Free template
A free project plan template covering scope, milestones, a phased schedule, resources, budget and governance, with notes on what makes a plan believable.
By Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
A note before you start
A project plan is a promise about time and money, so the first test is whether the people doing the work believe it. Build it with them, show the critical path and the assumptions underneath it, and keep a baseline so you can see drift early. A plan that only the project manager understands will be wrong within a month.
Christopher Fagan, Managing Partner, PEF Consulting Partners
Start with the outcome and the scope, then the milestones the business cares about, then the phases and tasks that get you there. Put an owner and dependencies on every task, mark the critical path and record the assumptions the dates rely on. Save a baseline once the plan is approved and report progress against it, not against the latest version. If you want a Gantt chart, build the task list here first and paste it into Excel or your scheduling tool.
[Organisation name] | Version 0.1 | [Date] | Owner: [Name, role]
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project name | |
| Sponsor | |
| Project manager | |
| Objective (one sentence) | |
| Start and target end dates | |
| Budget | |
| Link to business case |
| In scope | Out of scope |
|---|---|
| Milestone | Target date | Owner | Acceptance criteria | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan approved | ||||
| Design signed off | ||||
| Build complete | ||||
| Testing complete | ||||
| Go live | ||||
| Project closed |
Phases and tasks, with dependencies and the critical path marked.
| ID | Phase or task | Owner | Start | End | Depends on | Critical path | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Name | Allocation (%) | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost line | Budget | Committed | Forecast | Variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal people | ||||
| External consultancy | ||||
| Software and licences | ||||
| Infrastructure | ||||
| Contingency | ||||
| Total |
| Assumption or constraint | Impact if wrong | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Forum | Frequency | Chair | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steering committee | Monthly | Sponsor | Decisions, escalations and tolerances |
| Project board | Fortnightly | Project manager | Progress, risks and issues |
| Workstream meetings | Weekly | Workstream leads | Delivery and dependencies |
Template by PEF Consulting Partners, pefconsultingpartners.co.uk. Free to use and adapt.
Related reading: the project charter template, the RAID log template, the project status report template, the ERP implementation plan guide.
The objective and scope, milestones, a schedule of phases and tasks with owners and dependencies, resources, budget, assumptions and constraints, and how the project will be governed and reported.
The charter authorises the project and sets its purpose, scope, budget and tolerances in a page or two. The plan is the working document that shows how and when the work will be done.
Detailed enough that each task has one owner and takes no more than a few weeks, and no more detailed than you will keep up to date. Plan the next stage in detail and later stages at milestone level.
A saved copy of the approved plan. Reporting against the baseline shows how far dates and costs have moved, which the latest version of the plan hides.
If the plan has been rebaselined twice and the go live date still feels like a guess, it is worth an independent look before the next commitment is made.