Each month starts with a quick refinement of the plans. P3.express uses a gradual planning process: a high-level plan is created in the Preparing section, and then more details added every month, to show exactly what we’re going to do in the upcoming month.

It’s best for the Project Manager and the PM Support to facilitate workshops for the key team members to contribute to planning, or even handle the whole planning with the minimum required supervision.

These are the steps you need to take in this activity:

1. Check the direction of the project with the Sponsor
2. Check the Configuration Map and see if it’s required to break down some of the building blocks that will be the subject of the upcoming month.
3. Reflect the Configuration Map changes into the WBS of the Schedule Model and the Project Files Directory (the directory can have fewer levels than the map).
4. Try to find more risks that may affect the project in the next month, and capture them in the RIC Register.
5. Plan, or refine the existing plans of the items in the RIC Register, especially those that may affect the work in the upcoming month.
6. Add more details to the parts of the Schedule Model that will be executed during the upcoming month.
7. Save a new Baseline for the Schedule Model, and adjust the planned values in the Progress Register if required.
8. Revise the Business Case

When there are external suppliers, all A12 activities should be aligned, and done in the same time.

P3.express uses a form of planning called Manage by Stages, or Rolling-Wave Planning. While it has its own advantages, there’s a risk that you will be focused only on the short-term, and do not pay enough attention to the risks that may happen later. Sometime it’s too late to proactively control a risk right before the time it may happen. Remember that risk management is about the whole project.