How to Write a Project Plan in 10 Easy Steps

A well-developed project plan is one of the most important aspects of project success. This article outlines a 10-step process for generating a project plan, demonstrating not only how it serves as a roadmap for project managers, but also why it is the project manager's primary communication and control tool throughout the project. Let's discuss the 10 easy steps on how to write a project.

10 Steps

Step 1: Explain the project plan and its essential components to key stakeholders.

Typically, many of the project's major stakeholders are unaware of the project plan's nature. Because acquiring commitment and buying is one of the most significant and hardest components of project management, the first step is to communicate the planning process and project plan to all key stakeholders. Because they will be requested to evaluate and approve the documents that pertain to them, it is critical that they understand the value of this group of documents and are familiar with its content.

Step 2: Define responsibilities and roles.

Because not all key stakeholders will read all documents, it's important to figure out who on the team needs to give approval on which aspects of the strategy. The following are some of the key players:
The project sponsor is the person or organization that owns and funds the entire project. All components of the plan must be reviewed and approved by the sponsors.
Designated business specialists who will establish the end product's requirements. They must assist in the development of the scope baseline and approve any scope-related papers. The timeline will pique their curiosity as well.
The project manager is in charge of creating, executing, and monitoring the project plan. Project managers do not need to approve the plan because they create it.
The project team is in charge of creating the final product. Many components of the plan must be developed with the team's input, such as identifying risks, quality, and design issues, although the team does not normally accept it.
End consumers are those who use the final product. They, too, must participate in the plan's formulation and evaluation, but they are rarely required to sign off on it.
Others who may be involved in the project include auditors, quality and risk analysts, procurement specialists, and so on. They may be required to approve aspects of the plan that are relevant to them, such as the Quality or Procurement plans.

Step 3: Hold an initial meeting

The launch meeting is a good approach to gather all of the stakeholders together to talk about the project. It's a good method to get started with the planning. Online project report help websites will give you a better idea of how to do so. It can be used to begin establishing trust among team members and to ensure that everyone's ideas are included. Kickoff meetings can indicate the sponsor's commitment to the project. Some of the things that might be discussed at a kickoff meeting are as follows:

Vision and strategy for the company (from a sponsor)
Vision for the project (from a sponsor)
Responsibilities and roles
Creating a team
Commitment to the team
How does the team make decisions?
The rules of engagement
What size group should be formed, and do sub-groups need to be formed?

joshua-hoehne-AZrBFoXP_3I-unsplash (3).jpg

Step 4: Make a statement about the scope of your project.

The Scope Statement is, without a doubt, the most crucial document in the project plan. It's what the rest of the project is built around. It explains the project and is used to reach a consensus on the scope among the stakeholders. The Scope Statement explains exactly what the project's outcome will be. It serves as the foundation for obtaining buy-in and agreement from the sponsor and other stakeholders, as well as reducing the likelihood of misinterpretation. This document will most likely evolve and change as the project progresses. The following items should be included in the scope statement:

A business requirement and a business issue
The project objectives describe what will happen during the project in order to solve the business challenge.
Benefits of completing the project, as well as the reason for the project
The scope of the project is defined as the list of deliverables that will be included and excluded from the project.
The size and nature of the project will define key milestones, the approach, and other components.

It can be viewed as a contract between the project manager and the sponsor, with changes only possible with the consent of the sponsor.

Step 5: Establish a baseline for the scope.

After the Scope Statement confirms the deliverables, they must be turned into a work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a dissection of all the project's deliverables. The scope baseline is formed by this deliverable WBS, which includes the following elements:

Identifies all of the project's deliverables and, as a result, all of the work that has to be done.
Breaks down huge deliverables into a hierarchy of smaller deliverables. That is, each deliverable begins with a high degree of detail and then devolves into lower and lower levels of complexity.
A "work package" is the lowest level, and it can be numbered to correspond to activities and tasks.

Step 6: Create a schedule and cost estimates.

The steps for creating the schedule and cost baselines are outlined below.

Create a WBS of tasks by identifying the activities and tasks required to complete each of the work packages.
If resources are available, identify them for each task.
Calculate how long each task will take to finish.
Estimate the cost of each work using a resource's average hourly rate.
Consider resource restrictions, or how much time each resource can dedicate to this project in a reasonable manner.
Determine whether tasks are interdependent, and create a critical path.
Create a timetable that includes a calendar of all chores and estimates. It displays the selected time period.
Create a timetable that includes a calendar of all chores and estimates. It indicates which resource is doing which activities, how much time they are expected to spend on each task, and when each task is scheduled to begin and end, according to the time period selected (week, month, quarter, or year).
Create a cost baseline, often known as a time-phased budget or cost by time period.

Step 7: Make management plans for the baseline.

You can design the procedures the team will take to manage variations to these plans once the scope, schedule, and cost baselines have been set. A review and approval process for altering baselines is frequently included in all of these management plans. For different types of changes, different approval levels are frequently required. Furthermore, while not all new requests will result in modifications to the project's scope, schedule, or budget, a procedure for analyzing all new requests and determining their influence on the project is required.

Step 8: Create a personnel strategy.

The staffing plan is a graph that illustrates when each resource will join and depart the project over the course of a month, quarter, or year. It resembles other project management diagrams, such as a Gantt chart, except it lacks tasks, estimates, starts, and end dates, and the critical path. It just shows the time period and resource, as well as the projected length of time the resource will be on the project.

Step 9: Assess the project's quality and potential dangers.

Project Quality: Project quality entails ensuring that the final product not only meets client requirements but also that it is one that the sponsor and key business experts want to utilize. Project quality also understands that quality is a management obligation that must be met at all times during the project.

Project Risks: Analyzing risks entails determining the likelihood of a given event occurring as well as estimating its impact if it does. Risk management entails not only analyzing the risk but also building risk management plans in order to comprehend and convey how the team will respond to high-risk occurrences.

Step 10: Communication

The Communications Plan is an integral part of the project plan.

This document specifies who on the project needs which reports, how often, in what format, and with what medium, among other things.
When and how will issues be escalated?
Who will have access to project information and where will it be stored?

It is critical to not only express the relevance of the project plan to the sponsor once it is completed but also to communicate its contents once it has been established. The following items should be included in this communication:

The project plan is reviewed and approved.
The procedure for modifying the plan's contents.
In the future phases, the project plan will be executed and controlled, as well as important stakeholder roles and duties.