Develop The Project Plan
Introduction
You may be expecting some
standard stuff on defining tasks and milestones and then reviewing the project
plan. This approach has many problems when applied to international projects.
First, you want to use the development of the project plan as a way to build
collaboration among the team members. Second, how you establish the project
often is a key indicator of success or failure. As an example, suppose that you
organize the project with a subproject for each country. That organization
almost ensures that there will be minimal communications between the
locations—leading to many problems and even the downfall of the project. So the
bottom line—this chapter is very important if you want to start the project off
right.
What is included in the project plan? Start with the summary,
high-level and detailed tasks. A task here a piece of work.
Then add the milestones. A milestone is an end product. You
will be producing a baseline schedule that will serve as a
benchmark to measure your progress as you go. The plan identifies the resources
to be applied in the international project. From this information you can then
develop the costs and budget for the project.