Project Planning: Building a Plan That Actually Works
One of the biggest lessons I learned early in my career came from a well-intentioned failure. I was leading a planning session for a major project and thought I was doing the right thing by getting everyone in a room for a full day to build the plan together. I loaded the MS Project file on the big screen: a Gantt chart fully loaded with hundreds of lines, predecessors, successors, interdependencies, and expected everyone to dive in.
But instead of buy-in, I got blank stares. Frustration. Even a few early exits. The truth hit me: I'd made it about the tool, not the people. Most of the team didn't know how to read a Gantt chart. They weren't project planners. I had failed to translate the plan into something meaningful for them.
That moment taught me that effective planning isn't just about logic and scheduling. It's about communication and inclusion. I hadn't considered different learning styles, or how to visualise the plan in ways that made sense to the wider team. Since then, I've always repurposed plans into formats people actually connect with: milestones, roadmaps, simple visuals. Whatever it takes to build shared understanding.
What Planning Really Means
Planning a project can feel overwhelming, especially if you're new to the role. Where do you even begin? And what does a good plan actually look like? Is it a massive Gantt chart with 5,000 lines? A Kanban board with cards moving across columns? A simple spreadsheet tracking tasks and dates? Or even sketches hand-drawn on a whiteboard during a team session?
The truth is, planning isn't about the tool. It's about creating a shared understanding of how you're going to deliver something together.
Why Planning Actually Matters
According to PMI's 2018 Pulse of the Profession, the most common causes of project failure are: shifting priorities, unclear requirements, changing objectives. There are often symptoms of poor or incomplete planning. It's not a nice-to-have. It's foundational.
Project planning brings structure and clarity to what would otherwise be chaos. It helps answer critical questions: What are we delivering? Who's involved? How long will it take? What could go wrong?
As the APM explains, planning provides the foundations to define scope, identify risks, estimate durations, and prepare for delivery. But it's more than that. It's a process of aligning people, priorities, and resources. Good planning allows teams to understand complexity, foresee risks, sequence work sensibly, and make better-informed decisions.
What Is a Project Plan, Really?
Let me clear up a common misconception: a plan is not the document. A 50-page schedule, a beautiful PowerPoint roadmap, a Kanban board are just representations. They're visual ways of showing the plan, but they're not the plan itself.
A plan is the team's shared compass. Its format only matters if it brings clarity and supports decision-making.
Your plan could be a detailed schedule in Primavera P6 for a regulated rail upgrade, or it might be a Trello board for a startup MVP (Minimum Viable Product). What matters is: Do people understand it? Is it helping the team move forward? Is it being used to make real decisions?
I've seen perfectly formatted plans fail because no one looked at them after day one. And I've seen scrappy plans drive successful million-pound infrastructure projects. The difference? One plan was actively used, discussed, and updated daily. It lived and breathed with the project. The other sat untouched in a folder, technically perfect but practically useless.
How to Actually Plan a Project
Planning isn't a one-off task. It's a layered, evolving process. Here's how to approach it:
1. Define the Scope and Objectives
Start by being crystal clear on what the project is trying to achieve. This sets the boundaries for everything else. Without defined scope, your plan will drift beyond control. Ask yourself: What does success look like? What's in and what's out?
2. Break Down the Work
This is where techniques like Work Breakdown Structures come in. You're breaking the project into components that can be estimated, tracked, and delivered. Think of it like planning that family holiday to Italy. You don't just say "go to Italy," you break it down: book flights, arrange hotels, plan which cities to visit, research restaurants.
3. Sequence the Activities
Once you've identified the tasks, order them logically. What needs to happen first? What can run in parallel? Understanding dependencies here is crucial. On a construction project, you can't pour concrete until the foundations are dug. You can't install windows until the walls are up. Each step depends on the previous one being complete. Obvious when mapped out, but these dependencies are easily overlooked when you're eager to get started.
4. Estimate Time and Resources
This is where experience matters. Use data from previous projects, input from delivery teams, and be realistic, not optimistic. Include contingency. As I learned the hard way, everything takes longer than you think, especially the first time.
5. Identify Constraints and Dependencies
These are the things that trip you up later. External approvals, third-party deliveries, access windows. Document them all. On that train upgrade, our biggest constraint was track access. Miss that in planning and the whole schedule falls apart.
6. Assess Risks and Assumptions
No plan survives first contact with reality unchanged. Document your assumptions and build in regular risk reviews. What could go wrong? What are we assuming will be true? Challenge everything.
