One of the critical factors for project success is having a well-developed

project plan. This article provides a 10-step approach to creating the

project plan...
not only showing how it provides a roadmap for project managers to follow, but also
exploring why it is the project manager's premier communications and control tool
throughout the project.
Step 1: Explain the project plan to key stakeholders and discuss its key
components. One of the most misunderstood terms in project management, the project
plan is a set of living documents that can be expected to change over the life of the
project. Like a roadmap, it provides the direction for the project. And like the traveler,
the project manager needs to set the course for the project, which in project
management terms means creating the project plan. Just as a driver may encounter
road construction or new routes to the final destination, the project manager may need
to correct the project course as well.
A common misconception is that the plan equates to the project timeline, which is only
one of the many components of the plan. The project plan is the major work product
from the entire planning process, so it contains all the planning documents for the
project.
Related Article: The Project Plan: How Much Detail is Enough?
Typically many of the project's key stakeholders, that is those affected by both the
project and the project's end result, do not fully understand the nature of the project
plan. Since one of the most important and difficult aspects of project management is
getting commitment and buying, the first step is to explain the planning process and the
project plan to all key stakeholders. It is essential for them to understand the importance
of this set of documents and to be familiar with its content, since they will be asked to
review and approve the documents that pertain to them.
Components of the Project Plan Include:
Baselines. Baselines are sometimes called performance measures, because the
performance of the entire project is measured against them. They are the project's three
approved starting points and include the scope, schedule, and cost baselines. These
provide the 'stakes in the ground.' That is, they are used to determine whether or not the
project is on track, during the execution of the project.
Baseline management plans. These plans include documentation on how variances to
the baselines will be handled throughout the project. Each project baseline will need to
be reviewed and managed. A result of this process may include the need to do
additional planning, with the possibility that the baseline(s) will change. Project
management plans document what the project team will do when variances to the
baselines occur, including what process will be followed, who will be notified, how the
changes will be funded, etc.
Other work products from the planning process. These include a risk management plan,
a quality plan, a procurement plan, a staffing plan, and a communications plan.
 Step 2: Define roles and responsibilities. Not all key stakeholders will review all
documents, so it is necessary to determine who on the project needs to approve which
parts of the plan. Some of the key players are:

 Project sponsor, who owns and funds the entire project. Sponsors need to review and
approve all aspects of the plan.
 Designated business experts, who will define their requirements for the end product.
They need to help develop the scope baseline and approve the documents relating to
scope. They will be quite interested in the timeline as well.
 Project manager, who creates, executes, and controls the project plan. Since project
managers build the plan, they do not need to approve it.
 Project team, who build the end product. The team needs to participate in the
development of many aspects of the plan, such as identifying risks, quality, and design
issues, but the team does not usually approve it.
 End users, who use the end product. They too, need to participate in the development
of the plan, and review the plan, but rarely do they actually need to sign off.
 Others, such as auditors, quality and risk analysts, procurement specialists, and so on
may also participate on the project. They may need to approve the parts that pertain to
them, such as the Quality or Procurement plan.

Step 3: Hold a kickoff meeting. The kickoff meeting is an effective way to bring
stakeholders together to discuss the project. It is an effective way to initiate the planning
process. It can be used to start building trust among the team members and ensure that
everyone's idea are taken into account. Kickoff meetings also demonstrate commitment
from the sponsor for the project. Here are some of the topics that might be included in a
kickoff meeting:

 Business vision and strategy (from sponsor)

 Project vision (from sponsor)
 Roles and responsibilities
 Team building
 Team commitments
 How team makes decisions
 Ground rules
 How large the group should be and whether sub-groups are necessary

Step 4: Develop a Scope Statement. The Scope Statement is arguably the most
important document in the project plan. It's the foundation for the rest of the project. It
describes the project and is used to get common agreement among the stakeholders
about the scope. The Scope Statement clearly describes what the outcome of the
project will be. It is the basis for getting the buy-in and agreement from the sponsor and
other stakeholders and decreases the chances of miscommunication. This document
will most likely grow and change with the life of the project. The Scope Statement
should include:

 Business need and business problem

 Project objectives, stating what will occur within the project to solve the business
problem
 Benefits of completing the project, as well as the project justification
 Project scope, stated as which deliverables will be included and excluded from the
project.
 Key milestones, the approach, and other components as dictated by the size and nature
of the project.

