Careful planning will help you do more with less

A key challenge for Public Sector departments, and other organisations overall, is filling project, programme and portfolio management capability skills gaps. Especially when budgets are tight and there is a real need to do more with less.

Which is why developing your team’s core project management skills, such as planning, is an effective way to make positive impacts.

But why?

Planning is the foundation of every successful operation or project, including planning the project schedule and timelines, allocating and budgeting resources, managing costs and much more.

Effective planning can also boost performance and success rates for your project, programmes and portfolios. As part of it is to ensure that you map out and prioritise objectives, activities and tasks, define what’s inside and what’s outside the project scope, assign roles and responsibilities and collaborate closely with teams and stakeholders.

All of which will enable you to do more with less, as planning will help you be smart with time, resources, budgets and goals.

Some signs that your teams need to improve their planning skills

Without a robust plan, your projects, programmes and portfolios may not meet their specific goals. Here are some potential signs to look out for:

• Lack of clarity: Goals, objectives and deliverables constantly change and teams are unsure of their roles and responsibilities, causing conflicts, duplication of work or work not being completed in line with requirements
• Resource shortages: Resources can be used up quickly or are inadequate to cover the scope of the project
• Reactive problem-solving: Teams frequently have to deal with unexpected challenges and crises
• Low stakeholder satisfaction: The deliverables fall short of meeting stakeholder expectations and project goals

Planning is essential for project, programme, and portfolio management. As well as the benefits outlined above, it will also help to:

• Stay on track and avoid scope creep
• Establish the right performance measurements
• Ensure that everything is documented appropriately and governance is in place
• Continuously improve and apply lessons learned in the future

How can ILX help?

Our Learning Hub is our complete digital learning solution for all your project, programme, and portfolio management training needs. Watch our webinar ‘Maximising Efficiency Key project management skills to help you do more with less’ to learn more about the importance of planning, and how the ILX Learning Hub can support you and your team.