A good plan takes you a long way, whether you are doing housework or running a big company. Clear planning helps freelancers (plumbers and software engineers alike), makes managers’ jobs easier, and ensures you meet your deadlines. However, project planning may initially feel overwhelming. Where do you even start? Well, we have the answer to this question. You start with a project plan template and stick to it for future projects as well. Here is why.
A project plan is the blueprint of your project. It is a document, approved and sealed, that describes the entire project, from start to end. A project plan may start with the project’s goals and purposes. Still, it ultimately encompasses tasks and subtasks, risk assessments, resource distribution, deliverables, actionable steps, schedules and deadlines, monitoring methods, and project tracking tools. Employees and stockholders can consult the project plan at any time and at any step of the project. It is the project’s roadmap and guides its every move.
A project plan template is a document with pre-filled sections that guides you through creating a project plan. It provides the framework you need to be organized, concise, and thorough when creating a project plan. The template may be reused for similar projects, customized according to your requirements, and made as long or short as needed. However, a project plan template saves you from re-creating the structure all over again. You know from the get-go what you need to include in the document and in what order, saving you a lot of time and mistakes.
Tip: We go more in detail on Key Steps Process for Writing a Project Plan.
The project manager is the first to use a project plan template. They come up with the initiative, choose the template, and produce the first draft. However, team members may also work on the project plan template, bringing their expertise and knowledge to the table and managing the sections that refer to their specific activities. For instance, team leaders may take over the sections on scheduling tasks. HR experts may take over the sections on measuring employees’ performance or people management.
Ultimately, the stakeholders are kept in the loop as well. They are informed about the project’s progress based on the project plan, which means they must approve the project plan template.
Last but not least, some companies have dedicated project management teams that decide on templates at the company level and impose them on all their departments. This ensures a consistent approach, adds an extra layer of verification, and popularizes efficient practices, company rules, and industry regulations. It’s also a way to improve team communication and collaboration, as they all refer to the same template.
A project plan template is essential during the planning phase of a project. That’s when the project plan is brought to life. However, people will refer to it throughout the project’s life, so make sure you get it right. The steps of using a project plan template are as follows:
Not all projects are the same, so starting from the right project plan template can save you time and iterations. You can find over 15 free templates here that cover all requirements, are easy to customize, and help you stay on topic and create comprehensive project plans. Consider other things, such as your team’s preferences and workflow, company culture, in-use management tools, and required metrics.
On this page you will find the following templates:
A simple project plan template is a basic Excel document that takes you through all project planning steps. It covers all the planning phases, provides tools for tracking progress and checking status, and keeps everything well-organized and on point. You can easily customize our template by listing your employees, project stages, priorities, and status steps.
A project action plan template follows the project’s progress in actionable steps. Like the simple template, it covers all the project’s phases, but does so one action at a time. The template includes information on ownership, timeline, progress, priority, KPIs, and costs for each action.
A Word document is ideal for detailed project plans, including everything from the project’s goals and objectives to communication tools and metrics. Another person can complete each section, ensuring your project benefits from their expertise. Use tables and lists to keep information organized. Include links and references to valuable resources.
Project Plan Document Template
A business case template helps justify projects to managers or stakeholders. It encompasses the reasons for choosing this particular project, analysis, and reports from any involved departments. Designed for decision-makers, this template should be concise and relevant.
The project schedule template is designed to highlight the project’s timeline, time allotted for each task, progress, current status, estimated costs, and people responsible for each action. It’s easy to follow, but if you want a more visual template, use one with a Gantt chart.
A Gantt chart template includes the timeline data for your project and its visual representation. Instead of browsing through columns of data, one can get an overview perspective from a single chart. A Gantt chart shows real-time progress, overlapping tasks, and bottlenecks, allowing you to avoid missing steps and find solutions quickly and efficiently.
Gantt Chart Free Template for Excel
Related: How To Make a Simple Gantt Chart?Some sections of your project plan, such as the budget, require a separate, detailed document to provide an efficient experience to the person in charge. In many cases, an expert employee will oversee it, for instance, the accountant or the chief of the finance department. The project budget template allows you to track expenses and project cost estimates and monitor how much each part of the project costs. You can easily add new columns to cover specialized expenses, such as software subscriptions, attending events, travel costs, etc.
Like the project budget template, the quality management plan will most likely have a dedicated employee overseeing it. The Quality Manager will create a quality assurance plan for the project and make sure everyone stays on track. The template encompasses quality standards, metrics, monitoring tools, deadlines, progress, and priorities. Of course, you can customize it to fit your project’s specifications and requirements.
The stakeholder management plan template organizes the project manager’s relationship with the stakeholders. It outlines the stakeholders, their involvement, what actions are required on their side, and how they will be engaged throughout the project.
Stakeholder Management Plan Template
A communication plan is required for efficient communication among team members and with stakeholders. It encompasses communication channels, procedures, collaborative tools, project roles, contact details, and communication frequency.
A project milestone template helps you stay on track, meet intermediary deadlines, achieve the project’s goals, and keep the managers and stakeholders up to date. Dealing with the project one milestone at a time allows you to make informed decisions, prevent and solve issues, manage costs and resources more efficiently, and adjust the project when needed.
Focusing on milestones is one approach. Another is to focus on tasks and subtasks and divide the project into actionable steps. This work breakdown structure template helps you manage workload, avoid burnout, overtime, and leave clashes, and keep your staff’s morale at high levels.
Work Breakdown Structure Template
Project resources refer to human resources, materials, supplies, technology, machinery, and many other means required for the project’s development. To keep resource management under control, this simple project resource plan template includes multiple resource categories and allows you to fill in associated costs.
Work Breakdown Structure Template
A RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) chart is designed to clarify roles and responsibilities within the project. It is also used to communicate and improve task assignment and decision-making. Our template allows you to fill in the RACI roles for each task and subtask.
The risk register helps you identify, assess, and avoid risks. Whether you identify all risks from the beginning or add them along the project’s development, this template will help you stay organized, adapt quickly, and ensure you take the necessary actions to mitigate risks and meet your goals.
As much as we want a project to unfold exactly as planned, changes are inevitable. Keep track of all the changes you implement using our free template to avoid chaos. It allows you to outline the changes that were made, who required them, why, how long their implementation took, and who did it.
Conclusion
We provide structured tools for all project planning aspects, such as resource allocation, risk management, change tracking, and responsibility assignment. Utilizing our free project plan templates will streamline your project management process.
FAQ
Why should you use a project planner template?
You should use a project planner template to keep your work organized, track progress, manage resources, improve communication and collaboration, and ensure cohesive management for all your projects.
What are the key components that every effective project planning template should include?
The key components of an effective project planning template are:
What should be in a project plan template?
A comprehensive project plan template usually includes your project’s goals, actions and tasks, roles and responsibilities, risk analysis, communication plan, deliverables, stakeholders, and a detailed timeline with clear milestones and deadlines.
How do I write a project plan?
Gather all available information about your project from everyone involved. Then, decide on the project plan template that suits your project’s profile the most. Fill each section with the project’s details. You may want to ask your team to contribute and leverage their expertise. When the plan is ready, submit it for review and approval to your managers. Make any adjustments they find necessary and reiterate the review and approval procedure.