Planning Pat 1
1. Initiation—2. Planning—3. Execution—4. Closing
5.Monitoring and Controlling
For AV integrators and professional services companies, the project planning is usually called scoping.
The client who needs the service will have their reasons for reaching out, and they have a concept of what they want. In their mind it may be utterly clear.
When they reach out to the group that can provide what they want, the questions start
“How do you want this system to function?”
“Have you considered…?”
“A different client had success with this choice…”
The clients usually value the experience their integrator brings and want this kind of conversation.
I remember one very unusual project when the customer refused absolutely to hear anything our team had to say.
This was a military project, to install a movie theater on a military base.
They had a budget, and they borrowed a bill of materials from a different military base and our house was told to make this BOM work in a different space with no changes. In my experience, that is very rare. Most project planning phases involve a discussion and prioritization.
The ‘designer’ assigned to this job was angry and hostile. He had no say in how this project would work and stopped speaking to me after he realized how inadequate the system would be for the space. One of the suppliers, QSC, even offered a free upgrade on one of the amplifiers so that the system could perform better. They didn’t want their name on the system that was underpowered.
The customer refused. The materials could not be substituted, and we had to make it work.
Most projects’ planning phase involves multiple iterations. The first plan could be too expensive, the next might have unnecessary features. The planning phase allows those aspects to be explored and after consideration the final choice becomes the SOW of the contract.
That information about priorities and the desired outcome is a wealth of knowledge that the account management team can bring to the kickoff when the project manager schedules the kickoff for the Execution phase.