Getting Started in Project Management - 3. Project Plan

http://www.rmcproject.com

About Rita Mulcahy, PMP
- An expert in advanced project management, the PMP® Exam and risk management
- A gifted instructor and author of the books PMP® Exam Prep and Risk Management Tricks of the Trade
- Founder of RMC Project Management, the Innovators in Project Management Training and Products since 1991.

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Closed Caption:

what is a plan and if you look at the
next image you'll see what the plan is
it's a document again it is not come
from any particular project management
software
it's a multi-page document that's signed
and you'll see that we're trying to
think about how we're going to spend
money
what's going to be done when who's going
to do it
it's kind of like that age old
expression who what when where and why
if you do a plan many people make a
mistake they think of it as oh gosh this
is extra work but if you've ever been in
sports and you've been told to visualize
the win
if you've ever thought about what you
need to do before you do it you know
that the act of doing it is so much
faster
so there's a secret when you plan the
project with the people who are going to
be doing it
you had a chance to walk it through and
when you walk it through once do you
think doing it is easier
yes yes
so project management is an art and a
science and it's not talking about
adding any work because who would be
involved in project management if it was
going to add more time and work to your
efforts
I mean nobody would be interested yet
there are millions of people in the US
and canada alone who consider themselves
project management let alone all the
rest of the world
so one of the things we want to keep in
mind is we have to plan because it's
going to help us
it's going to make it better for us
we're going to find the road docks and
figure out which of those paths to go in
there is a process to planning and you
can see it highlighted here
what do i do first what should i look at
second because i want to plan but again
i want to do it faster cheaper easier
and so planning
has a process but if you take a minute
to think about planning
there's something that you might want to
realize and I have it up here there's a
trick to do planning well and it's my
favorite trick
it's all about barfing which happens to
be an Americanism
you're not from the states and you're
supposed to laugh but are you haven't
done that yet
if you learn the science of project
management
awesome but you don't have to start
there if you have it in your head that
you want to walk through entirely what
you're going to do for a few minutes
maybe before you even do it and create a
plan and if you can get that plant more
formalized you will got start to prevent
the problems everybody else faces so
barf is a project plan that is bought
into by everyone
they really buy into it yet that's what
we think we're going to do
it's a good guess it's a plan a plan a
plan and it can change but we've walked
through we think that's a good idea
it's approved meaning they have the
stamp of approval by whomever needs to
be involved and it's realistic you feel
like right now in the planning time
frame that it could be done that way and
its formal you have some document
so right now just remember your project
plan should be barked and you have a
trick in your head that will make you
more successful keep to thinking to
yourself is it's been barf yet
is it really possible and you'll get the
joke
I hope now once we think about planning
in
general this is some general rules to
think about planning
let's look at a piece of what should be
in the plan something more specific and
that is the concept of being overwhelmed
and afraid and think to yourself right
now
how many of the projects you have to
work on do you feel
oh my goodness I have no way I don't
know how I'm going to do this
I don't know where I'm going to do it
I'm completely lost and i'm completely
confused
there's no way I can make it happen is
that like you right now
well that is an important issue if you
are in management
you have to realize when you assign a
project to somebody else
they are literally freaking out getting
upset and worried
how could they possibly do it they're
feeling overwhelmed
if you are managing projects are working
on them
we want to try to eliminate this feeling
of being overwhelmed
so there's a tool of project management
there's a phrase i like to use and that
phrase is it's not the tool it's what
you do with it baby
trying to get you to laugh but it's not
working so there's a tool of project
management that will help you get
organized
get your mind around everything that
needs to get done and it's a very simple
tool
now the image i'm going to show you is
one that you may have seen before
because it looks like something else but
let me give this to you with a good
description