Clothing Line Project Plan:: Where to Start
To begin fleshing out the project plan and schedule for our Spring ’08 Kids Collection, there are a few things I have to take into consideration. First, our schedule must be for the entire business, not just one project. Next, I have to figure out the “must-knows” in order to make the plan and schedule realistic. And finally, I’ll hash out an initial draft and get a picture of the estimated budget.
I’ve decided that I will add our marketing and other “business management” deadlines to the season’s project schedule. Because running a business is more than just launching a collection. To help me run the business, I want to get a picture of how all department deadlines are working together. The design of the Spring 2008 collection will be my main project, but we need to add weekly status meetings, marketing deadlines, admin tasks, sales appointments and tasks, and all the other stuff that has to happen to keep business running as we go along.
As I’m working through the project management details in my head, I’m getting a grip on the three things I need to know in order to make the project schedule realistic:
- Time
- Money
- Resources
We need to create a budget and look at our resources. We should have a post-mortem meeting for last season and take everybody’s input on what went wrong (and what went right of course). I think I will schedule that for mid-week. By mid-week, I should have a good draft of the project timeline.
Next, I’ll work backwards from the end deadline to now to figure out all the intermediate deadlines. I work from the market date, or final deadline, because if I know when I need to be ready for market (design samples are done, print materials complete, and we’re ready to take orders) , then I know how far in advance I need to have the samples back, how far in advance I need to have the print materials to the printer.
On budget, I would approach by fleshing out how much I expect each aspect of the project to cost, from development to marketing the line. Then, see what projected total cost is, figure out if this is do-able. From there, the tweaking begins, do we need to drop a design? Move the marketing deadline? Can we add an accessory?
2 comments April 22nd, 2007