Planning Methodologies for IT Projects

Planning in general
In order to reach targeted project goals and objectives, project planning is vital to ensure project completion. Gill (2002) states that projects that fail to succeed often suffer from low quality and missed deadline and stress that these problem areas derive from poor planning. In software development projects, programmers have little chance of succeeding when working without a plan. A realistic plan helps visualising and documenting what is needed and expected from the project team, along with providing schedules and. If the project runs into trouble meeting schedules and budgets, management and project teams often blame it on poor planning.
Whittaker (1999) in her article supports this view in referring to a survey of IT project processes that presented poor planning and bad risk management as critical factors for a project's success or failure. Planning can therefore be considered to be one of the fundaments in project management and is an area that needs great awareness.
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