Fundamentals of Project Management, Third Edition

Planning Defined

Planning is quite simply answering the questions shown in Figure 3-2. They may be called the “Who, What, When, Why, How Much, How Long?” questions that you learned if you ever studied interviewing methods. It is that simple. And it is that hard. I say hard because answering some of these questions requires a crystal ball—especially questions like “How long will that take?” On tasks for which no history is available, this is a very hard question to answer. As my engineer said, “You can’t schedule creativity.”

Figure 3-2. Planning is answering questions.

[View full size image]

Strategy, Tactics, and Logistics

To plan a project ...