The tutorial for a good project management plan

In this article, we are going to look at the most important aspects of project planning. But before we get to the actual plan strategy, let’s first define what a project plan is and why it is important.

What is a project management plan?

A project management plan is a document prepared by the project manager which helps to guide the project, encourage communication in the team, assess risks, and manage resources and the scope. Such plans can be detailed or brief. Very important to note that it must be prepared before the actual development starts.

Why Prepare a Project Plan?

This plan is important, first of all, because it helps not to fail the project and to deliver the product on time. With the help of this plan, everybody will have a clear vision and understanding of the priorities.

What to start from?

In brief, each project management plan should answer four questions:

• Why? - Why is the project initiated? Which problem does it solve?
• What? - What scope of tasks will be done, and what is expected to be delivered?
• Who? - Who will be responsible for doing the scope of tasks, and who will be accepting the final product?
• When? - How much time will it take to deliver the product, and when are the important milestones?

After you have answered the questions above it's time to prepare a more detailed plan that should include aspects listed below.

1. Define all stakeholders

It is important to know all people involved in the project and the people who will be taking part in communication. Let them know that you are going to design a document that they will have to review and approve.

2. State people’s responsibilities and roles

Everybody should understand each other's role in the project. It will make communication easier and eliminate misunderstandings. At some projects, one person can have a few roles or vise versa the same role can be held by a couple of people.

3. Prepare for the kick-off meeting

It’s vital to bring up all stakeholders together and discuss with them important questions that must be prepared in advance. The conversation should touch on budget, expectations, timeline, etc.

4. Plan scope, timeline, and budget

After the kickoff meeting having more information, you will have to describe the scope of tasks and the timeline for the project, and each phase in particular. Another important thing to plan is the budget and resources planning for this budget.

5. Break down phases into tasks

When the scope is defined it should be broken down into clear and comprehensive tasks, arranged by priorities and dependencies.

6. Identify deliverables

It is a bad practice to develop a product without any revisions and assessments. The faster issues or inconsistencies are found - the better. For this reason, make a rule to review deliverables. A deliverable can be reviewed at the end of a phase or a milestone.

7. Design schedule

It's a good idea to visualize project phases with milestones, resources, and time needed. Such visualizations can distinctively show dependencies of product parts and resources. Gantt charts are very helpful if you need to represent information this way.

8. Know the risks

Many projects fail because they plan as if all will be ideal. However, it’s usually an exception that everything will go as planned. Therefore risks should be taken into account. What types of risk can happen and how do deal with them? For, example, an estimation for implementation can be wrong because an unexpected complication was not taken into account. How can we prevent this risk? Well, we can use a strategy with optimistic, pessimistic and realistic estimations.

Another risk can be a lack of resources when someone from a team gets sick and can’t work. We should have a plan B for such a situation. It's worth discussing a strategy with your team in advance.

9. Share the plan

When the document is ready, distribute it among the team, so everyone can read it. Then make a session, where you will discuss questions or remarks about the plan. Only when everybody is on the same page you can proceed to actual plan implementation.  

10. Communicate

The project management plan is not something created once and can be then forgotten. From time to time you will need to return to it and check if everything goes as planned. If you see that something goes not as planned, communicate it with stakeholders as soon as possible and be ready to provide solutions of how to resolve the situation.

Conclusion

You see that writing a project management plan is not so easy, however doable. This is the very first step at the beginning of the project and a very important one. Do not neglect it.
During the project make important notes for yourself in the future, so the next time you need to make a project management plan again, you have more experience and insights.