Project Plan
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Changes History
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Contents
Document Control 1
Changes History 1
Authorised by 1
Distribution 1
Contents 3
Purpose of Document 5
Plan Description 6
Project Prerequisites 6
External Dependencies 6
Items Required by This Project 6
Items Required by This Project 6
Other Projects Dependent on This Project 7
Other Projects Dependent on This Project 7
Planning Assumptions 7
Project Plan 7
Following these steps: 8
Project Level Gantt Chart with Identified Management Stages 8
Project Level Product Breakdown Structure 9
Project Level Product Flow Diagrams 9
Project Level Product Descriptions 9
Product Description [one for each product] 10
Product Checklist & Quality Log 11
Summary Costs by Month 12
Requested/Assigned Specific Resources 13
Purpose of Document
[In general, to reflect the needs of the different levels of management involved in a project, three levels of plan need to be considered: the Project Plan, stage plans, and team plans. The project may be broken down into stages with a Stage Plan for each stage. A Stage Plan may be broken down into a number of team plans. The project chooses the levels and, therefore, the number of plans it needs according to its size and extent of risk exposure. The Project Plan will exist within the context of the programme plan that may place constraints that will need to be considered as the Project Plan is being prepared or reviewed.
The Project Plan (and other plans produced during the project – stage plans, team plans, exception plans) should contain the following elements (making maximum use of charts, tables and diagrams for clarity):
· The products to be produced
· The activities needed to create those products
· The activities needed to validate the quality of products
· The resources and time needed for all activities (including project management and quality control) and any need for people with specific skills
· The dependencies between activities
· External dependencies for the delivery of information, products or services
· When activities will occur
· The points at which progress will be monitored and controlled
· Agreed tolerances
This document covers the Project Plan. Any stage plans or team plans should be presented in other documents.]
The Project Plan provides a statement of how and when a project’s objectives are to be achieved by showing the major products, activities, and resources required on the project. The Project Plan shows the planned project costs (which form part of the Business Case) and it identifies the management stages and other major control points. The Project Plan is used by the Project Board as a baseline against which to monitor project progress and cost stage by stage.
Once the PID has been accepted, the initial Project Plan will be baselined. As the project moves through its stages, subsequent versions of the Project Plan will be produced at the end of each stage to reflect:
· Progress already made
· Any agreed changes in circumstances
· Any revised forecast of cost and/or duration of the total project.
The initial and current versions of the Project Plan will be used by the Project Board to monitor any deviations from the project’s original size and scope.
Plan Description
[Give a brief description of what the plan covers.]
Project Prerequisites
[Any fundamental aspects that must be in place at the start of the project and that must remain in place for the project to succeed.]
External Dependencies
Items Required by This Project
[An external dependency exists when the project is dependent on the delivery of a product from an external source over which the Project Manager may have no control. An example would be the delivery of a product required by this project from another project. The delivery of each external product represents a risk.
Dependencies on the delivery of information (such as awaiting a decision from the Programme Sub-Committee) or services external to the project can also be regarded as external dependencies.
External dependencies should be listed and briefly described here.]
An external dependency exists when the project is dependent on the delivery of a product, information or services from an external source over which the Project Manager may have no control. The items required by this project from other sources are listed in the table below.
Items Required by This Project
ID / Project Name / Dependency Description / Date Raised / Required By DateOther Projects Dependent on This Project
[It is also possible that another project will be dependent on a product (or information) from this project.]
The projects that are dependent on deliverables (or information) from this project are listed in the table overleaf.
Other Projects Dependent on This Project
ID / Project Name / Dependency Description / Date Raised / Required By DatePlanning Assumptions
[List any assumptions upon which the plan is based.]
Project Plan
[The technique of product-based planning, though not essential, is recommended, particularly for new developments. It can be used for all levels of plan required in a project, including the Project Plan. The technique involves three steps:
· Producing a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
· Writing Product Descriptions
· Producing a Product Flow Diagram (PFD)
Following these steps:
The plan’s activities and dependencies should be identified
The resources and time required to complete each activity are estimated
The plan’s schedule is produced.
If the technique of product-based planning is used, MS Visio should be used to draw the PBS and PFD diagrams. The standard template should be used to provide the Product Descriptions. MS Project should be used to capture details of the project’s activities and produce the project schedule.
