Why Develop Project Plans?

It’s simple: to prevent risks before they happen.

In addition, a well-written project plan defines project expectations. So you, your customers, your team and any other stakeholders are all aligned on the same roadmap.

Need help getting started? Follow this guide to learn how to plan a project step by step and discover the best project management tools to use to simplify each step of the process.

What is a project plan?
First, don’t confuse your project plan with your project schedule. Your schedule is only one aspect of your plan.

Your project plan is a formal document that outlines the entire project. It’s a bit like the Sherpa guiding your project up a mountain. It shows where you are going and who is in charge.
A project plan will define the goal of your project as well as the milestones to achieve that goal. It should cover the resources you will use, the timelines you expect to meet, and the expected results at each stage.

In short, your project plan defines, organizes, prioritizes, and assigns activities and resources throughout the life of your project.

For those who want to implement more agile project management frameworks, a project plan may seem a bit rigid at first.

But it doesn’t have to be. Its purpose is to help you stay on track.

More than half of all projects experience a goal gap. This is a case where the team ends up working more than originally planned.

By outlining your expectations and intentions for project goals, timelines, and budgets, you can identify when things start to get tough.

Be aware that 50% of projects are not completed on time, and 45% of projects exceed their planned budget.

A project plan can help reduce overspending and turnaround times by identifying these issues earlier.

How to easily create a project plan?
There are no hard and fast rules for a project plan. It can be as simple or as complex as you want.
Follow these 6 steps to create a simple roadmap.

1. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary sits at the beginning of your project plan, summarizing everything in the document.

Although placed on the front page, it’s still a good idea to write it last, as you present the main points of the rest of your plan.

It should be no longer than one page and should provide a brief overview of the following:

The objective of the project
The methodology/framework of the project you have chosen
Final deliverables and acceptance criteria
Scope risks and key countermeasures
Summary of milestones
An overview of the project schedule and schedule risks.
Estimate of resources and expenses

The summary serves as an overview of your project.

Since a third of projects fail to meet their original goals, it’s important for project managers to revisit the project plan regularly to stay on track or keep up with changes.

The executive summary helps them do this quickly without having to read everything again.

2. Scope of the project

There’s nothing worse than starting a project and seeing it go all over the place.

The scope of the project sets limits. It defines the start and end of the project, as well as expectations for project deliverables.

Prevention is better than cure.

Describe the potential risks associated with these expectations and identify countermeasures to mitigate these risks. Define exactly who is responsible for monitoring these risks.

Organizations complain that half of all their projects suffer from drifts. But only 27% of organizations make the effort to create a document every time.

Learn from these failures: define the full project scope for each project.

3. Structure the project.

How to structure your project will depend on the framework you use to guide your project.

For example, if you use the waterfall framework, you will plan everything in advance.

All stages of development are reviewed, roles are clearly defined, each phase has a clear start date and end date, and task execution is constantly redefined based on each new piece of information.
You will therefore not need specific deadlines for each phase. Rather, it is about planning how to monitor and control the volume of ongoing tasks.

Remember that centralizing project structures can have a negative impact on project success. So try to find ways for teams to work independently.

It is not good to have only one person who approves the tasks, responsible for everything. This will clog your processes.

Likewise, when teams share their knowledge with each other, projects are more successful. Write down the communication structures you will use to foster collaboration.

4. Resources.

Define the resources you have available for this project:

Crew
Date
Budget
Technology
Physical resources
You need to be specific when assessing what you need. Otherwise, you will bake a cake with the wrong ingredients.

Take your team, for example.

When teams have the right, highly skilled people, projects are 30% more likely to succeed. Yet a third of people think their teams don’t have the right skills for the project. A doomed project.

Don’t settle for two software developers, if you find that you won’t meet any deadlines, because they will be overloaded. If you want to effectively allocate your resources to meet expectations, you need to be realistic about resource limits.

This may, for example, involve adjusting timescales if you are short-staffed or increasing your budget if you need more specialized equipment.

5. Calendar.

Organizations that build timelines into project plans are 52% more likely to succeed. Despite this, 80% of projects do not always set benchmark deadlines. This is probably why 43% of organizations say they rarely or never finish projects on time.

Therefore, it is wise to add a calendar or timeline section to your project plan. This part of your plan should set expectations for deadlines and adherence to the project schedule.

6. How will you manage the changes?

With an effective project plan in place, what could possibly happen?

Answer ? Overloads.

Even with hindsight, you cannot always anticipate all obstacles in advance.

A dynamic change management plan will outline the steps to take and who to contact in the event of unexpected changes.

This way, your project is much more agile: it can bend without breaking.

5 Project Planning Templates to Help You Develop a Good Project Plan
It is not easy to write a project plan immediately. You’re going to have to plan it.

These tools from monday.com are a real lifesaver for viewing each section. Try these 5 project plan templates to further simplify your project planning process.

1. Structure your project.

Looking for a general project plan template?
Try this perfect array if you use the cascading method.

By using this model, you can structure your projects by defined periods and define the persons responsible for each phase.

Prioritize each project and add a timeline to indicate when deliverables are expected.

2. Plan your resources.

Resource management is a breeze with this easy-to-use template from monday.com.

Use this dashboard to organize all the resources of your project: from your technological tools to your specialized collaborators.

You can allocate resources to people and track deadlines so your people know which resources they are responsible for and in which phase.

Add a location so teams know where to put resources back when moving from phase to phase.

During project execution, you will be able to track project resources, so nothing slips through the cracks.

3. Calculate your project budget.

It’s much easier to plan a budget when you can see all your costs in one place.

That’s why this project cost management template from monday.com is incredibly handy…

Add each sub-project and plan the expected costs, assigning totals to each service. You can use this document to estimate the budget you will need and to record the approved budget for your project.

4. Consider your project timeline.

Plan your deadlines with this project schedule template.

Although this dashboard is not really suitable if you work with the Kanban framework, it is ideal for those who work with the waterfall or Scrum methods.

For waterfall projects, add your milestones, attach a timeline, and assign a set number of working days to accomplish each milestone’s tasks.

Identify the team lead for each phase so that project managers know which steps they are responsible for.

While the project is running, teams can use the status bar to track progress. They can also add updates to each milestone by clicking on each item, encouraging cross-team collaboration.

For Scrum projects, you can organize the dashboard by Sprints, adding specific tasks as they are decided.

5. Investigate potential project risks.

Visualize the full scope of your project and plan for risks in this program risk register template.

Nothing better than a system with a vibrant color code to highlight important or risky elements. Use color-coded status bars to illustrate risk status, risk likelihood, and risk scope for your project schedule.

You can even rank risks, add a risk owner, and suggest mitigation strategies. This way, other project collaborators know what to do if these risks start to materialize.

 

Instantly optimize your project management plan.

Got a better idea of ​​how to structure your project plan? Take ownership of this frame and personalize it with the details of your own projects.

Remember that it is much easier to write the executive summary at the end, once you know the points to summarize and the tasks to be carried out. Don’t try to write it down first. You would find yourself stuck on the first page of your project plan.

Likewise, don’t tear your hair out planning your project plan.
Use monday.com’s pre-made planning templates to help you break down each section of the plan, as you go.