Project planning steps every team can follow

If I’ve learned one thing in my years of juggling projects, it’s that one without a clear plan will always find a way to go off course. 

Sometimes the cracks show up subtly via the odd missed deadline or overlooked detail. Other times, the chaos is far more obvious, with Slack pings flying in every direction, and weekend work no one signed up for.  

These issues rarely come down to the team. More often, they come down to how the project was planned (or how it wasn’t). 

If any of this sounds familiar, thankfully you can turn things around. All you need is a clear set of project planning steps to transform your projects from messy to manageable. 

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how I approach project planning in the real world, including the key dos and don’ts. 

What is project planning?

Project planning is basically the point where a project idea stops living in your head and starts turning into something workable. It’s where you move the idea from a conversation into a solid project plan with clear steps and assigned responsibilities.  

At this stage, you’re asking the following questions. 

• Why does this project matter?  

• What is the end result you’re hoping for? 

• How is the work going to get done? 

• Who’s involved? 

• How will we gauge that the job’s been done properly?  

This is also when the awkward things that can trip projects up further down the line start to show themselves. It might feel annoying at the time, but this is actually a good thing.  

Pinpointing these issues early gives you the best chance of addressing them head-on before they become bigger problems later down the line. 

What happens in the project planning phase? 

The planning phase is all about setting the groundwork. It’s where everyone gets to grips with what’s happening, why it’s important, and how the work will come to life. 

Most of us have experienced projects that start without clear direction and understand how frustrating that can be. Good project planning makes the whole process much more manageable and stress-free by taking confusion out of the picture, setting clear expectations, and helping the team work towards the same goal. 

Many businesses make the mistake of skipping the planning stage, and they often regret it in the later stages. Avoidable mistakes happen, wires get crossed, and overall progress slows down.  

Taking the time to plan the project properly makes the rest of the project far easier to manage. 

How do I get started with project planning? 

I’ve managed many projects throughout my career, and I’ve made all the mistakes along the way. I’ve put together this list of 10 essential project planning steps based on my experience, to help you plan your projects and set you up for success 

Step 1: Set goals 

If everyone in your team has a different idea of the goal, your project is bound to face roadblocks. 

In one of my first large-scale projects, every department wanted different outcomes. Some were most interested in new features, while others were focused solely on keeping costs to a minimum. 

This meant we weren’t working towards the same objective, which ultimately slowed us down. That experience taught me just how important it is to get alignment from day one. 

Don’t just take the request at face value. Look beyond what someone is asking for and understand why they’re asking for it. Gather different opinions together so you understand what the project actually needs to achieve. 

Step 2: Define the scope  

Next, define the scope of your project. You want to know exactly what is, and isn’t, included.  

Your scope tells everyone:  

• What you’re delivering  

• What you’re not delivering  

• Where the boundaries sit  

The scope is the perimeters of your project. Without it, extra tasks can creep in, making your team do twice the work.  

Step 3: Build the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)  

Break the project into smaller, more manageable chunks. Once everything is clearly laid out, the whole thing feels less overwhelming and much easier to plan. 

Break it down until:  

• Each piece is easy to understand  

• You can assign ownership with confidence 

• You can estimate effort without guessing 

With Teamwork.com, you can convert tasks into subtasks, making it easier to see how all the pieces fit together. 

Step 4: Create realistic timelines  

Now that the work is broken down, you can map the order of activities and build a project timeline by considering: 

• Which tasks need to happen first?  

• Where might blockers appear?  

• Which milestones genuinely can’t move?  

With Teamwork.com’s Timeline View you can see all your project tasks, subtasks, dependencies, and milestones laid out over time, making it easier to understand schedules and progress at a glance. 

Step 5: Estimate costs and resources  

A quick chat with your team can change the accuracy of your project cost estimates entirely.  

Use it to estimate:  

• How many hours are needed 

• What skills are required  

• Which team members have those skills 

• What tools or software are needed  

• Budget expectations  

With Teamwork.com, you can take the guesswork out of project cost tracking. Set custom rates, profit margin targets, and billable time benchmarks to track profitability on your terms.

Step 6: Determine risks and create backup plans  

When you spot roadblocks early, they’re much less scary. On the other hand, when issues such as delays, approvals, and compliance checks only come to light halfway through a project, they become far more problematic. 

Point them out early and decide who’s keeping an eye on each one. This simple backup plan doesn’t take long and saves a lot of stress later.  

Step 7: Set up clear communication paths with your team and stakeholders  

I’ve seen average projects succeed with great communication, and great projects fall apart without it.  

To keep yours out of the latter, agree early on:  

• How updates will be shared  

• Who needs to be in the loop  

• When people can expect to receive updates  

With Teamwork.com, you can keep all communications in one place with Proofs. With a centralized Proofs hub, you can monitor and review both internal and external feedback, whether it’s coming from your clients or your team.

