What’s in Your Plan? The Contents of a Project Plan

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.
~ Peter Drucker

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The contents of a project plan document is not a mystery to a project manager. In the past, I’ve focused on the problem statement, scope statement, and deliverables related to projects. You can find that article here. Here, I’m going to answer the question – what else do I put in the plan?

First of all, when I create a plan it’s a document that summarizes the supporting plans. Just so you know what I’m thinking of. Your plan might look different.

If you go to your PMBOK, you’ll find an entire process group of project management dedicated to planning. And it is true that much of a project manager’s job is to create and execute the plan. We already know that the plan contains a problem statement, a scope statement, and deliverables related to the project. What are the other typical contents of a project plan?

We already know that the plan contains a problem statement, a scope statement, and deliverables related to the project. What are the other typical contents of a project plan?

It’s going to be different for each project (you knew I was going to say that!). But, for most projects, the sections that I include are below.

Human Resources and Assignments

This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. List your team and any other individuals that are playing roles on the team. I make a table that includes the number of hours per week dedicated to the project, what role they are playing on the project and the deliverable they or their team is delivering.

This can be done no matter what size project you’re working on. If you know this, and the managers and sponsor know who is on the team and what they are responsible for, it less likely to have conflicts.

Summary Schedule

At the beginning of the project when you’re pulling together this plan, most project managers have some idea of their timelines. The reality is that when the project is assigned, most managers give a date by which the project needs to be finished.  This is not how you’re taught to determine schedules, but it’s what most folks have.

Look at your final date and work backward. Get the big stuff estimated and put a date to it.

Just to let you know, I would only put two or three dates here. The major milestones. The odds are these dates are going to change so be careful what you use.

Overall Budget

This is also usually handed to the PM by the management. In my experience, your human resources are not part of the budget – employees are there regardless. If you’re going to be ordering supplies, parts, or contractors your budget is probably already a given.

As a PM, I’d try to make sure there is a contingency of at least 20%. That may seem high, but the managers assigning this project probably really don’t know what it’s going to take so it’s best to have a slush fund.

Maybe your managers are great at knowing project costs. Lucky you!

Again, keep this at a summary level. Put the totals in with some of the bigger expenses called out. Keep it simple.

Risk Management Plan

Risk management plans were always my favorite. Weird, I know.

Get your core team in a room and start brainstorming everything that could go wrong. I always had a few standards – management changes, the budgets are slashed, company changes direction. If your folks are good, they’ll know what they are concerned about.

I did probability matrices. They work well in a group and on the whiteboard.

If you need more information on risk matrices, check out this video.

They also look good in Powerpoint presentations.

Communication Plan

You need a communication plan. Again, I use a table that includes the audience, how often I’m going to talk with them and how. So, when the project affects the whole company, the audience is employee base, the time frame is monthly, and method is an article in the company newsletter. Easy enough!

Need a start on a communication plan? Go Get your copy!

I’m sure there are other folks that would argue there are many other subordinate plans to include in the contents of the project plan. And they’d be right. For me, these are usually the most important. What about your projects? What do you include?

Would you like a copy of this blog post? Get your copy!