PLANNING

While searching the word ‘plan’ in Google, like every body does first off, I came across an internet page about ground plans for architects. In the essay appearing on this page, it stated that “A genuine footprint of a building on its site, the ground plan contains many of the key aspects of a project, at once a means of representation, an architect’s design tool, and a layout and instruction pattern for the builder. Though the ground plan is invisible to the inhabitant, it determines with precision the quality of the spaces we inhabit.”

This definition of a ground plan in architecture can be used to define the general idea of a plan for any project or goal, not just in our field->
Plans should ‘contain many of the key aspects of the project’; they are a ‘means of representation’ of the tasks needed to finish the project; they are a ‘design tool’ for a project, outlining its steps towards achievement; they are ‘a layout and instruction’ manual for the project at hand; and even though the plan is ‘invisible’ it still should ‘determine with precision the quality’ of the tasks and the results they may form.

In this essay it also speaks of the statement made by Le Corbusier that the plan is the generator. The author takes from this statement the idea that a plan is an abstraction that generates. ‘If understood as a generator of the architectural idea… the plan is more closely approximates its biological definition as expressed in the Spanish term for it: planta, which also translates the English word “plant”, an entity with the ability to grow.’
Therefore a plan has an ability to create something. This is a fundamental idea about planning-it forms and creates the goal required.

In our group environment, we tried as much as we could to create plans, forecasting the weekly schedules we had and assigning days and hours to finish off a certain tasks. When these tasks were not accomplished at the planned time, just like our guest lecturer stated, 'If there are problems, which there always will be, reschedule the plan to allow other activities to happen and get back to status quo'. This was our strategy most of the time.
She also spoke of Contingency which is 'stuff up' time and so she sarcastically said to 'plan' for it.
Float is time allowed for procrastinating, which we kept in mind also.
She also introduced the idea of Acceleration and how to do so:
-by Overlapping activites
-and using Additional resources

Planning Cycle and Objectives
In all sorts of businesses, there are set stages of the Planning Cycle: Situation Anaylsis, Strategic Audit, Objectives, Strategies, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation. There are multiple variations of this but they usually include the same ideas, such as the image shown below:

There are strategic, tactical and operational Objectives (a Hierarchy of Objectives)
-Strategic Objectives- goals as a whole and supports the mission statement
-Tactical- Goals for each of the functional areas and supports the strategic objectives
-Operational- Goals for people working within each functional area and supports tactical goals

Tools
There are multiple tools to use in designing the plans and its layout.

General tools used to plan include Forecasting, Break-even Analysis, Decision Trees, and Budgets.

There are also software design tools to aid in the planning process. Here are some examples of software tools:
Plan Bee Pro with the use of the popular Gantt Chart

Rational Plan software tool with options including creating WBS and Gantt Charts, assigning resources to certain tasks, naming and listing tasks and also assigning the required duration of that task and many more

Here are some links to multiple listings of other planning software

http://www.filebuzz.com/files/project_planning_software/1.html

http://www.dotnetthis.com/corporate/projectmanagement/

References
Fernando Pérez Oyarzun, Four observations on ground plans, ARQ, n. 58 En planta / Plan view, Santiago, December, 2004, p. 24. (http://www.scielo.cl/fbpe/html/arq/n58/body-i/art04-i.htm)

Images
Image 1
http://www.projectmanagerkit.com/images/project-lifecycle-complete.jpg

Image 2
http://www.filedudes.com/PlanBee_project_management_planning_tool-screenshot-26367.html

Image 3
http://www.filebuzz.com/software_screenshot/full/19786-RationalPlan_Project_Management_Software.jpg