effective planning

Effective Planning

Ankur Maheshwari

What is Planning?Planning is looking ahead and preparing your self to focus on actions to achieve desired results.

What is Effective Planning?A planning done to minimize the risk of failure is effective planning.

Is it possible to eliminate failure?May not be but when we minimize the risk of failure, we are increasing the chances to success.

How do we minimize the risk of failure?Good Question, lets see…

Ankur Maheshwari

Golden Rules?

For Effective planning follow these basic 7 rules:-

• Think long term, Document short term

• Keep is simple

• Plan for unexpected as well

• Do a ground reality check

• Identify and document dependencies

• Prepare yourself to accommodate improvements

• Let the plan be a living documentAnkur Maheshwari

Steps to Effective Planning?

1. Gather Information

2. Set a Goal

3. Explore Options

4. Create the Plan – Set of actions to reach the goal

5. Evaluate the plan

6. Take Buy In

7. Implement the plan

8. Track the plan

9. Close the plan

Ankur Maheshwari

Realistic planning requires homework

• Read documentation

• Ask Questions

• Understand Requirements

• Recollect past experience

• Gather historical data

• Talk to people

• Take time to digest

• Consolidate gathered Information

Gather Information

Ankur Maheshwari

You should set a SMART goal

S – SimpleM – MeasurableA – Achievable R – RealisticT – Time Bound

• Make it clear and concise

• Summarize in one statement to be precise

• Validate goal against the smart criteria

• Freeze the goal

Set a Goal

Ankur Maheshwari

• Look all possible Approaches to reach the goal

• Rank them in order of importance

• Evaluate the top 3

• Select the best fit

• Review the feasibility and incorporate feedback

Explore Options

Ankur Maheshwari

• Detail out the major milestones to achieve the chosen approach

• Document activities that help achieve milestones

• Effort estimate each activity and fit the schedule

• Co-relate dependencies

• Assign resources to activities

Create the Plan

Ankur Maheshwari

Evaluate the plan on various parameters and ensure that possible risks have clear mitigation plans. Some of the common project risks are below:

1. Unclear roles and responsibilities

2. Scope changes

3. Effort variation

4. Lack of resource commitment

5. Delay of responses from customer

6. No buy-in from Stakeholders

7. Poor and unclear communication

Revise the plan wherever required.

Evaluate the Plan

Ankur Maheshwari

The benefits of planning depend on how well the plan is understood by the stakeholders and how well it is executed. For both of these, we need a buy in from the stakeholders. So, once the plan is in place:

• Share the plan with stakeholders

• Conduct a meet and explain the plan

• Let them digest

• Seek feedbacks

• Improve the plan based on suggestions

• Seek an agreement

• Close the step by deciding owners

• Baseline the plan

Take Buy In

Ankur Maheshwari

For winning a game, it is important for the playing team to understand its rules. Similarly for implementing the plan successfully it is important that:

• Ground rules are clearly defined, documented and educated

• Owners are clearly identified

• Scope is managed through effective change management

• Success criteria are defined

• Un-Ambiguous information is shared

• Intermediate wins are enjoyed

• Failures provide feedback and plan revisited

Implement the plan

Ankur Maheshwari

The best way to track the plan is to be in touch

• Sync with the team as much as possible

• Keep track of key milestones

• Uses tracking techniques and tools like earned value analysis

• Use effective reporting techniques

• Prepare team for pro-actively sharing the risks and issues

• Identify roadblocks and remove them

• Empower team to deliver results

• Support the team

Track the plan

Ankur Maheshwari

Closing the plan is as important as any other step in the planning process. Closing the plan gives the opportunity to evaluate what went wrong and what went right in the planning.

• Get sign offs

• Identify the key success factors

• Identify the key failures

• Identify key performing resources. Appraise them.

• Share and document lessons learnt

• Share and document best practices

• Use it as a feedback for next planning

Close the plan

Ankur Maheshwari

Summary

Do Homework Set the Goal Explore Options Create the plan Evaluate the plan

Get Buy In

Implement the Plan

Track the planClose the plan

Ankur Maheshwari

Steps to Effective Planning?

Thank YouAnkur Maheshwari

ankurmah@gmail.com

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