We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

  • Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

  • Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

  • Google Tag Manager
  • Infographics
  • Daily Infographics
  • Graphic Design
  • Graphs and Charts
  • Data Visualization
  • Human Resources
  • Training and Development
  • Beginner Guides

Blog Marketing

How to Write a Project Management Plan [4 Examples]

By Midori Nediger , Dec 11, 2023

Project Management Plan Blog Header

Have you ever been part of a project that didn’t go as planned?

It doesn’t feel good.

Wasted time, wasted resources. It’s pretty frustrating for everyone involved.

That’s why it’s so important to create a comprehensive project management plan   before your project gets off the ground.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to create and design a successful project management plan.

We’ll also showcase easy-to-customize project plan templates you can create today with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. Let’s get started!

  Click to jump ahead:

What is a project management plan?

What are the 5 stages of a project management plan, what are the 7 components of a project management plan, 5 things you need to know before creating a project management plan, how do you write a project plan, the takeaway: project plan best practices.

A project management plan is a formal document that defines how a project is going to be carried out by outlining the scope, goals, budget, timeline and deliverables of a project. Its crucial role lies in ensuring the project stays on course.

You write a project plan  during the project planning stage of the  project life cycle , and it must be approved by stakeholders before a project can move on the execution stage.

If some of these terms are new to you, you can get up to speed with this post on project management terms . 

This means your project plan must be engaging, organized, and thorough enough to gain the support of your stakeholders.

project plan assignment example

Further Reading : New to project management? Read our blog post on the 4 stages of the project life cycle .

The importance of a project management plan

A well-developed project management plan sets the foundation for a successful project by providing a roadmap that guides the project team toward successful project completion. A good project management plan can ensure that:

  • Project objectives and goals are clearly defined and understood
  • Project scope is effectively managed
  • Resources are allocated efficiently to maximize productivity and minimize waste
  • Risks are identified, assessed and mitigated
  • Project tasks and activities are well-organized and executed in a timely manner.
  • Communication among team members , stakeholders and project sponsors is effective and transparent
  • Changes to the project are properly evaluated, approved and implemented
  • Lessons learned and best practices are documented for future reference and improvement
  • Stakeholders are engaged and satisfied with the project outcomes
  • The project is delivered within the specified timeline, budget and quality standards

The Project Management Institute (PMI) outlines five key stages of the project management plan, which are commonly known as the project management process groups. These stages provide a framework for managing projects effectively. The five stages are as follows:

Initiation: This is the first stage of the project management plan. It involves identifying and defining the project’s purpose, objectives and scope.

Planning: In the planning stage, detailed plans are developed to guide the execution and control of the project. This includes defining project deliverables, developing a project schedule, estimating resources and costs, identifying risks and creating a comprehensive project management plan.

Execution: The execution stage involves putting the project plan into action. Project tasks are performed, resources are allocated and project team members work towards achieving project objectives.

Monitoring and Control: During this stage, project progress is regularly monitored and actual performance is compared against planned performance. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are tracked, and necessary adjustments are made to keep the project on track. This stage involves assessing risks, addressing issues and changes and ensuring that project objectives are being met.

Closure: The closure stage marks the end of the project. It involves finalizing all project activities, completing any remaining deliverables, obtaining client or stakeholder approval,and formally closing out the project. Lessons learned are documented and a project review is conducted to identify areas for improvement in future projects.

It’s important to note that these stages are iterative, and project management is often an ongoing process. Throughout the project lifecycle, project managers may need to revisit and adjust plans based on changing circumstances and new information.

Before you start assembling your own plan, you should be familiar with the main components of a typical project plan .

A project management plan should include the following sections:

  • Executive Summary: A short description of the contents of the report
  • Project Scope & Deliverables: An outline of the boundaries of the project, and a description of how the project will be broken down into measurable deliverables
  • Project Schedule: A high-level view of project tasks and milestones ( Gantt charts are handy for this)
  • Project Resources: The budget, personnel, and other resources required to meet project goals
  • Risk and Issue Management Plan: A list of factors that could derail the project and a plan for how issues will be identified, addressed, and controlled
  • Communication Management Plan: A plan for how team and stakeholder communication will be handled over the course of the project
  • Cost and Quality Management Plan: This section encompasses the project’s budget, cost estimation,and cost control mechanisms. It also includes quality assurance and control measures as well as any testing or verification activities to be performed.

Basically, a project plan should tell stakeholders what needs to get done, how it will get done, and when it will get done.

That said, one size doesn’t fit all. Every project management plan must be tailored to the specific industry and circumstances of the project. You can use a project management app for smoother project planning.

For example, this marketing plan looks client facing. It is tailored to sell the client on the agency:

project plan assignment example

Whereas this commercial development plan focuses on specific objectives and a detailed timeline:

Light Commercial Development Project Management Plan Template

With those basics out of the way, let’s get into some tips for creating a project management plan that’s as engaging as it is professional.

Further Reading : If you’re looking to create a proposal, read our in-depth business proposal guide. Then try our job proposal templates or business proposal templates .

Before diving into creating a project management plan, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the project objectives and the expectations of stakeholders involved.

Without a firm grasp of these fundamental elements, your project may face significant challenges or fail to deliver the desired outcomes.

Here are key points to consider when creating a project management plan:

  • Project Objectives: Clearly understand the project objectives and what you want to achieve. Identify the desired outcomes, deliverables and the purpose of the project.
  • Scope of the Project: Determine the boundaries and extent of the project. Define what is included and excluded to ensure clarity and prevent scope creep .
  • Stakeholders: Identify all stakeholders who will be impacted by or have an interest in the project. Understand their needs, expectations and level of involvement.
  • Resources: Assess the resources required to execute the project successfully. This includes human resources, budget, equipment and materials. Determine their availability and allocation.
  • Risks and Constraints: Identify potential risks, uncertainties and constraints that may affect the project. Understand the challenges, limitations and potential obstacles that need to be addressed.

Now that you have these key areas identified, let’s get started with creating your project plan!

To write a successful project plan, follow these 5 steps below to create an effective project plan that serves as a valuable tool for project management:

1. Highlight the key elements of your project plan in an executive summary  

An executive summary is a brief description of the key contents of a project plan .

I t’s usually the first thing stakeholders will read, and it should act like a Cliff’s-notes version of the whole plan.

It might touch on a project’s value proposition, goals, deliverables, and important milestones, but it has to be concise (it is a summary, after all). First, make sure you develop a proof of concept .

In this example, an executive summary can be broken into columns to contrast the existing problem with the project solution:

project plan assignment example

The two-column format with clear headers helps break up the information, making it extremely easy to read at a glance.

Here’s another example of a project management plan executive summary. This one visually highlights key takeaways with big fonts and helpful icons:

project plan assignment example

In this case, the highlighted facts and figures are particularly easy to scan (which is sure to make your stakeholders happy).

But your executive summary won’t always be so simple.

For larger projects, your executive summary will be longer and more detailed.

This project management plan template has a text-heavy executive summary, though the bold headers and different background colors keep it from looking overwhelming:

Green Stripes Project Management Plan Template

It’s also a good idea to divide it up into sections, with a dedicated header for each section:

project plan assignment example

Regardless of how you organize your executive summary, it should give your stakeholders a preview of what’s to come in the rest of the project management plan.

2. Plot your project schedule visually with a Gantt chart

A carefully planned project schedule is key to the success of any project. Without one, your project will likely crumble into a mess of missed deadlines, poor team management, and scope creep.

Luckily, project planning tools like Gantt charts and project timelines make creating your project schedule easy. You can visually plot each project task, add major milestones, then look for any dependencies or conflicts that you haven’t accounted for.

For example, this Gantt chart template outlines high-level project activities over the course of an entire quarter, with tasks color-coded by team:

project plan assignment example

A high-level roadmap like the one above is probably sufficient for your project management plan. Every team will be able to refer back to this timeline throughout the project to make sure they’re on track.

But before project kickoff, you’ll need to dig in and break down project responsibilities by individual team member, like in this Gantt chart example:

project plan assignment example

In the later execution and monitoring phases of the project, you’ll thank yourself for creating a detailed visual roadmap that you can track and adjust as things change.

You can also use a project management tool to keep your team organized.

Further Reading:   Our post featuring  Gantt chart examples  and more tips on how to use them for project management.

3. Clarify the structure of your project team with a team org chart

One of the hardest aspects of project planning is assembling a team and aligning them to the project vision.

And aligning your team is all about communication–communicating the project goals, communicating stakeholder requests, communicating the rationale behind big decisions…the list goes on.

This is where good project documentation is crucial! You need to create documents that your team and your stakeholders can access when they have questions or need guidance.

One easy thing to document visually is the structure of your team, with an organizational chart like this one:

project plan assignment example

In an organizational chart you should include some basic information like team hierarchy and team member contact information. That way your stakeholders have all of the information they need at their fingertips.

But in addition to that, you can indicate the high-level responsibilities of each team member and the channels of communication within the team (so your team knows exactly what they’re accountable for).

Here’s another simple organizational structure template that you can use as a starting point:

project plan assignment example

Create an organizational chart with our organizational chart maker .

4. Organize project risk factors in a risk breakdown structure

A big part of project planning is identifying the factors that are likely to derail your project, and coming up with plans and process to deal with those factors. This is generally referred to as risk management .

The first step in coming up with a risk management plan is to list all of the factors at play, which is where a risk breakdown structure comes in handy. A risk breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of project risks, organized by category.

This risk breakdown structure template, for example, shows project risk broken down into technical risk, management risk, and external risk:

project plan assignment example

Once you’ve constructed your risk breakdown structure, you’ll be ready to do a deep dive into each risk (to assess and plan for any triggers and outcomes).

Streamline your workflow with business process management software .

5. Plan ahead: create project status reports to communicate progress to stakeholders

As I mentioned earlier, communication is fundamental in any project.

But even so, something that’s often overlooked by project managers is a communication management plan–a plan for how the project team is going to communicate with project stakeholders . Too often, project communication defaults to ad-hoc emails or last-minute meetings.

You can avoid this by planning ahead. Start with a project kickoff meeting and include a project status report template as part of your communication plan.

Here’s an example of a simple project status report that you might send to stakeholders on a weekly basis:

project plan assignment example

This type of report is invaluable for communicating updates on project progress. It shows what you’ve accomplished in a clear, consistent format, which can help flag issues before they arise, build trust with your stakeholders , and makes it easy to reflect on project performance once you’ve reached your goals.

You might also want to include a broader status report for bigger updates on a monthly or quarterly basis, like this one:

project plan assignment example

The above template allows you to inform stakeholders of more major updates like new budget requirements, revised completion dates, and project performance ratings.

You can even include visualization of up-to-date project milestones, like this example below:

project plan assignment example

Want more tips on creating visuals to enhance your communications? Read our visual communication guide for businesses . 

4 Project management plan examples

A project management plan is probably the most important deliverable your stakeholders will receive from you (besides the project itself).

It holds all of the information that stakeholders will use to determine whether your project moves forward or gets kicked to the curb.

That’s why it’s a good idea to start with a project management plan template. Using a template can help you organize your information logically and ensure it’s engaging enough to hold your stakeholders’ attention.

Construction bid proposal template

Your construction bid proposal is probably competing against several other bidders. So, it’s important to get it right.

Start with a meticulous project overview, like in the second page of this template:

project plan assignment example

Though you may think this project will be similar to others you’ve done in the past, it’s important to nail the details.

This will also help you understand the scope of work so you can estimate costs properly and arrive at a quote that’s neither too high or low. Ontario Construction News has great advice on this process.

Simple project management plan template

This simple project management plan template that clearly lays out all of the information your stakeholders will need:

project plan assignment example

Simple project management communication plan template

A key part of project management is making sure everyone’s in the loop. A project communication plan ensures everyone knows how, where, who and when the team will communicate during the course of the project. Also construction scheduling is a critical aspect of the project management plan as it helps to ensure that all necessary tasks are completed within the allocated time frame and budget.

The key is to figure out what kind of communications is valuable to stakeholders and what is simply overwhelming and won’t lead to better decisions.

This template clearly outlines all of these factors to help manage expectations and eliminate confusion about what will get communicated and when:

Simple Project Management Communication Plan Template

Commercial development project plan template

The below project management plan template is simple and minimal, but still uses a unique layout and simple visuals to create an easy-to-read, scannable project overview.

This template is perfect for building or construction management , or any technical projects:

Nordic Commercial Development Project Plan Template

When picking a project plan template, look for one that’s flexible enough to accommodate any changes your stakeholders might request before they’ll approve the project. You never know what might change in the early planning stages of the project! You can also use project management tools to help you with your planning!

  • Use headers, columns, and highlights to make your executive summary easy to read
  • Plot your project schedule with a Gantt chart (with tasks color-coded by department or team member)
  • Use visuals like organizational charts and risk breakdown structures to communicate across your team and with stakeholders
  • Pick a flexible template that you can update to align with stakeholder requests

Project Management Plan: Samples, Examples & Free Template

Learn how to create a project management plan that actually works and ensures you get your project over the line on time and on budget, with samples and examples

Table of Contents

What is a project management plan, what is a project management plan used for, what are the main elements of a project plan, how to write a project management plan, sample project management plan outline, using our project management plan template to build your project plan, project management plan: faq's.

A project management plan is a comprehensive document that outlines how a project will be executed, monitored, controlled and closed. For project managers and their teams, it's the ultimate toolkit for achieving their objectives while managing day-to-day pressures such as time, cost, scope, resourcing and risk. This guide outlines what a project management plan is used for, why it's important , and offers a step-by-step guide on how to make one that actually works.

Your project plan document is where you go deep on the ins, outs, overs, and unders of your project. It's where you break this vision down into the day-to-day execution of your project, covering everything you need to do to reach your project goals.

A detailed project plan will plot out everything from timelines to budget, resourcing to deliverables, and more, giving you a blueprint of what needs to be done (and when) that you can use to guide — and assess — your project.

The key components of a project management plan are:

Project Objectives

Scope Statement

Schedule Management

Cost Management

Resource Management

Communication Plan

Stakeholder Management

Procurement Management

Closure Criteria

Project Organization

Ready to get down to business? Here are 5 key things you need to do when writing a project plan.

1. Identify the baselines for your project

Before you begin writing a project plan, you need to make sure you have the basics down. Start by identifying the baselines for the project’s scope, schedule and cost, as the rest of your project planning will need to fit in around those constraints.

As mentioned above, these baselines should already be roughly outlined in your project charter — but here’s where you really start to map them out and create accurate estimates. And the more detailed, the better, because these are what you’ll be using for comparison to measure how your project performs.

2. Identify your project dependencies

Or in other words, ask yourself: what needs to happen before this other thing can happen? Identifying your project dependencies at the outset of your project means you can plan your timelines more efficiently, spot potential blockers, and ensure that you avoid unnecessary delays.

3. Identify project stakeholders

You’ll already have done the groundwork for this in your stakeholder analysis, but as you flesh out your project management plan and think through the phases of your project in more detail, you’ll likely start to find more project stakeholders at each phase.

Now is also a good time to go deeper on which stakeholders need to be informed and involved at which stages, for a more comprehensive stakeholder management plan you can use at each phase of your project.

4. Identify project milestones

What are the key markers of your project’s progress? It can be a concrete deliverable, the end of a phase in a stage-gate process — whatever milestones make sense to you, breaking your project down into manageable chunks, each with a defined goal, helps to keep the team motivated, allows you to celebrate each achievement, and signposts how the overall progress is coming along.  Learn more about using Milestones here .

planned vs actual milestones Teamwork

5. Identify who’s responsible for what

Once you start to get a big-picture understanding of the work that’s needed and the resources you have to complete it, you can start deciding who should do what. Giving each item an owner is essential to getting things done. No more “oh, was I supposed to do that?” — once you identify who’s responsible for what, you can ensure accountability and transparency.

The 5 Stages of Team Development

The 5 Stages of Team Development

All teams develop according to some natural patterns and using that knowledge, you can offer some guidance to build the kind of team that communicates well and finds better ways to collaborate and achieve the goals you’ve established. Here’s what you need to know.

Now let's go through a sample project plan. In the below example, we highlight the main sections of the plan and what needs to be included in each one to set your project up for success.

Section 1: Executive summary

The executive summary offers a concise overview of the entire project. It includes key highlights such as the project's purpose, objectives, scope, timeline, budget, and major stakeholders. It's often the first section stakeholders read to get a high-level understanding of the project.

Section 2: Project introduction

This section sets the stage by providing context and background information about the project. It explains why the project is being undertaken and introduces the main objectives and scope of the project.

Section 3: Project objectives

Here, the project's specific goals and objectives are outlined in detail. Objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to provide clarity and guidance.

Section 4: Project scope

The scope section defines what is included and excluded from the project. It helps prevent scope creep by establishing clear boundaries and also mentions any assumptions and constraints that may affect the project.

Section 5: Schedule management

This section details the project's timeline, including milestones and deadlines. It breaks down the project into tasks and identifies task dependencies. Often, visual representations like Gantt charts are used for clarity.

Section 6: Cost management

Here, the project budget is presented, including cost estimates for various project components. It may also outline cost control measures to ensure the project stays within budget.

Section 7: Quality management

This section focuses on the quality standards and objectives for the project. It describes quality control and assurance processes, as well as any inspection and testing procedures that will be implemented.

Project management template

Save time on setup without sacrificing attention to detail. With our project management template, you can quickly create project management plans that help you complete your project on time and on budget.

Section 8: Resource management

In this section, the project team is introduced, and roles and responsibilities are defined. It addresses resource allocation, scheduling, and, if applicable, procurement needs.

Section 9: Risk management

The risk management section identifies potential risks and uncertainties that could impact the project. It discusses risk assessment, prioritization, and mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of these risks.

Section 10: Communication plan

The communication plan outlines how project information will be shared with stakeholders and team members. It specifies communication methods, frequency, and reporting channels to ensure effective communication throughout the project.

Section 11: Stakeholder management

This section lists project stakeholders and analyzes their interests, influence, and expectations. It also outlines strategies for engaging and managing these stakeholders to ensure their needs are addressed.

Section 12: Procurement management

If procurement of goods or services is involved, this section explains the procurement strategy, vendor selection criteria, and how contracts will be managed.

Section 13: Change management

Change management procedures are detailed here, including how changes to the project scope, schedule, or other aspects will be requested, evaluated, approved, and communicated.

Section 14: Closure criteria

Criteria for determining when the project is complete and ready for closure are specified in this section. It may also include plans for project handover and post-project evaluation.

Section 15: Project organization

This section describes the project team's structure, roles, and responsibilities, ensuring everyone understands their positions and reporting lines. It may also mention external stakeholders and their roles if applicable.

Once you’ve documented your project management plan, bring it to life with a project management tool that will help you to stay on track, keep your team accountable, and promote transparency.

Here are 3 ways you can use Teamwork.com to supercharge your project management plan.

Add your supporting documentation to Teamwork Spaces

Spaces

Use the Teamwork.com and Teamwork Spaces integration to link a project in Teamwork.com with a space in Teamwork Spaces, so your important project documents are only ever a click away.

Some documents you might want to add in addition to your project charter and project management plan include:

Scoping documents

Risk assessments

Change management plans

SOPs for important project processes

List of stakeholders and their roles

Outline of approval processes

Communications management plan

Any other best practices documentation or supporting info as necessary

You can even embed task lists into your pages and mark tasks as complete right from Teamwork Spaces, so you can keep work flowing without even needing to switch tabs.

Start adding your Milestones

Break down your work into Milestones and task lists that are going to help you reach them. With Teamwork.com, you can assign an owner to each Milestone, map out your Milestone due dates and see them represented in the project calendar, and even get a full change history for milestones so you can track any edits.

Visualize your task dependencies with a Gantt chart

Gantt chart-style views are a useful way to get a visual representation of your tasks and their dependencies, allowing for better scheduling and resourcing. In Teamwork.com, you can drag and drop to quickly rearrange your project schedule , without throwing everything out of order or straying off-plan.

Remember: software should support the way you work, not dictate it. So regardless of methodology or team type, create a project plan that works for you and your team — and find a tool that helps you put it into action.

Use our project plan template

Now that you know how to create a project management plan that actually works, you’re ready to implement using our team management software . To help you get up and running quickly, we’ve created a ready to use project plan template . Our project template will help you quickly create project plans that ensure all of your projects are completed on time and on budget

What is a project management plan template?

A project management plan template is a pre-designed framework that provides a structured format for creating a project management plan. It serves as a starting point for project managers and teams to develop their specific project plans, saving time and ensuring that key project management components are properly addressed.

How can a template help you build a great project management plan?

A template can help you build a great project management plan by saving time, ensuring comprehensive coverage of project management aspects, and incorporating industry best practices and visual aids for clarity. They also support collaboration, version control, and customization to fit the unique needs of each project, making them a valuable tool for project managers in achieving successful project outcomes.

What is the main purpose of a project management plan?

