How To Create A Project Plan that Works in 9 Easy Steps

How to create a project plan that you manager will sign off is not as hard as you might think.  It doesn’t matter if the project is big or small, include 8 these eight project plan components, and you will be set up to successfully deliver your project and have everything to needed to convince your manager and other stakeholders to sign off your project plan.  When thinking about how to write a project plan THE critical starting point is to decide on the project goals and scope. The scope and deliverables need to be written down, shared and agreed before you do anything else. So many projects come unstuck because of vague goals or changing goals.  When creating a project plan, explain why the project is going to help the business, the department, and the team. Explain why the project supports at least one of the company objectives. Detail the benefits of completing the project from the company’s point of view. This helps sell the project and overcome vested interests and the status quo. Within how to make a project plan, you must outline the timeframes. Most projects are time critical within companies, so clear deadlines and milestones are important to in in the project plan and important to achieve.  The next step that I always find useful in how to plan a project is to map out all the people involved in the project and who will be affected by the project. How will support your project and who will oppose it and why? What can you do reduce any opposition? Once you have these steps completed, the next step in how to create a project plan is planning and securing the resources. Key is getting the right people and skills at the right time to ensure your project is successful. You will also need to think about funding, management support and other experts that will need to input into the project. Once you have your project team – get them involved in planning the steps, activities and tasks needed to reach the project goals. Your team are the experts and you want them engaged and owning the project alongside you. Ask them to work through the project planning steps to create a clear roadmap of how the project team is going to deliver the results.  When you know the goals, the timing, the resources and the steps you want to follow, you are able to create a project budget and check it is withing your overall total spend allocated to the project. Change the activities, resources and timings until you are within your project spend total.  You have everything in place and a strong project plan to get final project signoff. A strong project plan creates confidence in the team’s ability to deliver the results promised. Finally, after creating a project management plan you can start implementing your plan – the project execution phase. Work your plan! Enjoy the less stress and more successful projects!