What Is a Project Plan?
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 thorough and robust.
What Is in a Project Plan?
The project plan answers the who, what, where, why, how and when of the project. The purpose of a project plan is to guide the execution and control project phases.
As mentioned above, a project plan consists of the following documents:
Project Charter: Provides a general overview of the project. It describes the project’s reasons, goals, objectives, constraints, stakeholders, among other aspects.
Statement of Work: Defines the project’s scope, schedule, deliverables, milestones, and tasks.
Work Breakdown Structure: Breaks down the project scope into the project phases, subprojects, deliverables, and work packages that lead to your final deliverable.
Project Plan: The project plan document is divided in sections to cover the following: scope management, quality management, risk assessment, resource management, stakeholder management, schedule management and the change management plan.