Project Management

Project Management Plan: The Basics

From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.

About this Blog

RSS

View Posts By:

Cameron McGaughy
Lynda Bourne
Kevin Korterud
Conrado Morlan
Peter Tarhanidis
Mario Trentim
Jen Skrabak
David Wakeman
Wanda Curlee
Christian Bisson
Ramiro Rodrigues
Soma Bhattacharya
Emily Luijbregts
Sree Rao
Yasmina Khelifi
Marat Oyvetsky
Lenka Pincot
Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres
cyndee miller

Past Contributors:

Rex Holmlin
Vivek Prakash
Dan Goldfischer
Linda Agyapong
Jim De Piante
Siti Hajar Abdul Hamid
Bernadine Douglas
Michael Hatfield
Deanna Landers
Kelley Hunsberger
Taralyn Frasqueri-Molina
Alfonso Bucero Torres
Marian Haus
Shobhna Raghupathy
Peter Taylor
Joanna Newman
Saira Karim
Jess Tayel
Lung-Hung Chou
Rebecca Braglio
Roberto Toledo
Geoff Mattie

Recent Posts

Project 2030: Skills We Need to Cultivate Now

The Technical Program Manager: How to Stay Relevant in 2025

5 Things Your Operational Plan Should Do

5 New Project Guardrails for Adaptive Leaders

The Leader's Voice: Respect It, Protect It, and Use It Properly!

Categories

2020, Adult Development, Agile, Agile, Agile, agile, Agile management, Agile management, Agile;Community;Talent management, Artificial Intelligence, Backlog, Basics, Benefits Realization, Best Practices, BIM, business acumen, Business Analysis, Business Analysis, Business Case, Business Intelligence, Business Transformation, Calculating Project Value, Canvas, Career Development, Career Development, Career Help, Career Help, Career Help, Career Help, Careers, Careers, Careers, Careers, Categories: Career Help, Change Management, Cloud Computing, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration, Communication, Communication, Communication, Communication, Communications Management, Complexity, Conflict, Conflict Management, Consulting, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Continuous Learning, Cost Management, COVID-19, Crises, Crisis Management, critical success factors, Cultural Awareness, Culture, Decision Making, Design Thinking, Digital Project Management, Digital Transformation, digital transformation, Digitalisation, Disruption, Diversity, Diversity, Documentation, Earned Value Management, Education, EEWH, Enterprise Risk Management, Escalation management, Estimating, Ethics, execution, Expectations Management, Facilitation, feasibility studies, Future, Future of Project Management, Generational PM, Governance, Government, green building, Growth, Horizontal Development, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Aspects of PM, Human Resources, Inclusion, Information Technology, Innovation, Intelligent Building, International, International Development, Internet of Things (IOT), Internet of Things (IoT), IOT, Knowledge, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, Leadership, lean construction, LEED, Lessons Learned, Lessons learned;Retrospective, Managing for Stakeholders, managing stakeholders as clients, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Mentoring, Methodology, Metrics, Micromanagement, Microsoft Project PPM, Motivation, Negotiation, Neuroscience, neuroscience, New Practitioners, Nontraditional Project Management, OKR, Online Learning, opportunity, Organizational Culture, Organizational Project Management, Pandemic, People management, Planing, planning, PM & the Economy, PM History, PM Think About It, PMBOK Guide, PMI, PMI EMEA 2018, PMI EMEA Congress 2017, PMI EMEA Congress 2019, PMI Global Conference 2017, PMI Global Conference 2018, PMI Global Conference 2019, PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2011 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2011 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2012 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2012 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2013 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2013 - North America, PMI Global Congress 2014 - EMEA, PMI Global Congress 2014 - North America, PMI GLobal Congress EMEA 2018, PMI PMO Symposium 2012, PMI PMO Symposium 2013, PMI PMO Symposium 2015, PMI PMO Symposium 2016, PMI PMO Symposium 2017, PMI PMO Symposium 2018, PMI Pulse of the Profession, PMO, PMO, pmo, PMO Project Management Office, portfolio, Portfolio Management, Portfolio Management, portfolio management, presentations, Priorities, Probability, Problem Structuring Methods, Process, Procurement Management, profess, Program Management, project, Project Delivery, Project Dependencies, Project Failure, project failure, Project Leadership, Project Management, project management, project management office, Project Planning, project planning, Project Requirements, Project Success, Ransomware, Reflections on the PM Life, Remote, Remote Work, Requirements Management, Research Conference 2010, Researching the Value of Project Management, Resiliency, Risk Management, Risk Management, Risk management, risk management, ROI, Roundtable, Salary Survey, Schedule Management, Scheduling, Scope Management, Scrum, search, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, SelfLeadership, Servant Leadership, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Knowledge, Social Responsibility, Sponsorship, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Management, stakeholder management, Strategy, Strategy, swot, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management, Talent Management Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Communication, Taskforce, Teams, Teams in Agile, Teams in Agile, teamwork, Tech, Technical Debt, Technology, TED Talks, The Project Economy, Timeline, Tools, tools, Transformation, transformation, Transition, Trust, Value, Vertical Development, Volunteering, Volunteering #Leadership #SelfLeadership, Volunteering Sharing Knowledge Leadership SelfLeadership Collaboration Trust, VUCA, Women in PM, Women in Project Management