The main purpose of a project management plan is to provide a comprehensive and structured roadmap for successfully executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing a project. It serves as a central document that outlines project objectives, scope, schedule, budget, quality standards, resource allocation, risk management strategies, and communication approaches.

What tools do I need to help manage a project plan?

To effectively manage a project plan, you'll need a set of tools and software that cover various aspects of project management. These include project management software, communication and collaboration platforms, file and document management solutions, time and task tracking apps, and budgeting and financial management tools.

What steps are involved in the project planning process?

The steps involved in the project planning process include defining specific project objectives and scope, identifying deliverables and key milestones, budgets, risk assessment and quality control measures. It should also include a communication plan and stakeholder engagement strategies.

You may also like...

project plan assignment example

Get started with Teamwork.com

Start working together beautifully. See how Teamwork.com can help your team with our 30-day free trial.

Run and collaborate on creative projects more smoothly.

Plan, manage, and track product launches and campaigns.

Stay organized and communicate critical details to teams.

Streamline and scale manufacturing operations.

project plan assignment example

See how TeamGantt helps teams like yours meet deadlines, streamline communication.

project plan assignment example

Successful marketing project starts with a plan.

Track event details and to-dos.

Scope out roadmaps and manage backlogs.

Manage design, copy, and video work.

Learn all about gantt charts and how to use them to manage projects more easily.

Hear real testimonials from real TeamGantt customers.

An image of the TeamGantt gantt chart.

How to Create a Realistic Project Plan with Templates & Examples

project plan assignment example

As a project manager, a huge part of your role is to write project plans that help you keep projects on track. But that’s not all a project plan should do. 

A project plan is arguably the most important document you’ll create for a project. At its core, a plan should communicate your project approach and the process your team will use to manage the project according to scope.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can develop a rock-solid planning process that guides your team and projects to success.

What is a project plan?

Project plan example: what to include, why you should always write a project plan, 5 steps to an effective project planning process, how to create a project plan in teamgantt, free project plan templates.

A project plan is a document that maps out the tasks, effort, timing, and resources needed to meet project goals within a predefined scope. It’s often presented in the form of a gantt chart because it’s easy to visualize the project timeline and ensure work stays on track.

Any solid project management plan should answer the following questions:

  • What are the major deliverables?
  • How will we get to those deliverables and the deadline?
  • Who’s on the project team, and what role will they play in those deliverables?
  • Which stakeholders need to provide feedback on deliverables, and when?
  • When will the team meet milestones?

A project plan communicates this information in a simple, straightforward way so everyone clearly understands the objectives and how they contribute to project success. It may also be accompanied by other planning documents, such as a project charter , risk assessment , or communication plan .

While no two project plans are alike, they all share the same common building blocks. Be sure to include the following components in any project plan you create:

  • Project tasks : A detailed list of work to be done organized by project phase, process step, or work group
  • Project schedule : A visual timeline of task start dates, durations, and deadlines, with clear progress indicators
  • Key milestones : Major events, dates, decisions, and deliverables used for tracking forward progress
  • Dependencies : A line connecting tasks that need to happen in a certain order
  • Resources : Assignments that indicate the person or team responsible for completing a task

Here’s a simple example of what a project plan looks like with these basic elements highlighted:

An example of a project plan in gantt chart format with the following components highlighted: project tasks, project schedule, key milestones, dependencies, and resources.

Some people don’t understand the power of a good project plan. If you feel pressured to skip the plan and jump right into the work, remind your team and stakeholders that having a plan benefits everyone by making it easier to:

  • Build consensus before work begins : A detailed project plan ensures everyone has a clear understanding of—and agrees on—the overall process, scope, staffing, and even communications from the outset. That goes a long way in keeping project confusion and pop-up requests from gumming up the works.
  • Avoid scheduling conflicts : Project plans enable you to organize tasks so it’s clear who's responsible for what and when. If your team is juggling multiple projects, you can cross-reference other plans to see who’s available to take on new work before committing to a timeline.
  • Monitor project goals and scope : When new tasks creep in, it’s easy to lose sight of the original objectives. Spelling out the work you need to complete in a time-based plan keeps project goals front and center so you can ensure project scope stays intact.  ‍
  • Hold your team and stakeholders accountable : A good project plan sets expectations around the process and pacing you'll follow each step of the way. When plans are shared with teams and stakeholders, it keeps folks honest about what is—or isn’t—happening and forces you to resolve issues in a timely way.

Poor planning can lead to some pretty ugly consequences—from missed deadlines and budget overages to team burnout and client frustration. That’s why it’s important to establish a solid process you can use to plan any project. 

Planning a project doesn’t have to be difficult. These basic project planning steps can help you write a plan that’s both realistic and on target.

A chart that outlines 5 steps of the project planning process: 1. Discover & define; 2. Outline & draft; 3. Formalize & format; 4. Present & confirm; 5. Execute & adjust

  • Start with project discovery & definition
  • Draft a rough outline of your plan
  • Formalize your project management plan
  • Present & confirm your plan
  • Execute your plan & adjust as needed

Step 1: Start with project discovery and definition

A project plan is more than a dry document with dates. It’s the story of your project, and you don’t want it to be a tall tale! So make sure you know all the facts before you start creating a project plan.

Understand the project scope and value

Understanding the ins and outs of the project will help you determine the best process and identify any snags that might get in the way of success. Conduct your own research to dig deeper on:

  • Project goals and outcomes
  • Partnerships and outlying dependencies
  • Potential issues and risks

Review the scope of work , and dive into any documents or communications relevant to the project (maybe an RFP or notes from sales calls or client meetings). Be thorough in your research to uncover critical project details, and ask thoughtful questions before you commit to anything. 

Interview key stakeholders

If you want to dazzle stakeholders with a stellar project delivery, you’ve got to know how they work and what they expect. Schedule time with your main project contact, and ask them some tough questions about process, organizational politics, and general risks before creating a project plan. 

This will give project stakeholders confidence that your team has the experience to handle any difficult personality or situation. It also shows you care about the success of the project from the start.

Be sure to discuss these things with your stakeholders:

  • Product ownership and the decision-making process
  • Stakeholder interest/involvement levels
  • Key outages, meetings, deadlines, and driving factors
  • Related or similar projects, goals, and outcomes
  • The best way to communicate with partners and stakeholders

See a list of sample interview questions to ask stakeholders so you can develop better project plans.

Get to know your team

The last step in the research phase is to take time to learn more about the people who’ll be responsible for the work. Sit down with your team and get to know their:

  • Collaboration and communication styles
  • Availability and workload

Understanding these basics about your team will help you craft a thoughtful plan that takes their work styles and bandwidth into consideration. After all, a happy team delivers better projects.

Step 2: Draft a rough outline of your plan

Now that you’ve gathered the basic project details, the next step is to knock out a rough draft of your plan. Take some time to think about the discussions you had in the pre-planning phase and the approach your team might take to meet the project goals.

Sketch out the main components of your project plan

Sit down with a pen and paper (or a whiteboard), and outline how the project should work at a high level. Be sure you have a calendar close by to check dates.

If you’re at a loss for where to begin, start with the who, what, when, and how of the project. A first outline can be very rough and might look something like a work breakdown structure . Make sure your project outline includes the following components:

  • Deliverables and the tasks required to create them
  • Your client’s approval process
  • Timeframes associated with tasks/deliverables
  • Ideas on resources needed for tasks/deliverables
  • A list of the assumptions you’re making in the plan
  • A list of absolutes as they relate to the project budget and/or deadlines

Considering these elements will help you avoid surprises—or at least minimize them. And remember, you’re doing this as a draft so you can use it as a conversation-starter for your team. It’s not final yet!

Get input from your team on process, effort, and timing

You don’t want to put yourself or your team in an awkward position by not coming to a consensus on the approach before presenting it to your client. That's why a project manager can’t be the only one writing a project plan.

Once you’ve created a basic project outline, take those rough ideas and considerations to your team. This enables you to invite discussion about what might work rather than simply dictating a process. After all, every project must begin with clear communication of the project goals and the effort required to meet them. 

Be sure to get input from your team on how they can complete the tasks at hand without killing the budget and the team’s morale. As a project manager, you can decide on Agile vs. Waterfall approaches , but when it comes down to it, you need to know that the team can realistically execute the plan.

You can also use this review time to question your own thinking and push the team to take a new approach to the work. For example, if you’re working on a digital product, could designers start creating visual concepts while the wireframes are being developed? Or can you have two resources working on the same task at once?

Running ideas by the team and having an open dialogue about the approach not only helps you build a more accurate project plan. It gets everyone thinking about the project in the same terms. This type of buy-in and communication builds trust and gets people excited about working together to solve a goal. It can work wonders for the greater good of your team and project.

Step 3: Formalize your project management plan

You should feel comfortable enough at this point to put together a rock-solid project schedule using whatever tool works for you. 

Build out a detailed project schedule that’s easy to read

Any good online project planning tool will help you formalize your thoughts and lay them out in a consistent, visual format that’s easy to follow and track. (Ahem, TeamGantt works nicely for a lot of happy customers. ) 

Make sure tasks have clear start and end dates so there’s no question when work needs to happen to hit project deadlines. Organize work into phases, and use labels and/or color-coding to improve scannability. The easier your project plan is to understand at a glance, the better!

See how to create a project plan in TeamGantt

Consider how your team likes to work

Be as flexible as possible when it comes to how your project plan is presented. There's no absolute when it comes to how to format your plan as long as you and your team understand what goes into one.

Remember, people absorb information differently. While you might be partial to a gantt chart, others might prefer to view tasks in a list, calendar, or even a kanban board. You can make all of those variations work if you’ve taken the steps to create a solid plan.

For example, here’s an Agile project plan we built that lists each sprint as its own task group with milestones for sprint planning and deployment.

Agile project plan example with 2 sprints scheduled on a timeline

And here’s what that same project plan looks like if you turn it into a kanban board in TeamGantt. Simply click the Board tab and set up your columns so your team can manage their daily workflows more easily.

Sample Agile project plan in a kanban board view with columns for to do, in progress, and done

If your team currently prefers spreadsheets and isn’t quite ready to use TeamGantt yet, try our free Excel gantt chart template .

Step 4: Present and confirm your plan

You’re almost finished! Now it’s time to do your due diligence. It’s easy to throw stuff in a plan, but you have to make sure you get it right.

Run your final plan by your internal team

Your team needs to know the reality of your plan as it stands after you’ve built it out in TeamGantt. And you want to be sure they’re comfortable committing to the details. If they don’t, things will quickly fall apart!

Always review your final plan with your team before delivering it to stakeholders. Why? Because things like dates and tasks—and even assignments—will shift as you formalize the rough sketch of your plan. 

Here are a few things you’ll want to discuss with your team as you review the final plan together:

  • Review times
  • Team work times
  • Dependencies
  • Time off, meetings, and milestones
  • The final deadline
  • Any assumptions you’ve made
  • Major changes since your last talk

There’s nothing more embarrassing than delivering a plan with an error or a promise you can’t keep. Taking a few minutes to get buy-in from your team will give everyone peace of mind about your plan.

Review your project plan with stakeholders

Once you’ve confirmed the plan with your team and have their full sign-off, you’re ready to share your project plan with stakeholders . 

When delivering your project plan, make sure you provide an executive summary. This might come in the form of a project brief . A short recap of the overall methodology, resources, assumptions, deadlines, and related review times will help you convey what the plan means to the project and everyone involved.

Project plans can be daunting, so schedule time to present your project plan to stakeholders at a high level. Here are some things you’ll want to point out about your plan during this review:

  • Overall process and pacing
  • Major deliverables and timing
  • The time they’ll have to review deliverables
  • Overall timing for task groups or phases
  • How far off you are from the deadline
  • Wiggle room on the final deadline

If a stakeholder is interested in the day-to-day details, feel free to walk them through the plan line by line. Otherwise, start by explaining overall sections or phases, and be sure to come back to your plan at intervals throughout the project to remind them of tasks, next steps, and overall progress.

Step 5: Execute your plan and adjust as needed

Some projects are smooth and easy to manage, and others are a complete nightmare that wake you up at 3 a.m. every other night. Thankfully, having a solid project plan is your best defense against project chaos once work gets underway.

Keep in mind that project plans are living documents. Projects change constantly, and someone has to stay on top of—and document—that change. Remember to:

  • Update your plan regularly as work progresses and things change
  • Communicate changes to your team, partners, and stakeholders
  • Monitor and communicate risks as your project evolves

Ready to plan your project in TeamGantt? Follow these easy steps to build a plan that’s structured well and includes the elements you need for project success.

1. Enter your basic project details.

To create a new project plan in TeamGantt, click the New Project button in the upper right corner of the My Projects screen. Then enter your project name and start date, and select the days of the week you want to include in your plan. Click Create New Project to move on to the next step.

Example of the project creation screen in TeamGantt

2. List out your project tasks and milestones.

Now the real planning fun begins! Enter all the different tasks it will take to get the job done. If there are any key meetings, deliverable deadlines, or approvals, add those as milestones in your project plan.

List of tasks organized into 2 task groups in a project plan

3. Organize tasks into subgroups. 

Scrolling through one long list of tasks can be mind-numbing, even to the best of us. Break tasks down into phases or sections to ensure your project plan is easy to read and understand. 

4. Add task durations and milestone dates to the project timeline.

A visual project plan makes it easy to see exactly what needs to get done by when. Make sure every task has a start and end date so nothing falls through the cracks. TeamGantt’s drag and drop feature makes this planning step quick and easy.

Example of TeamGantt's drag and drop scheduling for task durations

5. Connect related tasks with dependencies.

Adding dependencies between tasks ensures work gets done in the right order and also helps you plan for delay risks. If your plan shifts and you need to move tasks around, dependencies speed up the process.

Example of a dependency line connecting a task assigned to Peggy to a subsequent task assigned to Don

6. Assign responsible team members to tasks.

That way there’s no confusion about who’s doing what, and your team can update and manage their daily tasks . Don’t forget to check team availability along the way to avoid overloading anyone with too much work.

Task assignment in TeamGantt

7. Use the RACI chart to define task roles more clearly.

This feature takes accountability one step further by letting you assign more specific roles to each task: Responsible , Accountable , Consulted , and Informed . Learn how RACI charts work and what each role means.

Example of RACI assignments in TeamGantt for a digital marketing campaign project plan

8. Add hourly estimates and/or points to each task. 

This makes it easy to see the lift each task involves at a glance. Including hourly estimates in your project plan also enables you to manage workloads and track overages more accurately.

Example of estimated hours for tasks in a project plan with actual vs estimated hours progress indicators

9. Color-code tasks for better scannability.

You can use colors to categorize tasks by project phase, priority, department, or team member—whatever makes visual sense to you and your team.

Example of color selection menu in TeamGantt for color-coding taskbars on the timeline

10. Add notes to clarify tasks or spell out important details.

There’s no such thing as too much information if it means your team has what they need to deliver quality work on time. Use the Notes section of your Discussion tab to enter any pertinent details your team will find helpful.

Task detail window example with notes on scope and word count, as well as a creative brief attached to the task

11. Upload important documents to the project.

This ensures project files are accessible to everyone in a centralized hub.  For example, you might attach your creative brief to the project so your content and design teams have clear direction for completing their deliverables.

If you’re planning a project for the first time or taking on a totally new type of project, you might be struggling to get your plan off the ground. We created a simple project management plan template to help you get started.

TeamGantt gives you the ability to quickly and easily build and adjust your plan using drag and drop scheduling. Plus, it comes with customizable views to fit every team member’s work style. 

Try our basic project plan template for free!

Basic project plan template in TeamGantt with placeholder tasks that can easily be customized

Looking for more specific project plan examples to jumpstart your process? Use these project planning templates to generate ideas and save time building out your plan:

  • Construction project plan template
  • Event planning template
  • Strategic marketing plan template
  • Tactical marketing plan template
  • Software development plan template
  • Video production schedule template
  • Website project plan template

Plan your next project in minutes

Discover just how easy project planning can be with TeamGantt. Create your first gantt chart for free!

  • Project planning |
  • What is project planning? (Plus, 7 ste ...

What is project planning? (Plus, 7 steps to write a successful project plan)

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Organize your projects with project plans to keep things on track—before you even start. A project plan houses all the necessary details of your project, such as goals, tasks, scope, deadlines, and deliverables. This shows stakeholders a clear roadmap of your project, ensures you have the resources for it, and holds everyone accountable from the start. In this article, we teach you the seven steps to create your own project plan.

Project plans are essential to keeping your project organized and on track. A great project plan will help you kick off your work with all the necessary pieces—from goals and budgets to milestones and communication plans—in one place. Save yourself time (and a few headaches) by creating a work plan that will make your project a success.

What is a project planning?

Project planning is the second stage in the project management process, following project initiation and preceding project execution. During the project planning stage, the project manager creates a project plan, which maps out project requirements. The project planning phase typically includes setting project goals, designating project resources, and mapping out the project schedule.

What is a project plan?

If you're still unsure about what a project plan is, here's how it differs from other project elements:

Project plan vs. work plan: A project plan and a work plan are the same thing. Different teams or departments might prefer one term or another—but they both ultimately describe the same thing: a list of big-picture action steps you need to take to hit your  project objectives .

Project plan vs. project charter: A project charter is an outline of your project. Mostly, you use project charters to get signoff from key stakeholders before you start. Which means your project charter comes before your project plan. A project charter is an outline of a simple project plan—it should only include your project objectives, scope, and responsibilities. Then, once your charter has been approved, you can create a project plan to provide a more in-depth blueprint of the key elements of your project.

Project plan vs. project scope: Your project scope defines the size and boundaries of your project. As part of your project plan, you should outline and share the scope of your project with all project stakeholders. If you’re ever worried about scope creep , you can refer back to your pre-defined scope within your project plan to get back on track.

Project plan vs. agile project: Agile project management is a framework to help teams break work into iterative, collaborative components . Agile frameworks are often run in conjunction with scrum and sprint methodologies. Like any project, an Agile project team can benefit from having a project plan in place before getting started with their work.

Project plan vs. work breakdown structure: Similar to a project plan, your work breakdown structure (WBS) helps you with project execution. While the project plan focuses on every aspect of your project, the WBS is focused on deliverables—breaking them down into sub-deliverables and project tasks. This helps you visualize the whole project in simple steps. Because it’s a visual format, your WBS is best viewed as a Gantt chart (or timeline), Kanban board , or calendar—especially if you’re using project management software .

Why are project plans important?

Project plans set the stage for the entire project. Without one, you’re missing a critical step in the overall project management process . When you launch into a project without defined goals or objectives, it can lead to disorganized work, frustration, and even scope creep. A clear, written project management plan provides a baseline direction to all stakeholders, while also keeping everyone accountable. It confirms that you have the resources you need for the project before it actually begins.

A project plan also allows you, as the person in charge of leading execution, to forecast any potential challenges you could run into while the project is still in the planning stages. That way, you can ensure the project will be achievable—or course-correct if necessary. According to a study conducted by the  Project Management Institute , there is a strong correlation between project planning and project success—the better your plan, the better your outcome. So, conquering the planning phase also makes for better project efficiency and results.

[Product UI] Brand campaign project plan in Asana, spreadsheet-style list (Lists)

7 steps to write a project plan to keep you on track

To create a clear project management plan, you need a way to track all of your moving parts . No matter what type of project you’re planning, every work plan should have:

Goals and project objectives

Success metrics

Stakeholders and roles

Scope and budget

Milestones , deliverables , and project dependencies

Timeline and schedule

Communication plan.

Not sure what each of these mean or should look like? Let’s dive into the details:

Step 1: Define your goals and objectives

You’re working on this project plan for a reason—likely to get you, your team, or your company to an end goal. But how will you know if you’ve reached that goal if you have no way of measuring success?

Every successful project plan should have a clear, desired outcome. Identifying your goals provides a rationale for your project plan. It also keeps everyone on the same page and focused on the results they want to achieve. Moreover, research shows that employees who know how their work is contributing to company objectives are 2X as motivated . Yet only 26% of employees have that clarity. That’s because most goal-setting happens separate from the actual work. By defining your goals within your work plan, you can connect the work your team is doing directly to the project objectives in real-time.

What's the difference between project goals and project objectives?

In general, your project goals should be higher-level than your project objectives. Your project goals should be SMART goals that help you measure project success and show how your project aligns with business objectives . The purpose of drafting project objectives, on the other hand, is to focus on the actual, specific deliverables you're going to achieve at the end of your project. Your project plan provides the direction your team needs to hit your goals, so you can create a workflow that hits project objectives.

Your project  plan  provides the direction your team needs to hit your goals, by way of your project objectives. By incorporating your goals directly into your planning documentation, you can keep your project’s North Star on hand. When you’re defining your project scope, or outlining your project schedule, check back on your goals to make sure that work is in favor of your main objectives.

Step 2: Set success metrics

Once you’ve defined your goals, make sure they’re measurable by setting key success metrics. While your goal serves as the intended result, you need success metrics to let you know whether or not you’re performing on track to achieve that result. The best way to do that is to set  SMART goals . With SMART goals, you can make sure your success metrics are clear and measurable, so you can look back at the end of your project and easily tell if you hit them or not.

