The Ultimate Guide To Planning And Scheduling: Process, Differences And How To Visualize Success

We’re often told that business success comes from taking immediate action; but great achievements start with good planning, and good planning becomes exceptional execution with proper scheduling. In this article, we will equip you with tools to plan and schedule projects effectively. We’ll also demonstrate how you can use visual templates to make plans and schedules easier to execute. 

Learning how to practice the basics of project planning and scheduling sets you up for success. Our five steps employ the project management concept of the “iron triangle,” – time, resources, and scope. These three elements are the basic ingredients of your plan. Always remember narrowing or expanding the range of one item (especially scope) impacts the other parts of this triangle. 

This first step sets the project boundaries. Your goal defines the objective. Goals using the famous SMART framework should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based.

For example, let’s say that I am crafting a social media plan for my aspirational business, True North Resumes. A SMART goal might be: “To increase social media engagement, I will post three times a week on LinkedIn with resume tips for two months and then evaluate the results.”

Let’s look at this goal in a more visual way. 

The scope of my posting goal is defined by where I will post, how often, and what kind of content I’ll create. Scope acts as a planning gatekeeper, determining what must be done to achieve your goal and what actions will not be included. 

After setting your goal and determining the project scope, it’s time to list the tasks required to complete the project. This step is closely related to the Work Breakdown Structure technique, which we’ll discuss below. 

In this step, use scope to help keep the list of tasks manageable. If requests keep coming in for additional tasks unrelated to the SMART goal, suggest they be accomplished in another project. 

We also suggest that you examine the relationships between the tasks. Does one have to be completed before another can begin? Make sure that information is clear in your plan. 

At this stage, focus on determining:

• Major tasks involved in each project phase
• For each task, list all sub-tasks needed to complete the task
• What deliverables will result from the accomplishment of each task
• The relationships between tasks (dependencies). 

Breaking down work to be done is a major planning milestone. Next, you’ll need to estimate the resources (money, staffing, tools) and time needed to complete each task. 

At the end of this step, you will know:

• Who is responsible for each task?
• How long will each task take? 
• How much will each task cost?
• What tools are needed to complete each task?

When estimating complex or unfamiliar tasks, build time into your schedule allowing for challenges. 

This is where you begin scheduling your project’s tasks. Your sequencing should fit the unique needs and dependencies between tasks. You will also define milestones to mark task completion. 

This step moves project planning and scheduling from thought into action. Your schedule will provide a real-world “finish line” for accomplishing the tasks you’ve set out in your plan. 

As you assign dates and discuss the work with the people who will do it, you may need to adjust milestones or shift deadlines for sub-tasks. The more dialog you have up front, the less likely you’ll need to craft a tricky revision of the schedule when you’re deep into the project. 

Once you’ve solidified your schedule, share your plan and timeline with stakeholders. As your team executes the project plan, you’ll need to monitor progress and adjust where needed. 

Having laid the foundation for successful project planning and scheduling, let’s review some well-tested methods for setting up your plan.

A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) document breaks goals into smaller pieces, including key deliverables, sub-deliverables, and individual work packages. WBS documents can be deliverable-based – organizing the work to be done by outcomes – or phase-based, categorizing tasks by execution sequence. 

Once the WBS is done, the identified tasks can be loaded into a Gantt chart to map out completion of the work. The horizontal axis of a Gantt chart shows the projected timeline, and the vertical axis shows tasks to be accomplished. Gantt charts allow planners to plot dependencies between tasks, giving a clear idea of task progression. 

“Kanban” is a Japanese word that means “visual signal.” Users create cards (physical or digital) and place them in columns sorted from left to right, with categories such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” A key part of the kanban method is the work-in-progress limit, restricting the number of cards allowed in a particular column. 

CPM helps determine the fastest path to completing a project by reviewing all tasks. If you were cooking an omelet, heating the eggs in a pan would be critical; searching in the fridge for a garnish would not. The analysis phase of CPM is followed by scheduling tasks on the critical path to prevent delay. 

