PMProject-M8
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Stage 02

Planning

Turn intent into a sequence of decisions, commitments and known risks.

PMBOK view

Scope baseline, WBS, schedule, risk register, communication plan.

Agile equivalent

Product backlog, release slices, capacity-based forecast, rolling-wave detail.

You are here if…

  • You have a goal but no credible path to it.
  • Estimates exist but nobody believes them.
  • Risks are discussed in corridors, never written down.

What to do

Plan in waves, not in full detail

Half a day

Detail the next 4–6 weeks properly; keep everything beyond that at milestone level. Re-plan on a fixed cadence.

Run a 90-minute risk workshop

90 min

Silent brainstorm, cluster, score probability × impact, assign an owner and a first mitigation to the top five.

Agree the communication cadence

45 min

Who hears what, how often, in what format. Put it in the calendar the same day or it will not happen.

Set the change gate before you need it

30 min

Decide now who approves scope changes and how they are logged. Mid-crisis is the worst time to invent the process.

This is the stage where most of my client work starts. Book a free 20-minute consultation — free, no obligation.

Where it usually goes wrong

A perfect Gantt chart that is wrong by week three.

Keep milestones fixed, re-forecast the detail every iteration and communicate the delta.

The risk register is written once and never reopened.

Add a five-minute risk review to an existing recurring meeting. No new meeting required.

Download and use now

Ready-to-use files from my own projects — no email required.

Requirement DocumentEpic → feature → user story → acceptance criteria in one sheet, with trace codes so nothing gets built on a verbal agreement.Excel workbook (.xlsx) · Fill it during scoping, then use the acceptance criteria column as the definition of done at review.Risk Analysis TemplateA working risk register: short name, risk description, customer impact and internal impact scored, mitigation, status and comments.Excel workbook (.xlsx) · Fill it live in a 90-minute risk workshop, then re-score the top risks at a fixed date instead of letting the register go stale.

Templates for this stage

Risk Analysis Workshop KitA 90-minute facilitation script with register and probability/impact scoring.Stakeholder Map & Communication PlanPower/interest grid plus the cadence table that turns it into calendar entries.Decision Log & Change Request FormThe anti-scope-creep pair, with a built-in escalation path.
Next stageExecution →

Work with me

Sometimes the fix needs a person, not a template.

I am Tigran Zakarian, a senior project manager with 13 years of end-to-end delivery for clients such as H&M Group, TV4, SEB and Clear Channel. I work on exactly the situations described across this site: rescuing drifting deliveries, setting up governance that people actually use, and facilitating the workshops that unblock decisions.

Projects & programmes

  • Interim / rescue project management
  • Programme & multi-team delivery ownership
  • PMO, governance and steering setup
  • Product ownership & backlog clarity

Workshops

  • Risk analysis workshops
  • Planning and prioritisation sessions
  • Decision and stakeholder alignment
  • Retrospectives that change something

Talks & training

  • Educational talks and keynotes
  • Hybrid PMBOK + Agile training
  • Kanban / flow ways of working
  • Team coaching for new PMs
Book a free consultation tigran.zak@gmail.com LinkedIn