The purpose of the Project Planning Phase is to identify and document scope, business requirements, tasks, schedules, costs, risk, quality, and staffing needs. This phase include all the activities necessary for the project office to establish the project staffing, project infrastructure and stakeholder accountability, along with all the project management plans, including the appropriate levels of pre-planning documentation for the follow-on phases. This phase often executes in parallel with the Acquisition Life Cycle.
 

The Project Planning Phase is not something that should be done in a vacuum. Ensure buy-in by including all key stakeholders and project team members.

• The Project Plan and other documents are living documents and Project Planning is an iterative process. Project Management Plans should be reviewed and updated as needed at the end of each project phase. Plans should be revised and improved upon consistently throughout the project.
• Keep the stakeholders informed about the progress of the Project Planning Phase. Often time people do not get interested in a project until it is in the Execution Phase and the importance of good planning is often overlooked.
• Early stakeholder involvement is needed during Planning Phase because changes made later in the project will have a greater cost and will become more difficult.