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Project Engineering: The Basics of Planning A Project
Starting a new project can be nerve-wracking. You have to account for what the project is, who has to do what, what the timeline looks like, and how to make it all a reality. It doesn’t stop there, you also have to account for changes in scope, bugs, things not working as expected, budget changes, and more. The entire process can be insane even with a plan.
I used to get insanely stressed out standing up a project since nothing ever went right, but that largely changed once I learned how to plan properly. I have worked on both coding projects and implementation projects. Despite both types of projects being largely different, the general process remains the same. The other thing to remember is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. You will change your plan at some point, but it doesn’t have to be (that) stressful.
To stand up a project you need to first define it. What is the project and why is it being done? Next, you need to define a scope. What is it defined as, what will it do, and what will it cost? Once you have the limits for the project, you can begin to divide the project up into smaller projects to assign out. Figure out the dependencies using something like a Gantt chart and determine the order things need to be done. As you split each part up, you can adapt to changes as they come without harming the overall…
