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Monday, July 29, 2013

The Advantages of Using a Project Plan

Every company spends time trying to improve their operations in order to make them more efficient and profitable. This typically involves implementing new projects to create new products or bringing a new process or procedure on line. If a company enters into these projects without an idea or plan as to how they will actually work, the projects are often doomed to fail. Creating and following a project plan helps the project succeed. 

Goal setting;
The biggest advantages of having and following a project plan are documenting the project on paper and specifying an end goal. If the project is documented, everyone involved knows exactly what the project will consist of and exactly what new process or product they should have at the end of it. After the major goal has been set, the project manager can set smaller goals which will all feed into the larger goal. This creates a master timeline for the project completion and helps various departments who are working on it stay on the same page.

Costs;
Once the project has been documented with a goal and timeline in mind, it is important to keep track of the costs associated with the project itself. A budget is usually determined at the start of any project, because without a plan the project manager has no idea if the project is coming in over or under budget. By following the project plan, management can set costs for each section of the project, track what those expenditures are, and hold employees accountable for any overage. Also, employees who are working on the project will know how much they are allowed to spend on developing their area.


Productivity;
Another good reason to follow a project plan is so that management can accurately determine which employees are needed to work on any given section. It can act to free up company resources to get the most productivity out of the workers. For example, if there is a financial component to the project, the accounting department may need to get involved. Without a plan, the accounting department may end up constantly giving out the requested information throughout the entire process, taking up time of the entire department. With a project plan, management can see exactly when those figures will be needed and how many people will be needed to gather that information. It makes the company more efficient while conserving productivity.

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