For example, a goal for an event might be to host an annual 3-day conference for SEO professionals on June 22nd. A success metric for that goal might be having at least 1,000 people attend your conference. It’s both clear and measurable.

Step 3: Clarify stakeholders and roles

Running a project usually means getting  collaborators  involved in the execution of it. In your project management plan, outline which team members will be a part of the project and what each person’s role will be. This will help you decide who is responsible for each task (something we’ll get to shortly) and let stakeholders know how you expect them to be involved.

During this process, make sure to define the various roles and responsibilities your stakeholders might have. For example, who is directly responsible for the project’s success? How is your project team structured (i.e. do you have a project manager, a project sponsor , etc.)? Are there any approvers that should be involved before anything is finalized? What cross-functional stakeholders should be included in the project plan? Are there any  risk management factors  you need to include?

Consider using a system, such as a  RACI chart , to help determine who is driving the project forward, who will approve decisions, who will contribute to the project, and who needs to remain informed as the project progresses.

Then, once you’ve outlined all of your roles and stakeholders, make sure to include that documentation in your project plan. Once you finalize your plan, your work plan will become your cross-functional source of truth.

Step 4: Set your budget

Running a project usually costs money. Whether it’s hiring freelancers for content writing or a catering company for an event, you’ll probably be spending some cash.

Since you’ve already defined your goals and stakeholders as part of your project plan, use that information to establish your budget. For example, if this is a cross-functional project involving multiple departments, will the departments be splitting the project cost? If you have a specific goal metric like event attendees or new users, does your proposed budget support that endeavor?

By establishing your project budget during the project planning phase (and before the spending begins), you can get approval, more easily track progress, and make smart, economical decisions during the implementation phase of your project. Knowing your budget beforehand helps you with resource management , ensuring that you stay within the initial financial scope of the project. Planning helps you determine what parts of your project will cost what—leaving no room for surprises later on.

Step 5: Align on milestones, deliverables, and project dependencies

An important part of planning your project is setting milestones, or specific objectives that represent an achievement. Milestones don’t require a start and end date, but hitting one marks a significant accomplishment during your project. They are used to measure progress. For example, let’s say you’re working to develop a  new product for your company . Setting a milestone on your project timeline for when the prototype is finalized will help you measure the progress you’ve made so far.

A project deliverable , on the other hand, is what is actually produced once you meet a milestone. In our product development example, we hit a milestone when we produced the deliverable, which was the prototype. You can also use project dependencies —tasks that you can’t start until others are finished. Dependencies ensure that work only starts once it’s ready. Continuing the example, you can create a project dependency to require approval from the project lead before prototype testing begins.  

If you’re using our free project plan template , you can easily organize your project around deliverables, dependencies, and milestones. That way, everyone on the team has clear visibility into the work within your project scope, and the milestones your team will be working towards.

Step 6: Outline your timeline and schedule

In order to achieve your project goals, you and your stakeholders need clarity on your overall project timeline and schedule. Aligning on the time frame you have can help you better prioritize during strategic planning sessions.

Not all projects will have clear-cut timelines. If you're working on a large project with a few unknown dates, consider creating a  project roadmap  instead of a full-blown project timeline. That way, you can clarify the order of operations of various tasks without necessarily establishing exact dates.

Once you’ve covered the high-level responsibilities, it’s time to focus some energy on the details. In your  work plan template , start by breaking your project into tasks, ensuring no part of the process is skipped. Bigger tasks can even be broken down into smaller subtasks, making them more manageable.

Then, take each task and subtask, and assign it a start date and end date. You’ll begin to visually see everything come together in a  cohesive project timeline . Be sure to add stakeholders, mapping out who is doing what by when.

[Product UI] Brand campaign project in Asana, Gantt chart-style view (Timeline)

Step 7: Share your communication plan

We’ve established that most projects include multiple stakeholders. That means communication styles will vary among them. You have an opportunity to set your expectations up front for this particular project in your project plan. Having a communication plan is essential for making sure everyone understands what’s happening, how the project is progressing, and what’s going on next. And in case a roadblock comes up, you’ll already have a clear communication system in place.

As you’re developing your communication plan, consider the following questions:

How many project-related meetings do you need to have? What are their goals?

How will you manage project status updates ? Where will you share them?

What tool will you use to manage the project and communicate progress and updates?

[inline illustration] Communication plan for brand campaign in Asana (example)

Like the other elements of your project plan, make sure your communication plan is easily accessible within your project plan. Stakeholders and cross-functional collaborators should be able to easily find these guidelines during the planning and execution phases of your project. Using project planning tools or task management software that integrates with apps like Slack and Gmail can ensure all your communication happens in one easily accessible place. 

Example project plan

Next, to help you understand what your project management plan should look like, here are two example plans for marketing and design projects that will guide you during your own project planning.

Project plan example: annual content calendar

Let’s say you’re the Content Lead for your company, and it’s your responsibility to create and deliver on a content marketing calendar for all the content that will be published next year. You know your first step is to build your work plan. Here’s what it might look like:

Goals and success metrics

You establish that your goal for creating and executing against your content calendar is to increase engagement by 10%. Your success metrics are the open rate and click through rate on emails, your company’s social media followers, and how your pieces of content rank on search engines.

Stakeholders and each person’s role

There will be five people involved in this project.

You, Content Lead: Develop and maintain the calendar

Brandon and Jamie, Writers: Provide outlines and copy for each piece of content

Nate, Editor: Edit and give feedback on content

Paula, Producer: Publish the content once it’s written and edited

Your budget for the project plan and a year’s worth of content is $50,000.

Milestones and deliverables

Your first milestone is to finish the content calendar, which shows all topics for the year. The deliverable is a sharable version of the calendar. Both the milestone and the deliverables should be clearly marked on your project schedule.

You’ve determined that your schedule for your content calendar project plan will go as follows:

October 15 - November 1: The research phase to find ideas for topics for content

November 2 - November 30: Establish the topics you’ll write about

December 1 - January 1: Build the calendar

January 1 - December 31: Content will be written by Brandon and Jamie, and edited by Nate, throughout the year

January 16 - December 31: Paula will begin publishing and continue to do so on a rolling basis throughout the year.

You’ll have a kick-off meeting and then monthly update meetings as part of your communication plan. Weekly status updates will be sent on Friday afternoons. All project-related communication will occur within a  project management tool .

How ClassPass manages project plans from start to finish

Kerry Hoffman, Senior Project Manager of Marketing Operations at  ClassPass , oversees all marketing projects undertaken by the creative, growth, and content teams. Here are her top three strategies for managing project plans:

Identify stakeholders up front: No matter the size of the project, it’s critical to know who the stakeholders are and their role in the project so you ensure you involve the right people at each stage. This will also make the review and approval process clear before the team gets to work.

Agree on how you want to communicate about your project: Establish where and when communication should take place for your project to ensure that key information is captured in the right place so everyone stays aligned.

Be adaptable and learn other people’s working styles: Projects don’t always go according to plan, but by implementing proper integration management you can keep projects running smoothly. Also, find out how project members like to work so you take that into account as you create your plan. It will help things run smoother once you begin executing.

Write your next project plan like a pro

Congratulations—you’re officially a work planning pro. With a few steps, a little bit of time, and a whole lot of organization, you’ve successfully written a project plan.

Keep yourself and your team on track, and address challenges early by using project planning software like Asana . Work through each of the steps of your project plan with confidence, and streamline your communications with the team.

  • Jira Software
  • Jira Work Management
  • Jira Service Management
  • Atlassian Access
  • Company News
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Inside Atlassian
  • IT Service Management
  • Work Management
  • Project Management

project plan assignment example

How to write an effective project plan in 6 simple steps

Deanna deBara

Contributing writer

If you’re a Type A personality, project planning might sound like music to your ears. Setting deadlines, organizing tasks, and creating order out of chaos — what’s not to love?

The reality is that project planning isn’t for everyone. In one survey by Association for Project Management, 76% of project professionals said their main project was a source of stress . Poor planning, unclear responsibilities, and overallocation are often the culprits behind the stress. 

An effective project plan helps teams stay within budget, scope, and schedule, while delivering quality work. In short, it gets you to the finish line without the stress.  

What is a project plan?

A project plan, also known as a work plan, is a blueprint of your project lifecycle. It’s like a roadmap — it clearly outlines how to get from where you are now (the beginning of the project) to where you want to go (the successful completion of the project). 

“A project plan is an action plan outlining how…[to] accomplish project goals,” says Jami Yazdani , certified Project Management Professional (PMP), project coach, project management consultant, and founder of Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation . 

A comprehensive project plan includes the project schedule, project scope, due dates, and deliverables. Writing a good project plan is key for any new, complex project in the pipeline.

Why Are Project Plans Important?

Project plans allow you to visualize your entire project, from beginning to end—and develop a clear strategy to get from point A to point B. Project plans steer stakeholders in the right direction and keep team members accountable with a common baseline.  

Project plans help you stay agile

Projects are bound by what is traditionally called the “iron triangle” of project management . It means that project managers have to work within the three constraints of scope, resources (project budget and teams), and schedule. You cannot make changes to one without impacting the other two.    

Modern-day project management has shifted to a more agile approach, with a focus on quality. This means that resources and schedules remain unchanged but a fixed number of iterations (flexible scope) helps teams deliver better quality and more value. 

A project plan puts this “agile triangle” in place by mapping out resources, schedules, and the number of iterations — sprints if you’re using a Scrum framework and work in progress (WIP) limits if you’re using the Kanban methodology . 

As Yazdani points out, “Project plans help us strategize a path to project success, allowing us to consider the factors that will impact our project, from stakeholders to budget to schedule delays, and plan how to maximize or mitigate these factors.” 

Project plans provide complete visibility

A project plan, when created with a comprehensive project management software , gives you 360-degree visibility throughout the project lifecycle. 

As a project manager, you need a single source of truth on team members and their project tasks, project scope, project objectives, and project timelines. A detailed project plan gives you this visibility and helps teams stay on track.

screenshot of a Jira Work Management project board

Project plans also help to get everyone involved on the same page, setting clear expectations around what needs to be accomplished, when, and by who. 

“Project plans create a framework for measuring project progress and success,” says Yazdani. “Project plans set clear expectations for…stakeholders by outlining exactly what…will [be accomplished] and when it will be delivered.”

Project plans boost engagement and productivity

A well-written project plan clarifies how each individual team member’s contributions play into the larger scope of the project and align with company goals. When employees see how their work directly impacts organizational growth, it generates buy-in and drives engagement , which is critical to a project’s success. 

“Project plans provide…teams with purpose and direction,” says Yazdani. “Transparent project plans show team members how their individual tasks and responsibilities contribute to the overall success of the project, encouraging engagement and collaboration.”

How To Write A Project Plan in 6 Steps

Writing a project plan requires, well, planning. Ideally, the seeds for a project plan need to be sowed before internal project sign-off begins. Before that sign-off, conduct capacity planning to estimate the resources you will need and if they’re available for the duration of the project. After all, you want to set your teams up for success with realistic end dates, buffer time to recharge or catch up in case of unexpected delays, and deliver quality work without experiencing burnout .

Based on organizational capacity, you can lay down project timelines and map out scope as well as success metrics, outline tasks, and build a feedback loop into your project plan. Follow these project planning steps to create a winning plan:      

1. Establish Project Scope And Metrics

Defining your project scope is essential to protecting your iron, or agile, triangle from crumbling. Too often, projects are hit with scope creep , causing delays, budget overruns, and anxiety.

“Clearly define your project’s scope or overall purpose,” says Yazdani. “Confirm any project parameters or constraints, like budget, resource availability, and timeline,” says Yazdani.

A project purpose statement is a high-level brief that defines the what, who, and why of the project along with how and when the goal will be accomplished. But just as important as defining your project scope and purpose is defining what metrics you’re going to use to track progress.

“Establish how you will measure success,” says Yazdani. “Are there metrics, performance criteria, or quality standards you need to meet?”

Clearly defining what your project is, the project’s overall purpose, and how you’re going to measure success lays the foundation for the rest of your project plan—so make sure you take the time to define each of these elements from the get-go.

2. Identify Key Project Stakeholders 

Get clarity on the team members you need to bring the project to life. In other words, identify the key stakeholders of the project. 

“List individuals or groups who will be impacted by the project,” says Yazdani. 

In addition to identifying who needs to be involved in the project, think about how they’ll need to be involved—and at what level. Use a tool like Confluence to run a virtual session to clarify roles and responsibilities, and find gaps that need to be filled. 

Let’s say you’re managing a cross-functional project to launch a new marketing campaign that includes team members from your marketing, design, and sales departments. 

When identifying your key stakeholders, you might create different lists based on the responsibility or level of involvement with the project:

  • Decision-makers (who will need to provide input at each step of the project)
  • Managers (who will be overseeing employees within their department) 
  • Creative talent (who will be actually creating the project deliverables for the campaign) from each department. 

Give your project plan an edge by using a Confluence template like the one below to outline roles and responsibilities.

confluence template preview for roles and responsibility document

Define roles, discuss responsibilities, and clarify which tasks fall under each teammate’s purview using this Confluence template. 

Getting clarity on who needs to be involved in the project—and how they’re going to be involved—will help guide the rest of the project plan writing process (particularly when it comes to creating and assigning tasks).

3. Outline Deliverables

Now is the time to get granular.

Each project milestone comprises a series of smaller, tangible tasks that your teams need to produce. While a big-picture view keeps teams aligned, you need signposts along the way to guide them on a day-to-day or weekly basis. Create a list of deliverables that will help you achieve the greater vision of the project. 

“What will you create, build, design, produce, accomplish or deliver?” says Yazdani. “Clearly outline your project’s concrete and tangible deliverables or outcomes.” Centralize these deliverables in a Trello board with designated cards for each one, like in the example below, so you keep work moving forward.

trello board that shows tasks organized into status columns

Each card on a board represents tasks and ideas and you can move cards across lists to show progress.

Defining the concrete items you need your project to deliver will help you reverse-engineer the things that need to happen to bring those items to life—which is a must before moving on to the next step.

4. Develop Actionable Tasks

Task management is an important component of any project plan because they help employees see what exactly they need to accomplish. Drill down those deliverables into actionable tasks to assign to your team. 

You can use either Confluence or Jira for different task management needs. If you want to track tasks alongside your work, like action items from a meeting or small team projects, it’s best to use Confluence. But if a project has multiple teams and you need insight into workflows, task history, and reporting, Jira makes it easy.      

“Let your deliverables guide the work of the project,” says Yazdani. “Break down each deliverable into smaller and smaller components until you get to an actionable task.” If a major deliverable is a set of content pieces, the smaller actionable tasks would be to create topic ideas, conduct research, and create outlines for each topic.  

Once you’ve broken down all of your deliverables into manageable, assignable subtasks, analyze how each of those tasks interacts with each other. That way, you can plan, prioritize, assign, and add deadlines accordingly.  

“Highlight any dependencies between tasks, such as tasks that can’t be started until another task is complete,” says Yazdani. “List any resources you will need to accomplish these tasks.”

When a task has multiple assignees, you need to streamline the workflow in your project plan. Say the content pieces you outlined need to be edited or peer-reviewed. A couple of articles may need an interview with a subject matter expert. Lay down a stage-by-stage process of each piece of content and pinpoint when each team member comes into play so you prevent bottlenecks and adjust timeframes.     

5. Assign Tasks And Deadlines

Assign tasks to your team and collaborate with employees to set deadlines for each task. When you involve employees in setting workloads and deadlines , you increase ownership and boost the chances of delivering quality work on time.  

After all, you want to move projects forward at a steady pace, but you also want to make sure your teams stay motivated and engaged. So, when writing your project plan, make sure to “set realistic and achievable deadlines for completing tasks and deliverables,” says Yazdani. “Highlight dates that are inflexible and factor in task dependencies. Add in milestones or checkpoints to monitor progress and celebrate successes .”

project plan assignment example

Use Jira and Confluence to create tasks that live alongside your project plan or meeting agendas.

Once you map out all of your tasks and deadlines, you should have a clear picture of how and when your project is going to come together—and the initial writing process is just about finished.

But that doesn’t mean your project plan is complete! There’s one more key step to the process.

6. Share, Gather Feedback, And Adjust The Project Plan As Necessary

While steps 1 through 5 may make up your initial writing process, if you want your project plan to be as strong and complete as it can be, it’s important to share it with your team—and get their input on how they think it can be improved.

“Share the plan with your project team and key stakeholders, gathering feedback to make adjustments and improvements,” says Yazdani. 

A tool like Confluence helps knowledge flow freely within teams and departments, leading to better teamwork, higher collaboration, and a shared understanding of priorities. Coworkers can use comments, mentions, notifications, and co-editing capabilities to provide and discuss feedback. 

After you gather your team’s feedback —and make any necessary adjustments based on that feedback—you can consider your project plan complete. Hooray! 

But as your project progresses, things may change or evolve—so it’s important to stay flexible and make changes and adjustments as needed.

“Expect to update your plan as you gather more information, encounter changing requirements and delays, and learn from feedback and mistakes,” says Yazdani. “By using your project plan to guide your activities and measure progress, you’ll be able to refine and improve your plan as you move through the project, tweaking tasks and deadlines as deliverables are developed.”

Download a  template to create your project plan and customize it based on your needs.

Example of a simple project plan 

A project plan doesn’t have to be a complicated spreadsheet with multiple tabs and drop-down menus. It’s best to use a project planning tool like Confluence — or at least a project plan template — to make sure you cover every aspect of the project. A simple project plan includes these elements:

  • Project name, brief summary, and objective.
  • Project players or team members who will drive the project, along with their roles and responsibilities.
  • Key outcomes and due dates.
  • Project elements, ideally divided into must-have, nice-to-have and not-in-scope categories.
  • Milestones, milestone owners, and a project end date.
  • Reference material relevant to the project.

Project plan Confluence template

Best Practices For Writing Effective Project Plans

A project planning process can quickly turn into a mishmash of goals and tasks that end up in chaos but these best practices can give you a framework to create a project plan that leads to success.

Use Other Project Plans For Inspiration

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every new project! Instead, look to other successful project plans for inspiration—and use them as a guide when writing the plan for your project.

“Review templates and plans for similar projects, or for other projects within your organization or industry, to get ideas for structuring and drafting your own plan,” says Yazdani.

To get started, use a Trello project management template and customize it for your project plan by creating unique lists and adding cards under each list.

Trello-Project-Management-template

Build your team’s ideal workflow and mark each stage of the project plan as a list, with cards for each task. 

Get Your Team Involved In The Process

You may be in charge of spearheading the project. But that doesn’t mean that you have to—or even that you should—write the project plan alone. 

“Collaborate with your project team and key stakeholders on crafting a project plan,” says Yazdani. “Input into the project plan supports buy-in to project goals and encourages continued engagement throughout the project.”

With Confluence , you can organize project details in a centralized space and build a project plan collaboratively.

Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good

You may be tempted to write (and rewrite) your project plan until you’ve got every detail mapped out perfectly. But spending too much time trying to get everything “perfect” can actually hold up the project. So don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good—and instead of getting caught up in getting everything perfect from the get-go, stay willing and flexible to adjust your project plan as you move forward.

“Focus on outcomes, not plan perfection,” says Yazdani. “While it would be awesome for the first draft of our plan to require no changes while also inspiring our team and ensuring project success, our goal shouldn’t be a perfect plan. Our goal is a plan that allows us to successfully deliver on project goals. Responsiveness to changing needs and a shifting environment is more important than plan perfection.”

Use the right tools to succeed with your project plan

Writing a project plan, especially if you’re new to the process, can feel overwhelming. But now that you know the exact steps to write one, make sure you have the tools you need to create a strong, cohesive plan from the ground up—and watch your project thrive as a result. 

Atlassian Together can help with project planning and management with a powerful combination of tools that make work flow across teams.

Guide your team to project success with Atlassian Together’s suite of products.

Advice, stories, and expertise about work life today.

  • Get started
  • Project management
  • CRM and Sales
  • Work management
  • Product development life cycle
  • Comparisons
  • Construction management
  • monday.com updates

What is a project plan and how to write a project plan in 6 steps

' src=

A project plan is an essential document for keeping your project on track. It states the purpose of your project and identifies the scope, structure, resources, goals, deliverables, and timelines.

Without a solid plan, projects typically get delayed and run over budget.

In this high-level guide, we’ll show you how to write a project plan in six steps and share five monday.com templates to get you up and running quickly. But first, let’s define a project plan and its various components.

What is a project plan?

monday.com board for a project management plan

A project plan is a formal document that outlines an entire project’s goals and objectives, specific tasks, and what success looks like.

In addition to setting the purpose of your project, it should include other materials and deliverables relevant to the project, such as:

  • Timelines and Gantt charts for key milestones — like start and end dates, getting your 200th customer, or launching an event or app.
  • Communication plans — to keep everyone informed of progress, achievements, and potential roadblocks.
  • Work breakdown structure — especially if you have multiple team members working on different or simultaneous tasks, in which case, you may also need a Project Planner .
  • Resources needed to complete the project — like project management tools , cash, freelancers, and more.

