5 Things Your Operational Plan Should Do
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
View Posts By:
Cameron McGaughy
Lynda Bourne
Kevin Korterud
Peter Tarhanidis
Conrado Morlan
Jen Skrabak
Mario Trentim
Christian Bisson
Yasmina Khelifi
Sree Rao
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
David Wakeman
Ramiro Rodrigues
Wanda Curlee
Lenka Pincot
cyndee miller
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
Marat Oyvetsky
Past Contributors:
Rex Holmlin
Vivek Prakash
Dan Goldfischer
Linda Agyapong
Jim De Piante
Siti Hajar Abdul Hamid
Bernadine Douglas
Michael Hatfield
Deanna Landers
Kelley Hunsberger
Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina
Alfonso Bucero Torres
Marian Haus
Shobhna Raghupathy
Peter Taylor
Joanna Newman
Saira Karim
Jess Tayel
Lung-Hung Chou
Rebecca Braglio
Roberto Toledo
Geoff Mattie
Recent Posts
Project 2030: Skills We Need to Cultivate Now
The Technical Program Manager: How to Stay Relevant in 2025
5 Things Your Operational Plan Should Do
5 New Project Guardrails for Adaptive Leaders
The Leader's Voice: Respect It, Protect It, and Use It Properly!
Categories
2020,
Adult Development,
Agile,
Agile,
Agile,
agile,
Agile management,
Agile management,
Agile;Community;Talent management,
Artificial Intelligence,
Backlog,
Basics,
Benefits Realization,
Best Practices,
BIM,
business acumen,
Business Analysis,
Business Analysis,
Business Case,
Business Intelligence,
Business Transformation,
Calculating Project Value,
Canvas,
Career Development,
Career Development,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Career Help,
Careers,
Careers,
Careers,
Careers,
Categories: Career Help,
Change Management,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Collaboration,
Communication,
Communication,
Communication,
Communication,
Communications Management,
Complexity,
Conflict,
Conflict Management,
Consulting,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Continuous Learning,
Cost Management,
COVID-19,
Crises,
Crisis Management,
critical success factors,
Cultural Awareness,
Culture,
Decision Making,
Design Thinking,
Digital Project Management,
Digital Transformation,
digital transformation,
Digitalisation,
Disruption,
Diversity,
Diversity,
Documentation,
Earned Value Management,
Education,
EEWH,
Enterprise Risk Management,
Escalation management,
Estimating,
Ethics,
execution,
Expectations Management,
Facilitation,
feasibility studies,
Future,
Future of Project Management,
Generational PM,
Governance,
Government,
green building,
Growth,
Horizontal Development,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Resources,
Inclusion,
Information Technology,
Innovation,
Intelligent Building,
International,
International Development,
Internet of Things (IOT),
Internet of Things (IoT),
IOT,
Knowledge,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
Leadership,
lean construction,
LEED,
Lessons Learned,
Lessons learned;Retrospective,
Managing for Stakeholders,
managing stakeholders as clients,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Mentoring,
Methodology,
Metrics,
Micromanagement,
Microsoft Project PPM,
Motivation,
Negotiation,
Neuroscience,
neuroscience,
New Practitioners,
Nontraditional Project Management,
OKR,
Online Learning,
opportunity,
Organizational Culture,
Organizational Project Management,
Pandemic,
People management,
Planing,
planning,
PM & the Economy,
PM History,
PM Think About It,
PMBOK Guide,
PMI,
PMI EMEA 2018,
PMI EMEA Congress 2017,
PMI EMEA Congress 2019,
PMI Global Conference 2017,
PMI Global Conference 2018,
PMI Global Conference 2019,
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2011 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2012 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2013 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2013 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2014 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2014 - North America,
PMI GLobal Congress EMEA 2018,
PMI PMO Symposium 2012,
PMI PMO Symposium 2013,
PMI PMO Symposium 2015,
PMI PMO Symposium 2016,
PMI PMO Symposium 2017,
PMI PMO Symposium 2018,
PMI Pulse of the Profession,
PMO,
PMO,
pmo,
PMO Project Management Office,
portfolio,
Portfolio Management,
Portfolio Management,
portfolio management,
presentations,
Priorities,
Probability,
Problem Structuring Methods,
Process,
Procurement Management,
profess,
Program Management,
project,
Project Delivery,
Project Dependencies,
Project Failure,
project failure,
Project Leadership,
Project Management,
project management,
project management office,
Project Planning,
project planning,
Project Requirements,
Project Success,
Ransomware,
Reflections on the PM Life,
Remote,
Remote Work,
Requirements Management,
Research Conference 2010,
Researching the Value of Project Management,
Resiliency,
Risk Management,
Risk Management,
Risk management,
risk management,
ROI,
Roundtable,
Salary Survey,
Schedule Management,
Scheduling,
Scope Management,
Scrum,
search,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
SelfLeadership,
Servant Leadership,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Sharing Knowledge,
Social Responsibility,
Sponsorship,
Stakeholder Management,
Stakeholder Management,
stakeholder management,
Strategy,
Strategy,
swot,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management,
Talent Management Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Communication,
Taskforce,
Teams,
Teams in Agile,
Teams in Agile,
teamwork,
Tech,
Technical Debt,
Technology,
TED Talks,
The Project Economy,
Timeline,
Tools,
tools,
Transformation,
transformation,
Transition,
Trust,
Value,
Vertical Development,
Volunteering,
Volunteering #Leadership #SelfLeadership,
Volunteering Sharing Knowledge Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Trust,
VUCA,
Women in PM,
Women in Project Management
Date
By Soma Bhattacharya
Have you ever noticed how a simple operational plan can improve the alignment of teams, especially if they are multi-located or working across departments? If you have thought about implementing one, try it. It does bring in clarity and positive reinforcement.
