How to write a project management plan?

How to Write a Project Management Plan?

Do you want to write a comprehensive Project Management Plan without unnecessary work and without having to waste your weekends on it?

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Imagine, you are entrusted with the management of the next project, which is so immensely important for your organization. Consequently, many questions regarding how to write a project management plan will come to your mind.

What is the exact scope of work?
From where do I get the resources?
How long is it going to take?
How do I control the budget?
There must be certain risks, what am I going to do about them?
What kind of reports are required and at what intervals?
Who else is involved in the project and what is his/her interest?
Where do I get the material and services from?
How do I ensure the right level of quality?
What do I do if things change?
How to track project and status?
Etc.

This list could be continued on and on and it is immediately clear to you that you need to create a plan. But how to write a project management plan? Where do you start, what are the contents, how to structure it?

How to write a project management plan is a question that many project managers ask themselves at the beginning of many projects. The project management plan is one of the most important documents that you have to prepare at the beginning of each project.

The project management plan is just one of the documents in the course of a project. This ranges from plans to reports, to registers and other documents. For this, you need a good template set in order not to spend unnecessary time and work, which is very scarce anyway.

To save you time, I have compiled this highly customizable set, which has been developed in the course of the execution of many projects and has been improved continuously.

Not sure how to write a project management plan?

Becoming a confident, successful project manager is not an easy task - if you're looking for a good start, my project management template set will show you the way. You will gain access to relevant, practical specialist knowledge that will help you lead successful teams and realize high-quality projects.

Whether you are formally trained as a project manager or not, it is your job and your privilege to manage a project for a client. My template set gives you the basic structure of a project management plan and many useful documents and registers that will help you master the daily challenges of project management and develop yourself as a professional in the project management world.

What are the contents of a project management plan?

A comprehensive project management plan consists of more than 10 subordinate plans. Such individual plans in turn can be more or less extensive. A template for each is included in this set, plus more.

Scope Management Plan
Requirements Management Plan
Schedule Management Plan
Cost Management Plan
Quality Management Plan
Process Improvement Plan
Resource Management Plan
Communications Management Plan
Risk Management Plan
Procurement Management Plan
Stakeholder Management Plan
Financial Management Plan
Health, Safety and Environmental Management Plan
Change Management Plan
and more

Templates reduce your work, consequently time and money

Using templates helps reduce costs and save time. Using a defined ready structure is very cost-effective. This enables the project manager to spend more time on the document content instead of having to reinvent the structures.

Templates make you be consistent and create uniformity

Templates give documents a uniform appearance. Project management plans without templates can differ in the way information is presented so that each team member has to individually decide how critical information is displayed. Templates encourage a constant form and structure that makes it easier for each reader team to find important aspects quickly. Uniformity supports your company branding.

Templates support you with repeatable processes

Efficiency is the essential thing in almost all business processes. Unnecessary work and wasted time and money must be recognized and eliminated. In the case of repetitive tasks, it is nowadays very easy to reuse existing resources and adapt them with relatively little effort.

Templates reduce errors

Writing a complete project management plan is a huge amount of work. Certain topics need to be worked on, explained, determined, and planned. Due to the large number of subjects that have to be included, it is very easy to overlook things. Avoiding such errors is a major concern of document templates.

What Are the Advantages of Project Management Templates?

Project management templates are designed to help you! The mission is to save you work and to give you time for other tasks. Templates promote repeatability and efficiency. Revising your sets of documents for every project wastes valuable time and consequently money. Instead, focus on the document content and get things done. Templates help you to customize your documents for different purposes and audiences, and they allow keep your brand consistent.

Contents of this project management template set

The project management plan is actually a generic term for a set of sub-plans that you have to create for your project.

With this project management template set you get all of the below:

Project charter template
Project management plan template
Change control log
Project mobilization checklist
Lesson learned recording form
Lesson learned register
Post project review template
Project scope management plan template
Project requirements management plan template
Requirements register
Statement of works
WBS register
Project schedule management plan template
Milestone list
Activity list
Duration control sheet
Gantt chart template
Project cost management plan template
Activity cost estimation sheet
Project budget template
Feasibility cost estimation sheet
Project quality management plan template
Process improvement plan template
Testing register
Concrete testing and delivery register
Inspection register
NCR register
Project resource management plan template
Resource breakdown structure
RACI matrix
Project communications management plan template
Performance report
Daily report
Project risk management plan template
Risk register
Project procurement management plan template
Request for a quotation
Requisition order form and register
Vendor evaluation
Project stakeholder management plan template
Stakeholder register
Project financial management plan template
Payment application
Process matrix
Formula collection
Template usage guide

10 easy steps how to write a project management plan

The project planning process can be difficult, especially with increasing project complexity. If you have never written a project management plan before, you will ask yourself how to write a project management plan. According to a Forbes study, 25% of technology projects fail early, which is bad statistics for project managers. The good news is that there are ways to plan a successful project launch in a short time. Project managers need to understand the simple steps of how to write a project management plan.

