What Is Project Design? 5 Steps to Do It Right

Taking a project from concept to completion requires more than just ambition — you need a well-crafted strategy.

Project planning should start as early as possible, aiming to align all the ideas, assets, and processes with the success criteria. This is called project design — a concept that covers the project’s goals, composition, resources, and deliverables.

Read on to learn how to avoid the stress that comes with unmet objectives and stakeholder dissatisfaction by creating a solid project design.

*This article is the abridged, adapted version of the blog post originally published on the Plaky blog: https://plaky.com/blog/project-design/

1. Define project goals and tasks

Typically, the first step in whatever you do as a project manager is to establish the main goals.?

With unambiguous, measurable goals, you and your team will:

• Have a better sense of direction and focus,
• Communicate more effectively, and
• Make more informed decisions.

Project goals have everything to do with what stakeholders need and expect. There are various requirement-gathering techniques for obtaining this information (interviews, mind mapping, focus groups, to name a few).

Once you have all the crucial information, you need to transform this vision of success into a concrete structure consisting of smaller tasks that follow the project timeline.?

As part of this structure, choosing reasonable deadlines creates a sense of urgency and accountability necessary for timely completion.

Also, deadlines help you prioritize, ensuring that you address critical assignments first.

2. Assess risks

A project risk is anything that could affect the outcome of a project.

Although the term risk is often associated with negative events (most commonly, delays or cost overruns), risks can also be positive — such as finishing the project ahead of schedule or identifying new projects during the project life cycle.

When building a project design, you should consider potential issues and growth opportunities to make sure you’re ready for prompt action should they become a reality.

To keep a close eye on risks, use a risk register and map all risks across the following categories:?

• Risk category,
• Impact,
• Probability,
• Risk owner, and
• Mitigation strategies.

3. Distribute resources

Smart resource allocation guarantees an optimal use of available resources and maximizes project success.

Let’s start with human resources — who will work on what? When delegating tasks, consider your team members’ workload as you don’t want to overburden someone who already has a lot on their plate. Also, consider their preferences — intrinsic motivation leads to higher productivity and better outcomes.

As for material resources, list everything — the required products, equipment, machinery, office supplies, etc. — in one place for easy access and enhanced accuracy.

Finally, there are financial resources, i.e., your project budget. When creating a project design, try to estimate the budget required for different project phases as closely as possible.

Still, remember that it’s challenging to achieve full precision when planning a budget. So, it’s a good idea to allocate some extra funding for emergencies.

4. Specify project deliverables

As the name suggests, a deliverable is whatever output you promise to deliver within a project — a product, a service, or a document.

Deliverables, similarly to project goals, are closely related to stakeholder needs. So, you and your staff must have a full understanding of this in order to deliver top-notch results.

Just like other tasks, project deliverables require specific deadlines, budgets, assignees, and priorities to maintain focus and purpose.

The more thoroughly you define everything mentioned here, the easier it will be to implement fruitful deliverable tracking later on in the project.

However, even with a well-defined plan, successful delivery is difficult to achieve without open communication. This will encourage people to work with you again and help you build a strong company reputation.

5. Establish the monitoring procedure

Tracking project progress regularly guarantees that it stays on schedule and within budget — according to your project design.

Your project management methodology largely influences the monitoring procedure. Some of the most widely used PM methodologies are:

• Agile,
• Scrum,
• Lean,
• Kanban,
• A hybrid approach, etc.

Whatever your chosen method, progress monitoring typically includes:

• Documenting progress and measuring performance,
• Ensuring compliance with standards,
• Visualizing data when helpful,
• Maintaining regular team communication,
• Compiling project documentation, and
• Examining results and improving processes whenever possible.

In today’s digital era, the most practical way to track progress is to rely on centralized project management software. This keeps data in one place for easy access and enhances task tracking and productivity.

Build the best project design with Plaky

A lot goes into creating a project design — ensuring clarity, making various kinds of estimates, aligning stakeholders, striving toward flexibility, and so much more.

To make life easier for yourself and your team, opt for a reliable and user-friendly project management tool — Plaky.

Our platform offers unlimited spaces and boards even in its free plan. Plus, each board can look however you like thanks to customizable fields defining the content:

• Text,
• Numbers,
• Link,
• Date,
• Person, and more.

Another handy feature is the Gantt chart view, available on Plaky’s paid plans.

Gantt charts are perfect for visualizing project tasks and their respective durations — and Plaky even lets you adjust the displayed time intervals (day, week, month, quarter, or year) for better precision and detailed analyses.

And, as a cherry on top, Plaky’s interface is modern and intuitive, with a responsive design for access anywhere (web & mobile).

Make your project design and overall management as smooth as possible. Try Plaky for free right now.