Objectives:

 To be able to define Project Plan.

 To be able to understand the importance of Planning a project.
 To know the Components of a Project Management Plan
 To learn how to create a project plan.

What is a project plan?

A project plan, also known as the project management plan, is the document that
describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled, and closed. This
outlines the objectives and scope of the project and serves as an official point of reference
for the project team, larger company, and stakeholders.

It’s created during the project planning phase and is a compilation of several other
documents. It is more than just a schedule or a task list, though it does include those
things. The project management plan is formally approved at the beginning of the project
and then progressively updated throughout the course of the project.

Why is project planning important?

Project planning is a crucial stage that comes right after initiation in project management
phases. Through proper planning, you streamline the entire project into a series of steps
and ensure the availability of all the resources on time.

Project constraints such as time, scope, and costs are discussed in the project planning
process, and mitigation plans are developed after the identification of potential risks. By
comparing the actual progress with the project plan, you can also monitor the performance
of your team and take the necessary steps to improve it. Check out the 7 areas
where project planning is important for
PROJECT MANAGEMENT MODULE 2successful projects.
1
CREATING A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
At its basic level, an example of a project plan consists of three components. Creating a
list of all these components to help inform your project management plan.

 Activities

What are the things your team will need to do in order to get the project done? Activities in
your project plan include things like measuring progress, delegating tasks, allocating
resources, tracking time spent, and communicating effectively.

 Tasks

For any task management, the project is broken down into tasks. These are smaller jobs
that make up the bigger picture of your project. Having incremental goals makes
measuring success and addressing bottlenecks easier, and identifying these tasks is
essential to crafting your project management plan.

 Resources

What are you working with? Your resources include your budget, of course. It’s also
important to understand your human and material resource requirements. How many

PREPARED BY: SHERNAN P. MABBORANG 1

people will need to work on this project and will you need to hire temporary workers or
subcontractors? What physical or digital materials are required and where will those things
come from?

9 STEPS ON HOW TO CREATE A PROJECT PLAN

If you’re thinking, “well, that sounds really formal and serious, don’t be intimidated.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT MODULE 2

2
CREATING A PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

Follow these nine project management steps, and you’re well on your way not just on how
to plan a project online but to execute your project successfully.

Step 1: Identify all stakeholders

Your project has several stakeholders, and not all of them will be involved in every detail of
the project. Project stakeholders include your customer, the end-users of the product, the
company and its leaders, and the team working directly on the project.

Depending on the nature of the project, stakeholders may also include outside
organizations or individual community members that will be affected by the project.

Step 2: Define roles and responsibilities

Once you’ve identified the stakeholders, you need to determine the project management
skills required for the project. When you have that list, you can define roles and assign
responsibilities to individual stakeholders.

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Remember that a role is not the same as a person. In some cases, one person can fill
multiple roles, such as having a designated emergency contact, a role that adds few
additional work hours to a person’s schedule. In other cases, multiple people may hold
identical roles, as when your project requires multiple software engineers.

Typical roles include project sponsor, project manager, and project team members. The
different project team member roles will vary depending on your project, but be sure to
include a vendor relations role and a customer relations role.

Step 3: Hold a kickoff meeting

The kickoff meeting is a chance to bring all stakeholders together and cast a vision for the
project that everyone can get behind. It’s an opportunity to make introductions and
establish good working relationships.

At this stage, the specific details of the project haven’t been determined, so you should
include a discussion on the project scope, budget, timeline, and goals in your meeting
agenda. This is also when roles are announced and a communication plan is explained.
The kickoff meeting sets the tone for the working relationship among stakeholders for the
duration of the project.

Step 4: Define project scope, budget, and timeline

After the official kickoff, it’s time to define the project scope, budget, and timeline of your
project. Each of these items is worthy of its own in-depth explanation, so we’ll just define
them briefly here.

a. Scope:

Project
PROJECTscope tells you whatMODULE
MANAGEMENT are we going
2 to do (and not do)? Given the requests of the
customer andAthe vision discussed by the PLAN
team, what are the objectives of this project? 3
CREATING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

b. Budget:

Taking into account the scope and the resources required to meet the project objectives,
what is the expected financial cost of the project?

c. Timeline:

The project timeline itemizes the phases of your project and the length of time you can
reasonably expect them to be completed.

Step 5: Set and prioritize goals

Once your team understands the objectives of the project and you’ve identified the phases
to meeting those objectives, break down the big picture objectives of your project into
individual goals and tasks. Prioritize tasks according to importance and dependencies.

Also, you need a system in place to ensure corrective actions when goals aren’t met on
time. You may need to adjust your timeline in light of your goals.

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Step 6: Define deliverables
A deliverable, as defined by the Project Management Institute, is “any unique and
verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a
process, phase, or project.”

Project deliverables are determined by the project objectives and are an essential part of
the project plan. If the customer’s objective is for end-users to manage their own content,
for example, the deliverables might be a piece of software that enables users to manage
content as well as training materials for employees and end-users on how to use the newly
created software.

Step 7: Create a project schedule

More than just a time table, a project schedule is a document that details the project
timeline and the organizational resources required to complete each task. Its purpose is to
communicate critical information to the team, so it must be comprehensive and easy to
understand.

To create a project schedule, you need to further divide the phases of your project into
individual tasks and activities, determine dependencies, sequence the activities and
estimate the required resources and duration of each task. The information you compile in
this process may reveal necessary adjustments in your roles, timeline, and/or budget.

This is an important step in writing a simple project plan and a beneficial part of the
process. It’s much better to make these adjustments before the project has begun than
weeks or months later.

Step 8: Do a risk assessment

APROJECT
risk is a problem that mayMODULE
MANAGEMENT or may not
2 arise over the course of your project. It’s important
4
toCREATING
identify project risks and
A PROJECT mitigate themPLAN
MANAGEMENT at the project planning phase rather than be
caught off guard later. Hold a meeting or ask for insight from all team members about the
risks you should consider.

Step 9: Communicate the project plan

Once you’ve compiled your project plan, make sure to communicate it clearly to the team
and all other stakeholders. You may have created a project communication plan when you
put together your project schedule. If not, do it now!

Establishing solid communications channels and expectations for project communication is

crucial. As a project manager, be sure to model the kind of communication you expect
from all stakeholders.

Reference: https://kissflow.com/project/steps-to-create-successful-project-plan/

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