It can be treated like a contract between the project manager and sponsor, one that can
only be changed with sponsor approval.
Step 5: Develop scope baseline. Once the deliverables are confirmed in the Scope
Statement, they need to be developed into a work breakdown structure (WBS), which is
a decomposition of all the deliverables in the project. This deliverable WBS forms the
scope baseline and has these elements:

 Identifies all the deliverables produced on the project, and therefore, identifies all the
work to be done.
 Takes large deliverables and breaks them into a hierarchy of smaller deliverables. That
is, each deliverable starts at a high level and is broken into subsequently lower and
lower levels of detail.
 The lowest level is called a "work package" and can be numbered to correspond to
activities and tasks.

The WBS is often thought of as a task breakdown, but activities and tasks are a
separate breakdown, identified in the next step.
Step 6: Develop the schedule and cost baselines. Here are the steps involved in
developing the schedule and cost baselines.

1. Identify activities and tasks needed to produce each of the work packages, creating a
WBS of tasks.
2. Identify resources for each task, if known.
3. Estimate how long it will take to complete each task.
4. Estimate cost of each task, using an average hourly rate for each resource.
5. Consider resource constraints, or how much time each resource can realistically
devoted to this project.
6. Determine which tasks are dependent on other tasks, and develop critical path.
7. Develop schedule, which is a calendarization of all the tasks and estimates. It shows by
chosen time period (week, month, quarter, or year) which resource is doing which tasks,
how much time they are expected to spend on each task, and when each task is
scheduled to begin and end.
8. Develop the cost baseline, which is a time-phased budget, or cost by time period.

This process is not a one-time effort. Throughout the project you will most likely be
adding to repeating some or all of these steps.
 Step 7: Create baseline management plans. Once the scope, schedule, and cost
baselines have been established, you can create the steps the team will take to manage
variances to these plans. All these management plans usually include a review and
approval process for modifying the baselines. Different approval levels are usually
needed for different types of changes. In addition, not all new requests will result in
changes to the scope, schedule, or budget, but a process is needed to study all new
requests to determine their impact to the project.
Step 8: Develop the staffing plan. The staffing plan is a chart that shows the time
periods, usually month, quarter, year, that each resource will come onto and leave the
project. It is similar to other project management charts, like a Gantt chart, but does not
show tasks, estimates, begin and end dates, or the critical path. It shows only the time
period and resource and the length of time that resource is expected to remain on the
project.
Step 9: Analyze project quality and risks.
Project Quality: Project quality consists of ensuring that the end product not only meets
the customer specifications, but is one that the sponsor and key business experts
actually want to use. The emphasis on project quality is on preventing errors, rather
than inspecting the product at the end of the project and then eliminating errors. Project
quality also recognizes that quality is a management responsibility and needs to be
performed throughout the project.
Creating the Quality Plan involves setting the standards, acceptance criteria, and
metrics that will be used throughout the project. The plan, then, becomes the foundation
for all the quality reviews and inspections performed during the project and is used
throughout project execution.
Project Risks: A risk is an event that may or may not happen, but could have a
significant effect on the outcome of a project, if it were to occur. For example, there may
be a 50% chance of a significant change in sponsorship in the next few months.
Analyzing risks includes making a determination of both the probability that a specific
event may occur and if it does, assessing its impact. The quantification of both the
probability and impact will lead to determining which are the highest risks that need
attention. Risk management includes not just assessing the risk, but developing risk
management plans to understand and communicate how the team will respond to the
high-risk events.
Step 10: Communicate! One important aspect of the project plan is the
Communications Plan. This document states such things as:

 Who on the project wants which reports, how often, in what format, and using what
media.
 How issues will be escalated and when.
 Where project information will be stored and who can access it.

For complex projects, a formal communications matrix is a tool that can help determine
some of the above criteria. It helps document the project team's agreed-on method for
communicating various aspects of the project, such as routine status, problem
 resolution, decisions, etc.

Once the project plan is complete, it is important not just to communicate the
importance of the project plan to the sponsor, but also to communicate its contents once
it's created. This communication should include such things as:

 Review and approval of the project plan.

 Process for changing the contents of the plan.
 Next steps—executing and controlling the project plan and key stakeholder
roles/responsibilities in the upcoming phases.

Don't forget to leave your comments below.

Elizabeth and Richard Larson are Co-Principals of Watermark Learning, a project

management and business analysis training company. They have over 30 years of
industry experience each, and have helped thousands of PM and BA practitioners
develop new skills.

They have published numerous articles and papers and have co-written two books
together on Requirements Management and CBAP Preparation. Both Rich and
Elizabeth are CBAP and PMP certified through IIBA and PMI, and are contributors to
the BABOK® Guide, Version 2.0 and the PMBOK® Guide – 4th edition.

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Published in Articles
Tagged under
 Communication

 Planning
 Best Practices

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