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Identify the scope of the plan; how much of the
organization will be involved; how many people will be involved?
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Think ahead, taking the wider view of the
organization and how any plans fit in with the overall strategy.
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Ensure plans do not conflict with any other activity within the
organization.
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Identify the critical success factors required to achieve your goals.
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Make sure projects have a dedicated sponsor and clear processes to ensure continuity.
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Brainstorm to anticipate potential risk areas in the initial stages of planning:
a. Prepare a breakdown of all tasks and critical decision points.
b. Determine the critical path of the project
c. Analyze each component to detect areas of
risk
d. Try to think of everything that could go wrong
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When assessing potential risks or vulnerabilities:
a. Use appropriate historical data.
b. Apply formulae commonly used in the industry.
c. Make subjective estimates.
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Categories potential problems into high and low risk areas.
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Prepare
several possible approaches for dealing with
high risk areas should they occur.
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Decide if you should continue with the project if a number of high risk areas are identified. If yes,
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Introduce safety factors into your planning for high-risk areas.
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Consider allocating more time and/or funds to these phases.
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Introduce tough control methods in the high-risk areas
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Ensure that you are kept fully informed of all. developments, either verbally or via reports.
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Ask others for feedback on your contingency plans and make adjustments based on their feedback.
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Discuss with a skilled planner their feedback on your contingency plans.
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Anticipate potential obstacles that could be created by resistance from key decision makers and build in time and ideas to overcome these obstacles.
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Set aside quiet time to review plans, update planning activities and identify emerging problems.
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Offer to review others’ plans to look for problem areas and brainstorm how to avoid these problems.
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Monitor projects to ensure you have visibility of any discrepancies between actual performance and objectives.
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Keep records of any discrepancies, the cause of them and how they were resolved.
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Consider options for preventing discrepancies and put them in place.
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Seek input from team members to gain commitment and ensure that you have a considered the plan from all viewpoints
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Recognize
early warning signs and take appropriate action.
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Introduce tough control methods in the high-risk areas
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Look for and
recognize early warning signs and take action to resolve issues.
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Identify what resources are required, and when, ensuring they are provided in any planning to avoid delays
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Use common sense!
