Hi there. In this video, you'll learn to analyze project documentation, including documents from previous projects, to identify tasks for a new project. This documentation includes project charters, emails, and old project plans which a business may have available when you join a new organization or switch to a new project. Then, in the upcoming activity, you'll begin building the project plan for Sauce and Spoon's tablet rollout by adding project tasks to a spreadsheet that will serve as your project plan. I recommend that you use the provided project plan template to start your document, but you're also welcome to create your own spreadsheet or use your preferred project management software. Let's get started. First, we'll review the purpose and function of a project plan. A project plan is useful for any project, big or small, since it helps you document the scope, tasks, milestones, budget, and overall activities in order to keep the project on track. At the center of the project plan is the project schedule. The schedule is your guide for making time estimates for project tasks, determining milestones, and monitoring the overall progress of the project. One of your main jobs as a project manager is to identify all of the project tasks, estimate how much time each task will take, and track each task's progress. So how do you go about adding tasks and milestones to the plan for the very first time? The first thing I do is review the goals and deliverables in the project charter. Then, I make a list of all the items that have tasks or milestones associated with them. As a reminder, milestones are important points within the schedule that indicate progress. They usually signify the completion of a deliverable or phase of the project. And project tasks refer to activities that need to be accomplished within a set period of time. They're assigned to different members of the team according to each person's role and skills. In order to reach a milestone, you and your team must complete certain tasks. For example, one of the deliverables of the Sauce and Spoon project is promoting the new tablet menus with table signs and email blasts. In this instance, a milestone could be the completion of this deliverable, which would include all of the tasks that are required for getting sign offs on the final versions of the marketing materials and confirming the dates of the email blasts. Some of these tasks would include writing multiple drafts of the different marketing materials, generating an email list, and programming the emails to be sent on the correct dates. For each deliverable, ask yourself: What steps do we need to take in order to achieve this? The steps will become the individual tasks that need to be completed. Let's turn our attention to another deliverable for Sauce and Spoon: the implementation of a post-dining survey to assess customer satisfaction. What steps do you need to take in order to achieve this deliverable? You might need to assign a team member to develop a survey. You'll also need to determine how you'll deliver the survey and create a process for carrying it out. These are just a couple of examples of the many tasks you'll need to complete in order to achieve the deliverable. It's your job to help uncover the rest of the tasks. How do you uncover more tasks? In addition to the project charter, there are other common forms of documentation that can help you identify tasks. For example, you might ask your stakeholders or colleagues to share emails or an older project plan for a similar project. Let's discuss how these might be useful as you build your list of tasks. Emails that relate to the project can provide lots of helpful information for you to pull tasks from. Since so much communication in the workplace happens over email, ask to have relevant emails that contained discussions about the project's details forwarded to you. These emails can help you uncover tasks, and they can also help you identify team members to connect with further if you have additional questions. It's also helpful to review an older project plan for a similar initiative to find out what kind of tasks were included. For example, if you are a project manager tasked with launching a new product, you might ask a colleague with experience launching other products for the same company to share their project plan as an example. Or, if your project includes some construction work, you might ask colleagues about unrelated projects that also had construction components. Previous project plans can provide helpful inspiration as you create your own list of tasks. They can also help you identify possible task durations, subject matter experts, and even suppliers that may be helpful to your project. As you review project documentation, take note of information that suggests other tasks your team will need to complete in order to execute on project deliverables. During this process, ask yourself questions like: Is there a large task being worked on by many people that could be broken into smaller tasks assigned to individuals? Are there signals that imply prior tasks need to be completed first? For example, a deliverable like "install tablets" might imply selecting a tablet vendor as a prior task. Great! We've covered a lot in this video, so let's review. The project plan helps document the scope, tasks, milestones, budget, and overall activities in order to keep the project on track. To add tasks to your plan, search for useful information from existing project documentation, such as the project charter, email threads, and old project plans from a similar project. As you review project documentation, take note of information that suggests additional tasks and milestones that your team will need to complete in order to meet project deliverables. Great! In the next activity, you'll review the supporting materials to start building the Sauce and Spoon project plan. Once you're finished, I'll meet you in the next video.