This of course means you need to come up with a plan and present it to the affected team—and then based on the feedback, incorporate some of the ideas in the plan as well. Once done and implemented, things are easier to manage. An occasional review of the ops plan should be enough to keep it in place.
Here are few items that could help you start with the plan:
1. Align across locations — One of the best ways to look into this is to create a common
space that’s available for all team members for reference. From access to deployment plans, splitting responsibility is everything that can make understanding how to operate easier. This is especially applicable for a fast-moving agile team.
2. Support practices — Setting up a process initially can help reduce guess work later. From stakeholder expectations to scrum teams supporting along the way can help the team move forward. Team ceremonies—from big room planning to sprint demos to product management and development team sync-ups—become easier to track with the expected outputs. Setting up calendars and invites, and announcing the cadence of the ceremonies, can help the teams prepare in advance.
3. Optimize communication and collaboration — Standardizing meetings and modes of
communication can come in very handy when working with larger teams located at multiple locations and from different teams or departments. While platforms like Webex or shared spaces are extremely useful, formalizing some of the communication with timelines might also help. This can be communication to the product or sales team. Something like the finalization of features going into production with the release calendar dates can have multiple stakeholders and departments impacted.
4. Clarify role and responsibility — Clarification could go a step further, where you can plan about who are the first responders for production issues and segregate it by time zones and country. You can even take the team of stakeholders and clarify which communication goes to whom first, and perhaps even create group distribution lists to keep things easier to remember.
5. Support governance and compliance — To run the governance of any project, teams being aligned along with goals and stakeholders are a must. The ops plan should bring up compliance issues and continue to work toward good governance as part of its agenda.
What has been most challenging for you building a ops plan?
Posted
by
Soma Bhattacharya
on: July 06, 2025 11:48 PM |
Permalink
Comments (9)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
This article offers a timely and insightful synthesis of how operational plans can truly empower and align teams, especially in today’s distributed and cross-functional environments.
It’s refreshing to see everyday challenges—like fragmented communication or ambiguous roles—translated into clear, actionable recommendations that any team can relate to and benefit from.
One of the article’s greatest strengths is its focus on structured communication as the foundation for collaboration and shared commitment.
In practice, teams that openly map responsibilities and expectations not only reduce misunderstandings, but also build a genuine sense of trust and belonging.
This is especially important in agile or fast-moving settings, where clarity can make the difference between friction and flow.
Across diverse organizations, the systematic use of operational plans has consistently helped people feel more supported, confident, and engaged in their work.
Integrating frameworks such as RACI, and visually mapping decision and escalation flows, can be transformative—providing clarity while enabling teams to learn and adapt together after each review cycle.
To deepen the article’s already strong impact, it could be inspiring to share brief real-world stories: for instance, a team overcoming resistance through a new operational plan, or measurable improvements in satisfaction or response times after implementation.
Such examples not only validate the recommendations but make the benefits tangible for readers navigating similar journeys.
Above all, this contribution stands out for its practical relevance and spirit of openness.
By ending with an invitation for others to share their experiences, the article cultivates a true sense of community learning—reminding us all that operational excellence is not a fixed destination, but an ongoing, shared endeavor.
What challenges and successes have others experienced in implementing operational plans?
Every shared insight enriches our collective practice and helps teams everywhere achieve their full potential.
Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps
Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Hi Soma,
Thanks for this. Point number 4 is extremely important "Clarify role and responsibility"
Nice how you broke down the operational plan into five tangible areas, especially the parts about optimizing communication and clarifying roles across time zones. In my experience, that’s often where things fall apart. I also appreciated the reminder that governance and compliance should be embedded from the start, not treated as an afterthought. A simple but very practical read, thank you!
Marios Efthymiou
Consultant - Coach - Trainer| Affirma Consulting and Coaching
Lefkosia, Cyprus
Very interesting, thank you.
Shumaila Sadaf
Legal Advisor| Billions works SMC Pvt LTD
Karachi, Pakistan
Shumaila Sadaf
Legal Advisor| Billions works SMC Pvt LTD
Karachi, Pakistan
Shumaila Sadaf
Legal Advisor| Billions works SMC Pvt LTD
Karachi, Pakistan
SANTOSH BADGUJAR
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER| Accumax Lab Devices
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
A strong operational plan is what separates reactive organizations from proactive ones. As COO of a manufacturing company, I've seen firsthand how an operational plan that merely documents tasks creates compliance, while one that drives alignment creates momentum. The 5 functions outlined here — especially connecting daily activities to strategic intent — are what transform a planning document into a leadership tool. Regular reviews are the key; a plan that isn't revisited loses relevance within weeks.
SANTOSH BADGUJAR
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER| Accumax Lab Devices
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Soma, this post resonates strongly with my day-to-day as a COO managing manufacturing operations across multiple product lines and teams. Operational plans are often treated as one-time setup documents, but as you've highlighted, their real value comes from the living, accessible, and role-specific structure they create.
The point about clarifying roles and responsibilities is where I see the most operational friction in practice. In manufacturing environments with cross-functional teams—quality, production, engineering, regulatory—ambiguity in ownership leads to delayed responses and finger-pointing, especially during production incidents. Having clear escalation paths and first-responder designations by function (and time zone) is something we've had to build explicitly.
Supporting governance and compliance within the operational plan is another underappreciated element. In our context with lab devices, compliance isn't optional—but embedding it into the rhythm of the operational plan, rather than treating it as a separate audit exercise, changes the team's relationship with it entirely.
Very practical framework for any operations or project leader building or refining their team's operating model.
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
"A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines."
- Frank Lloyd Wright
|
