Project Planning & Preparation

6 October, 2009

• planning
• preparation
• project

Michael Bartlett

Category: Web Development

Hands up if you’ve heard of the ‘7 P’s’ principle. Go on, raise your hand wherever you might be reading this. Are you getting some strange looks? Good.

For those of you with your hands down, the ‘7 P’s’ refers to this phrase:

Proper Planning & Preparation Prevents Pretty Poor Performance

It’s a simple philosophy, but one that is so often overlooked in the drive to cut back on cost and time when approaching new projects. Ironically though, cutting back on planning is by far the easiest way to end up going over budget and over time on a project.

A widely held belief is that a project should start easy, with decisions and workload increasing steadily as time goes on, until the project is one day suddenly finished and ready for launch.

The truth is far different. The ideal project should start with a flurry of planning and preparation, as you and your web design or web development firm work through every idea, option and contingency possible, generating a watertight design and implementation plan.

Only once these have been created should the building start. This process should ideally be as straightforward as possible, and merely consist of following the plan as set out in the previous stages of planning & preparation.

The project should resemble a wedge, with the largest part at the start, tapering off to a smooth finish. The only way to achieve this is to plan and prepare as much as you can at the beginning, with a clear endpoint where the decisions and designs are finalised and signed off.

You’ve certainly heard it said in other ways before; If you fail to plan, you plan to fail; Measure twice, cut once; Plan the flight, then fly the plan. No matter how it’s said, it all means the same thing – plan ahead, and you will avoid nasty surprises later.