The index card, or record card, is a key feature of the Index Card Planning approach that uses index cards to represent project artefacts.

Index Card Planning is an approach to producing project schedules that is designed to do all that you would normally expect from planning using sticky notes and more:

• Like planning with sticky notes, Index Card Planning is designed to get teams of people together so that they jointly plan for a successful outcome.
• Like planning with sticky notes, with Index Card Planning the focus is on ensuring that everyone understands the goal of project and what success looks like, so that the team has a shared vision that is easy to understand
• Like planning with sticky notes the sessions are aimed at getting participants to work together to create a plan.

But the similarities stop there.

Here’s why Index Card Planning is perfect for people who are serious about planning as a team, but want to do more than just plan. The approach is super fast!  Each Index Card Planning workshop takes between 3-4 hours and in that time the workshop participants will:

• Divide the project into workstreams of delivery
• Identify the key milestones for each workstream
• Decide on the tangible project deliverables for each milestone
• Identify major dependencies and constraints
• Build in the appropriate mandatory management activities that ensure that good governance is built in from the start
• Agree owners for each of the deliverables, so that accountability is built in
• Agree where the project’s governance gateways or end stage assessments should take place

Did we mention that Index Card Planning is scalable, transferable and repeatable so that you can apply it to all of your projects?

• Index Card Planning can be applied to both larger projects and programmes as well as smaller projects
• Index Card Planning can be applied to projects of any kind because it’s not bound to any one particular project methodology
• Index Card Planning can run over and over again, so that your people learn what good planning looks like, so that it quickly becomes part of how people plan.

Did we mention that it’s not just incredibly valuable, but fun too?

• Index Card Planning sessions aren’t boring and there’s no room for waffle.  Participants spend the majority of their time actively planning the project, not sat around feeling bored or playing Flappy Bird
• People leave these sessions with a clear view of what the plan is and what their part is in delivering it.
• Best of all, if the plan looks like it’s not realistic the participants know it and usually recommend that the project not go ahead until the project parameters are changed.  That one outcome alone is usually enough to save you a fortune in wasted effort and wasted investment.

Oh, and one last thing especially for PMO Managers, Programme Managers, I.T. Directors, CIOs and those responsible for training the project management community.  Did we say that Index Card Planning helps to transfer skills and knowledge?

• There’s probably nothing worse than investing time and money in training people up to use a project management or development methodology, only to see them not using it
• With Index Card Planning you get to reinforce your organisation’s mandated methodology so that it truly does become the standard that gets used.  That means that people are able to move between projects without having to retrain
• It also means that you can begin to gather metrics on the project activities over time, refining your processes over time and sharing the benefits of what works across your organisation.

If any of what you’ve read so far has you interested in learning more, why not skip over to the resources section, where you can download articles on Index Card Planning and grab a copy of our handy project planning checklists and templates.  While you’re there why not sign up for updates.