Project Planning: Getting Started

Project planning is important, as it sets the direction and focus of the church to achieve a specific goal or outcome. Some projects may be isolated to a specific group of people or targeted to help a specific team, while others may have far-reaching impact to your church for years to come.

This series will help you develop and improve your skills for any kind of project: from handling an upcoming event to launching a satellite church campus. Let’s get started by understanding projects and what project management involves.

What is a Project?

Let’s define what is considered a project for the purpose of this series.

A project:

1. May be of any duration
2. Has a specific goal or indicator of completion
3. Usually involves more than one step or task to achieve the goal
4. Often involves more than one person to complete the project

Note that a project is not what you do repeatedly on a continual basis. It involves something outside “business as usual” for your team or church.

What is Project Management?

Project Management is the planning and oversight of a project’s execution. It usually involves:

1. the creation of a vision or intent of the project
2. identifying key milestones, deliverables, tasks, and assumptions
3. recruiting help and a budget, if required
4. overseeing project tasks
5. reporting progress to other teams, leaders, and staff

As you can imagine, project management involves more than just “doing the project.” It involves communication and coordination throughout the life of the project.

What is Your Project?

Want to share something about your next project? Leave a comment and let me know what you are planning.

Don’t have a project? How about following along with this series by reflecting on a recent project and how you can make your next project even better. Let me know what worked and what didn’t work as we walk through the steps of planning your next project.

No matter where you are in your current project, I think you will find something in this series to help you manage even better.

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