From mandate to a plan that holds - without the Excel detours
Structure, schedule, capacity and risks come together in one flow - on one data foundation, right where your team works. And once the plan stands, it reports itself.
The road to the plan
The project mandate becomes a work breakdown structure - with an AI first draft if you want one.
Why project planning fails today
Rarely for lack of skill - mostly because the tools don't work together.
The plan lives in Excel
The work happens somewhere else. By week two, plan and reality drift apart - and nobody notices in time.
Every plan starts from a blank page
Structure, dates, distribution lists - all by hand, all done before. That's how planning takes weeks instead of days.
Capacity is a gut feeling
Whoever comes to mind gets assigned. Whether that person is actually free only shows once things jam.
The status report is manual labour
After planning comes the copying: numbers from three tools into one slide - every single week.
Project planning step by step - on a real example
This is how the mandate “Customer portal relaunch” becomes a plan that can take a hit: five stations, each in the module built for it.
The briefing becomes a work breakdown structure
Set the project up with a one-pager and responsibilities, then break it into phases, work packages and milestones - via drag & drop, from your organisation's structure building blocks, or by importing from MS Project, Primavera P6 and Asta. If you like, the AI reads your briefing PDF and proposes the one-pager, WBS and milestones as a draft - you adopt items one by one; nothing is created unasked.
WBS (draft)
The critical path calculates itself
Link work packages by dragging or by shorthand (“2.2; 2.4FF+3”) - circular references are detected and named. The network calculation delivers slack and the critical path, and planning mode lets you play through schedule variants before they become binding.
You schedule people who are actually free
Staff work packages straight from the plan - the availability check shows cross-project utilisation including absences right in the assignment dialog. If the person isn't decided yet, plan with a skill first and staff concretely later.
Availability check on assignment: cross-project utilisation including absences.
Risks become part of the plan - not an appendix
Assess risks by probability and impact, right on the work package. Every countermeasure becomes a board card in one click - with an owner and a due date. And the Monte Carlo simulation quantifies the contingency you adopt as a cost position in the WBS.
The finished plan reports itself
Freeze the baseline - from now on the Gantt shows every deviation as a delta against the approved state. Work continues on the board, where due dates hang on the milestone; the status report follows a fixed grid and flows into the portfolio after approval - without anyone copying numbers together.
The plan stands
- Structure: phases, work packages, milestones
- Schedule with frozen baseline
- Team with verified availability
- Risks assessed, measures on the board
Status report (fixed grid)
After approval the report flows into the portfolio - no manual hand-over.
And time tracking closes the loop: booked hours flow back into the same plan as actual effort - no duplicate upkeep.
One flow, eight modules - one data foundation
In WORKSPACE.PM, project planning is not a separate tool but the platform working in concert: each module takes the station it does best.
Project management
Resources & time
Portfolio
AI & automation
One data foundation - from briefing to report
The structure carries the schedule, assignments fill the utilisation matrix, approved reports roll up into the portfolio. No interfaces, no duplicate upkeep.
And who maintains all of this?
A plan only helps if it doesn't become a second job.
The AI makes the start
From the briefing PDF, a one-pager, WBS and milestones emerge as a draft; the AI proposes risks, too. You review and adopt item by item - the AI never acts without your confirmation.
The plan stays current in daily work
Completed cards, booked hours and absences flow continuously into the same data set. If a milestone moves, coupled due dates move with it - and the schedule traffic light shows where things get tight.
Waterfall, agile, or both
WBS and critical path for one project, backlog and sprints for another - same platform, same data. You choose the method per project, not per tool.
Related use cases
Project planning is the start - this is what comes next.
Frequently asked questions about project planning
What PMOs and project managers want to know before switching.
Yes. WORKSPACE.PM imports complete structures including dependencies and resource assignments from MS Project, Primavera P6 and Asta Powerproject in a single step. For committees you export schedules as Excel or PDF.
Per project you plan classically with a WBS, a network diagram with critical path, slack and four dependency types, plus a baseline - or agile with backlog, sprints and five estimation units. Both run on the same data foundation and can be mixed.
From a briefing PDF, the AI creates a one-pager, a WBS with proposed milestone dates and up to ten risk suggestions - all as a draft you adopt item by item. Estimates, prioritisation and date decisions stay with you; every AI action requires your confirmation.
Yes, because planning and work happen in the same system: completed cards and booked hours flow back as progress and actual effort, due dates can be coupled to milestones, and the baseline comparison shows every deviation in days. Whatever doesn't resolve itself, the schedule traffic light makes visible.
No. Many teams start with projects, WBS and board, then add workload, risks and portfolio reporting later. The modules interlock as soon as you activate them - on the same data foundation.
Plan your next project in WORKSPACE.PM
Start for free: create a project, build the structure, let the critical path calculate - and in 30 days you'll know whether it fits.