Project Planning is the process of defining the detailed project scope, tasks, durations and cost estimates for the project. There are two main approaches to project planning:

• Top-down Planning – The process of applying estimates at the deliverable level and flowing the estimates down to the lower level components of the WBS and then to the detailed tasks.
• Bottom-up Planning – The process of creating detailed estimates at the task and assignment level and rolling up those requirements to create an estimate for the project.

We will be doing bottom-up planning in Microsoft Project by defining detailed tasks and resource assignments that will then roll up schedule and cost to the deliverable and project level.

If we have specific expectations to meet from our sponsor or customer, for example, we are told that the project must be completed by June 14th and the budget is $150,000, we must then reconcile our results with their expectations. If the desired scope cannot be accomplished in the time or budget available, something will have to change – scope, time, or budget. Any differences must be worked through BEFORE the project begins.