In short, your project plan serves as a central hub to define, organize, prioritize, and assign activities and resources throughout your project’s life cycle.

What is project planning?

Project planning is the second phase in the project management lifecycle :

  • PHASE 1: Project Initiation  — where you identify a business need or problem and a potential solution.
  • PHASE 2: Project Planning  — where you define specific tasks, assign responsibilities, and create the project schedule.
  • PHASE 3: Project Execution  — where you touch base with resources, monitor the timeline and budget, and report back to stakeholders.
  • PHASE 4: Project Close-out — where you review the success of the project.

During the project planning phase, you extend the project charter document from the initiation phase to create your detailed project plan. Typical tasks within the project planning phase include:

  • Setting a budget.
  • Defining a project schedule or timeline.
  • Creating work breakdown structures.
  • Identifying resources and ensuring availability.
  • Assessing any potential roadblocks and planning for those scenarios .
  • Defining project objectives , roles, deadlines, responsibilities, and project milestones .

Project plan elements

Here’s how a project plan differs from other project planning elements.

Project plan vs. work plan

Although similar, work plans are not as comprehensive as project plans. A work plan focuses on helping project teams achieve smaller objectives, whereas a project plan provides a high-level overview of an entire project’s goals and objectives.

Project plan vs. project charter

A project charter provides an overview of a project. It’s a formal short document that states a project’s existence and authorizes project managers to commence work. The charter describes a project’s goals, objectives, and resource requirements. You create it in the project initiation phase before your project plan and present it to key stakeholders to get the project signed off.

Project plan vs. project scope

Part of your project plan includes the project scope , which clearly defines the size and boundaries of your project. You document the project scope  in three places: a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and WBS dictionary. It serves as a reference point to monitor project progress, compare actual versus planned results, and avoid scope creep.

Project plan vs. work breakdown structure

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a hierarchical outline of the tasks required to complete your project. It breaks down large or complicated goals into more manageable tasks so you can execute the project plan. The WBS breaks down the project scope into phases, subprojects, deliverables, and work packages that lead to your final deliverable.

Project plan vs. agile project

An agile project is the opposite of a traditional project plan. Agile projects use an incremental, iterative approach to deliver a project, whereas traditional projects — also known as a waterfall approach — use a cascading, step-by-step planning process. Agile projects are synonymous with software development teams, but you can use them in any field.

Why are project plans important?

Over a third of all projects experience something called scope creep . This is where the team ends up doing more work than originally planned. Much of this can be avoided by accounting for unexpected hold-ups or changes in circumstances within your project plan. A project plan also makes it easy to pinpoint when problems arose, so you can be better prepared for future projects.

If you look at the numbers related to project management, it’s easy to understand where a project management plan could have a positive impact— 45% of projects aren’t completed on time, and 38% of projects are over budget.

Project outcomes from the PMI Pulse 2021

A project plan can help to curtail wily overspending and late turnaround by identifying these issues early. This leaves no room for confusion and delays in the workflow and progress of your projects.

How to create a project plan in 6 steps

There are no hard-and-fast rules for a project plan. However, we recommend you use the following six steps as a springboard for creating one.

1. Start with an executive summary

The executive summary goes at the beginning of your project plan and should summarize the key points of the project plan . It should restate the purpose of the project plan, highlight the major points of the plan, and describe any results, conclusions, or recommendations from the project.

Even though it is at the beginning of your project plan , it’s something you will write last , as you’ll be pulling out the main points from the rest of your plan.

It should be no longer than a page, offering a brief overview of:

  • The project objectives and goals
  • Your chosen project methodology/framework
  • The final deliverables and acceptance criteria
  • Key scope risks and countermeasures
  • Summary of milestones
  • An overview of the project timeline and schedule-based risks
  • Resource and spending estimates

This snapshot of your project makes it easy for key stakeholders who aren’t actively involved in the mechanics of the project to understand it. For project managers, the executive summary serves as a quick reminder of the key project goal, scope, expectations, and limitations. Since almost a third of projects don’t meet their original goals, it’s important that project managers review the project plan regularly to stay on track.

2. Define the project scope

There are few things worse than starting on a project only for it to balloon. By defining a project’s scope , you set the boundaries for a project’s start and end dates as well as expectations about deliverables and who approves requests—and what merits approval— throughout a project.

It also involves outlining the potential risks associated with meeting these expectations and providing countermeasures to mitigate these risks. Identifying exactly who’s accountable for tracking these risks is essential.

This step will help you prevent scope creep, or how a project’s requirements tend to increase over a project lifecycle. Organizations complain that 34% of all their projects experience scope creep, yet only 52% of organizations go to the effort of mostly or always creating a scoping document every time.

3. Structure your project

There are several frameworks you could use to guide your project and this will affect your workflow’s organizations and how deliverables are produced and assigned.

For example, if you’re using the waterfall framework , you’ll be planning everything in advance, working through each stage of development sequentially, and specialized task owners executing their work at a defined time.

Remember that creating too many dependencies within your project structure can negatively impact success, so try to work out ways that teams can work autonomously to achieve deliverables in a timely manner. It’s also good to consider how many approvers are needed to maintain order but also to prevent bottlenecks.

Above all else, it’s important to incorporate set times for team knowledge-sharing, so your projects can be more successful. Make a note of the communication structures you’ll use to encourage collaboration .

4. Check what project resources you have available

Define the resources you have available for this project:

  • Physical resources

You need to be precise when you’re assessing what you’ll need, otherwise you’re baking a cake with all the wrong ingredients. A resource manager or project manager can lead this.

As an example, when teams have the right highly skilled people, projects are 30% more likely to succeed. Yet, a third of people don’t believe their teams have all the right skills for the project—a recipe for failure.

The quantity of team members is also important—if the ratio of work to available people is off, efficiency and quality will suffer. If you want to effectively allocate your resources to meet expectations, you’ll need to be realistic about resource limitations.

This may, for example, mean adjusting timescales if you’re short on staff or increasing your budget if you need more specialist equipment.

5. Map out your project timeline

Organizations that implement time frames into project plans are more likely to succeed. Despite this, 52% of projects don’t always set baseline schedules. That’s probably why 45% of organizations say they rarely or never complete successful projects on time.

In this sense, it’s wise to add a project schedule section to your project plan. This part of your plan should set expectations on when you’ll deliver and how you’ll stick to your project timeline.

Use a Gantt timeline to plan project activities and timings

Your project schedule will look a little different depending on which framework you choose.

The tasks that you have a ‘Work in Progress’ (WIP) will depend on your team’s capacity. In this section, you should set your maximum number of WIPs you can have in each column at each time.

6. Manage your project changes

Organizations put change control in their top three project challenges. If you don’t solidify a change management plan , your team will be clueless about what to do when unplanned change hits. A dynamic change management plan will outline the steps to follow and the person to turn to when unforeseen changes occur.

A key part of this is having a change management tool in place. And monday work management is flexible enough to help you manage all parts of the project life cycle — from planning and monitoring to reporting and resource management. Let’s take a look at a few of our templates that can help you get started.

5 project planning templates to help you write a good project plan

monday.com templates can be lifesavers when it comes to visualizing each section of your project plan, and they make it easy to get started. Try these 5 project plan templates to kickstart your project planning process.

1. Project Plan Template

Looking for a general project plan template? Try one of our project plan templates .

monday.com Project timeline template

Using this highly visual template by monday.com, you can structure your subprojects by set time periods and allocate accountable personnel to each phase.

Prioritize each project and add a timeline to show when deliverables are expected.

2. Resource Utilization Template

Resource management allows teams to focus on executing tasks, projects, and processes efficiently and achieve shared goals at scale.

monday.com resource management

You can allocate resources to individuals and tack on timescales so your staff knows what resources they’re responsible for in which phase. Adding a location makes it easy for teams to know where to hand over resources as they transition from one phase to the next—and they can check this on our mobile app.

Use the Workload view to manage your team’s time proactively and get an overview of the workload and capacity of each person on the team.

Use the Workload view to manage your team’s time proactively and get an overview of the workload and capacity of each person on the team.

3. Project Cost Management Template

It’s far easier to plan a budget when you can see all your costs in one place.

That’s why this Project Cost Management Template from monday.com is so incredibly handy.

monday.com Project Cost Management Template

Add each subproject and plan out projected costs, allocating totals to each department. You can use the document to estimate the budget you’ll need and to record your approved project budget. You can then use our dashboards or reports to see the information in a different, more colorful way.

4. Project Timeline Template

Plan out your schedules with this Project Timeline Template .

monday.com Project Timeline Template

While this dashboard isn’t really suitable if you’re working with the Kanban framework, it’s ideal for those operating under Waterfall or Scrum frameworks.

For Waterfall projects, add in your milestones, attach a timeline, and allocate a set number of workdays to complete the tasks for each milestone.

Tag the team leader for each phase so project managers know which milestones they’re responsible for.

During project execution, teams can use the status bar to track progress. They can also add updates to each milestone by clicking on each item, which encourages inter-team collaboration.

For Scrum projects, you can organize the dashboard by Sprints, adding in the specific tasks as they’re decided.

5. Program Risk Register Template

Visualize all your project scope and schedule risks in this Program Risk Register Template .

monday.com Program Risk Register Template

Use color-coded status bars to illustrate risk status, risk probability, and risk impact for your project scope and schedule.

You can even categorize risks, add a risk owner, and suggest mitigation strategies. That way other project team members know what to do if these risks start to blossom into real glitches.

Optimize your project management plan with the right tool

Project plans are an essential part of your team’s success.

While they are detail-oriented and complex, creating one and managing it shouldn’t be a struggle. Use monday.com’s pre-built planning templates to help you break down each section of the plan as you go and monitor everything in real-time.

Try monday work management, and see for yourself how much smoother your next project will run when you can consolidate all your project planning materials in one place.

' src=

project plan assignment example

The All-in-One Project Plan Walkthrough with Examples

Learn how to create a project plan with our guide that uses actual examples (including Agile). Discover top tips, tools, and more.

project plan assignment example

Ask any good project manager‌, and they'll agree that a project won't succeed without a well-thought-out plan.

Could you imagine building the Burj Khalifa without a plan? How about putting someone on the moon?

Yet, according to a  PMI report , 45% of projects go over time and 38% over budget.

There seems to be confusion about what a project plan looks like and using one.

To help, we'll go over how to correctly create a project plan. We'll show you ‌examples you can use for your projects and give you tips to drive your plans to success.

What is a project plan?

A  project plan  is a document (and project artifact) that outlines a project's objectives and lays out the high-level process to get there. This includes the project goal, resources, and timeline. It's like a well-thought-out recipe for achieving a project's objectives.

The project plan is a result of  project planning  (the second phase of the PMBOK lifecycle). A project plan typically comes after (and draws information from) the  project  charter.

A good project plan includes the approach to the project ( Agile ,  waterfall , or hybrid) and other important information, which we'll go over later.

Usually, a project manager prepares a project plan, but it can also be prepared by a Scrum master, CEO, product manager, or project sponsor. The project plan then guides the project manager (or whoever is leading the project) through the project lifecycle to help them achieve success.

Project plan vs. project timeline

A project plan is a full-scale plan of attack for the project, outlining all the critical steps and elements.

A project timeline is a visual representation of the chronological sequence of tasks and milestones of the project.

‎The timeline is good for identifying dependencies, bottlenecks, or potential task conflicts. The timeline is created during the project planning phase, and it contains critical (time-related data) for the project plan.

Benefits of a well-structured project plan

A project plan has many benefits, but the most important one is that it helps you and your team execute the project.

What can you achieve with great project plans?

  • The  Boeing 787 Dreamliner  flies thousands of people across the planet as a prime example of an effective project plan.
  • The  London Olympics of 2012  owes its success to meticulous project planning.
  • The first (and later) moon landings were the result of great project plans.

A project plan helps you define the initial project scope, resources, timeline, and goals. Once the project gets underway, you can compare progress against the baseline to identify deviations, delays, or scope changes.

A good project plan combines the different pieces of project management into a single document to offer a bird's-eye view of the entire project lifecycle.

Combining important project-related data in one document is also an efficiency hack, because, according to McKinsey, searching for this information piecemeal can eat up to  20% of an employee's time .

Furthermore, the clarity provided by a project plan around the important elements of a project prevents misunderstandings and aligns stakeholder expectations.

Key elements of a project plan

Simple or complex project plans contain several key elements. Each of these usually has a high-level description (or a matrix) since they are artifacts in their own right.

‎Here are the 10 key elements you need to include in your project plan:

  • The  project objectives and scope  define what you aim to achieve and the boundaries of your project.
  • A  task plan, work plan, or  work breakdown structure  (WBS) . These artifacts are breakdowns of your project into manageable project tasks.
  • A  timeline and milestones (project schedule) . Outline when tasks should be completed, and milestones act as signposts to track progress.
  • The  resource allocation.  Shows the people, time, money, and other resources your project will require.
  • Risk assessment and mitigation strategies . A list of potential risks and plans to manage or mitigate their impact.
  • A  communication plan.  Describes how you’ll keep in touch with everyone involved, about what, and the cadence.
  • Project budget and cost estimates . The budget and cost estimates for each phase.
  • The  quality control measures.  The quality standards for project deliverables and how they’ll be tested.
  • Change management procedures  plan how changes will be evaluated, approved, and implemented while minimizing disruptions.
  • A stakeholder matrix (such as a RACI chart).  Documents ‌key stakeholders, their roles, and influence on a project.

A basic project plan example

Finding a practical and adaptable example can be challenging with all the online project plan templates. Many templates lack the real-world practicality to make them useful.

Don't fret, we've laid out some practical project plan templates to help you create your own project plan.

Project Title:  New Product Launch Marketing Campaign

Project Objectives:

  • Increase brand awareness for the new product by 30% within three months.
  • Generate a minimum of 1,000 leads through the campaign.
  • Achieve a conversion rate of 15% from leads to sales within six months.
  • Design and execute an integrated marketing campaign encompassing digital and traditional channels to create maximum impact.
  • Collaborate closely with the design team to make visually appealing and consistent campaign materials.
  • Hire influencers within the target audience to amplify the campaign's reach and credibility.

Key Milestones:

  • Week 1-2: Finalize campaign concept and design based on market research and creative inputs.
  • Week 3: Obtain necessary approvals for the campaign materials from stakeholders.
  • Week 4: Launch the campaign across selected digital platforms and traditional media.
  • Week 6: Conduct a mid-campaign performance review to assess engagement and adjust strategies if necessary.
  • Week 8: Evaluate campaign effectiveness against predefined objectives and KPIs.
  • Week 10: Prepare and present a comprehensive campaign analysis report to stakeholders.

Key Deliverables:

  • Finalized campaign concept and design based on market research and creative inputs by the end of Week 2.
  • Approved campaign materials from stakeholders by the end of Week 3.
  • Launched campaign across selected digital platforms and traditional media by the end of Week 4.
  • Mid-campaign performance review conducted by the end of Week 6 to assess engagement and adjust strategies if necessary.
  • Evaluation of campaign effectiveness against predefined objectives and KPIs by the end of Week 8.
  • Comprehensive campaign analysis report prepared and presented to stakeholders by Week 10.

A. Marketing Team (4 members):

  • Project Manager (Responsible for overall campaign coordination)
  • Content Creator (Develops engaging written and visual content)
  • Social Media Specialist (Manages online presence and engagement)
  • Data Analyst (Monitors and analyzes campaign metrics)

B. Design Team (2 members):

  • Graphic Designer (Creates campaign visuals and branding materials)
  • Video Editor (Produces promotional videos)

Budget:  $50,000 for advertising, content creation, influencer partnerships, and other campaign-related expenses.

Risk Management & Suggestion:

1. Potential delays

  • Proactively plan for design revisions and content creation challenges to avoid timeline disruptions.

2. Social media algorithm changes

  • Monitor platform updates and have alternative promotional strategies ready to adapt to algorithm changes.

Communication Plan:

A. Weekly team meetings

  • Held every Monday to review progress, address challenges, and ensure alignment among team members.

B. Bi-weekly stakeholder updates

  • Stakeholders will receive updates on campaign performance and achievements every other Friday.

What to include in an advanced project plan

Going from a basic project plan to an advanced one involves adding some elements.

‎To adapt the basic project plan to an advanced one, add the following elements:

In scope and out of scope

Include a comprehensive breakdown of deliverables and outcomes for each project phase. Use a WBS or a product backlog to organize this information systematically.

Also, define (at a high level) what is outside the boundaries of your project. This clarification helps with scope confusion and sets realistic outcome expectations.

Risk management

While the basic project plan template has a risk management section, an advanced project plan goes into more detail.

You'll need a systematic risk assessment framework for risks across all dimensions. This includes probabilities and potential impacts of the risks and contingency plans for each.

You'll also need to outline a dynamic risk response strategy (that adapts as new risks emerge or existing ones evolve).

Stakeholder analysis

Expand your  stakeholder engagement  strategy with a stakeholder matrix. Detail how and when stakeholders will be engaged, adding decision points and regular progress updates.

Performance metrics

Define and track metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each task.

Metrics could include completion percentages, milestone achievements, and qualitative assessments.

An Agile project plan example

Agile project plans aren't as comprehensive up-front as those for  traditional project management methods  because of the nature of Agile.

The focus in Agile project planning is on iterative planning for Sprints (1–4 week-long work periods).

Here’s how an Agile project plan might look:

Project Purpose:  New Product Launch Marketing Campaign

Sprint 1:  Discovery and Concept

Duration:  2 weeks

Backlog Items:

1. Market research

  • Collect data on target audience and competitors.

2. Concept brainstorm

  • Collaborate with design and marketing teams to brainstorm campaign concepts.

3. Stakeholder alignment

  • Meet with stakeholders to discuss initial campaign ideas.
  • Capture changes and convey them to the project team.

Sprint 2:  Minimum Viable Campaign (MVC)

Duration:  3 weeks

1. MVC creation

  • Develop a simplified version of the campaign with core elements.

2. Content creation

  • Create initial content pieces for the MVC.

3. Feedback loop

  • Share MVC with stakeholders for feedback and incorporate changes.

Sprint 3:  Iterative Improvements

1. Iterative enhancements

  • Improve campaign elements based on stakeholder feedback and team insights.

2. Design refinements

  • Collaborate with the design team to enhance visual components.

3. Early engagement

  • Launch MVC to a limited audience and gather engagement data.

Sprint 4:  Refinement and Scaling

1. Scaling strategies

  • Identify opportunities to expand the campaign's reach.

2. Content diversification:

  • Create additional content pieces for different platforms.

3. Data analysis

  • Analyze engagement data from the early engagement phase.

Sprint 5:  Adaptation and Optimization

1. Adapt to feedback

  • Implement changes based on engagement data and stakeholder feedback.

2. Optimization strategies

  • Refine campaign elements for maximum impact.

3. Influencer engagement

  • Collaborate with influencers for increased reach.

Sprint 6:  Finalization and Reporting

1. Final touches

  • Polish campaign elements and ensure consistency.

2. Performance analysis

  • Analyze the campaign's impact on brand awareness, leads, and conversions.

3. Stakeholder presentation

  • Present campaign results and insights to stakeholders.

Tips, tools, and techniques for creating your own project plan

Here are some practical tips, tools, and techniques to help you create accurate and useful project plans.

‎Reuse what you’ve already produced

Use existing resources like your project charter. Integrate the insights from your risk analysis to address potential pitfalls. Add details from your requirements assessment for a detailed view of what needs to be done.

Use visuals

Visuals can help the team and stakeholders digest and understand a project.

Use a risk matrix to visually depict potential risks, their likelihood, and their impact.  Gantt charts  offer an expansive view of task dependencies and timelines. A RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) matrix defines roles and responsibilities.

Use project management software

Project management software can be a game-changer. These online platforms offer a centralized place to plan, collaborate, and track projects.

Some solutions include features like Gantt charts, timelines, and task allocation tools.

Put your project plan into action with Motion

After creating your project plan comes the next step: project execution.

To do this (and drive a successful project), it helps to visualize project plans using charts, schedules, or project boards. Motion can help you do just that with its comprehensive  project planning tools .

One is its Kanban board, which allows you to see and manage your project schedule. You can adjust tasks easily within the board, and the app will rearrange dependent work to compensate.

Even better, Motion can automate task allocation.

All you have to do is create the task, assign the dates and requirements, and Motion will allocate it to your team for you. It'll notify you immediately if it can't find the best time or foresees any delays.

This just means more time for you and your team to do the work (vs. administration).

