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5 Project Planning Tips for Quality Project Delivery

While most of you already know what it takes to ensure quality project delivery, it certainly helps to brush up the project management skills. A good project manager should always remain up-to-date about the most modern project management skills. Follow the five project planning tips that are mentioned in this article to ensure that the project gets completed within time and under budget. 

1. Start with a Solid Foundation

When making the project plan, make sure that you are on the same page with the key stakeholders regarding the project deliverable. A project manager should fully understand the expectations and the interests of the stakeholders. This will help in determining the scope of the project as well as the responsibilities and roles of different project members. 

2. Establish Measurable Criteria for Quality Delivery

At the start of the project, you also need to establish clearly defined goals that are closely assigned with the end deliverables. The established goals should be measurable and easily monitored. Examples of the goals include achieving budget targets, accomplishing tasks within time, ensuring satisfactory project outcome, and meeting regulations and quality standards. Establishing measurable goals will allow you to lay the benchmark against which the success of the project can be measured.

3. Ensure Alignment with Strategic goals

The established goals should not just be aligned with the project requirements set by the client, but also with the overall business strategy. According to Moira Alexander, founder and president of the Lead-Her-Ship Group, the complex corporate environment and global competition has necessitated the need for aligning project management with business strategy. The business activities including project management should be driven by strategies otherwise there is no point of the project.

By ensuring alignment with strategic goals, a project manager will help in avoiding underutilized resources, ambiguous direction, declining project revenues, low performance, and high costs. Alignment with the strategic goals will help in establishing a shared vision that will help the organization as a whole to move in a forward direction. 

4. Remain Laser Focused on Project Requirements

A project manager should remain laser focused on fulfilling requirements of the project. The project manager must ensure that the team have a common goal that is tied with the project requirement. The project team should work as cohesive unit to ensure that all the project requirements are fulfilled. The project manager must align the talents, team, and personalities with the requirements of the project. In this regard, a team management software will prove invaluable.

An online project management software will help individual team members remain clear about their job role and tasks. It will also help the employees to know how their contribution helps in achieving overall project goals. 

5. Keep the Plan Simple

The last project planning tip is that you should try to keep it as simple as possible. Consider making a single page plan. You should consider listing a number of questions that relate to the project , and answering them in the plan. The questions should be answered in a clear, concise, and easy-to-understand manner.