Workplans

A workplan is a schedule of the work needed on a media project. Before a project starts, you identify or estimate every task and activity and judge how long each one should take, then set them out in a plan that is followed right through to the deadline.

What a workplan holds

To build a workplan you need the duration of each task and activity, the overall timescale or final deadline, the order the work must be done in, the resources each task needs (people, hardware and software), and a contingency or back-up plan in case something slips.

A complete workplan covers all three phases: pre-production, production and post-production. A plan that stops once the main work is finished is incomplete, because reviewing and editing take time too and must be scheduled.

For example, a plan for a school podcast series might show planning and question writing in weeks 1–2, recording interviews in week 3, editing in week 4, and every episode published in time for the summer fair.

Why it is worth doing

• It manages time, tasks, activities and resources in one place, so nothing is forgotten.
• Everyone can see what is happening at any point in the project.
• An organised method everyone understands prevents clashes, such as two people needing the same camera or the same software at once.
• In a large team, members see their own role, when they are needed and which deadlines apply to them, so parallel work is coordinated.
• Someone working alone uses the plan to sequence their own work and pace themselves.

Using it as the project runs

A workplan is not written once and filed away. As the project goes on you compare what has actually been done against the plan, check that each stage has been reached on time, spot delays early and use the contingency to absorb them before the deadline is lost.