Diving into the Project Plan

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Communications Management   Requirements Management   Schedule Management   Scheduling   Talent Management  

The murky depths of the project plan can be a foreign, strange place to live for project managers without a great deal of experience with MS Project or whatever tool is being used (…hopefully there is a tool and not just a random splattering of spreadsheets and timesheets). The intrepid explorer of these depths should not fear the unknown; rather, they should gather the correct tools and equipment to brave the depths of the project plan in order to understand what is going on in the project and to help the project succeed in the long run.

In many large projects, the project plan is left to a project analyst or project planner; the project manager or program manager takes a hands-off approach, only getting involved when a problem appears. While the project manager may not have the time to touch the project plan every day or every week, it is vital for the PM to understand the plan and keep up with it on a regular basis. A good understanding of the project plan will give the project manager a better view of the project and let them address problems before they impact the schedule and delay the project.

Organization
The first question a project manager should ask when reviewing a project plan is: How is it organized? There are many different ways to organize the data in the project plan. Having an understanding of the organization (or in some cases, …

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