7. Build the Schedule
Bring it all together. Whether it's a detailed Gantt or a simple timeline, your schedule should be a living reference, not a filing cabinet artefact. Make it accessible and understandable to those who need to use it.
8. Communicate and Maintain
A plan that sits on a shelf is dead. Share it widely. Keep it updated. Planning isn't a phase, it's continuous. The best plans evolve with the project.
The Real-World Side of Planning
You can't plan in isolation. Talk to others. Learn from similar past projects. Speak to delivery teams, sponsors, and partners. If you don't, you risk repeating mistakes others have already solved.
One of the smartest things an early-career project manager can do is find a colleague who's done something similar and ask: "What would you do differently if you planned that project again?" Their answers will save you weeks of pain.
Plans built in silos might look good on paper, but they crumble under pressure. The best plans aren't perfect. They're built collaboratively, challenged early, and adjusted often. That's why planning isn't about getting it perfect upfront. It's about creating functional structure and improving as you go.
Here's another hard truth: too often, project managers squeeze plans to fit a predetermined narrative. They promise impossible deadlines to keep stakeholders happy, hoping somehow it'll all work out. It never does. You end up firefighting from day one, and everyone loses trust in the plan.
A realistic plan might not win you friends initially, but it gives you credibility.
Use it to have honest conversations about why timelines are what they are. Then explore innovative ways to deliver within those constraints such as: parallel working, phased delivery and smart resource allocation. And if it's not in the art of the possible? Better to know that early and reset expectations than pretend otherwise. That's real project management, not wishful thinking.
A few other realities to keep in mind:
Planning horizons matter. The further out you plan, the less accurate it becomes, especially for complex, unique projects without precedent
Planning doesn't have to be dry. Get creative with formats, use visual boards, run planning poker sessions, make it engaging for the team
Plans need different formats for different audiences. What works for the team won't work for the board
Choosing the Right Planning Tools
Different projects need different tools. In construction or infrastructure, you'll likely use Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, or Asta Powerproject. These handle critical paths, governance, and reporting well.
In agile environments, think Jira, Trello, Asana, or ClickUp. Tools that flex with changing scope. For visualisation: Power BI for dashboards, Miro for workshops, simple sketches for team discussions.
If you can choose your tool, consider what's likely to serve your purpose. Ask yourself: Who needs to see this plan? How often will it change? What level of detail do stakeholders need? Does it need to integrate with other systems?
But here's the reality: in most cases, organisations already have an established strategy that dictates the tools. It's worth learning to use them effectively and adapting your plans for different audiences. Dashboards for senior management, milestone charts for sites, Post-its for team sessions. Same plan, different lenses.
Who Should Be Involved in Planning?
Good planning needs the right voices from the start:
Delivery teams shape realistic timelines
Stakeholders provide strategic context
Suppliers offer insights on lead times and constraints
End users highlight what actually matters
Bring these people in early. You'll gain alignment, spot problems, and avoid surprises. Planning is a team sport, not a solo performance.
The Psychology of Planning
Planning is part logic, part psychology. It gives us a sense of control in uncertain environments. But don't confuse the plan with certainty.
Eisenhower said it best: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." The value is in the thinking, mapping work, exposing assumptions, asking better questions.
What helps:
Develop planning habits, not one-off events
See planning as shared thinking
Treat your plan as a hypothesis to test and adjust
Visualise plans to aid understanding
Use past experience for both estimates and understanding team dynamics
The best project managers balance structure with adaptability. Your plan should guide, not constrain.
Planning as a Life Skill
Planning isn't just for project managers. It's transferable to everything. Launching a side business, organising a wedding, changing careers, managing personal goals. The same principles apply. Break it down, understand constraints, build a roadmap, adapt as you go.
The ability to plan well opens doors beyond project management. Planning helps make things happen.
Key Takeaways
A plan is not a document. It's shared understanding
Planning brings clarity, surfaces risks, and enables better decisions
Tools only matter if teams understand and use them
Involve the right people early to build alignment
Plans should evolve. Aim for adaptability, not perfection
Planning is a transferable skill that benefits all aspects of life
Your challenge: Next time you plan something, ask yourself: Who else needs to understand this? How can I make it clearer for them?
The best plans aren't perfect. They're understood.
Final Thought
I started my career thinking planning was about perfect charts. Now I know it's about people, clarity, and helping teams make things happen together. Whether leading complex engineering projects or thinking through personal goals, planning gives me the foundation to move forward with confidence.
It's what separates reacting from leading. And it's something every PM (and frankly every professional) benefits from mastering.
References
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