Technology and work environments may have changed radically, but if you’re a project manager, you face the same basic tasks and questions as your predecessors a generation ago: defining the project’s purpose and phases, predicting resource needs, accurately estimating time and costs, winning client buy-in, and keeping the team working together and on track. On his blog The Digital Project Manager, Ben Aston argues for good old-fashioned project planning as an essential tool for project management, even in today’s agile IT development environments. Aston gives the whys and wherefores of project planning and lists 10 steps to doing it well.

Summary

For complex projects in fast-changing environments, planning might seem unrealistic or even counterproductive: Managers often see it as too rigid considering the reality of IT development. Nevertheless, project plans continue to play an essential role because they answer basic questions for managers and clients. They help managers keep projects on track and give clients information they need to sign off on them. Project plans help clarify which steps a project requires, define when milestones will occur and facilitate agreement on the go-live date. They reveal dependencies, missing steps and required resources...

About the Author

Ben Aston is a digital project manager with 10 years’ experience working with digital agencies in London.


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