Sign up for your  7-day free trial .

project plan assignment example

Related articles

project plan assignment example

Understand Project Blockers & How to Transform Them Into Success

project plan assignment example

6 Best AI Calendar Assistants for Easy Organization

project plan assignment example

The 8 Best Calendars for Work in 2023

Put motion to the test., tech and media companies are talking about motion.

project plan assignment example

Advisory boards aren’t only for executives. Join the LogRocket Content Advisory Board today →

LogRocket blog logo

  • Product Management
  • Solve User-Reported Issues
  • Find Issues Faster
  • Optimize Conversion and Adoption

A guide to project planning (with template and examples)

project plan assignment example

“Hi, Aniket, good to see you again!” My manager greeted me after I came back from my two-month annual vacation to India. Back then, I was working as a product manager at Zalando, one of Europe’s biggest fashion e-commerce companies.

A Guide To Project Planning (With Template And Examples)

After coming back, I asked my manager if she knew what I would be working on next. We had a one-hour meeting and I learned that I’d be leading one of the most complex products — a completely new version of our in-house content management system. I was elated, to say the least.

At the end of the day, I was assigned the task of coming up with a rough project plan for this product. Even though I had worked on creating multiple project plans back then, I was nervous. This product was complicated and had hundreds of use cases. I didn’t know where to start. This was the first taste of building a project plan for a highly complex product.

In this blog, we’ll cover the importance of project planning and its key elements. We’ll look at a project plan template, walk through a realistic example, and cover tips for efficient project planning in your organization. Let’s get started!

Background information: The project management lifecycle

Before we get into project planning, it’s important to understand the lifecycle of a project:

Project Management Lifecycle

  • Initiation — this is the start of the project. Ideally, this is where the need of the project is identified and the project is defined
  • Planning — this includes the end-to-end planning of the project. The main parts of the planning are defining project goals, scope, complexity, effort, timeline, budget, and risk management
  • Execution — this phase is where all the relevant teams come together and execute their part of the project
  • Continuous monitoring — throughout the project, progress is monitored and controlled. Any deviations or blockers are clarified for a smooth delivery
  • Closing — this is the last phase of the project where the work is reviewed and, depending on the feedback, the project closes

Since we are focusing on project planning, we’ll deep-dive into its different elements. However, to do that, we first need to understand why project planning is important.

The importance of project planning

The project that I was given to lead at Zalando was a highly complex one. The estimated timeline for completing the project was one year — this is fairly high in the software development world.

There were three engineering teams involved each with 7–8 team members. When it comes to complex projects, it’s essential to have a strong project plan in place.

Here are a few reasons why project planning is important:

Clarifies goals and objectives at the beginning

As they say “without a goal, you can’t score.”

Every project needs a goal or outcome for the team to understand what they are supposed to do. Project planning helps achieve that.

Helps with timeline and budget

Initial project planning helps to understand how much estimated time the team will take and how much money the project requires. The latter includes salaries of employees, hardware costs, training, etc.

project plan assignment example

Over 200k developers and product managers use LogRocket to create better digital experiences

project plan assignment example

Identifies risks early on

This is an extremely important part of a project plan. Project planning helps identify potential blockers or risks , thereby enabling the project manager and teams to create a risk mitigation strategy.

Increases collaboration

A strong project plan helps everyone understand their responsibilities. This, in turn, helps the teams collaborate effectively and finish the project within the timeframe.

Key elements of project planning

Next, let’s review the key elements of project planning:

Key Elements Of Project Planning

This is pretty self-explanatory, it’s what the project is going to hopefully achieve by the end. It’s important to have SMART goals so they’re as specific and unambiguous as possible.

This is the very first element of a project plan that the team decides on. Scope helps the teams understand what they need to achieve and gives direction to the product. Scope typically includes objectives, goals, expected deliveries, and project limitations.

This helps teams understand when they need to deliver the project and how to divide the project into small, executable milestones that fit into the total timeline. It also includes the allocation of resources, personnel equipment, and necessary training.

The budget details the financial part of the project. Questions like how much total money needs to be spent to finish the project, what are the funding sources, what are the revenue projects, etc. are answered via budgeting. This also includes the salaries of team members, training costs, equipment costs, etc.

Every project comes with its own risks. Risks are factors that could impact the project’s successful completion. These could be the availability of resources, legal and/or regulatory compliance, or technology limitations.

Assessing risks early on helps detail how they can be mitigated to successfully deliver the project. One point to note is that it’s not possible to identify all the risks early on. For example, no companies could predict the magnitude of the outbreak of COVID-19. This proves that some risks are beyond the control of the company and teams.

Communication plan

A project requires effective collaboration between different team members, such as designers, engineers, marketers, sales personnel, etc. To achieve this, a project needs to have a strong communication plan. This includes meeting schedules, modes of communication, and reporting requirements.

Change management plan

As mentioned in the risks section, there are times when the project needs to change because of unidentified or unplanned risks. These changes might affect the scope, timeline, budget, resources, or any other part of a project.

This is why a change management plan needs to be discussed. This plan outlines how a project can be changed, how to communicate changes to stakeholders, and how to address concerns or conflicts.

Stakeholder management plan

Every project has stakeholders. Stakeholders can either play an active role in finishing projects, such as engineering and designers, or simply may just be interested in the status of the project, such as higher management.

Having a stakeholder management plan will keep the stakeholders educated and engaged, thereby removing any blockers or concerns.

Team roles and responsibilities

As mentioned earlier, a project requires active collaboration between different teams and team members. This is why a clear definition of who will work on what is extremely important. It also helps to outline the responsibilities of every team member, project manager, project sponsor, etc.

Project plan template

Project Plan Template Screenshot

Here is a free project plan template that I created. Feel free to use it at your convenience. This highlights all the points that are mentioned above in the key elements of the project planning section.

You can make a copy of this template to customize for your projects by going to File > Make a copy .

Project plan example

Let’s go through an example to create a project plan using the above template.

Project goal

We’ll start with the project goal. As mentioned earlier, the first part of a project plan is to understand the needs of the project. The outcome of this is to have a specific goal and outcome. This is the most critical part since it will drive the entire project.

For example, let’s say we work for an established e-commerce company that’s doing well in selling fashion products and we’ve already identified a need of selling second-hand products. In this case, the goal is to “enable sellers to sell second-hand products at their desired price.”

Once the goal is identified, the next step is to define the scope. This helps to deliver results faster. Here’s an example: to enable sellers to sell second-hand products at their desired price on an e-commerce shop, we need to: enable a new categorization “second-hand” on the website for the users to discover; build systems to enable sellers to sell the second product at their desired rates; and define return and exchange policies.

These are just a few of the things that the team will need to work on. And hence, it’s important to scope the project so that it’s easier for the team to deliver. For example, enable sellers to sell second-hand t-shirts at their desired price. This will help the team only focus on one category as compared to tens of other categories, thereby having a clear scope to work on.

Next, we have timeline. As mentioned previously, this helps the team know how soon they need to deliver the project. For our example, we could say that our goal to enable sellers to sell second-hand t-shirts at their desired price should be finished in three months. Every month, there will be a smaller release related to the project goal.

Next up is the budget. This falls in the bucket of the sponsor. Usually, that’s someone from higher management. We need to know what physical resources, human resources, and physical locations are necessary

For example:

  • Six sets of hardware for six team members with the associated software
  • Six team members: three backend, two frontend, and one project manager
  • Office space for seating six

Risks are an extremely critical part of a project that helps identify potential risks early on and create a contingency plan. We can ask ourselves things like, “What if the project is not delivered within the timeline?” “What if the project requires more budget?” or “What if the company doesn’t find sellers to sell second-hand products?”

For the first question, we could de-scope the project depending on what needs to be finished. For the second, evaluate the reasons and find funding opportunities, And for the third question, we could understand the reasoning and iterate the product (or close it, depending on the feedback).

This is the backbone of the project and keeps the project audience together.

Here’s an example of a communication plan:

  • A weekly check-in between all the stakeholders
  • A bi-weekly newsletter to keep all the stakeholders informed
  • A Google chat for the stakeholders to communicate daily

Questions such as “What happens if something goes wrong?” are taken care of in this section.

I nform the primary stakeholders, who, in this case, are higher management (including the CEO, CTO, and CPO) ASAP in case of changes. Also, evaluate the cost of the change and communicate the same.

This part talks about who are the relevant stakeholders, how should they be informed, and how often. In this case, the stakeholders are the higher management, engineering team, operations team, and design team. They should be informed via email once every two weeks.

Lastly, every project requires active collaboration between different teams. And hence why it’s necessary to understand who is involved in the project and what their roles are.

For example, engineering will work to build the software, the design team will design the features and the end-to-end flow, and the project manager will lead the project.

Here is the template with all the filled answers.

Template Filled Out With Examples

5 tips for effective project planning

The following are some lessons learned and advice I’d give for effective project planning:

  • Involve all the relevant stakeholders from day one . Sometimes, engineering or design is included later, which impacts not only the timeline but even the scope of the project
  • Create a realistic timeline . Include buffers, vacation days of team members, sick leaves, and holidays. Unexpected incidents happen and its best is to consider them in project planning right at the start
  • Maintain active communication . It’s better to over-communicate than under-communicate. Also, having active regular communication can help identify the roadblock or risks earlier
  • Identify the right stakeholders and prioritize them . Some stakeholders will be the sponsors or participants, and hence will be very active during the entire project. Others will be passive. Classify the stakeholders and communicate with them regularly according to priority
  • Be agile . Always prepare for the worst case and keep the team agile. This includes creating a strong change management plan and determining the potential risks early on.

A good project plan can help the team sail the winds smoothly. It forms the backbone of the project. A project plan can give clear visibility to all stakeholders, thereby helping everyone accomplish the desired goal.

Featured image source: IconScout

LogRocket generates product insights that lead to meaningful action

Get your teams on the same page — try LogRocket today.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • #project management

project plan assignment example

Stop guessing about your digital experience with LogRocket

Recent posts:.

Kevin Morris Leader Spotlight

Leader Spotlight: Balancing inward and outward product management, with Kevin Morris

Kevin Morris talks about the importance of not overly focusing on the inward-facing components of product management.

project plan assignment example

A guide to sprint planning

While running a sprint planning ceremony is pretty straightforward, a lot of work goes into the planning both before and during the ceremony.

project plan assignment example

Leader Spotlight: The tipping point to scale, with Sam Schulte

Sam Schulte, Vice President, Product Engineering at Inspirato, talks about the delicate balance between innovation and scale.

project plan assignment example

How to manage HiPPOs in the workplace

Workplaces have tried to move away from layers and layers of hierarchy, with managers managing managers in a seemingly never-ending pyramid.

project plan assignment example

One Reply to "A guide to project planning (with template and examples)"

Thanks a lot for your hard work and great samples! Really appreciate. I think project planning also requires digital tools for planning. Kanbantool.com seems to be a great match here. I bet you have heard about kanban 🙂 Thanks once again and wish you luck, and all smooth i professional life 🙂

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

How to Write a Project Plan: Template and Examples

Create a blueprint for your project and keep the stakeholders aligned.

Starting a new project is exciting – it may be tempting to jump straight into it and figure things out as you go along.

But going in without a plan is bound to result in chaos. At best, your team members will charge ahead without fully understanding how their work fits in. At worst, they won't even know where to start.

Poor planning is cited as one of the main reasons behind failed projects, but it doesn't have to be this way. Let's dive deeper into what a project plan looks like and how it should be written.

What is a project plan?

Project plan example, project plan template, how to create a project plan.

A project plan is a structured document that defines the project goals and specifies how these goals will be achieved. PRINCE2 , a structured project management method adopted in many countries worldwide, formally defines a project plan as a "statement of how and when a project's objectives are to be achieved, by showing the major products, milestones, activities, and resources required on the project".

A project plan is prepared by the project manager (often based on the previously approved project proposal ) and serves as a roadmap and a single source of truth for the team. It is a living document that evolves together with the project, capturing all changes and decisions and facilitating communication among project stakeholders.

What should be included in a project plan

When most people hear "project plan", they tend to imagine a gantt chart – but a visual timeline is only a small part of it. A thorough project plan needs to cover several important topics, including:

Objective & motivation : Why are you investing resources into this project?

Deliverables : What needs to be accomplished at the end of the project?

Scope : What is relevant to the success of the project? What is excluded?

Budget : What are the cost estimates for delivering this project?

Tasks & responsibilities: What are the specific tasks that need to be carried out? Who will be responsible for them?

Timeline & milestones : What are the main phases of the project? When does each phase start and end?

There are hundreds of project plan examples online – many of them are in the form of flashy, colorful diagrams, spreadsheets, and timelines. They may be pretty to look at, but are they practical?

A project plan should not look like a slide out of a sales deck. Its goal is not to dazzle its audience, but to be as clear and informative as possible in order to keep all stakeholders on the same page.

Here's an example of what a project plan could look like in Nuclino :

Project plan example

Nuclino is a unified workspace where you can not only plan, document, and manage your projects, but also build your internal knowledge base , collaborate on internal documentation , onboard new employees , take meeting minutes , and more. Rather than using a tool like Trello to manage your projects and a separate software like Google Docs to document them, with Nuclino you can bring it all together in one place and collaborate without the chaos of files and folders, context switching, or silos.

Manage projects in Nuclino

Using a project plan template is an easy way to save time and ensure that your project documentation stays consistent. Although project plans differ from company to company, the high-level structure is usually the same.

Project plan template

Remember – a project plan is supposed to be a living document . It's not something you write once at the beginning of the project and then set in stone.

A project plan needs to be collaboratively maintained and kept up-to-date by all stakeholders – that means that it can't be hidden away in some folder on your hard drive. Pick a project documentation tool that supports real-time collaboration and is easily accessible to your entire team.

Once you have the right tool in place, start with the broad strokes and refine the details as the project takes shape.

Define the scope and objectives

Begin by outlining the goals of your project – think of it as a business case that needs to provide answers to the following questions:

Why is this project being initiated?

What are the underlying hypotheses?

What will be the ideal outcome and the ROI?

Define the roles and responsibilities

Next, you need to identify the project stakeholders – the ones who are responsible for its success. After you get the initial buy-in from them, you can define roles and assign responsibilities. In some cases, one person can fill multiple roles, while in others, multiple people may hold identical roles.

Set milestones and create a timeline

Now, it's time to break down the work that needs to be done into manageable blocks. Consider the goals you set earlier and derive a list of activities needed to achieve them. These activities need to be mapped to specific milestones and organized chronologically in a timeline. Milestone deadlines do not have to be exact dates, but the more precise, the better.

Hold a kick-off meeting

Much of the work until this point can be done asynchronously , but at a certain point, you need to bring all stakeholders together and align on the details. Use this opportunity to review the project plan and ensure that the team shares the same vision for the project. Prepare a meeting agenda and share it with the stakeholders in advance, as soon as you schedule the meeting .

After the first iteration of your project plan is finalized, don't rush to laminate it. No matter how thorough your research has been, it's highly likely that some of your estimations of cost, time, or scope will need to be corrected. But as long as you review the project plan regularly, keep it up-to-date, and preserve a log of all decisions, it can be a highly efficient project planning tool for keeping your project on track.

Nuclino : Your team's collective brain

Nuclino

Nuclino brings all your team's knowledge, docs, and projects together in one place. It's a modern, simple, and blazingly fast way to collaborate, without the chaos of files and folders, context switching, or silos.

Create a central knowledge base and give your team a single source of truth.

Collaborate in real time or asynchronously and spend less time in meetings.

Manage and document your projects in one place without losing context.

Organize, sort, and filter all kinds of data with ease.

Integrate the tools you love , like Slack, Google Drive, Figma, Lucidchart, and more.

Ready to get started?

  • Why Nuclino?
  • Apps & Integrations
  • Sidekick (AI)
  • Topical Articles =>
  • PMP Certification
  • CAPM Certification
  • Agile Training
  • Corporate Training
  • Project Management Tools

Home / Project Management / Project Plan Example – Sample Real-Life Project Plan

project plan example

Project Plan Example – Sample Real-Life Project Plan

Are you planning to create a project plan? What does a good project plan look like? How could I create one? Where should I start to create a plan for your project? For a successful project, a great project plan is essential.

In this article, we will go through the key steps to write a project plan successfully. Project plans vary in sizes, elements, format, and components. So, there is no single way of creating a project plan. As a matter of fact, a good project plan contains the project goals it is meant to address. You may find many project plan templates that vary from extremely complex to extremely simple across the internet. But how do you choose the right one?

  • Check out our PMP® Online Class Virtual Training that will help you fully prepare for the PMP certification exam!
  • You can also check out our self-paced PMP® Certification Training .

17% of Master of Project Academy participants who passed their certification exam saw a 20x return within the first year.

Attend our 100% Online & Self-Paced One-Hour Free PMP Training .

project plan assignment example

Well, before we start let’s give you a link where you can download a FREE project management plan example along with four other Free Project Management Templates .

  • Are you looking to improve your Excel skills for business analyst? Check out our Excel course for business analysts .
  • Do you want to gain AI data analytics skills? Master of Project Academy’s brand new course offer is Introduction to Analytics and AI Online Training Course

Finding the right project plan

If you select any project plan template, you may find yourself spending precious time filling in lots of details. Your project may not have these details or in most cases, it won’t need them. At the same time, if you select a more simplified project plan template, you may find yourself stuck with a very limited version of the plan that does not include important details.

So what should you do? We tend to use a more practical approach, instead of just handing you a ready-made project plan example template. We will show you  the right project plan example for your project. Accordingly, our offering will include steps you should take to create a suitable plan for your project regardless of its size and components.

How Should You Start Creating a Project Plan?

So let’s start with the obvious questions, where should you start and how should you start. Now many project managers deal with project planning as a solo act. Thus, they usually tend to neglect team collaboration and depend on their own intellectual skills to perform the activities all by themselves. While this may seem an easy approach to creating a solid project plan example, it is an approach full of flaws. As a start, consider the fact that teamwork and collaboration bring more value than individual efforts no matter how brilliant the individual is . Additionally, the combined backgrounds and experiences of your project team will cover many project considerations.

1. Breakdown the work

The next step is to sit with your team to define the project work at a high level and then break it down into detailed work packages . Meanwhile, the team should also work on defining the tasks to carry out in order to complete the defined work packages. These tasks should carefully detail every activity the project team will execute. This way, the team leaves no chance of missing any aspect of the project and it also helps the team plan and assign proper resources. As a result, this step is considered one of the most important steps in project planning. Also, it helps in drawing the line for what should the project team consider as a part of the project scope of work and what is considered out of scope.

Project plan example

2. Define quality standards

Quality

100% FREE PMP® Pack

Let us send you links for our Free PMP Pack. Package includes:

- PMP Question Bank - PMP Flash Cards - PMP Prep Book Sample PDF - Free PMP Overview Training - PMP Cheat Sheets & more

3. Assign Resources to Tasks

Resources

4. Define the Relationship of Activities

The next step is to understand the relationship between different tasks and activities. This step is the heart of project planning since it defines opportunities for project schedule compression. In addition to the mentioned, it gives the project team the opportunity to identify schedule risks and potential conflicts over resources. Defining the relationship of activities is also known as activity sequencing. So how do you do it? It mainly works by defining what are the mandatory relations between different activities. Also, you should define the logical relations between different activities. The project team can identify mandatory relations by reviewing any relationship defined by contractual agreement or obligation. On the other hand, the team can identify logical relations through what works best.

Activity relations (SS, FS, FF, etc.)

Now let’s go through each type of relation the project team can identify and how it works. There are four types of relationships between different activities:

  • The first type of activities’ relationship is Start to Start (SS) . This type of relationship is used when one activity cannot start unless the other activity starts.
  • The second type of activities’ relationship is Finish to Start (FS) . The project team uses this type of relationship when one activity can not start unless the other activity finishes.
  • The third type of activities’ relationship is Finish to Finish (FF) . The project team uses this type of relationship when one activity can not finish unless the other activity finishes.
  • The fourth type of activities’ relationship is Start to Finish (SF) . The project team uses this type of relationship when one activity can not finish unless the other activity starts.

Project plan example

5. Estimate Resources and Duration of Each Task

The next step in formulating a project plan example is to set an estimate resource and duration for each task of the project. Each resource should define the duration and any resources (tools, equipment, etc) needed to complete the task. This way we can set duration estimation for each activity in a realistic way and at the same time confirm the required resources for each activity. By completing this step, formulating a project plan is almost near completion.

On the other hand, the project team can use multiple techniques to set activity resources and duration estimation. These techniques may include parametric estimation which uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables. Also, the team can use more simplified estimation techniques like Analogous estimation, Bottom-up estimating, or three-point estimation techniques. The team can use the later technique by calculating the average or the weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates.

6. Estimate Each Task Cost

This step is similar to estimating resources and duration for each task of the project. Based on task resources, required talents, and duration, the team should decide the cost needed to complete the task. As another step for creating a project plan example, this step provides a realistic cost estimate for each activity. Same as estimating resources and duration, the project team can use multiple techniques to set task cost estimation. These techniques include parametric estimation where the team uses a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to identify cost. Also, the team can use more simplified techniques like Analogous estimation, Bottom-up estimating, and three-point estimation techniques. Just like estimating resources and duration, the team can use the latter technique by calculating the average or the weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely estimates.

project plan example

7. Generate Project Plan

After completing each task resource and duration estimation, in addition to completing cost estimates for each task, now you can generate the final version of the project plan example . You should review the different aspects of the project plan to inspect any potential conflict between them. There may be estimated costs for an activity which don’t match the resource estimate. In such a case, you need to review your project plan example and find a way to clear that variance. We highly recommend that you review the project plan example we provided as an attachment for your reference. The final reviewed project plan example is sent for approval and final authorization for execution.

