Project Planning

Planning with Gantts

SQA do not specify the format your plan should take, but in itself it is worth 20 marks, and good planning will be critical to the success of the rest of the project.
- If you wish to produce and manage your plan in the visual form of a Gantt chart, using Clickup, these guides may help
You may want to consider setting up your project to follow this guide.
- You could use a different colour for each of the 8 project sections (Ideation, Planning, Research, Photoshoots, Editing, Printing, Evaluation, and Assembly) by setting each up as a separate list and assigning a different colour to each list.

Plan your project timeline

include:

Topic confirmation
Planning
It is good practice to also schedule periodic reviews of the plan at key points through the project - delays may require rebaselining to give realistic future deadlines. You also need to plan specific shoots - see mood boards & planning
Research deadlines
Use milestones for deadlines – (if using ClickUp: right click on the task, select Task Type, then Milestone)
Photoshoot dates
Include models, or assistants, etc. as resources if relevant.
Editing sessions
Consider in advance whether you intend to shoot everything first then edit everything. This is risky, but possibly essential if your project is coverage of a single event, difficult to access location, or requires equipment hire. You may be better off shooting one image and editing it then evaluating prior to moving to the next. Note that you can interleave lists in a Gantt - for example if you have a Photoshoots list an Edit list and an Evaluation list, the Gantt can still show Photoshoot 1, Edit 1, Evaluation 1, Photoshoot 2, Edit 2, Evaluation 2, etc. in chronological order.
Printing deadlines
Set Milestones, allowing time for lab turnaround, postage (https://www.loxleycolour.com/help/shipping) and at least 2 rounds of repeat printing and postage in case you are unhappy with the print quality.
Final evaluation write-up
Assembly and submission deadlines

Planning considerations

Information sources
Equipment needed
Locations and access, travel, site logistics and accessibility
Permissions and model release if using people
Other legal and copyright issues
Health and safety see risk assessment
Time management
Costs

If you produced a ClickUp Gantt, export it as a PDF by clicking [Auto fit] in ClickUp’s Gantt view, then [⤓ Export] [PDF]
If [⤓ Export] is not an option (if using the free edition), press cmd+p (Mac) or ctrl+p (Windows) then select ’Save as PDF’ in print settings.
There is no fixed word count for planning notes, but keep them focused and concise, covering key logistical aspects relevant to your project.
In addition to your project plan / Gantt chart, you may wish to include written sections on: Information, Equipment, Locations, Permissions & Legal Issues, Health and Safety, Time Management, Costs and anything else critical to the successful planning of your project.

This guide hopefully gives you a framework for managing your Higher Photography Project independently while meeting all SQA requirements. You can use it to develop your own task list (which can double as your Gantt chart) to stay on track from start to finish.