Timeboxing emphasizes creating extended blocks of time on your schedule for working on specific tasks. For example, don’t just put in “writing” for the slot from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday. Schedule the slot as “writing a pitch letter to secure the next round of financing.” This method requires you to prioritize tasks for your time blocks and to have an accurate sense of how long tasks require.

Many of the methods we just discussed have a visual component to them. Using visually rich modes of communication when you plan and schedule offers many benefits: 

Studies show people retain 65 percent of what they learn when encountered through a combination of text and image.   

Visualized plans allow you to view the big picture and fine details simultaneously.

It’s easy to get all stakeholders on the same page quickly.

Visualized plans surface resource clashes or unrealistic timelines.

You can use Piktochart and other free or low-cost platforms to help you visualize your planning and scheduling. Let’s look at some of the best templates available and unpack why they work. 

A roadmap provides a high-level overview of how a plan is to be carried out. It outlines phases of a project but rarely includes scheduling details. This Piktochart template shows a roadmap for document use and governance. 

Use cases for roadmaps: 

• Documentation of complex processes
• New product rollouts
• Service delivery blueprints

A timeline, on the other hand, provides dates for deliverables. Here is a timeline template adapted to show the schedule for a website content refresh.

Use cases for timelines:

• Project kickoff meetings
• Stakeholder buy-in events
• Change-management overviews

Charts patterned after the Gantt chart used in project management provide a visual “map” for efforts requiring a complex mix of resources and staffing and an extended timeline. This chart, created in Google Sheets, can be set up quickly using the platform’s “timeline” feature.

Use cases for Gantt-style charts:

• Construction projects
• IT/computer projects
• Event planning and promotion

One of the most popular formats for scheduling is the humble calendar. It’s familiar to most and requires no prior project management knowledge. Here’s a monthly calendar for a web development project. Colorful icons make it easy to see important dates. 

One way to represent project schedules with a shorter time frame is a weekly calendar. I adapted this template in about 10 minutes to provide a day-by-day update for a web content project. 

Use cases for calendars:

• Employee work schedules
• Project overviews
• Call scheduling

Piktochart can also help you develop creative and engaging calendars with our upcoming AI Calendar Generator. 

Flowcharts provide a visual guide to complicated, multi-step operations. They are useful when your project has a number of decision points where your team will need clear directions to proceed. 

This flowchart template for setting up social media channels guides the reader through each step in the process. 

Use cases for flowcharts: 

• Software build projects
• Product development process mapping
• Agile project management

Checklists and taskboards work in business for the same reason they worked at my parents’ house growing up: they provide users with a tangible, visible representation of the work to be done. 

This employee onboarding template combines an overview of steps in that process with a timeline for execution. 

Taskboards, such as those used in kanban systems, visualize a project’s work in progress and show where bottlenecks need to be removed. You can create a taskboard online with Trello, KanbanFlow, or even Google Sheets, as shown in the image below. 

Use cases for checklists and taskboards:

• Processes with “must-do” steps to be completed in a particular sequence (like pre-flight checks for pilots)
• Troubleshooting production workflows
• Developing Standard Operating Procedures

Planning addresses “why” and “what” for a project – scheduling addresses “when” and “how.” Here’s a simple way to remember the key differences: 

• Focus: Planning concentrates on goals, scope, and strategy; scheduling focuses on sequencing, resource allocation, and assigning dates/times to tasks.
• Output: Planning outputs are documents that overview the project; scheduling outputs include task timelines and calendar entries. 
• Level: Planning concentrates on high-level objectives and overarching goal(s); scheduling is detailed. 
• Flexibility: Your planning process can be flexible – before you’ve finalized your goals. Once you’ve started scheduling, you have to go back many steps to revise. 

Yes. Timing and resources needed for your scheduled tasks could change dramatically depending on goals and strategy. If you try to schedule activities before planning, you can end up with an unrealistic schedule. 

Definitely! We’ve shown various visual formats in this article to reinforce one idea: the way your plan or schedule looks should meet the needs of YOUR project. The tools and techniques we’ve reviewed can help you make large projects more manageable. Use them any way you like to move forward with confidence and achieve your goals!