Click to download the sample project plan example

8. Finalize and Approve by Sponsor

First, the project team carefully reviews the final project plan example and rectifies any variances between different elements. Then, the project manager hands over the final version of the project plan to the project sponsor for review, recommendations, and final approval. The project sponsor revises the project plan’s final version and investigates it to ensure it is realistic enough. Also, the sponsor reviews the plans constraints, assumptions, and project risks. As a result, the project plan might be returned to the project team for revision if the project sponsor sees it as unrealistic. On the other hand, if the project sponsor finds the plan realistic, integrated and conflict-free, he/she will approve it directly. Thus, the project team can have an approved version of the project plan example when the project sponsor authorizes the team to start executing project work.

Project Plan Example of a Project

Now let’s go through a sample project plan example that we have attached above for you as a reference to use for your future project plan. This project plan example offers major sections of the project plan that we described in this article. In addition, for more project plan examples, check out Master of Project Academy’s exclusive “ Sandbox ,” membership which includes example project management plans that accompany case studies and a template for developing project plans. Now, we will briefly step through  sections of the project plan example to enrich your understanding of the sections. The main section of the sample project plan example:

Sample project plan example – Section 1: Executive Summary of Project Charter

The first section of the sample project plan example covers the Executive Summary of the Project Charter including project constraints and assumptions.

project plan example

Sample project plan example – Section 2: Scope management

This section includes what you have detailed in the first step in this article “Breakdown the work “. This includes three subsections:

  • Work breakdown structure: Includes defined work package and sub-work packages and their associated breakdown sub levels
  • Deployment plan: Let’s say that the project involves deploying an application to state health partners. This section would discuss the approach for rolling out the application to the end-users, including conducting environmental assessments, developing memorandums of understanding, hardware/software installation, and data conversion.
  • Change management plan: Let’s say that a development server for your project is administered by another organization that is responsible for installing machine upgrades and there are scheduled outages that will impact your project schedule. Changes to the project will need to be made to deal with the potential impact of the scheduled outage.

Sample project plan example – Section 3: Schedule management

This section is about whether you stay on track with the planned schedule. It includes the output of sections 4 and 5 of this article. Let’s give an example of a schedule management approach: Establish a baseline within the first two weeks of the project and monitor progress against the baseline on a weekly basis. The project manager will be responsible for ensuring the project schedule is updated with the latest information and never more than three business days out of date. For variances on executive milestones greater than 10%, the project may choose to use guidance specified by CPIC. See the CDC UP Project Schedule document for more guidance on project scheduling and for Project Schedule templates.

The subsections of this section are:

  • Milestones: includes milestones and their Estimated Completion Timeframes
  • Project schedule: the following diagram provides a sample project schedule
  •   Dependencies: describes the output of section 4 of this article “Activity relations (SS, FS, FF, etc.)”

Project plan example

Sample project plan example – Section 4: Cost/budget management

This section of the sample project plan example describes the project’s cost management plan or provides a reference to where it is stored. This section should contain step 6, “Estimate each task’s costs outputs”.

Sample project plan example – Section 5: Quality management

This section of the sample project plan example describes the project’s quality management covered in step number two in this article.

Example: An information system that controls the level of consistency for screen layouts would normally contain a full review for all available screens. Thus making sure that these screens match the originally agreed set of quality standards. In many cases, quality measures may include a condition of no defects (bugs) for certain requirements the company deems critical. While in other cases, quality measures may require consistent screen layouts and/or correctly calculated variables. Generally, the project managers can ensure quality through performing inspections and audits as well as using formal testing. Then, the project management team should document those defects in a tracking system to ensure fixing defects, retest them and eventually close them. In some projects, the project manager may use an artifact like a traceability matrix as a tool for determining whether critical requirements are met or not.

Sample project plan example – Section 6: Resource management

This section contains the description of the resource part discussed in step 5 in this article.

RACI

Sample project plan example – Section 7: Communication management

It contains communication planning for a different types of communication between different stakeholders and the project team. sample for communication matrix below:

Sample project plan example – Section 8: Risk management

This section contains all risks identified in any element of the project , it mainly contains the Risk Log. The project managers normally maintain a risk log away from the project management plan in a separate document. The project manager may merge different logs into a single document that contains all different logs.

Sample project plan example – Section 9: Issue management

This section contains all issues surfaced or detected in any project element, it mainly contains the issue log. The issue log is normally maintained by project managers in a separate document away from the project management plan. The project team may also merge the risk log with the issue log in addition to other logs like assumptions and constraints log into a single document.

Sample project plan example – Section 10: Procurement management

Example: Normally this section would include information related to physical and human resources that can be procured. Thus ensuring that the procurement of hardware including computers, development servers, and test servers are planned and managed properly. Also, it describes how to leverage project team staff members from an external vendor. Additionally, it can go into more explicit details to include project staff acquisition strategies.

Sample project plan example – Section 11: Compliance-related planning

In this section, you need to insert a list of compliance-related processes that the project team must adhere to in order to meet company compliance policies. Moreover, it may include a description of governance bodies that oversee the project work or review the product deliverable. It also states occasions of governance-related reviews and audits describing the audit standards and their acceptance criteria. Additionally, it may also include a description of who has the right to perform audits and how they will be performed.

Related Posts

Disclaimer:

  • PMP, PMI, PMBOK, CAPM, ACP and PDU are registered marks of the Project Management Institute.
  • ITIL® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
  • PRINCE2® is a [registered] trade mark of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM) and Certified Scrum Trainer® (CST) are registered trademarks of SCRUM ALLIANCE®
  • Professional Scrum Master is a registered trademark of Scrum.org
  • CISA® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and the IT Governance Institute.
  • CISSP® is a registered mark of The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium ((ISC)2).

Master of Project Promo Codes PMP Articles

PMP Certification Ultimate Guide – 99.6% Pass Rate CAPM Articles

  • Contact sales

Start free trial

Get your free

Project Plan Template

Get your Project Plan Template for Word or open it in ProjectManager, the best way to manage your projects online.

project plan assignment example

Download this free project plan template for Word to scope your work and break it down into manageable components; then schedule and assign the tasks needed to complete your project.

You can also use this project management plan template to manage workloads and tasks as changes occur. A project plan is the foundation of the work you do to lead a project to successful completion.

Once everything is sorted on the Word doc, open ProjectManager’s free project plan template. It lets you build a dynamic project plan that can be managed in five different project views: Gantt chart, task list, kanban board, calendar and spreadsheet. Plus, your team can collaborate on the project in real time and track progress along the way with dashboards and instant status reports. Get started for free with ProjectManager and build a better project plan.

Free project plan template

What Is a Project Plan Template?

A project plan template is a document that compiles all the guidelines and procedures the project management team needs to execute a project. Project plan templates allow project managers to save time during the project planning phase and also help them ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

How to Use This Project Plan Template

Project planning starts with a thorough project plan document. Follow these planning steps to ensure that your project plan covers all project aspects. This means you’ll be less likely to run into surprises.

1. Planning Basis

Project scope.

Begin with the project scope. What activities and tasks as defined in your project must be completed to make the project a success? Use the project charter as a springboard. You can also use a work breakdown structure to identify all the activities, tasks, deliverables and milestones of your project.

Project Milestones

Based on your project charter or work breakdown structure, note the milestones or major events or phases in your project, and collect them in a chart with three columns for the milestone, a description and its delivery date. Examples of milestones are when the business case is approved when the project team is appointed or the project management office is established.

Project Management Phases

The next step is detailing the phases of the project, which is defined as a set of activities, such as the project’s initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure. These should also be noted in a chart with the phase followed by a description of it and its sequence.

Project Tasks

You need to note the tasks that are necessary to complete the project, too. There are many project tasks such as developing a quality plan, formulating supplier contracts and performing project closure. Write them out in a chart listing the phase, activity, description and sequence.

Effort & Resource Requirements

This leads to the effort likely needed to complete the above tasks. List the task with the amount of time you believe necessary to finish the task. This in turn goes hand in glove with resources, so you want to take the task and attach a resource or team member to it. This is the person responsible for completing the task.

2. Project Plan

Project schedule.

Now you’re ready to create a project schedule from the summary above. Use the phases and activities to create a Gantt chart to easily visualize the project timeline, the work needed and its duration.

Task Dependencies

You want to add the dependencies, or tasks that are linked to others and can potentially block team members if not done in a timely and sequential manner. In fact, there are four types of task dependencies: finish-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-start and start-to-finish. List the key dependencies in a chart with the activity, what it depends on and the type of dependency.

Project Assumptions and Constraints

List any assumptions you have about the project. Then note the project constraints. Finally, in an appendix, you’ll want to attach the supporting documentation, such as the project schedule, business case, feasibility study, project charter, etc.

3. Budget, Risk and Change Management

Project budget.

The project budget is one of the most critical components of any project plan. That’s because the project budget determines the amount of money available for your project. Therefore, you need to be very careful when creating yours.

First, gather your project tasks, identify the resource requirements for each and lastly estimate their costs. Once you have the costs for each project task, you can add them to get your estimated project cost value. That value will be your cost baseline and the base for your project budget.

Every project plan needs a risk management section. Our project plan template has a risk log so you can list the potential risks that could affect your project plan. From there you can develop your risk mitigation strategies and assign risk owners.

Change Management Process

Every project plan needs to be changed during the execution phase for several reasons. For example, new project requirements might arise and cause changes to the original plan. As a project manager, you must oversee how changes are made to your project. Our change management log helps you keep track of any changes made to your project plan.

4. Appendix

Each project management plan is unique, and its components might vary depending on the requirements of your project. These are the most commonly used documents:

  • Project Budget Template
  • Change Request Template
  • Change Order Template
  • Scope Management Plan
  • Cost Management Plan
  • Risk Management Plan

Why You Need a Project Plan Template

Now that you’ve downloaded the free project plan template, you are ready to get your project on track to a successful completion! The project plan is crucial, as it is the fundamental project planning document from which your project is formally managed.

The project plan is made up of goals, activities, tasks and resources needed to complete the project as outlined in the project business case and the project charter. You want to have a description of the major phases of the project, a schedule of activities, tasks and their duration, dependencies, resources, timeframes, etc. Then list the assumptions and constraints in the project planning process.

When you’re creating a project management plan, follow these steps: note the project scope, identify milestones and tasks, estimate costs, quantify the effort required, allocate the resources, make a schedule , list dependencies and document it for approval. Your project management plan template needs to incorporate components such as the scope management plan, cost management plan and schedule management plan, among others.

A Project Plan Template, showing the first steps in the form-fillable project management plan template document

While the business case from earlier in the project planning process may offer a general project view, the project plan goes into greater detail once the project scope and charter are formalized and a team is hired. Although you write the project plan during the project planning phase, it doesn’t stay in a drawer once complete. This project plan template should be considered a living document that’ll be revisited and referred to throughout the project life cycle. This is because the project management plan is a roadmap that project managers use during the execution phase when they need information about the project schedule, costs, scope and budget.

Once your document is finalized, it’s time to build a dynamic project plan and schedule. Project planning software can help you transfer your project plan onto a Gantt chart so you can create a timeline, schedule work, design phases, attach documents and track progress along the way. Then share the plan with your team, who can use multiple project views, such as the task list, sheet, calendar and kanban board.

ProjectManager's kanban view

When Do I Use the Project Plan Template?

The project management life cycle is made up of five phases: the initiation phase, the planning phase, the execution phase, the monitoring and the closure phase. Planning comes in after you’ve initiated the project but before it’s executed.

For example, during the initiation phase, there are many documents that are created to set up the project plan, such as a feasibility study to identify the problem you want to solve, the scope of the project and the deliverables you want. This feeds into the business case , which compares costs versus benefits. The statement of work (SOW) looks at the project goals, objectives, scope and deliverables.

These don’t constitute a project plan, but they do lay the foundation on which you’ll build your plan. This is when you take the broad strokes from the initiation phase and break it down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Each of these tasks must be achieved within the project timeframe.

Who Uses the Project Plan Template?

It’s important to note that the project manager is tasked with the ownership of creating the project plan, but work isn’t done in isolation. The project manager must work in congress with the team, experts and others who can provide insight and guidance into developing a realistic project management plan.

Teams are assembled for their skills and experience working on such projects, so it makes sense that you need ideas on how to plan the project. Of course, the team will have access to the project plan throughout the execution phase of the project. They’ll be assigned tasks and be responsible for delivering them on time and within budget.

Others who will use the project plan include stakeholders and executives, or anyone with a vested interest in the successful outcome of the project. The project manager will present to these groups throughout the project life cycle to keep them abreast of progress and ensure that actual progress matches what’s been outlined in the project plan.

Free Project Management Templates

There are dozens of free project management templates for Word and Excel available on our site. Some of them are useful during the project planning process. Here are a few that can help build your project plan.

Action Plan Template

Your project plan has to align with a larger strategy which is outlined in an action plan. The free action plan template provides you with a space to lay out the needed steps and concrete tasks to reach your project goal. The action plan gives you a frame in which to capture the main thrust of the project to help you prioritize tasks in your plan.

Gantt Chart Template

The Gantt chart is the workhorse of project management planning. It’s a visual tool that organizes your tasks on a timeline . It helps you prioritize and set durations for each task, shows phases and breaks up larger projects into more manageable phases.

WBS Template

Another key tool when building your project schedule is the work breakdown structure (WBS). This is a technique for working backward from your final deliverable to outline each step that gets you there. It’s a thorough way to make sure you don’t miss any puzzle pieces of your larger project. This project management template takes you through that process.

Related Content

Now that you’ve downloaded your free project management plan template and it reflects your project plan, you’re ready for the job at hand. But, whether you’re a project management journeyman or apprentice, you never want to stay complacent. Industries and businesses don’t stand still, and you have to do your best to stay up-to-date on new trends.

There are many free project management templates and topics of discussion on ProjectManager that can be easily filtered to bring you the content that’s most relevant to your interests. Subjects include, but aren’t limited to, project management software, scheduling, risk and task management, collaboration, time tracking, Gantt charts, reporting and, of course, planning.

As the subject at hand is planning, we’ve compiled three of the most recent and relevant posts on project planning. Enjoy!

  • Project Documentation: 15 Essential Project Documents
  • How to Choose a Project Planner
  • How to Create a Program Management Plan
  • Agile Sprint Plan Template

Try ProjectManager Free for 30 Days

ProjectManager is a great project planning tool. It offers the features you need to plan, track and report on your project. There are online and interactive Gantt charts that take the pain out of having to build one manually.

The software is also online so it’s easy to access from anywhere and on any device. Better still, it makes sharing necessary documents and tasks easy, and both the project manager and team members can get automated notifications to streamline the reporting process.

Why not plan your next project on ProjectManager? Our project management software has been repeatedly ranked #1 on Gartner’s GetApp in its project management software category. ProjectManager has been helping businesses both big and small to lead their projects to success, including such innovative organizations as NASA.

Our project management software is big enough to handle the largest and most complex project planning challenges while being user-friendly and intuitive. There’s no learning curve or long and involved training involved, and a team of customer service reps is available to answer any question you may have. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today and start planning your projects online.

Start your free 30-day trial

Deliver faster, collaborate better, innovate more effectively — without the high prices and months-long implementation and extensive training required by other products.

Free Project Task List Templates for Project Management

By Kate Eby | September 22, 2022

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We’ve compiled the most useful project task list templates for project managers, project team members and stakeholders, IT teams, and construction personnel.  

On this page, you’ll find six essential project task list templates, including a simple project task list template , a project task list with Gantt chart , a project task checklist template , an IT project task list template , and a construction project task list template . Plus, find tips on creating a successful project task list template .

Simple Project Task List Template

Simple Project Task List Template Example

Download a Sample Simple Project Task List Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs | Google Sheets

Download a Blank Simple Project Task List Template for Excel | Microsoft Word | Adobe PDF | Google Docs | Google Sheets

Use this simple project task list template to list each project task and set its status, deadline, assignee, and priority. The template includes columns that help you track the percentage done, fixed cost, estimated cost, and actual hours for each task. You can also use the template to list tasks for several projects and to track their real-time progress. This template is the perfect solution for project teams looking to clarify task ownership, as well as create and accurately track tasks. Download the blank version to begin tracking tasks for your project, or review the template with sample data to help you get started.

For more project task list template resources, read this comprehensive article on free task list and checklist templates .

Project Task List with Gantt Chart Template

Project Task List with Gantt Chart Template

Download a Project Task List with Gantt Chart Template for  Excel | Google Sheets  

Clarify project tasks for team members by using this project task list with Gantt chart template. The template enables you to list each task, the team member responsible for completing it, its due date, and its status. As you populate the template with your project data, the Gantt chart section creates a visual representation of your project’s tasks so that you, your team, or project sponsors can get up-to-date information on project progress.

Project Task Checklist Template

Project Task Checklist Template

Download a Project Task Checklist Template for  Excel | Google Sheets

Improve your project delivery success rate with this easy-to-use project task checklist template. Enter individual tasks along with their status and priority, assignee, due date, and any relevant notes. This fully customizable template lets you edit column titles to suit your project team’s needs and ensures that you successfully check each project task off your to-do list. 

For more resources and templates for tracking project tasks, see this helpful list of free project checklist templates .

Project Task Tracker Template

Project Task Tracker Template

Download a Project Task Tracker Template for  Excel | Google Sheets

This template provides color-coded Status and Priority columns where you can easily track important project tasks. Designed to help you monitor tasks across multiple projects, this template indicates whether a task is at risk of not being completed. The Cost / Hours section tabulates fixed costs, estimated hours, and actual hours for each task. Regardless of your industry or type of work, this customizable project task tracker template will help ensure that you are able to account for and successfully complete every project task. 

Check out this comprehensive project task list template to ensure that you’re optimizing your project to-do list and keeping it in a single, shareable location.

IT Project Task List Template

IT Project Task List Template

Download an IT Project Task List Template for  Excel | Microsoft Word | Google Sheets  

Keep all IT project team members and stakeholders informed of task statuses with this comprehensive IT project task list template. The template includes space to enter your project name, project manager, key IT project deliverables, scope statement, start and end dates, and percentage of overall progress. This completely customizable template enables you to list each task, who it’s assigned to, start and end dates, and statuses. This template can help you and your IT team optimize your project delivery standards and increase your IT project success rate.

Construction Project Task List Template

Construction Project Task List Template

Download a Construction Project Task List Template for  Excel | Google Sheets

Use this construction project task list template to ensure that your team completes all construction tasks in a timely manner. The template comes pre-filled with construction-specific task sections ( Sitework, Concrete, Masonry, Doors and Windows, etc . ), under which you can list each specific task, assign team members, select a due date, and add key details. The template also doubles as a construction punch list and includes a Punch ID column to identify key construction project tasks and contract specifications.

How Do I Create a Project Task List?

A project task list includes every task required for successful project completion. To create a project task list, use an application such as Excel or Google Sheets. Task lists also include such information as statuses, timelines, and team member information. 

A project task list typically includes the name of each project task, which team member is responsible for completing it, and its due date, status, priority, and any relevant notes. This document helps project managers, team members, and other stakeholders ensure that every required task is accounted for, assigned, and completed on time. By creating a project task list, you can help make sure that everyone involved in the project understands the status of each individual task and the project as a whole. 

In an application such as Excel, you can create a simple task list table by inserting rows such as Task Name, Status, Priority, Due Date, Assignee, and Notes . A simple task list like this can help ensure that you account for all of your project’s to-do items. 

You can also use a project task list template, which includes the primary elements to ensure that your team completes each task by project’s end. Project task list templates are designed to help you capture and track your project’s tasks so that you complete high-quality deliverables on time. 

Though project task list templates vary, they typically include the following universal elements:

  • Task: Enter the name of each task so that it’s clear to every team member and stakeholder what needs to be accomplished. 
  • Due Date: Provide a date by which each task must be completed so that the project can be delivered on time. 
  • Status: Set a status for each task (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, or Complete ) so that everyone can track project progress. 
  • Priority: Select a priority for each project task. 
  • Assignee: List the name of the team member responsible for completing each task. 
  • Notes: Provide any additional notes that are relevant to the task. 

Depending on their function and their industry, project task list templates might also include the following column components: 

  • At Risk: Select this check box if the individual task is in jeopardy of not being completed by the project’s due date.  
  • Description: Provide a detailed description for each task so that, in addition to the task title, every project team member and stakeholder understands what the task requires for completion. 
  • Deliverable: Specify the primary project deliverable, or feature, that the task is related to. 
  • Percentage Complete: Provide a percentage completed for each project task. 
  • Cost / Hours: Enter fixed costs, estimated hours, and actual hours for each task so you can track expenses and effort. 
  • Duration: Review the duration between each project task’s start and end dates to ensure that teams have adequate time to complete each task.

