Project Planning

The AAC Project Planning Tool structures your project from start to finish. It allows you set and make long and short-term deadlines, divide responsibilities among team members, and break down big goals into all its composite parts.

Why use a project plan?

Using a project plan helps to break a large project into small tasks and keep up with due dates. You may have a lot of steps you need to manage. The project plan puts everything in one place. By writing down all the steps to a project and setting deadlines for yourself or your group, you can build and manage accountability and document progress.

Using a Project Plan

1. Review project guideline & rubric.
2. Create action items that start with the end in mind.
3. Split tasks among team members (if applicable) & set deadlines.
4. Work through the activities & mark when completed.

Setting up a project plan:

1. Open Excel, Google Sheet, or similar product.
2. Write the column headers on the first row.
   • Columns should include:
     • Stream: The section or different areas of the project. This is useful for sorting- e.g. planning, creating, editing.
     • Owner: Who will complete the task (if applicable)
     • Action: What needs to be completed.
     • Deadline: The date the task or project needs to be completed.
     • Status: Fill this in when the task is started or completed.
     • Notes: Add any reminders you may need.
   • Additional columns could include:
     • Time: An estimate of how long the action will take to complete.
     • Platform: If the project includes files on different platforms, you can track which one the action utilized.
     • Review By: If desired, you can add who checked the work of a different team member.
     • Anything else that makes sense for your project!
3. Once you have added your headers you can start to fill in your project plan.