Project Plan for Managers

When executing a large or even small project, it is very important to have a project plan in place. A project plan can be compared to a business plan. The plan should cover all of the minute details of the project.

Having the proper project plan is crucial to the overall success of the work effort. And it doesn’t take an expert to create an effective and efficient project plan.

Starting a project plan involves listing all of the applicable headings that are needed to describe portions of the project. These headings can be a number of different options including a project description, a list of the involved employees, design documents, any materials or supplies needed, a work schedule, risk analysis or even a financial plan. Try to list all of the different aspects necessary to complete this project. While it’s not necessary to write down every single possibility, one should list enough topics to ensure adequate coverage. When you start working on the actual details for each heading, you can work to eliminate any unnecessary entries; conversely, as you work on the details you might find that your project plan needs more headings.

When you work to write down the details under each heading you should use the same process as you did when you created the headings. Try to write down his many details as possible for each available heading.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t think the details are necessary, they can be pruned out later. Keep in mind as you work through your different drafts you are able to pull out excessive information and really hone in on the items needed for your final project plan.

One critical heading that should be included in your project plan is a list of project goals. Project goals section includes what you want to achieve with the project. Your project goals list is also a great indicator of overall success or failure.

Another important heading is a list of deliverables. This list should indicate in detail all of the tasks necessary to achieve the final goal. Your deliverables lists will allow you to monitor the overall status of specific goals in a specific order as they are completed. This list can be applied to one or all members of the project team.

Your project plan should also include the stakeholders, contingencies, an executive summary or project overview, reporting structure, and a feasibility assessment.

A good project plan completely answers the questions who, what, where, when, and how.  The who includes project management and support team, stakeholders, and clients.  What is the objective of the project.  Where is easily answered, is the project in-house, at the client’s location, or at some other place.  When the answer of “where” is an external location, it is important to indicate how travel will be handled and any associated costs figured into the budget.  When represents both the lifecycle of the project and the intended date of delivery to the client.  In most cases, “how” is the efforts of the project manager and support team.