Stay on Track of Project Tasks with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

30 free project plan templates: Download these PDF, Excel, Word Doc, Google Docs examples

These free project plan templates will set your tasks on the right track

Man holding a pen to paper

1. HubSpot Weekly Schedule

2. agile project plan, 3. hubspot project plan outline, 4. conference planning checklist, 5. project budget, 6. weekly project plan.

  • Risk Management
  • Simple Gantt Chart

9. Concept map

10. action plan, 11. product roadmap, 12. decision tree, 13. eisenhower matrix, 14. implementation plan word, 15. change order, 16. heat map, 17. scope management, 18. hr project planning, 19. content calendar, 20. kanban planning, 21. project monitoring and control, 22. simple profit and loss statement, 23. product launch, 24. stakeholders map, 25. employee timecard, 26. issue tracker, 27. quality control, 28. project performance, 29. social media management, 30. it project management.

It’s never a good idea to rush head-first into a new project if you haven’t completed the necessary preparation first. You may miss something, forget your overarching goal, or simply find it difficult to work as efficiently. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail - as the saying goes. 

A project plan is a great way of ensuring that your projects stay on track. It’s essentially a document that provides a detailed to-do list for each project. Timelines and budgetary guidelines may be included too. It may not be a particularly complicated document, but using the right one can make a huge difference to your project management strategy. 

It’s worth noting that many project plan templates are available for download free of charge, which means that free project management support may be just a click away. Some important questions that project plan templates may help you answer include what the purpose of a project is, what the main deliverables are, and what resources will be required. 

The only thing left then before you start working on your projectis finding the right project plan template for your needs. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a handy guide of 30 of the best free ones available for download. Whatever the goal of your next project, these templates will help you achieve it. 

Reader Offer: Save 18% on Monday.com annual memberships

Reader Offer: Save 18% on Monday.com annual memberships Monday.com is an easy-to-use and customizable work management platform, enabling teams of all sizes to plan, manage and centralize work. Get started now and boost your team's communication and productivity.

Preferred partner ( What does this mean? )  

30 free project plan templates to download

HubSpot is well regarded as one of the best CRM software solutions on the market today - and it boasts a number of project plan templates to prove it. One of the best is its Weekly Schedule Template, which is great for tracking team activities within its user-friendly design. Plus it’s available as either a PDF and Excel file. 

HubSpot’s Weekly Schedule Template is available to download here .

A template built for rapid iteration, this Google Doc’s file breaks down large tasks into a series of sprint that can be assigned to various individuals within your team. You can also give each task a status, such as “on hold” or “in progress” to provide more clarity regarding whether your project is close to completion. If you’re a fan of agile methodologies, this may be the project plan  template for you. 

What really stands out for HubSpot’s Project Plan Outline is its flexibility. Available for Microsoft Word , Google Docs, and PDF, this project plan template is suitable for a range of tasks and formats. It’s also extremely broad in its scope, providing sections titled overview, objectives, roles and responsibilities, schedule, budget, and more. This will suit a wide range of project managers and teams, so it’s a good choice if you regularly take on a variety of different projects.

Project plan templates are not always broad one-size-fits-all documents. Sometimes they are targeted at particular kinds of projects - which is the case with this free conference planning checklist. Available as a PDF, this document is split into 10 sections based on the time when each task should take place. Items listed for completion include opening registration, preparing the conference program, purchasing supplies, preparing registration packets, and organizing a rehearsal.

Download the Conference Planning Checklist for PDF here.

Of course, it not usually easy to gain a concrete handle on project budgets. They are frequently overrun, even when considering some of the biggest and best-funded projedfts in the world. Even so, having a clear project budget template can make it easier to stay on track, which is why this template is so helpful. Containing costs like labor, consultant fees, raw materials, software licences, and more, this will help ensure costs don’t spiral out of control. 

Download this free Project Budget Template for Google Sheets here .

Depending on your industry (or individual project), it might make sense for you to break down your tasks by day, week, quarter or year. For some businesses, this Weekly Project Plan will be just right, with its easy day-by-day management, automated time tracking financial tracking functionality. A great tool is you generally work week to week.

7. Risk Management

Identifying risks before they cause disruption may not be easy but having the right risk management template in place will certainly help. Risks can come in various forms, including malware, natural disaster, human error and more. Through identification, assessment, mitigation, and monitoring, this template makes it much less likely that your project will be de-railed by something unexpected.

Download a free Risk Management template here .

8. Simple Gantt Chart

Anyone with experience of project management is likely to be familiar with Gannt charts. These provide a graphic depiction of a project’s schedule and hence simplify the start and end, as well as demonstrating how each task relates to the other. This template from Microsoft is ideal for everything from business plans to student assignments due to its easy customization. It also supports a variety of fonts, images, graphics, videos and animations. 

Download Microsoft’s Simple Gantt Chart for Excel here .

Available for PDF, PowerPoint, and Google Slides , this concept map works a little differently from many of the other project plan templates listed here. This is great for top-level strategic design and provides a framework for brainstorming, information sharing, and problem-solving.

An action plan differentiates itself from other project plans by focusing on the concrete next steps needed to achieve a specific goal. It usually lists things like the actions individuals need to complete, due dates, priority, and status. These documents shouldn’t contain nebulous overarching goals, like “increase revenue” but should instead focus on tangible task completion.

Download monday.com’s Action Plan Template here . 

Products rarely just appear on the shelves. They are the result of lengthy processes where companies conduct consumer research and competitor analysis before creating a minimum viable product and then tentatively carrying out a launch. Even at that stage, businesses should take a data-driven approach to see how the launch is performing and what can be improved at the next stage. This template will help at every stage. 

A decision tree aims to ensure you make the right choice when more than one possible route can be taken. It’s a graphical representation that starts with a central idea (root node) and branches out to show what will happen if you make a certain choice. It can provide real clarity whenever you have a dilemma on your hands. HubSpot’s template is available for PowerPoint, Google Slides, and PDF. You can download it here . 

An Eisenhower matrix is a two-axis graph that aims to support the prioritization of your tasks. Tasks can be categorized as urgent, not urgent, important, or not important. It helps teams to visualize which tasks they should focus on first and which can be left to a later date. This template can also be easily shared with other team members to assist with collaboration . 

An implementation plan outlines exactly how your task will get done. Stakeholders are asked to describe the purpose of their plan and identify the system that will need to be implemented. They’ll then need to list any assumptions and constraints before listing major tasks and creating an implementation schedule. There’s also an opportunity to list security and privacy requirements, as well as support options. 

Download an Implementation Plan Word Template here .

You may have every intention of sticking to your original plan, but as new developments come to light, changes will invariably have to be made. If that’s the case, a change order template could prove very useful. This will detail any revisions to the scope of work in a project, highlighting the exact change being proposed, how much it will cost and what effect it is likely to have on your original schedule.

Download a free Change Order Template here .

Many project plan templates don’t provide new information, as such, they simply present it in a new way. That’s certainly the case with a heat map, which provides a color-coded visual representation so you can more clearly see which tasks to prioritize. Heat maps can be used to show a variety of metrics, including website traffic, customer demographics and more.  

Projects can quickly spiral out of control if managers don’t keep close tabs on things. A scope management plan outlines a project’s goals, deliverables, costs, and deadlines. In fact, it outlines parameters for all aspects of the project. These are the kinds of restraints that managers need to enforce, if they want projects to run smoothly.

As mentioned previosuily, not all project plan templates are applicable to all industries or tasks. This one is specifically designed to help human resources teams, who often have multiple projects on the go at once. For example, they may need to update the employee onboarding process, create surveys, or schedule training. Dispites can also arise at any time. 

For individuals or teams that publish content, a calendar-style project planning may make the most sense as they msy have print deadlines that cannot be moved. A calendar view may look simple, but it can still be color-coded and shared to provide more detailed guidance for a particular project.

Alongside Gannt charts, a Kanban board may be the best known feature among project management fans. A Kanban board is a tool for workflow visualization that works by organizing tasks into cards and columns. Tasks are separated into different categories so managers can clearly see what needs to be done and when.

Once a projects has been started, no matter how meticulously it is planned, that doesn't mean its guaranteed to be a success. To ensure that’s the case, managers need to carefully monitor how projects are progressing against their initial expectations or goals. This template provides a handy bird’s eye view of all a project’s tasks, deadlines, and progress.

Download a free Project Monitoring and Control Template here .

Don’t let “simple” fool you, there’s nothing more important than keeping track of how much a project is costing you and how much it is bringing in. A straightforward breakdown of the profit and loss stemming from a particular project can also lead to further analysis. 

A product launch is a big deal, so it’s essential that you have a clear plan before rushing in. This template lets you list the names of your products, write out your positioning statement, and provide an overview of your market analysis. It provides clear guidelines that will help your new product have the best chance of success.

Most projects are not individual undertakings but even if a greater number of stakeholders can help unlock new ideas, it can also make things more complicated. This stakeholder map let’s you quickly identify all the stakeholders involved in your upcoming project, differentiating between internal and external stakeholders and streamlining communication. 

Download this free stakeholders map here . 

Gaining an overview of how your employees are allocating their time can be extremely useful for managers - especially if their team is made up of external freelancers. In the age of hybrid working , its importance has only grown too.

Issues are unavoidable during projects - whether they are related to software being used, personnel or anything else. This template for tracking issues lets you assign individual to resolve them so problems aren’t ignored and left to fester. 

Download this free Issue Tracker Template here . 

What’s the definition of “quality”? Well, I guess that depend on who’s being asked and their particular criteria. This template makes all that clear by allowing managers to list who decides on quality (customers, developers, etc) and how defects are detected (testing, review, etc). It means quality is always front of mind. 

This template uses tables and conditional formatting to provide high-level feedback on project performance for stakeholders - both internal and external. It delivers a succinct update in a customizable, clear table.

Download this free project performance report template here .

Social networks are hugely important for many industries and this importance is reflected in how businesses manage their social media output. A social media management business proposal template can bring clarity to your content promotion strategy by outlining the engagement you’re looking to achieve and, crucially, how much it is going to cost.

IT is core to most businesses today - and the pace of digital transformation being experienced means this is increasingly true. However, modem technology stacks can be complicated. There are usually multiple vendors involved and integrations aren’t always straightforward. However, IT project management templates can help make it clearer what an IT solution is able to deliver, what audience it is targeting, and what features it provides. IT is fundamental to the modern business environment. This template can make sure you get the most from it. 

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

Barclay Ballard

Barclay has been writing about technology for a decade, starting out as a freelancer with ITProPortal covering everything from London’s start-up scene to comparisons of the best cloud storage services.  After that, he spent some time as the managing editor of an online outlet focusing on cloud computing, furthering his interest in virtualization, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. 

Forget about eSIM, this multi-operator SIM could make swapping mobile networks as easy as ABC — but it is not available for smartphones right now

MWC 2024 — all the big B2B news and annocuments from Mobile World Congress

Quordle today – hints and answers for Monday, February 26 (game #763)

Most Popular

By Barclay Ballard February 16, 2024

By Barclay Ballard February 15, 2024

By Cat Bussell February 15, 2024

By Philip Berne February 13, 2024

By Krishi Chowdhary February 13, 2024

By Philip Berne, Alex Walker-Todd February 13, 2024

By Krishi Chowdhary February 12, 2024

By Jake Green February 07, 2024

By Alex Walker-Todd, Axel Metz February 07, 2024

  • 2 A lone developer just open sourced a tool that could bring an end to Nvidia's AI hegemony — AMD financed it for months but abruptly ended its support. Nobody knows why
  • 3 Fiber optic cables transport petabytes of data every second around the world — scientists say they could also save lives by detecting tsunamis early
  • 4 World's smallest external GPU gets welcome upgrade for creative pros - higher TDP, better Thunderbolt connection but still running on RX 7600M XT
  • 5 Can't wait for Netflix's The Gentlemen? These 3 hit crime capers will tide you over until March
  • 2 You can run macOS on a Nintendo DS - and here's how to do it
  • 3 A lone developer just open sourced a tool that could bring an end to Nvidia's AI hegemony — AMD financed it for months but abruptly ended its support. Nobody knows why
  • 4 This upcoming feature on Google Keep may finally sway me away from Apple Notes for good
  • 5 You’ve probably missed Silo on Apple TV Plus – but it’s must-watch sci-fi

Tactical Project Manager

Microsoft Project Example – Let’s create your first real project in a just few steps

  • by Adrian Neumeyer

Creating a project plan in Microsoft Project isn’t difficult at all.

This article will teach you how to create a simple project plan using a real project example.

Some basic configuration before you start

Before you create a schedule, you need to make two important changes in your settings:

Setting change 1: Make Auto Scheduling the default

o to File –> Options

Microsoft Project Example:Program options

Make sure to set Auto Schedule for new tasks:

Microsoft Project Example: Making auto schedule the default

What does Auto Scheduled mean?

It means that new tasks will be scheduled automatically based on your project start date (or end date). More specifically, Project will determine the optimal start and end date for each task automatically, which is what we want (why would we use a computer-based scheduling tool if we would not want to automate the scheduling? Read more about manual vs. automatic scheduling in Project .)

Close the window. At the bottom left corner of the screen it should look like this:

Microsoft Project Example: Indicator that automatic scheduling has been enabled

Setting change 2: Enable immediate calculation

We want Microsoft Project to re-calculate the project schedule immediately after we make a change. This ensures the data you see is always up to date. Unless you run a mega-project, leave the setting enabled.

project plan assignment example

Now, let’s schedule a simple project!

Our sample project: We are setting up our own business. We have picked a business idea and now we need to go from writing a business plan to a fully established business. For these steps, we are going to create a project plan.

Step 1: Create a new project

Microsoft Project Example: Create a new project

Choose Blank Project.

You will see a blank window.

First, let’s create a Project Summary Task . This is like an overall “wrapper” task that contains our entire project.

Microsoft Project Example: Create a summary task to cover your entire project

Here’s what you should see:

Microsoft Project Example: What it looks like when you have created a project summary task

Give your project a suitable name:

Microsoft Project Example: Giving your project a suitable project name

Don’t worry about the duration and the dates – we’ll take care of this later.

Step 2: Enter a project start date

You need to tell Project the date at which the project officially starts.

To set the project start date, open the Project tab and click Project Information :

Microsoft Project Example: Opening the Project Information dialog

Enter the project start date (in our example: 14th September 2020):

Microsoft Project Example: This is where you set the start date of your project

Note: You can decide whether you want Microsoft Project to schedule your project forward from a specific start date or backward from a desired end date. If you already have committed to a golive date and want to know by when you need to begin work, then chose Schedule from Project End Date to trigger the backward planning. For this example, we want to base our schedule on a start date of 14th September 2020.

Press OK after you’ve entered the project start date. You can see now the start date for our tasks is 14th September 2020.

Step 3: Enter the list of tasks

In this project, we need to accomplish the following tasks:

  • Create business plan
  • Get business license
  • Set up bank account
  • Get funding
  • Pick a business location
  • Set up office equipment and furniture
  • Run promotion

If you look at the list, you notice that the tasks must be performed in a specific order. There are also some dependencies between the tasks.

For example, we can’t get a bank account without having a business license. We also can’t get funding (i.e. a bank loan) without having a business license. And of course we need the money to hire people for our store. So, everything is connected with each other.

Now let’s enter those tasks into Microsoft Project.

Enter the tasks into the table next to the Gantt view :

Microsoft Project Example: List of tasks in the Gantt view, before they were linked

At this stage, Project doesn’t have all the information it needs to create a schedule. It doesn’t know how long each task is going to take. Therefore the Duration column has a question mark and the start and finish dates aren’t correct yet.

Let’s continue. You now need to “link” all tasks in the right order and enter the estimated durations .

Step 4: Enter task durations

Now, tell Project how long each task is going to take. What you enter here is the duration of the task, which is not the same as the effort. Duration is the total timespan until a task is finished. Effort (in Project, effort is called Work ) is the amount of actual working time.

Enter the estimated duration in the duration column. Tip: you can either use the up/down ar- rows to change the values or enter for example “3d” to specify 3 days or “2w for 2 weeks of duration.

project plan assignment example

Step 5: Link tasks in the right sequence

As I mentioned before, tasks should be performed in a specific order. And we want to show this order in Project. Let’s link the tasks one after each other.

There are two ways how you can link tasks:

  • The first method is to enter for each task which other task should come before it. That is, by defining a “predecessor”.
  • The second method is by using the “link” button from the menu

I’ll show you both methods now.

Let’s look at the first two tasks: Create business plan and Get business license. We could do both at the same time, since we don’t necessarily have to have a business plan to apply for a license. But we want to focus on our business plan, get it done, and then work on the next task. So getting a business license should follow after creating business plan .

To tell Project that getting business license comes after create business plan , you can simply enter create business plan as a predecessor for task Get business license (in the Predecessors column).

The tasks are organized in a way similar to Excel using row numbers. These row numbers are used to identify tasks .

Do the following: In the predecessor column, enter “1” for task #2 (Get business license):

Microsoft Project Example: Entering the predecessor of each task

Watch the result: Task “Get business license” is now scheduled right after task “Create busi- ness plan” (look at the blue task bars).

Did you notice that your change immediately changed the Gantt chart on the right side? Also note that Project skipped the weekend because our calendar settings defined that there should be no work on weekends.

Next, we still have to arrange the other tasks in the right order. To do so, I now show you the other way of linking dependent tasks. There is a shortcut in the menu. Select the remaining tasks in rows 2-8 , as I have done below:

project plan assignment example

From the Task tab press the link button (watch what happens to the Gantt view!).

Microsoft Project Example: Button for linking tasks

Our tasks are now arranged in the right order, and the  Gantt chart is updated :

Microsoft Project Example: Updated Gantt chart with tasks arranged in sequential order

Pro tip: If you have a lot of tasks and you schedule is very wide and want to jump to the respec- tive task in the Gantt view, just right-click on the task and choose Scroll to Task. This will pull up the corresponding task bar.

Microsoft Project Example: Use the Scroll to Task option to quickly scroll to the selected task in the work breakdown structure

Step 6: Add a milestone to your schedule

In every project you have certain milestones you are working towards. Milestones are certain points in time where some goal must be achieved. For example, a document must be prepared or a component must be finished. We haven’t included any milestone yet, so let’s do that now.

To mark the point where we’ve fully set up our business, create a new milestone named ‘ Business fully set up ’. How?

You create a milestone by changing a task’s duration to zero (zero days) .

Milestones are shown as a grey diamonds:

Microsoft Project Example: Gantt chart with a milestone

I didn’t mention this before, but of course you need to schedule the “milestone task” right after the last regular task (Run promotion). For this, you need to enter a predecessor for the milestone task.

The milestone we entered also marks the estimated finish date of the project.

Excellent job! You have now created your first schedule in Project.

If you want to dive deeper into Project, take a look at my e-Book:

Adrian Neumeyer

Hi! I'm Adrian, former Senior IT Project Manager and founder of Tactical Project Manager. I created the site to help you become an excellent project leader and manage intense projects with success!

View all posts

Recommended articles

project plan assignment example

How To Checklist Your Way To Happiness

In this article you'll learn how using checklist in your personal life can make you happier and more successful.

Inventory Reconciliation Guide - Featured image showing warehouse workers performing inventory count

Inventory Reconciliation: Aligning Your Physical Inventory to Your Inventory Records

Have you heard of inventory reconciliation? Did you, in the past, conduct inventory taking that  involves reconciling your physical inventory...

project plan assignment example

A Simple Guide to E-Commerce Demand Forecasting (with Example)

Hello there! Are you running an e-commerce business and trying to estimate future demand? Would you like to know what...

Filter by Keywords

Project Management

15 free project management templates for teams in 2024.

Haillie Parker

February 12, 2024

Looking for new project management templates?

Whether you’re tracking multiple projects or need more insight into the project planning process, details are essential. That’s why project management templates save managers and teams alike a ton of time when jumpstarting the latest concept or project plan.

Project management templates prevent teams from starting from scratch with every new project, streamline existing processes, and help members think more proactively about how they’re carrying out their daily tasks. 

Plus, they’re loaded with features to manage the heavy lifting for you. Whether it be through workflow automations, pre-built workflows, plug-and-play process documents , or tracking project deliverables, organizing tasks and documents will always create a more manageable system.

There are hundreds of templates out there to complement virtually any project management software —but not every free template will suit every project! In this article, we’ll cover everything project management templates can do for your team, the must-have features, and 15 customizable templates to enhance your project management process in ClickUp!

What is a Project Management Template?

Features to look for in free project management templates, 1. project management template by clickup, 2. high-level project management plan template by clickup, 3. project management timeline template by clickup, 4. project manager template by clickup, 5. project schedule template by clickup, 6. project charter template by clickup, 7. schedule blocking template by clickup, 8. project management status report template by clickup, 9. agile scrum project management template by clickup, 10. project management meeting tracker template by clickup, 11. creative & design template by clickup, 12. budget project management template by clickup, 13. project management playbook template by clickup, 14. construction project management template by clickup, 15. planning a project template by clickup, start project planning with free project management templates.

