ABSTRACT
Good planning is essential to the success of any project. The plan is not only just a schedule of activity, but also it is a communications tool that will enable one to understand how the project will be delivered. Project managers use all sorts of tools for planning, from a sketch drawn on a random page of a notepad, through to very expensive and sophisticated software packages that track hundreds of tasks simultaneously and give early warnings of issues that might not otherwise have been spotted. The role of the project manager during the planning is one of mediator and facilitator. The ultimate goal is to have a plan that is owned and bought-into by everyone on the team the team owns the plan, the project manager manages it. A wedding is actually a good example of a project that could be planned either forward or backward. A backward planned wedding might be set according to, for example, venue availability.