Date

linkedin twitter facebook Request to reuse this  

Categories: Project Planning


In a previous post, 7 Essential Project Planning Documents, I referred to the "Project Management Plan" as one of the key planning documents that fosters project success. 

Sometimes people confuse the project management plan with the schedule or the scope plan. But it's more than that. 

A project management plan is the planning document, capturing the entire project end-to-end, covering all project phases, from initiation through planning, execution and closure. 

A comprehensive plan covers at least the followings areas and components: 
(Note: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide -- Fourth Edition) covers these in Chapter 3. Instead of putting the elements one by one, I grouped them by purpose/meaning.)

  • Overview: Why the project is being conducted and its primary objectives 
  • Scope: Business needs, requirements, deliverables, constraints and work breakdown structure 
  • Schedule: Activities schedule and project milestones 
  • Costs: Project budget and its funding approach
  • Quality: Quality measurement and control approach
  • Project team: The people working on the project, their roles and responsibilities 
  • Communication: Communication type, channels and the reporting approach 
  • Risks: Risk index, methods to identify and evaluate risks, risk mitigation and contingency planning
  • Procurements: Required procurements and purchase processes
  • Closure: Closure approach, including the deliverables hand-off protocol 
  • Changes: Procedures used to track changes in the project 
  • Baselines: Scope, schedule and budget baselines
When writing a project management plan, the approach depends again
on the project's size and context. I personally use the following approaches:

  • The master document approach is where the entire project, with all the underlying planning details, is documented within the same master plan.
  • The index approach, when all subsidiary planning documents are written as separated documents and linked or referenced in an index-like plan.
What approach do you use when crafting a project management plan? What elements do you use?


Posted by Marian Haus on: December 23, 2011 11:44 AM | Permalink

Comments (1)

Please login or join to subscribe to this item
avatar
Alejandro Guerra Nochez PMO Project Manager| Corporación Multi Inversiones Guatemala, Guatemala
I have been on projects where we have NOT drawn out a PM Plan, and there always came a day where the team will ask eachother (with bewildered faces) what the shcedule maintainance procedures or deliverable acceptance protocol is. Many hours have been wasted on debate.

I´ve since then made it a "step one" in the planning phase to bring out a PM Plan template I´ve written and complete the document with the team.

I like to include

- how de WBS will be built
- how the Schedule will be maintained
- change request/control procedures
- how Project documents will be archived

I personally use the Index approach on most projects.

thanks Marian Haus!

Please Login/Register to leave a comment.

ADVERTISEMENTS

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

- Groucho Marx

ADVERTISEMENT

Sponsors