Activity Planning Checklist

 

This checklist forms the basis for consolidating an activity network for project management. You usually track it with a Gantt chart, as this provides the basic project planning software. Use product names as headings, and then under each list, specify the steps required to create that product. When you come to check out your action plans, skip this checklist.

1. Completeness: Have you copied each product into the action plan as a title? With the exception of external products, make sure you have at least one activity specified for each product to cover the work needed to create it.
2. External Products: Check if you need any activity for something from the outside. While your project is not responsible for creating this item, you may need some kind of activity to test or install it.
3. Quality: Make sure you include the necessary quality activities, such as testing each individual product and then quality project-across activities such as quality audits.
4. Correct dependencies: Be sure to check each dependent activity to be sure that it is accurate and that it matches the dependencies you specified in the workflow diagram.
5. Overlaps: Make sure you don't miss any matches when the second action can be run before the first one is fully completed.
6. Lags: Check for delays when the second action cannot start immediately after the first one is completed. For example, you cannot begin introductory training of new personnel the day after the employment contracts have been concluded. Before joining your organization, most people will have to work with notice with their current employer, so you may need a four-week backlog and possibly even more.
7. Cross-project dependencies (inbound): Pay attention to any cross-project dependencies on your product plans. Next, make sure that the time of your activity corresponds to the availability of the required input from another project(s).
8. Cross-project dependencies (outgoing): If another project needs material from your project, make sure you produce it on time. Can another project live with a pause while it waits for the product to be ready, or will you need to set up your project to create the product earlier?
9. Holidays: Make sure that all scheduled events are open on weekdays and avoid public holidays. If you're using a computer tool, it should have alerted you to any problems, but even so, make sure that all national holidays are displayed in the project calendar.
10. Staff Availability: Ensure that employees are scheduled to work on the project only when they are available. Make sure you consider things like booked personal holidays and working on other projects.
11. Staff Capacity: Make sure that the work planned for the project staff matches their capabilities.If someone is only available for your project for ten percent of their time, make sure their activities reflect this with a one-day work consisting of the ten days that have passed.
12. Delivery Time: Make sure you have enough time for things like delivery. The supplier will not deliver the goods to the check-in desk one second after you send the order by e-mail.
13. Reconciliation Time: Make sure you have a realistic time to reconcile. This check applies to both internal claims (e.g., project specification negotiation) and external approvals (e.g., scheduling permission for internal extensions).
14. Critical Path: Clarify what actions are on the critical path, as well as keep an eye on who is near the critical path. Your network of activities will be especially useful here, as the chain of actions does not show up very well on Gantt.
15. Contingencies: Do you have enough time in the plan and it shows? Something is bound to go wrong, and the absence of unforeseen circumstances simply requires problems at best and project failure at worst. Make sure you have unforeseen circumstances to protect the Critical Path or Critical Circuit if you use this technique.
16. Action Failure: Determine which actions can be broken down if you are under temporary pressure. Failure of activity means a reduction in its duration, adding more resources to work. Some actions are suitable for failures, but others are not.
17. Management Products: Make sure you have actions and fiercely realistic deadlines for creating and updating management products, such as creating milestones, updating business cases, and creating regular progress reports.
18. Control: Don't forget the time of project management to check progress, risk, quality and other aspects of control. And be realistic about how long you need to do it, or you'll face unnecessary pressure and big problems because you missed things and didn't take corrective action in time.

Notes and Project Changes: 

 

Make sure you create and provide continuous activity management for tasks such as problem research, research new identified risks, review change requests, and simply visit team members to encourage them.