Grace PM Excellence AcademyAEC LEAD LLC

Project Planning · Parts A & B

Project Planning on One Page.

Module 5 · Quick Reference · One Sheet

The big idea

A signed fee becomes a plan only when it is phased, priced, sequenced, and staffed in Grace’s system. The seven step method below makes each number in it defensible.

01Grace’s process — signed fee to a live plan

Fee signed

Phase begins

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Phase the fee

Contract phases → planning phases

Split the signed fee into the phases the contract already defines: SD, DD, CD, and the rest.

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Allocate it

Project Budgeting Spreadsheet

Spread the phase fee across deliverables and roles before the team starts.

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Check the roster

BST11

Review BST11 for staff availability before a single hour is committed to the plan.

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Initialize the plan

BST11, with the Project Accountant

Load the plan into BST11 with the Project Accountant. It is now the system of record.

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Plan live

In BST11

02The seven step method — break it down enough to defend the numbers Part A · establish clarityPart B · control advancement

Part A · establish clarity · what, which role, how much

Scope

Contract language

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Set the boundary

Tool · Phase Roadmaps

The Phase Roadmaps set what must be finished and in the deliverable by the end of the phase.

Watch for: another phase’s scope spending this budget.

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Break it down

No tool · unique to each project

Core PM effort. Decompose the work into a Work Breakdown Structure, down to tasks small enough to name, assign, budget, and schedule.

Watch for: a deliverable priced as one line, with no task under it.

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Soft resource it

Tool · Project Budget Spreadsheet

Allocate hours to roles first, at the lowest role that can do the work competently.

Watch for: a Principal on production work, or zero QC hours.

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Budget it

Tool · Project Budget Spreadsheet

Total the role allocations to build phase budgets, and hold the total against the fee.

Watch for: committing the plan below the 15% margin floor.

Part B · control advancement · when, and who

Sequence it

No tool · unique to each project

Core PM effort. Build the logical network the work requires. The critical path is the one dependency chain that governs the phase’s speed.

Watch for: a forward Gantt with dates but no dependencies.

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Hard resource it

Tool · BST11 Resource Planner

Check staff availability in the BST11 Resource Planner, then enter the actual names in the Project Budget Spreadsheet.

Watch for: one role asked for more than 40 hours in a week.

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Generate the plan

Tool · BST11, with the Project Accountant

Load Steps 1 through 6 into BST11 with the Project Accountant, and BST11 generates the project plan.

Watch for: skip a step above, and BST11 has nothing to generate a plan from.

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Scheduled

Staffed, measurable

03Do not blur them

04What planning optimizes

05Things to remember

Soft resource — which role

The budget

Assign each task to a role, the lowest one that can do it right. This is what builds a budget you can defend before a single hour is spent.

Hard resource — which person

The roster

Assign the role’s hours to a named person, and confirm they are not already booked elsewhere. This is what makes the plan staffable.

Keep them separate — one prices the work, the other confirms the roster can deliver it.

Financial plan

Constraint · the fee available

The budget and the cash flow: how money gets spent over the life of the phase.

Task plan

Constraint · the work still to be done

The work itself: what gets done, and in what order it happens.

Resource plan

Constraint · the people available

The staffing: how many hours of each role the schedule demands, week by week.

Three plans run at once

Every phase, all the way through

Move one and you move the other two. Plan them together or the schedule will pick for you.

Habits · 1 of 2

Fund the time the plan needs

Fund PM time. 10% of the phase budget is a good baseline.
Fund review time. 2 to 5% of the phase fee is appropriate.
Plan review time. The due date is not the due date.

Habits · 2 of 2

Write it so someone can run it

Name the task itself. Give it one role, an hour count, and a done state.
Sequence the handoffs. Know who needs what from whom, and when.
Write for all five readers. The team, the client, the reviewer, the firm, and you.

06Where planning breaks down — four traps, and the standard

Designing before the price is set

Design work starts before the scope is broken down or priced.

Fix · decompose the scope into a WBS and price it before the first sketch.

Tasks assigned by convenience

Work goes to whoever is available, not to the lowest competent role, and the margin erodes.

Fix · assign each task to its lowest competent role, and defend the margin task by task.

The hard conversation gets avoided

A binding constraint gets absorbed rather than raised, to protect the relationship.

Fix · surface the constraint in writing, with its cost attached, while there is still time to act.

Dates without dependencies

A forward Gantt chart lists dates without showing who is waiting on whom.

Fix · build the schedule backward from the milestone, and sequence the handoffs.

The disciplined planner

Treats every task as a priced commitment and every date as a dependency someone is waiting on.

The standard · break it down, price it, sequence it, staff it, measure it.

Remember

Break it down, price it, sequence it, staff it, measure it.Before the first sketch, ask one question: does this task have a name, a role, an hour count, and a done state?

Grace PM Excellence AcademyProject Planning · Quick Reference · 2026