PROJECT PLAN

 A project plan is a series of formal documents that

define the execution and control stages of a project. 
 The plan includes considerations for risk management,
resource management and communications, while also
addressing scope, cost and schedule baselines.
 ProjectManager allows you to make detailed project
plans with online Gantt charts that schedule task
dependencies, resource hours, labor costs, milestones
and more.
 The project plan, also called project
management plan, answers the who, what,
where, why, how and when of the project—
it’s more than a Gantt chart  with tasks and
due dates.
 The purpose of a project plan is to guide the
execution and control project phases
 A project plan consists of the following documents:

• Project Charter: Provides a general overview of the

project. It describes the project’s reasons, goals,
objectives, constraints, stakeholders, among other
aspects.
• Statement of Work: A statement of work (SOW) defines
the project’s scope, schedule, deliverables, milestones,
and tasks.
• Work Breakdown Structure: Breaks down the project
scope into the project phases, subprojects, deliverables,
and work packages that lead to your final deliverable.
Project planning steps: How to write a good
project plan
• Start with research and preplanning
• Draft a rough outline of your project plan
• Build out your detailed project schedule
• Present and confirm your plan
• Execute your plan and adjust as needed
 Step 1: Start with research and preplanning

• A project plan is more than a dry document

with dates, So make sure you know all the
facts before you start creating a project plan.
 Understand the project scope and value
 Interview key stakeholders
 Get to know your team
 Step 2: Draft a rough outline of your project plan

After gathering the basic project details, the next step is to knock
out a rough draft of your plan.
 Sketch out the main components of your project plan
Any solid project plan should answer these questions:
• What are the major deliverables?
• How will we get to those deliverables and the deadline?
• Who’s on the project team, and what role will they play in
those deliverables?
• When will the team meet milestones?
• When will other members of the team play a role in
contributing to or providing feedback on those deliverables?
 Step 4: Present and confirm your plan

a) Run your final plan by your internal team

Here are a few things you’ll want to discuss with your
team as you review the final plan together.
• Review times
• Team work times
• Dependencies
• Time off, meetings, and milestones
• The final deadline
• Any assumptions you’ve made
 b)Review your project plan with stakeholders

Here are some things you’ll want to point out about

your plan during this review:
• Overall process and pacing
• Major deliverables and timing
• The time they’ll have to review deliverables
• Overall timing for task groups or phases
• How far off you are from the deadline
 step 5: Execute your plan and adjust as needed

A) Work your plan

• Update your plan regularly as work progresses and
things change
• Communicate changes to your team, partners, and
stakeholders
• Monitor and communicate risks as your project
evolves
 How to create a project plan in TeamGantt

1. Enter your basic project details.

• To create a new project plan in TeamGantt, click
the New Project button in the upper right corner of
the My Projects screen.
• Then enter your project name and start date, and
select the days of the week you want to include in
your plan. Click Create New Project to move on to
the next step.
2. List out your project tasks and milestones.

• If there are any key meetings, deliverable

deadlines, or approvals, add those as
milestones in your project plan.

3. Organize tasks into subgroups. 

• Break tasks down into phases or sections to ensure
your project plan is easy to read and understand. 
4. Add task durations and milestone dates to
the project timeline.

• A visual project plan makes it easy to see exactly

what needs to get done by when.
• TeamGantt’s drag and drop feature makes this
planning step quick and easy.
5. Connect related tasks with dependencies.
• Adding dependencies between tasks ensures work
gets done in the right order and also helps you plan
for delay risks
6. Assign responsible team members to tasks.

7. Add hourly estimates and/or points to each task. 

• Including hourly estimates in your project plan also
enables you to manage workloads and track
overages more accurately.
8. Color-code tasks for better scannability.
• You can use colors to categorize tasks by project
phase, priority, department, or team member—
whatever makes visual sense to you and your team.
 PROJECT SCHEDULE
A project schedule is a timetable that organizes tasks,
resources and due dates in an ideal sequence so that a project
can be completed on time.
A project schedule is created during the planning phase and
includes the following:
• A project timeline with start dates, end dates and milestones
• The work necessary to complete the project deliverables
• The costs, resources and dependencies associated with each
task
• The team members that are responsible for each task
 What’s Included in a Project Schedule?

The following are included in the creation of a project schedule:

• Deliverables
• Tasks
• Task start and end dates
• Task dependencies
• Project calendar
• Work packages
• Task duration and project timeline
• Budgets
• Resource availability
• Schedule risk analysis
 Project Schedule Steps

The following are steps to create a project schedule:

• Create the schedule plan for your project
• Define who has authority over the schedule
• Identify start and end dates for project activities and tasks
• Figure out task dependencies
• Sequence activities and tasks chronologically to create
a project calendar.
• Estimate needed resources and resource availability
• Determine duration of activities and tasks
• Build project schedule
 The three main types of project schedule

• Master project schedule: a summary level schedule that

highlights the key tasks and their estimated duration. This is
useful as a high-level overview document for senior
management or external stakeholders who don’t need the detail.
• Milestone schedule: tracks major milestones but not every task
or deliverable. It’s great for reporting status and helping teams
see their progress at a glance.
• ​Detailed project schedule: this is a more operational level
schedule that tracks every project activity. It’s designed for the
project team and managers to keep track of every element of
the project.
• Project managers use a range of tools and techniques to
create, track and control their project schedules. Here’s a brief
description of some of the most common tools and
techniques:
• Task list
The most basic form of project schedule, this is a list of activities
with deadlines that must be completed to finish a project.
• GANTT chart
The most common form of project schedule is the GANTT chart.
It’s a horizontal bar chart that tracks activities over time.
Depending on resource allocation and task relationships, the
bars might be running in parallel or sequentially. It can be
produced with differing levels of detail depending on the needs
of the target audience.
• Work breakdown structure
A graphic that details the deliverables by presenting key milestones within a
hierarchy. It simplifies projects into smaller, more manageable groups. It also
provides the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control along
with providing guidance for schedule development and control.
• Schedule network analysis
A graphic that depicts the interrelationships and timing of all project activities in
chronological order.
• Critical path method
The critical path method adds the times of all critical activities, taking into
account dependencies, to determine the earliest time that the project can be
completed.
• PERT charts
The program evaluation and review technique uses a different method to
calculate time compared to the critical path method. For each activity, the
shortest time, the longest time, and the most likely time are estimated for each
task. The time estimate for each task is the weighted average of the three
estimates.