plan

Line-by-line Instructions

What are the business problem, scope, and goal of this project?
Normally, the project idea is described in the proposal. This document simply links to it.
Customization: if you are not using the propsal template, copy and paste relevant prompts and sample answers from that template here and remove the link.
Who will sponsor, manage, and lead the project?
Explicitly state the names of the people who are responsible for the success of this project.
What authority does the project manager have?
Consider the sample list of project manager areas of authority. Edit the list to fit your project. If the project manager does not have the authority to do what is needed, then the manager must request more authority, negotiate with others who have the authority, or scale back the scope of the project.
What planning lessons were learned in previous releases?
State some of the lessons learned in planning past releases or similar past projects. Explicitly stating these lessons here will help avoid repeating past mistakes.
How is this project plan organized?
The sample text should be reusable on most projects.
Customization: if you customize the plan template, you may wish to update this paragraph.
What are the most important facts that a project stakeholder should know about this plan?
Briefly highlight the most important things that a project stakeholder should know about your project plan. Focus on managing the expectations of project stakeholders who might otherwise misunderstand the project plan.
What general development approach will be used?
Name and briefly describe the software development method that you will use on this project. If you have the software development methodology template, read it for ideas and reusable sample text. The following prompts ask you to describe more specific parts of the methodology.
How will the project team be organized?
List the groups within the overall project team, and the people in each group.
What development and collaboration tools will be use?
List the tools that you will use during this development cycle. If there is a tool that you want to use, you may need to plan time for acquisition, installation, and training.
How will changes be controlled?
Change control is key to actually finishing a project. Consider the sample change control mechanisms, then add, edit, or delete them to fit your development process.
How will this plan be updated?
Plans will always change over the course of the project. Changes that are not recorded as changes to the plan document can lead to uncoordinated efforts. It is important to explicitly identify the person resposible for updating the plan document and explicitly commit to the change notification process.
Planning Goals
Project planning can be viewed as a system of goals with different degrees of flexibility. For example, you might say that quality must be exactly as specified, whereas schedule could vary somewhat. The prioritizaton of these planning goals will help to guide individual management decisions later in the project. E.g., should we ship this release with a particular known defect or take the time to fix the defect?
Work Breakdown Structure and Estimates
Consider the sample list of tasks in the template. Add, edit, or delete tasks to fit your project. If you cannot confidently estimate the duration of a task, try to break it down into smaller parts. Consult with the person who is likely to actually work on the task when making estimates.
Deliverables in this Release
List the develerables that will be produced during this release cycle. Include both external and internal deliverables. Manage the delivery dates by giving specific dates when possible, or ranges of dates, or dates that are relative to milestones. E.g., the userguide will be ready 10 days after the application has been handed off to the QA group.
Schedule for this Release
Use this grid to plan the number of hours needed for each task in each week. Keep in mind the dependencies between tasks and the availablity of each resource.
Customization: you may wish to use a spreadsheet or MS project plan instead of this table. In that case, you may still find the reusable sample text useful in that format.
Risk Management
Project risks are listed on the risk management worksheet.
If you are not using the risk management worksheet, read that worksheet to understand common project risks and then simply list relevant risks in this section.
Project Planning Checklist
Use this checklist to help check your work on the project plan. Any question that cannot be answered positively may indicate that you should revise the plan until you are satisfied.

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