The process outlined above can be used to produce the information required for the following sections.
If the technique of product-based planning is not used, this should be stated in this section, with details of alternative planning technique used.]
Project Level Gantt Chart with Identified Management Stages
[The Gantt chart from MS Project should be reproduced here. It is not sufficient to merely attach the MS Project file. This should show the start date and end date of each activity and the project’s major milestones in a Gantt chart.
For clarity, the project’s management stages should be listed in a separate table showing the planned start and end date of each stage.]
Task / Start Date / End Date / No. of WeeksInitiation Stage
Delivery Stage 1
Delivery Stage 2
Delivery Stage 3
etc
Project Level Product Breakdown Structure
[The Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) is a hierarchical diagram showing the various products and sub-products required to produce the final deliverable of the project. An example PBS is shown below:
Higher level boxes must be completely defined by the lower level boxes to which they are attached. Each of the boxes should be decomposed until an appropriate level of detail has been reached, where all project products have been fully defined.
The full PBS for the specialist products should be reproduced here. For management products, this section should refer to Project Management Guidance document.
If the technique of product-based planning is not used, this section should be left blank]
Project Level Product Flow Diagrams
[The Product Flow Diagram shows the sequence of development of the products and dependencies between them. It also identifies dependencies on any products outside the scope of the plan. The PFD precedes the identification of activities and the production of the plan’s schedule. It is helpful to illustrate the stage boundaries on the PFD.
If the technique of product-based planning is not used, this section should be left blank]
Project Level Product Descriptions
[A Product Description is a description of a product’s purpose, composition, derivation and quality criteria. It should be produced at planning time, as soon as the need for the product is identified. A Product Description should be written for each significant non-standard product using the Product Description template below. It is not necessary to write product descriptions for the standard products (both management and specialist) unless there are changes to them.
Note that product descriptions are required in all cases, even if the technique of product-based planning has not been used.]
Product Description [one for each product]
Project Name / <Name of project>Identifier / 001 [onwards]
Version No.
Product / <Name of product>
Purpose / <A brief description of the purpose of the product>
Composition / <What does the product comprise of>
Derivation / <From what is the product derived>
Format and Presentation
Allocated to / <Who will deliver the product>
Quality Criteria / <What are the quality criteria for the product>
Quality Method / <what method(s) will be used to asses if quality criteria have been met>
Review/approval/authorisation process
Name/role / Responsibility / Elapsed time
Review
Approval / Senior Users
Senior Suppliers
Authorisation / Project Executive
© ProjectTemplates® – Project Templates
Product Checklist & Quality Log
[This is a deliverable-focussed tabular form of the Project Level Activity Network (Network Diagram view in MS Project), providing a simplified view of progress. It is the baseline version of a working document to be maintained throughout the project and is a useful basis for project highlight reports.
The Product Checklist can be derived from the Product Breakdown Structure (if produced) and Product Descriptions in sections 6.2 and 6.4. and incorporates the Product Quality Log].
Product Quality Log / Project IdQuality Check
Product name / Ref. No / Method of quality checking / Responsible Name/Role / Planned
check date / Actual check date / Result / Number of Actions / Planned signoff date / Actual signoff
date
© ProjectTemplates® – Project Templates
Summary Costs by Month
[The following summary tables should be reproduced as included in the Project Cost Addendum.]
Project Cost Summary (£k) / Total / Month 1 / Month 2 / Month 3 / Month 4 / Month 5 / etcInitiation
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
GRAND TOTAL (Excl VAT)
VAT @ 17.5%
TOTAL (Incl VAT)
Project Cost Summary (£k) / Total / Month 1 / Month 2 / Month 3 / Month 4 / Month 5 / etc
Third Party 1 Core
Third Party 1 Variable
Third Party 2 Core
Third Party 2 Variable
Third Party 3 Core
Third Party 3 Variable
Expenses
Contingency remaining
GRAND TOTAL (Excl VAT)
VAT @ 17.5%
TOTAL (Incl VAT)
[Add rows in the tables above as necessary.]
Requested/Assigned Specific Resources
[Specific resources that are requested or assigned to the project should be identified here.]
© ProjectTemplates® – Project Templates