Chapter 3: Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning

Projects, as defined by David Allen, are “any desired result that requires more than one action step.” We talked in a previous Primer post that this opens up the definition a little from our traditional thoughts about Projects.

Allen discusses the Natural Planning Method as his planning model of choice. It is based on how we naturally process information in our daily lives. There are five steps in the Natural Planning Method:

1. Define purpose and principles.
2. Outcome visioning
3. Brainstorming
4. Organizing
5. Identify Next Actions

To start out creating a project, you should always ask yourself “why” you want to do the project. This will define the purpose of the project. It will guide your thinking and actions throughout the duration of the project. A lot of people get caught up in the actions associated with their projects and forget why they are doing them. A clear purpose will aid in bringing the focus back to why you are doing what you are doing, as well as helping you when you are stuck at determining your NA for the project. Your principles will also help guide you through the project. They will set the standards you are seeking for successful completion of the project. These standards can be applied to projects that you alone are working on, or if there are others that are working with you, they can see what is expected of them from you, as the project ‘leader’.

After you have set the purpose of your project, the next step is to think about what the outcome of a successful project looks like. In this step, you want to ask the question ‘what’. ‘What will our network look like after we transition from Novell to Windows?’ as an example from my life. This vision should focus your attention to trying to attain the most successful outcome for the project that you can. One thing that Allen stresses is the notion of creating clear outcomes. We need to constantly review our steps to get our projects done efficiently. If needed, we should reallocate resources as necessary to get the project done.

The next step that Allen discusses is the notion of brainstorming. Basically this is dumping all thoughts about a project into a capture device regardless of anything. After you brainstorm, then you go back and weed out ideas that are not feasible, for any reason. This would lead directly into the organization stage. One of the more popular brainstorming techniques that Allen covers is mind-mapping. Using it, you place your main idea on a sheet of paper and capture ALL ideas related to it by connecting them in a free-form manner around the main idea. Since there is not a lot of creativity required in Network Administration, I do not use mind-mapping, or brainstorming too often. I am determined to try it on my next big project that I will try to brainstorm my actions. The biggest thing to remember in brainstorming is NOT to evaluate any idea during the actual brainstorming session. That will take place during the organization phase after you are done. You want to just empty your head of ideas for the project you are brainstorming about. While you are going through your thoughts from your brainstorming session you will see things start to fall into place. Priorities will emerge, as will sequence of events for the project. This organization will lead directly into a series of next actions that need to be fulfilled to complete the project. When you have a list of next actions that are not dependent on any other action, you can consider your project fully planned out. I try to come up with the list of all the things that need to occur to complete the project and notate them on the project item that I have set up in Tracks. I then place all of my NA in appropriate lists and then when one is finished, I complete it and move the next NA to the appropriate list.

That sums up Chapter 3 about Project Planning, as well as closing Part I of Getting Things Done^®. The next part deals with the nuts and bolts of getting your system setup and ready to roll. The first chapter (Chapter 4) deals with setting up your space for Getting Things Done.