What is a project plan?
A project plan is a framework for completing a project successfully. It includes strategies for communicating, managing risk and much more.
To make your plan a success, ensure that all teammates provide input on how the project should be completed. Diplomatic project management helps everyone accept the project vision and work effectively as a team.
Use a comprehensive approach and ensure that your plan is detailed, specific and clear.
Key components of a project plan
Here are some of the key components that make a project plan successful:
- Budgeting
- Managing resources
- Communication
- Managing risk
- Defining success
Budgeting
This section should cover your expected budget in time, resources and money.For instance, allot the amount of time needed to complete tasks during the project, and explain why you need that amount of time. Be sure to account for things that may not go as planned.
In your budgeting section, list strategies to ensure resources are spent wisely. If something is costing too much money, explain what you’ll do to mitigate those costs. Keep in mind that this section is both about the budget itself and about how you will track and manage the budget.
Managing resources
Make sure you have all the talent you need to complete the project.
Think carefully about how to delegate parts of the project to each person on the team. Consider how you will manage imbalances in workload, who will be working closely together and who can act as a resource for others on the team. Sharing this information will ensure everyone agrees on their responsibilities and resources. Think about ways to expand resources and motivate employees.
Related:How to Find Good Employees
Communicating with staff and stakeholders
Throughout the project, you will need to communicate with project teammates. Things to consider in this section are:
- Who must be informed of project status
- How often they need updates
- What type of information they should be receiving
- The best medium for reaching each person
- How to keep track of communications
Related:How to Motivate Your Employees
Managing risk
List potential challenges to the success of your project and how you will manage them.
This section should also cover the risks that could result from a project that’s gone wrong. For instance, if your project is unsuccessful, list who will be affected and how you will help manage risks to stakeholders or employees.
Defining success
Write down how you will track your success metrics and when. Specify how you will share this information with your team and think about visuals that can help them understand progress and success.
List contingency resources to call upon if success metrics are not met and think about how the project manager will work with the team to facilitate success.Discussing this at the beginning of the project will help everyone understand how performance will be tracked and what options are available.
Why take the time to put together a great project plan?
A good project plan will save you from missed targets. It can also help you spot things like an unrealistic budget, misaligned expectations and unassigned responsibilities before they negatively affect your project.
Be sure to seek out input from other knowledgeable sources, including employees, outside estimators, stakeholders and online resources when necessary.
Project plan FAQs
Below are some commonly asked questions about creating a project plan:
Can I create a project plan in Excel?
Excel makes it easy to separate topics by line item and create a structure for the document. However, you can also do this effectively in any word processor.
When do I create the project plan?
The project plan is one of the final documents to be created before you begin work. At this point, you should already know what the project goals are, what the necessary steps are and who will be involved in the project. The project plan comes after you’ve decided what you’re doing in the project, and it discusses how you’ll accomplish it.
