Annual Project Planning

What is Annual Project Planning?

Annual Project Planning is a facilitated activity that should be undertaken by every management team once-a-year to plan their projects for the coming 12 months.

Typical contents

•	Identify all the projects that need to be carried out over the next 12 months
•	Prioritise each project
•	Allocate Champions and Project Leaders
•	Identify timescales
•	Identify who needs to be involved
•	Plan how the resulting projects will be monitored and steered
•	Start work on Project Remits - defining the aims, inclusions and exclusions for each project

John Holland Group Jan 2025		Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads Policy, Planning and Investment Division Oct 2024		Queensland Government Department of Transport and Main Roads Policy, Planning and Investment Division Oct 2024		Araluen Jan 2024

Who should attend?

The leader of the team and their Direct Reports.

What are the outputs?

There are three outputs:

(1)	A Project Steering Grid A list of live and planned projects for the coming 12 months. The Project Steering Grid contains high-level details about each project.
(2)	A Project Park A waiting list of projects that are not currently a priority.
(3)	A list of projects to be pushed up/down the organisation or to other teams The first two of these are used over the coming year to steer the projects.

The first two of these are used over the coming year to steer the projects.

Araluen Jan 2024		Araluen Apr 2023		Annecto Mar 2023		Araluen Dec 2022

Typical duration

Half-a-day to a full day.

Use your own Facilitators

If we have trained Facilitators in your organisation, they can carry out this assignment for you.

Download

Click here for the Annual Project Planning Briefing Note.

More information

See section 10 of The Complete Guide to Improvement.

Project Steering Grid produced by in-house Facilitators at Stevenage Homes

This is a beautifully produced Project Steering Grid sent to us by Richard Field who writes:

"Now that I've seen Annual Planning in action I'm beginning to realise it comes with a whole portfolio of advantages. I'm impressed with the way it simplifies the planning process, turns it into a collective effort and works from the bottom up. I'm also beginning to realise that it makes the results so much more accessible to staff and encourages openness among managers. We've set up the 12 sheets of the grid in the main office and invited all staff to come and have a look. Beats a 70 page report any day!"

The underpinning philosophy

"One of the big things the Japanese latched onto during my visits there was the concept of annual quality improvement at a revolutionary rate. As a result, their rate of improvement had a very steep slope, whereas the West had a shallow slope. By adopting a philosophy of annual quality improvement at a revolutionary rate, the Japanese over a period of decades ended up as world leaders in quality." - Dr Joseph Juran

RAPADWSA Oct 2022		Araluen Mar 2020		Thirteen Housing Group Dec 2014		Great Yarmouth Community Trust Feb 2014