An action plan is a table showing the list of all tasks or activities required to achieve each objective.
Sequential and parallel activities
An essential concept behind project planning is that some activities are dependent on other activities being completed first. For example, it is not a good idea to start building a bridge before you have designed it! These dependent activities need to be completed in a sequence, with each stage being more-or-less completed before the next activity can begin. We call dependent activities sequential or linear.
Other activities are not dependent on completion of any other tasks. These may be done at any time before or after a particular stage is reached. These are non-dependent or parallel tasks.
For each task, show:
- The earliest start date,
- Estimated length of time it will take, and
- Whether it is parallel or sequential; if tasks are sequential, show which stage they depend on.
(keeping a certain margin to account for accidents or contingencies)
You will end up with a task list like the one below :
Objective: In six months, a video film will be available to raise awareness on fair trade
We see that in this table most of activities are sequential: they can not start before those on which they depend. For example the drawing storyboards can not begin until the script has been written and the script can not start before we agreed on the concept of the film.
However, some activities can be performed at the same time:
- Recruiting actors and crew,
- Identifying locations
- Preparing the shooting script.
Since each requires 3 weeks of work, if we waited for one to be carried out before starting the other, we would lose six weeks.
Gantt Chart
Now that we have established the sequence of activities and identify parallel activities, we can establish a Gantt chart.
Example of a Gantt chart: creation of a video
The diagram helps to show the corrections that could be done to improve the pan action. We see here that if fundraising could begin earlier (eg, with only an estimated budget without waiting for the actual budget is established), we could win two or three weeks at least.
We can complete the Gantt chart by adding a column showing who is in charge of each activity (“In charge”).
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