Project Planning Quiz

The Importance of Project Planning

• Project planning involves making a series of decisions based on the gathering and analysis of information.
• It encompasses a broad range of different approaches, including strategic planning, program planning, and operational planning.
• Project planning establishes the scope, aims, and objectives of a project, the way in which the project will be performed, the roles and responsibilities of those involved, and the time and cost estimates.
• The output of the project planning process is a Project plan that will be used by the project manager(s) to implement activities, monitor progress and make decisions.
• Project planning is considered the most important phase in project management and is essential for a project's success.
• It helps to reduce the main pitfalls leading to project failure, such as selecting an unimportant problem, not addressing the key determinants of the problem, and poor quality of implementation.
• Establishing the scope, tasks, schedules, risks, quality and staffing needs helps project team members to understand their responsibilities and expectations.
• The effort spent in planning can save countless hours of confusion and re-work in the subsequent phases, resulting in reduced cost and duration, and increased quality over the life of the project.
• The involvement of internal and external stakeholders from the start of the project is critical to achieve optimal results.
• It is important to identify stakeholders to understand their points of view and manage their involvement in the project.
• Key stakeholders may include the project team, partners, sponsors, politicians and decision makers, representatives from the target community or target group, the media, the scientific community, civil society group, etc.
• To identify stakeholders and manage their involvement in the project, it is useful to draw up a Project Organization chart.