All projects commonly share a set of core elements that define the direction that your project will take. As a project manager, you are responsible for taking care of all project goals, deliverables, timing and team. So the question is how to write a project management plan to allow you successfully meet these goals and more.
A slight mishap with any of the core elements might send you back to the drawing board so the upfront planning is worth every moment.
I know how it feels to see your project not going according to plan. That's why you must plan to start by creating an all-inclusive and effective project management plan before the project takes off. Lucky for you, this guide goes into detail and explains the ins and outs of creating an effective project management plan.
Before diving into the deep end, let's start by defining some basic easy-to-confuse project management terminologies.
What is project planning?
Project planning is a foundational part of project management that entails defining the project scope, setting project goals, laying out its objectives, and drafting a road map for attaining them.
What is a project plan?
Casually defined as the primary project planning process product, project plans refer to the actual documents containing details relating to project execution, control of resources and risk management.
So what is a project management plan?
A project management plan is a formal project document that requires approval from all project stakeholders before execution begins. In other words, this document mainly highlights how the implementation process for your project.
A project management plan is a formal project document that requires approval from all project stakeholders before execution begins. In other words, this document highlights the scope, budget, risks, resourcing and the implementation process for your project.
Identify the goal of the project
A project goal refers to that desired outcome for your project, achieved within a defined timeline and specified resources.
From the definition, it's apparent that a project's goals consist of three critical target values. These primary values include performance, resources and time.
Therefore, you must note that minute adjustments in any of the mentioned variables directly affect the others. Always keep this in mind when defining your project goals, meaning that you'll have to leave some room to accommodate the new changes and still allow you to accomplish your project goal within the desired date and work budget.
To identify a project goal that aligns with your corporate strategy, you'll have to ensure that it is specific to the project, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. This guideline will help you avoid falling into the trap of setting solution-dependent goals.
How to Write a Project Management Plan
As earlier discussed, project management plans mainly highlight your best approach and specific process that you and your team will follow to manage the project in line with the established scope. Follow the steps below if you are interested in creating a project plan that effectively communicates all the vital information discussed above.
- Review and understand your project scope
- Extensively research on the best working strategy for the project
- Thoroughly interrogate the capacity of your project team in handling the project
- Create a working outline for the project plan
- Consult with your team and involve the client (if you have one)
- Create the project schedule and complete the project plan
- For efficiency, use online project tool for execution purposes
- Publish your updated project plan
- Share and discuss the final project plan with your team
- Prepare to do more changes with time
What Is a Project Planning Software?
A project planning software is a life-saving computer-based program designed to help you automate, maintain, organize, and facilitate the different processes for managing projects. Some of its most handy features pertain to the development of project schedules, budget estimation, project team management, allocation of project resources, and monitoring potential risks.
Depending on your project needs and budget, you can choose to either go for a single-aspect project planning software or one that offers a suite of multiple planning features.
Benefits of Online Project Planning Software
Online project planning applications generally help project teams to become more adaptable to change. Apart from simply allowing managers to automate and streamline various project planning phases, below are some additional time-saving advantages of using one of these inventions.
- Create, sort, prioritize, and designate project tasks
- Allocate milestones and link task dependencies
- Track project progress, expenses, and resources
- Boost team collaboration and communication
- Automatically generates important reports
Bottom line
Now that you are empowered to know how to write a project management plan, we hope that this guide will inspire you in creating your project plan. Look out for our project management template in the future. This move will ultimately increase your efficiency in handling almost any project while making complex ones seem like a walk in the park.