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Generic Project Plan Document
Quick Summary
A project plan document outline, with annotations to explain the use of each section, to make it easier to adapt the plan for different situations.
What this is
A template for a typical Project Plan document. The outline originated from a standard developed for technically oriented projects, but most of the sections apply to any project. The sections are annotated to convey the intent of each, so the outline can and should be adapted as appropriate for each situation.
Some people interchange the terms project schedule and project plan. In fact, the Project Plan expresses more than the schedule for the project. The high-level WBS and summary of key milestones are shown in the Project Plan, along with important project information well beyond the schedule.
Why it's useful
The Project Plan is a communication document. It captures what the team understands the goals of the project to be and summarizes what the team has decided to do, how, and by when, to meet those goals.
For large projects involving multiple organizations, the Project Plan document is useful for capturing in one place all the major parameters of the project and providing it to multiple organizations. It can evolve and be used as a working document and communication tool during the early project investigation and planning work, as the team works through aspects of the project.
For smaller projects, a more streamlined version of the Project Plan can be created. The same benefits hold: clearly stating what the project must accomplish and how the team will do so, and making sure all the involved team members and their organizations are on the same page.
How to use it
This template is intended to be a guide to begin the Project Plan document. The document outline is extensively annotated. Explanatory information is shown in italics, and should be removed when the template is used.
- Examine the standard outlines to determine what sections would be applicable to your project.
- Draft particular sections of the plan as the information comes available. Pay particular attention to sections such as communication, requirements management, and issues resolution, which could come into play even in the early days of the project as the team figures out an approach for meeting project goals within stated time and cost constraints.
- Evolve the plan during the investigation and planning work on the project.
- As decisions are made and the schedule, budget, and resource staffing solidifies, update the plan with summary information to reflect the scope, time, cost, and people aspects of the project.
- Alternatively, sections of information called for in the plan can be created as separate documents or as appendices. Remember the overall goal of communication; balance ease of reference for your immediate team against communication out to other groups with a stake in the project. Some teams like to keep a higher-level overview in a Project Plan document, with details of items such as the WBS and risk list maintained separately to post visibly on walls, send separately with status, etc.
- Provide the document to team members and managers in functional organizations that are supporting the project and review it with them to ensure understanding and support.
Use the Project Plan Document as part of your process for this project being officially allowed to go forward. The plan should be dynamic, changing with the project changes, but keeping in line with the overall Project Vision or Charter agreed to for the project.
Planning and Scheduling: Create Project Plan Document
This guideline explains how to create a project plan document—a management summary document that provides project essentials like objectives, justification, and how the objectives are to be achieved.
Development Project Plan
An outline for a Development Plan document that summarizes the project goals and the major activities across the different functional groups necessary to achieve those goals.
Software Project Plan
A thorough and detailed template for creating a software development plan, with annotations. It includes making tradeoffs on scope, resources, schedule and other issues with a quality focus, Excel worksheets for capacity planning, and much more.
Project Charter
Once your project idea has been evaluated and approved for further investigation, you need to communicate the major parameters and high-level information. This template for a succinct project charter helps you summarize that critical information.
Project Vision Example: Defining a Software Release Life Cycle
A Project Vision document example from a medium-sized product development company that created a Software Release Life Cycle (SRLC) process to manage million lines-of-code software releases.
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