Ensuring smooth sailing: an overview of project planning and control

The discipline of project management has evolved slowly over the last century; and it has only recently been discovered and embraced by the business community at large. Project planning and control is one aspect of project management. It is concerned with providing the answers to five basic questions: what am I producing (outputs/goals); how do I get the work done (the steps in the process); what do I need (resources); when do I need it (the schedule); and how am I doing (are things going as planned?) This paper provides an introduction to the basic techniques of project planning and control that assist the user in answering these questions. These techniques are enhanced by graphical tools that aid in organizing, presenting, and understanding the information. Once thought of primarily in the context of large construction projects, the techniques have also demonstrated their usefulness in many other situations where deadlines must be met and costs justified, monitored, and controlled.