The Planning Process
Planning aims at formulation of a time-based of action for coordinating various activities and resources to achieve specified objectives. Planning is the process of developing the project plan. The plan outlines how the project is to be directed to achieve the assigned goals. It specifies a predetermined and committed future course of action, based on discussions and decisions made on the current knowledge and estimation of future trends.
Scheduling means putting the plan on a calendar time scale. During the execution stage, monitoring brings out the progress made against the scheduled base-line. Control deals with formulation and implementation of corrective actions necessary for achieving project objectives. In the construction phase of project development, planning and controlling are inseparable. During project implementation, the plan-do-monitor-communicate replan (when necessary) is a continuous process. In this context, the term planning broadly includes the plan-making scheduling and controlling processes.
Planning, in its broader perspective, involves advance thinking as to what is to be done, what are the activities, how it is to be done, when it is to be done, where it is to be done, what is needed to do it, who is to do it and how to ensure that it is done; all of this is channelized to generate and evaluate options for evolving an action plan aimed at achieving the specified goals. The thought process involved in construction planning can broadly be divided into two following stages:
Planning time
· What is to be done?
· What are the activities involved?
· How it is to be done?
· When it is to be done?
· Where it is to be done?
Planning resources
· What is needed to do it?
· Who is to do it?
Planning implementation
· How to organize a control system?
· How to monitor what is done?
· How to analyze variances?
· How to forecast trends?
· How to communicate performance?