Project management templates are designed to help teams save time and work more efficiently with pre-built workflows, project views, and tasks to expedite the early stages of your project through to completion. 

Kind of like the most complicated Mad Lib you’ll ever find, project management templates make it easy to plug your information into tailored project management structures so your team can simply start .

The best templates are also customizable, align seamlessly with your current processes and tech stack, and help create a standardized approach to all of your projects going forward. 

These templates are also rather complex with ready-made frameworks for creating tasks, project schedules , and proper documentation. You’ll reap a laundry list of benefits to continue streamlining and scaling your project management best practices including:

  • Increased efficiency through better organization
  • Effective time management to stay on track
  • Consistent documentation to align teams on current projects and make sense of past work
  • Improved collaboration between members, managers, and stakeholders

But what does this pre-packaged project plan framework look like?

There may be a plethora of project management templates to choose from, but not all pack the same punch! There are several key features to keep an eye out for to ensure your template will lead your team to success.

These features are critical for creating a proper project plan, project prioritization , tracking, and task management—and they can come in many forms! 

When searching for your next project management template, invest in the template that provides the following features (and more!):

  • Project scope and objectives to document the key goals, deliverables, and overall process
  • Multiple project views including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, project timelines , interactive checklists , calendars, and more to manage projects from every angle
  • Resource management and allocation to stay on top of your project budget and materials
  • Task prioritization and management to organize your workflows and keep track of your project progress all the way to completion 
  • Clear project controls and reporting to ensure the project team is on track to hit your project management KPIs and that stakeholders stay informed
  • Team collaboration tools to help project members stay connected, improve team relationships, and boost the overall quality of work 
  • Tons of integrations to bring all of your other work tools into your project template for more informed updates and easy access toward a successful project

These features lay the groundwork for a high-quality project management template, but there may be additional features that suit your team’s unique processes for better planning and project execution . Keep these features in mind as you browse through 15 of the best project management templates for the only productivity tool that can really do it all—ClickUp!

15 Free Project Management Templates for Project Managers

Use the features above to consider your team’s needs and typical project requirements to determine the project management template that serves you best! With the 15 customizable and free project management templates listed below, you’re guaranteed to find the perfect template for any use case. 

Project Management Template by ClickUp

Failing to plan equals planning to fail in project management, but the Project Management Template by ClickUp simplifies this hefty challenge with a designated and pre-built Space to manage your work in organized Folders broken up by project phase. If you’re brand new to project management, this template might feel a bit overwhelming, but we’re here to break down this comprehensive resource so you can:

  • Visualize and track your project resources
  • Assign, manage, and prioritize your tasks with multiple workflow views
  • Sync with stakeholders and work with the team without breaking a sweat

And more! This free project management template is your all-in-one solution with a flexible List and Kanban-like Board view to plug in your task information for immediate progress tracking. Plus, there are six custom task statuses to convey whether any action items are in progress, open, or done. 

Productivity really comes into play with this template’s additional ClickApps ! Access seven key functionalities by viewing or opening tasks including:

  • Time tracking
  • Custom Fields
  • Dependency warnings
  • Multiple assignees

And more—no matter what pricing plan you use!

High-Level Project Management Plan Template by ClickUp

The High-Level Project Management Plan Template by ClickUp is designed to define and track your team’s long-term goals, KPIs, and final product from a bird’s-eye view. 

This beginner-friendly project management template keeps things a bit simpler than the first project management template but still packs a major punch with its List view. With three custom statuses and five pre-set Custom Fields for stages, approvals, and progress toward completion, managers can visualize a comprehensive pulse-check on the project status , even from a single glance.

The five flexible views are where this high level project management template really shines—including a ready-to-use Deliverables List view, multiple Kanban boards, a detailed project timeline, and of course, a Getting Started Guide to expedite your set-up process.

Project Management Timeline Template by ClickUp

And for all of our visual-first project managers, the Project Timeline Whiteboard Template by ClickUp will be your new go-to! Whiteboard project management is all the rage—and for good reason! Using this highly visual and collaborative tool, you can quickly plot your project’s major activities by stage and by week to help the team stay on track.

Plus, ClickUp Whiteboards are the only digital whiteboard software with the ability to take any text, shape, or note, and convert it directly into an actionable task. That means you can act on your workflow from your whiteboard without ever having to re-update statuses or click away from your work. 

And since the work is already so neatly organized on your whiteboard, this project timeline template is the ideal resource to have on hand for stakeholder meetings and presentations so you avoid any project risks.

Project Manager Template by ClickUp

As valuable as the previous project management templates are, you need a solid understanding of project management best practices and fundamentals before you can use them to their fullest extent. The Project Manager Template by ClickUp is here to help you achieve that knowledge. 

This ClickUp Doc template provides the framework for a Statement of Purpose (SOP) essay for those in pursuit of higher education degrees like an MBA or MSc. These programs are critical for covering the basics and the nitty-gritty of project management, and this free template is the perfect stepping stone for highlighting the qualifications, unique skills, and experience you already possess to help you succeed in such programs.

Project Schedule Template by ClickUp

Designing your team’s project schedule can be a daunting task—especially for more complex projects and cross-functional teams. The Project Management Schedule Template by ClickUp simplifies this task with a formatted List to break down everything from your project phase to potential bottlenecks. 

While this is a List template, that’s not the only project view you’ll find applied to your Workspace. You’ll also see a pre-built Table view to assess project risks or issues, a project schedule using Timeline and Gantt view, and a Kanban board to visualize individual task statuses.

Using that Kanban board with ClickUp’s Board view, you’ll also have immediate access to key information through Custom Fields so you know the exact project status just how you designed it. So as you look at the big picture of your tasks, you can also quickly grab details like contributors, the risk level, progress rate, and more.

Project Charter Template by ClickUp

A project charter is a short formal document that describes your entire project and is created as you build your project plan. It plays a major role in defining your project scope , deliverables, key players, budget, and the work to be done. 

This Project Charter Template by ClickUp makes this easy with a detailed outline applied directly to a ClickUp Doc. In the pre-formatted sections and tables, you’ll be prompted to fill in all of the information you need to get your project off the ground and set in motion. 

Schedule Blocking Template by ClickUp

As a project manager, you need easy but functional strategies to keep track of your project status and timeline so you know what task each team member needs to work on and the allotted time left to stay on schedule. One of the best ways to achieve this is by time-blocking!

Use this Schedule Blocking Template by ClickUp to assist you in monitoring your past, current, and upcoming events. By applying this List template to your Workspace, you’ll instantly have access to four custom statuses, five Custom Fields, and a whopping seven project views including:

  • List view for upcoming activities
  • Form view for scheduling requests
  • Monthly, Daily, and Weekly Calendar views for optimal time management

Project Management Status Report Template by ClickUp

The Project Management Status Report Template by ClickUp will keep your stakeholders well-informed and your executive projects on track through its seven flexible work views, 11 Custom Fields, four custom statuses, and more. 

This beginner-friendly project status report template was created to help you better oversee multiple projects at a time, so you can quickly grab the key takeaways of any project from any view. And with so many Custom Fields to attach important information to every task, you can quickly filter, sort, and locate action items or things like resource allocation and project budgeting across everything with ease.

Agile Scrum Project Management Template by ClickUp

Sometimes it can feel like Agile teams are working around the clock to iterate, iterate, and iterate again. It requires a ton of strategic planning, a powerful project management tool, and the Agile Scrum Management Template by ClickUp to ensure everything goes off without a hitch every time! 

This monster of a template applies a designated Space for Agile Scrum teams to find solutions and standardize the delivery of their products—including backlogging, sprint planning, standups, reviews, and retrospectives so you nail all project phases.

This project planning template starts you off on a structured ClickUp Whiteboard to map your user flows and team workflows. From there, you can begin creating, delegating, and tracking tasks using 30 loaded task statuses! Not to mention, you’ll also have access to 13 ClickApps for sprint points, time tracking, priorities, work-in-progress limits, time estimates, dependencies, Custom Fields, and much more.

Project Management Meeting Tracker Template by ClickUp

Meeting minutes are extremely helpful for remembering your next steps and key takeaways, but tracking your meetings in a flexible list ensures a smoother planning and preparation phase when managing any project requests. The Project Management Meeting Tracker Template by ClickUp is perfect for staying on top of important check-ins like quarterly reviews, weekly 1-1’s, project kick-off meetings, and more.

Creative & Design Template by ClickUp

Creative and design project management is where things start to get a bit dicey!

Project details pivot and design or creative teams face multiple rounds of feedback to ensure stakeholders are pleased with the results. And since design requests can be interpreted a thousand different ways—the edits can get a bit extreme at times.

The Creative & Design Template by ClickUp is a must-have Folder for all creative teams.

This creative and design template starts with a collaborative ClickUp Whiteboard and guides you through the entire creative process with pre-built end-to-end workflows to document and execute requests of any kind.

Budget Project Management Template by ClickUp

In project management, determining the project budget is crucial for any project’s success.

Project budget templates can help a project manager analyze expenses, make strategic resource allocation decisions, and identify risks when managing multiple projects! That’s why it’s so important to have a resource like the Budgeted Project Management Template by ClickUp handy for every new concept. 

Think of this template as the best-kept secret for numbers project management. This user-friendly and intuitive tool is ideal for tracking project schedules and multiple activities so you stay within the pre-defined resources and requirements for any project.

We’ve seen plenty of List and Space project plan templates already, but the Project Management Playbook Template by ClickUp has a bit of a different approach to handling project plans! With a pre-made Folder for your Workspace, this beginner-friendly plan template will be your project manager’s new best friend for standardizing the preparation process for any type of project. 

It hinges on aligning your project goals with your company’s overall objectives and traditional operations, so all team members feel ready and qualified to tackle their tasks at hand. This is especially true for cross-functional team members who must accommodate a range of daily processes.

The simple project playbook template works like a playbook and will set consistent expectations and bring some much-needed predictability to everyone’s daily schedule.

Construction Project Management Template by ClickUp

Like any software team, construction project management professionals have a ton on their plates, all the time. The Construction Project Management Template by ClickUp was designed for all construction site managers to oversee complex builds, updates, dependencies, and schedules. 

But that’s not the only person who’d benefit from this template! This Space-level template brings an advanced set of features like 30 task statuses, 14 Custom Fields, 11 ClickApps, and five project views to help contract admins, draftsmen, and contractors streamline their planning and scheduling processes.

ClickUp's project planner template allows you to manage communications, progress, and delivery to hit your goals

The Planning a Project Template by ClickUp uses your Workspace to its fullest potential by creating tasks in any List and then easily moving them to other Lists. 

Project planning templates help teams achieve their goals within the given scope, schedule, budget, and resources. It enables stakeholders to easily track project status through visually appealing and easy-to-understand project schedules so they best plan around changes while proactively managing risks. 

ClickUp’s free project plan template helps project managers keep their project on track from start to finish. Use this template to ensure everyone on your team has access to the same information, expectations, decisions, and assumptions.

Any one of these 15 templates will get your project where it needs to go—because they were all designed by ClickUp !

ClickUp is the only productivity platform powerful enough to centralize all of your work across apps into one, collaborative workspace. With dozens of free project management features, an ever-growing Template Library , and more than 1,000 integrations , ClickUp can create solutions for teams of any use case.

Get started with any of the templates to tackle your next project plan or to take control of your project timeline when you sign up for ClickUp today !

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

  • Free training & 24-hour support
  • Serious about security & privacy
  • 99.99% uptime the last 12 months

project plan assignment example

Project planning templates for project management

Use project planning templates to get your project going faster. Organize tasks and milestones while facilitating communication by using templates product development, marketing, business plans, goals, and employee onboarding.

What are project planning templates?

Templates provide frameworks that follow best practices for specific types of projects and help you plan and manage them from beginning to end.

Simple project planning

Track progress and take notes on a calendar with an easy-to-use project planning template.

Agile project planning

Plot milestones and tasks and use charts with this agile project planning template.

Product development and launch

Plan every stage of a new product launch with this project planning template.

Project goals and objectives

Break a large project down into smaller goals with this project goals and objectives template so you achieve every milestone on time.

Benefits of project planning templates

Discover how templates help you achieve the objectives of any project.

Ready to get started?

Two workers in a warehouse looking at a tablet.

Ramp up fast

Skip building and formatting plans for entire projects from the ground up. Just download project planning templates.

See and share information

Get an in-depth view of project status and easily communicate it with your team.

Stay on task and on track

Manage tasks and milestones throughout your project timeline.

Keep track of resources

Know where you stand at all times with employees and outside contractors.

Adapt as needed

Assess and adjust on the fly with easy-to-edit templates.

Essential reading about project planning

Explore resources that will help you save time and achieve your goals for every project, from kickoff to final reporting.

[noalt]

The project manager’s guide to planning a perfect project

[noalt]

5 project management tools to save time and money

[noalt]

How to pick a cloud-based project planning solution

Explore microsoft project.

Discover a powerful yet simple project management tool to plan, manage, and deliver work effortlessly—from one-time projects to large initiatives.

Frequently asked questions

A project planning template is a document that follows a standard format based on the type of project and helps define the scope and objectives with a list of essential elements such as stakeholders, scope, timelines, estimated costs, and methods of communication with team members.

Project planning templates let you quickly start new projects, set organizational standards, and facilitate processes.

It’s relatively easy to find free project planning templates online that are available for download. There are project planning templates built into many apps such as Microsoft Project .

Project plan templates actually do much more than help you plan a project. They help you manage it, track information such as costs and timelines, and lets you see the big picture and communicate important information to people on your team.

There are many different types of project planning templates. Chances are the type of project or project management style you use will have planning templates. These range from Agile to Scrum and Kanban to Waterfall and everywhere in-between.

IMAGES

  1. Learn How to Write an Assignment Plan and Earn Better Grades!

    project plan assignment example

  2. Project Management Plan Examples

    project plan assignment example

  3. 8+ Project Assignment Templates

    project plan assignment example

  4. 8+ Project Assignment Templates

    project plan assignment example

  5. Business Project Plan

    project plan assignment example

  6. 8+ Project Assignment Templates

    project plan assignment example

VIDEO

  1. Interpersonal Communication Plan Assignment HSCO508 D03

  2. advance project planing assignment

  3. 13 AutoCAD plan assignment demonstration 20231024

  4. FUTURE PLAN ASSIGNMENT 9

  5. Project / Plan / Purpose Method

  6. What is Project Planning ?

COMMENTS

  1. How to Write a Project Management Plan [4 Examples]

    How to Write a Project Management Plan [4 Examples] By Midori Nediger, Dec 11, 2023 Have you ever been part of a project that didn't go as planned? It doesn't feel good. Wasted time, wasted resources. It's pretty frustrating for everyone involved.

  2. Project Management Plan: Samples, Examples & Free Template

    1. Identify the baselines for your project Before you begin writing a project plan, you need to make sure you have the basics down. Start by identifying the baselines for the project's scope, schedule and cost, as the rest of your project planning will need to fit in around those constraints.

  3. How to Create a Realistic Project Plan: Templates & Examples

    Project plan example: What to include

  4. What Is Project Planning? How Write a Project Plan [2024] • Asana

    Julia Martins January 4th, 2024 10 min read Jump to section Summary Organize your projects with project plans to keep things on track—before you even start. A project plan houses all the necessary details of your project, such as goals, tasks, scope, deadlines, and deliverables.

  5. How to write an effective project plan in 6 simple steps

    A simple project plan includes these elements: Project name, brief summary, and objective. Project players or team members who will drive the project, along with their roles and responsibilities. Key outcomes and due dates. Project elements, ideally divided into must-have, nice-to-have and not-in-scope categories.

  6. What is a Project Plan? Learn How to Write a Project Plan

    Project planning is the second phase in the project management lifecycle: PHASE 1: Project Initiation — where you identify a business need or problem and a potential solution. PHASE 2: Project Planning — where you define specific tasks, assign responsibilities, and create the project schedule. PHASE 3: Project Execution — where you touch ...

  7. How to Write a Project Plan

    1. Write a Project Overview The overview is a short introduction to the project, not exceeding a page or so in length. Summarize the high-level details, covering project goals, deliverables, success measurements, and dependencies. Include the project's sponsors and their titles, and name the project.

  8. The All-in-One Project Plan Walkthrough with Examples

    Back to blog The All-in-One Project Plan Walkthrough with Examples Learn how to create a project plan with our guide that uses actual examples (including Agile). Discover top tips, tools, and more. Motion Blog at Motion Sep 19, 2023 Ask any good project manager‌, and they'll agree that a project won't succeed without a well-thought-out plan.

  9. How to Develop a Project Plan: Template & Example [2024]

    A project plan is a document that outlines the project scope, project objectives, and project schedule. It serves as a road map for all project stakeholders by providing clear direction and expectations. A good project plan will provide clarity on: What needs to be done. When it needs to be done by. Who is responsible for each project task.

  10. A guide to project planning (with template and examples)

    The main parts of the planning are defining project goals, scope, complexity, effort, timeline, budget, and risk management. Execution — this phase is where all the relevant teams come together and execute their part of the project. Continuous monitoring — throughout the project, progress is monitored and controlled.

  11. How to Write a Project Plan: Template and Examples

    There are hundreds of project plan examples online - many of them are in the form of flashy, colorful diagrams, spreadsheets, and timelines. They may be pretty to look at, but are they practical? A project plan should not look like a slide out of a sales deck.

  12. What Is a Project Plan? The Ultimate Guide to Project Planning

    A project plan is a series of formal documents that define the execution and control stages of a project. The plan includes considerations for risk management, resource management and communications, while also addressing scope, cost and schedule baselines. Project planning software is used by project managers to ensure that their plans are ...

  13. Sample Project Plan For Your Next Project

    This sample project plan covers the basic areas of your project, such as project scheduling, scope management and task management. On top of that, you can add other sections and even other project documents to include as much detail as you need. 1. Project Scope. Defining your project scope is one of the critical steps when making a project plan.

  14. 2024 Project Plan Example

    Project Plan Example - Sample Real-Life Project Plan 14 min. read Are you planning to create a project plan? What does a good project plan look like? How could I create one? Where should I start to create a plan for your project? For a successful project, a great project plan is essential.

  15. Project Management Assignment Sample

    The aim of this process is to ensure that the end product can be viewed by different stakeholders. The first step in project planning is the description of the different elements and identifying the different levels. Table 2: Project Planning. Project Planning 1. Initiation1. Initiation Plan 1.1.1.1.1.

  16. Free Project Plan Template (2024)

    9 Free Project Plan Templates How To Use a Project Planning Template Bottom Line Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) You know where you want to go—it's the process of getting there that can...

  17. Project Plan Template for Word (Free Download)

    Download Word File Download this free project plan template for Word to scope your work and break it down into manageable components; then schedule and assign the tasks needed to complete your project. You can also use this project management plan template to manage workloads and tasks as changes occur.

  18. Free Project Task List Templates for Project Management

    Try Smartsheet for Free By Kate Eby | September 22, 2022 We've compiled the most useful project task list templates for project managers, project team members and stakeholders, IT teams, and construction personnel.

  19. 30 free project plan templates: Download these PDF, Excel, Word Doc

    HubSpot's Weekly Schedule Template is available to download here.. 2. Agile Project Plan. A template built for rapid iteration, this Google Doc's file breaks down large tasks into a series of ...

  20. Microsoft Project Example

    Creating a project plan in Microsoft Project isn't difficult at all. This article will teach you how to create a simple project plan using a real project example. Some basic configuration before you start. Before you create a schedule, you need to make two important changes in your settings: Setting change 1: Make Auto Scheduling the default

  21. 5 Real Project Management Examples for Your Team

    The 4 Phases of the Project Management Life Cycle Key Factors for Successful Project Management 5 Project Management Examples and Tips for Successful Project Delivery 1. Marketing Project 2. SEO Project 3. Customer Enablement Project 4. Education Project 5. Product Launch Project. Whether it's a home or a business project, simple or complex ...

  22. 15 Free Project Management Templates for Teams

    15 Free Project Management Templates for Teams in 2024 Haillie Parker Writer February 12, 2024 12min read Table of Contents What is a Project Management Template? Looking for new project management templates? Whether you're tracking multiple projects or need more insight into the project planning process, details are essential.

  23. Project Planning Templates

    1 / 5 Ramp up fast Skip building and formatting plans for entire projects from the ground up. Just download project planning templates. See and share information Get an in-depth view of project status and easily communicate it with your team. Stay on task and on track Manage tasks and milestones throughout your project timeline.

  24. Assignment 4 (SHRIJAN SHARMA 000881278)Project Plan Template

    Student Name: SHRIJAN SHARMA Student ID: 000881278 Assignment Date: 9-02-2024 Project Name: PMP EXAM CERTIFICATION PREPARATION # Deliverables (Noun) Tasks/Activity (Verb/Action) Identify Interdependencies Between Tasks Duration Start Date (days) (DD.MM.YY