Summarize this article in one sentence.
Take the time to describe the purpose of your project and what it will achieve. Write this on a whiteboard, computer document, or paper in a couple of sentences. Make the description as specific and easy to understand as possible. One way to do this is to pretend you're writing a launch announcement for the finished product. Envision what the project will be like when you're done with it. For example,"build a house" is a very basic description. "Build a 3-bedroom glass beach house" is more descriptive and useful. Come up with ways to accomplish the project's goals. Start with the big steps and list them under your goal. This will give you a basic idea of what you need to do. Break these steps down into smaller ones to make them more actionable. It can be helpful to start with your vision of the final project and identify what you need to do to make it a reality. For example, if you're building a website, you need to make graphics, provide coding, and write the page's text. An actionable step might be, "Apply a filter to the picture of the elephant, then post it to the website." Let your team look at the list and give their opinions. Many times they'll come up with more small steps needed to accomplish the ones you listed. Sharing these steps also ensures that everyone working on the project is on the same page. One way to do this is to create a mind map. To do this, first list the large tasks, then draw "branches" linking them to smaller steps and ideas. Be sure to take a picture of the map or save the paper. Go back to each of the steps you listed and calculate what resources you'll use accomplishing them. Your guess won't be 100% accurate, but it should give you a sense of what is needed to finish the project. Remember that tasks your group hasn't done before take up extra time and money, so account for this. You can research how much time and money a task takes by searching online and asking people who have done it before. For example, an expert coder can tell you how long it takes to create a new program for your website. It can be helpful to allocate a set amount of time to tasks that can go on indefinitely. For example, write, "We'll spend up to 20 hours creating the graphical layout." If you're unsure of a step's costs, you can list how much time and money you're willing to set aside to complete the step. For example, write, "This section of our game world must be done within 2 months and cost less than $1,000." Now go back to your big list of steps and rearrange the steps into a working order. You can group the tasks into stages with deadlines, which is useful for keeping your team on track. For example, when building a website, project stages or milestones might be building, designing, and testing. When you complete a milestone or stage, it can be helpful to acknowledge your team's work. Send them an encouraging message, buy them doughnuts, or by doing something else that inspires them. Decide which tasks your group members will work on. To do this, talk to each person to find their strengths and areas of expertise. You can also divide up some of the responsibility by having project members volunteer for different parts. For example, you'd most likely want a graphics artist handling the project's visual aspect. You might then assign construction work to someone else.
Identify the project's goals. Create a to-do list with the tasks you need to tackle. Go over the list with your team. Estimate the time requirement and cost of each step. Organize the tasks into a timeline. Assign tasks to the project participants.