Step 8: Define expectations from the start  

“Done” can mean one thing to one person and something completely different to another. This can cause serious issues, such as having to re-do the work or missed expectations. 

To avoid this, clearly define your quality expectations, so the team has a shared understanding of what success looks like. 

To help with this, use Teamwork.com Project Health to get a snapshot view across all of your projects and manage their progress based on individual health issues. 

Step 9: Bring everything together into a clear project plan  

Now that you’ve gathered all the pieces, bring them together into a project plan the team can actually use. 

Keep it simple and easy to read, so people can refer back to it, rather than leaving it buried in a folder, never to be touched again. 

Step 10: Review your plan and adjust as you go  

No project runs to plan perfectly, and that’s totally normal. What matters is adjusting your plan as things change.  

A small change can save you a lot of stress.   

Teamwork.com dashboards make it easy to spot anything going off course. 

Project planning example

I once worked on redesigning how we onboarded new employees. At the time, every team did things their own way, which meant new starters often ended up needing extra support eventually.  

I started by talking to each team to understand what a great onboarding process looked like from their perspective. Once I’d gathered these viewpoints and everyone was aligned, I defined the scope and broke the work into manageable chunks.  

That’s when we found out that the IT team needed a week’s notice to set up accounts. We caught this early, saving us from lots of long-term frustration. 

From there, I estimated timelines, worked out what resources we needed, called out a few risks, and agreed on what success would look like. 

By the end of the planning process, we had a clear, consistent, and far more efficient onboarding experience which was a far cry from the last-minute scramble we’d been dealing with before.  

How Teamwork.com can support your planning process  

Planning is still essential, but the right software makes the whole process much easier. 

With Teamwork.com, everything lives in one place, so there’s no need to dig through emails, switch between tools, or waste time when wires get crossed. 

Subtasks make it simple to break work down clearly. Gantt charts show how tasks connect and what needs to happen first. And dashboards give you an early heads-up when something’s starting to fall behind. 

The result is a plan people can depend on, rather than something they forget exists.  

Even the best software won’t fix a team that isn’t on the same page about what they’re trying to achieve. However, once that’s sorted, the right tool makes everything else much easier to manage. 

I use Teamwork.com across all of my projects and the features I’ve highlighted here are ones I’ve leaned on time and time again.  

Project planning gets much easier with the right project planning tool, but the key is finding the one that suits the unique needs of your team. 

From my own experience, here are the factors worth paying attention to when choosing project planning software:  

• Ease of use: Using the tool should click quickly with your team. If creating a simple task feels like work in itself, your team will lose time before the project even starts. 

• Clear visibility of timelines and responsibilities: You should be able to see who’s doing what, when they’ll be doing it, and how each piece connects.  

• Flexible task structures: A task setup that works the way you do, makes staying organised feel effortless. 

• Resource and capacity insights: This helps you plan realistically.  Teamwork.com’s resource management feature can give you a clear view of who’s available and when.  

• Simple, centralised communication: Updates shouldn’t be scattered across different channels. Look for tools that bring them all together.  

• Easy reporting: Dashboards or simple reports should help you see what’s on track, and what needs attention.

Above all, you should choose a tool your team will actually use. If it doesn’t make their day easier, it won’t be useful to your project planning process in the long run.  

Common pitfalls to avoid and a quick project planning steps checklist 

Even experienced planners can fall into a few traps, such as skipping requirements or treating the plan as set in stone.  

Keep an eye on these, and you’ll avoid most issues completely. 

Here’s a simple checklist to keep beside you:  

• Start with objectives everyone agrees on  

• Be clear about what’s in scope and what’s not  

• Break the work into pieces that feel doable  

• Put tasks in an order that makes sense  

• Talk to the people doing the work before estimating  

• Spot risks early and decide who owns each one  

• Agree on how updates will be shared  

• Set expectations for what “done” means  

• Pull everything into one simple plan  

• Review and adapt as the project evolves 

FAQs about resource planning steps 

What is the first step in the project planning phase?  

The first step is getting clear on the project’s goals and requirements. Before anything else, you need alignment on what you’re trying to achieve.  

How many steps are there in project planning?  

There’s no universal number, but the ten-step process in this guide covers everything you need for a solid project plan.  

What happens during the project planning phase? 

This is the point where a rough idea starts to come to life. You get clear on what you’re trying to achieve, what’s included in your plan, and think ahead about anything that might cause problems along the way.  

Can a project planning process be iterative?  

Yes, and in my experience, it usually is. Plans change as new information comes in, so reviewing and adjusting is part of good project management.  

Do I need project planning software?  

You can plan without project planning software, but it’s a lot trickier to keep track of everything. A good tool can keep everything organised and visible, but it works best when everyone knows the goal.