Before listing down the important roles the project manager plays in project plan, what qualities must a project manager needs to have to be effective?

A project manager needs to have a sense of direction.  He should have a vision of where to go and the capability to work out that vision.  He must also be a good communicator since he deals with all the people in the team.  He must let the team understand the goals, responsibilities, and expectations of the project plan.  Good leaders work for the group.  He does not only command but he serves as the model of being a competent member of the team.  His behaviors and values are utmost important because team member look up to him.  A project manager must be enthusiastic.  His energy must exceed more that anybody in is team.  His enthusiasm serves as motivation of the team to move on and work effectively to reach a certain goal.

A project manager must have team-building and problem-solving skills. These skills are needed for the team to work collaboratively without conflicts. In project planning, ideas are shared and sometimes disagreement arises.  The project manager must be able to resolve this for a better output.  A project manager must be competent with what he does.  He should have the technical skills and the intelligence to lead the team in achieving the goal of the project. Lastly, a project manager can work coolly under pressure.  Making project plans would sometimes lead to pressure and stress.  If the project manager is calm, he can think clearly and can make decisions easily without hurting the feeling of his colleagues.

Great qualities also require greater responsibilities.  A project manager is the overall in charge in the accomplishment of the project plan.  Because of this, he has these specific roles to play:

1. He must meet the task needs in the project plan such as attaining the objectives, planning the work, allocating resources, defining tasks, monitoring work progress, and checking performance.

2. He must meet his team needs such as appointing sub leaders, building team unity, setting standards, maintaining team supervision, developing work methods.

3.  He must  meet individual needs such as  balancing the team needs and task needs, appreciating individual accomplishment, developing the individual performance,  and helping team members solve problems.

To sum up everything, project manager is needed in every project plan because he has an important role to play right from the very start of the project until the end.  A project manager must be able to lead the project towards a productive end.  He must be committed, flexible, dependable, and experienced.  Being a project manager is such a challenging role but if the project manager knows what his roles should be, he can deliver the project plan according to the desire of the users and customers.

The discussion here would be based on the template of Carl Wiegers (2007) which is available for all project management plans.

I.  Overview -  general idea of the project’s objectives, success criteria, deliverables, and constraints.

A. Project Purpose, Objectives, and Success Criteria -  Define quantitative and measurable objectives.

B. Project Deliverables – List the major items to be delivered to the recipients.  You can make a table with 5 columns for deliverable, recipients, delivery date. Delivery method, comments.

C. Assumptions, Dependencies, and Constraints – This subsection describes known assumptions upon which the project is based;  any external events upon which the project depends; and the limitations of the project.

D. References – Documents used as sources of information for the project management plan.

E. Definition of Terms – Define any project-specific terms even acronyms used in the project

II.  Project Organization – defines the roles and responsibilities for the project.

A.  External Interfaces – Describe the boundaries between the project and external unit.

B.  Internal Structure – Describe the internal structure of the project organization

C.  Roles and Responsibilities – list of responsibilities of the team members (members may vary according to the type of the project

III. Managerial Process Plans – defines the project management plan  and activities for the project

A. Start-Up Plans – initial plan

1. Estimation Plan – project estimates of resources, time, cost

2. Staffing Plan – the staff required in the project

3. Staff Training Plan – training to be conducted to ensure necessary skills

4. Resource Acquisition Plan – plan for acquiring the resources

5. Project Commitments – record commitments of the people involved in the project management plan and the implementation of the project itself

B. Work Plan – specifies work activities needed to produce the deliverables of the project

C. Control Plan – how the project will be monitored

1. Data Control Plan -Describe how the project will manage its data

2. Requirements Control Plan – list of mechanisms for measuring, and controlling changes to the product requirements.

3. Schedule Control Plan -can be in the form of Gantt Chart where actual schedule is compared to planned schedule of the project management plan

4. Budget Control Plan – list of control device to measure the cost of work

5. Communication, Tracking, and Reporting Plan

D. Risk Management Plan – identifies and controls project risks.

1. Issue Resolution Plan – important issues are written into detail

2. Project Close-Out Plan – actions necessary for project close out

IV.  Technical Process Plans – lists technical approaches

A. Process Model – Describe the product development life cycle that the project will use

B. Quality Assurance Plan – standards set to the project

C. Documentation Plan – describes how the project would be documented

D. Process Improvement Plan – used to evaluate the project

This is just a sample template for project management plan.  This can be modified, improved, and used for future project management plans.