I am repeatedly asked what the exact process for writing a project management plan is. Unfortunately, I cannot give a clear straightforward answer. Certain sub-plans are interdependent and have to be compared and adjusted with each other.
However, I believe that the 10 steps below should help you get a good result.

01. Discuss the project with the key stakeholders

Collect, understand, and agree their requirements. The "what" and the "why" are thus defined and agreed. The requirements must be recorded in writing in the order of their importance and the influence of the stakeholder. Without this clear agreements, specifications, tasks and deadlines that you set for your project plan will have no basis.

02. Create a scope document

After the requirements for the project and the desired results have been recorded, it is time to create a project scope document in which the individual project elements are listed. All elements must be described clearly, completely, and unambiguously. Divide the scope into easy-to-manage packages and further break them down into activities.

03. Create a detailed project schedule

Now that the scope of the project has been set, it is time to insert project information into a schedule. A Gantt chart is a practical tool that you can use to easily visualize the project timeline. It is an instrument that gives you a complete overview of the project progress, the scope of work, and the dependencies.

04. Define roles, responsibilities and resources

Resources are the people, equipment and material that are required to complete your project. Particular caution and care is required here. Delays in project execution are very often due to the fact that production rates and therefore the number of resources required are not adequately estimated. You also have to consider where you get the resources from, when you need them and, depending on the availability, when you have to order them. Describe this part with all the details in the project procurement plan.

05. Create the project budget

Now that you know exactly what to do, how long it will take and which and how many resources you need, you can now create a cost plan relatively easily. Provide a certain contingency and present it separately.

06. Define and describe the communications process

McKinsey says employees spend almost 20% of their time looking for and collecting information. In addition, inefficient communication and collaboration are two of the main causes of stress at work. If stakeholders and employees have to constantly search through series of emails or constantly ask for updates, they become frustrated and their motivation drops. It is therefore extremely important to collect all data and information in a controlled environment, where they are easily accessible and can be kept up to date. In addition, to maintain a good relationship, it is essential to agree on report content and deadlines and to adhere strictly.

07. Develop a project quality management plan

Develop strategies to ensure the quality of both the end product and all individual processes for manufacturing the product. Also describe how you intend to constantly improve the processes.

08. Now do a risk assessment

Go through all the previous points again and evaluate with your team what could go wrong. Think about how likely a risk is and what the impact on the schedule, costs and project product could be. Develop strategies for dealing with each individual risk.

09. Develop monitor and control strategy

Go back to each of the above and describe how you want to monitor and control each plan.

10. Obtain approval

Now that your plan is complete, let your project sponsor approve it and authorize you to carry out the project.

Contact me if you need support.

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What do buyers say about the template set?

Exactly what I needed

28/01/2023

I have been using these for a couple of month now and I LOVE THEM. I was sent a couple of the forms by a friend, so this is me “ordering the complete set” for what I’ve got coming up next.

M.K.

Cindy

06/08/2022

I love your templates. Unfortunately, I’m not in the construction trade so a few of the included templates aren’t for me, but the rest are great and a huge time saver. You saved me many hours of work. In this respect, the price is more than justified.

Cindy Bailey

Response from World of Project Management

Hello Cindy,

Thanks for your feedback!

I’m happy to hear that my templates have been of help to you, even though some are specific to the construction business.

All the best with your project!

Best regards,

Marc

Fast and easy to use

22/01/2022

I quickly needed a complete project management template package for a new project that is about to start. I found exactly what I needed on this website. All individual templates are coordinated with each other and have a consistent design. This is a big advantage. I’ve tried getting free templates before but they weren’t that complete, from different sources and therefore inconsistent design. I am absolutely satisfied with what I got for my money and saved a lot of time and work as promised. Thank you, keep it up.

G. K.

Response from World of Project Management

Hello G.K.,

I’m glad the templates met your expectations. All the best with your project!

Best regards,

Marc

Very decent work, complete, good support, amazingly cheap

08/10/2021

I have to admit that I struggled with myself whether or not I should spend money on something that you can apparently get for free elsewhere.

In the end I decided to buy and I don’t regret it. The set is very complete and all templates are well geared for each other. Templates are very easy to use and I received uncomplicated support quickly. I ordered a few additional project-specific custom made templates, which I received very quickly and which were just as easy to use.

Possibly I could have found and used free templates, but they would probably be less geared to each other, less or no support and from different sources. The associated additional effort on my part would have cost me a few extra hours of work, so I am more than happy with the price paid.

Absolutely recommendable!

Steve

Response from World of Project Management

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your trust, business and of course for your very positive comment. It gives me motivation to improve my templates further, to add more templates and of course I am still available for support at any time.

Best regards,

Marc

These templates got me started and actually increased my productivity

22/07/2021

I haven’t regretted buying your templates a couple of weeks ago.

There are similarly priced packages on the market that contain more documents. However, after taking a closer look, I realized that the other packages often contain many documents twice that only differ in design. After some online research, I found a couple of worldwide projects you managed, so I was sure that, by buying your templates, I would benefit from your many years of experience too.

I am completely happy with my templates and can absolutely recommend them.

Jerome

Response from World of Project Management

Thank you for your positive feedback. I’m glad that I could help.

BR,

Marc