Execute On Purpose: Project Management Plan

When you have a Project Management plan in hand, you are able to stand with confidence that you have thoroughly prepared to execute your project. Tools in project management are effective in increasing efficiency and improving team environments. A project management plan has many benefits, including:

• Improved team collaboration due to clear and organized plans

• Improved team effectiveness because of well-defined goals 

• Aligned and focused team because of a defined communication plan 

A project management plan is a document that has a formal niche and defines how a project is intended to be carried out. It gives the goals, scope, timeline, budget, and deliverables of a given project and is important to keep a project on track. 

The list of information needed to create a project management plan will include the following steps:

Step # 1:  Identify Stakeholders

Stakeholders are people who are affected by the results that your project plan will generate. All stakeholders must be identified, and their interests are to be managed throughout the project. Maintain an open discussion with the stakeholders. As you develop your plan, ensure your project plan is clear and accessible for all stakeholders so that they won't chase you for updates.

Step # 2:  Set And Prioritize The Goals

Once you have made the list of stakeholders and have their needs listed and prioritized, you are ready to define your project goals. This is a great time to collect any requirements needed for success. This step supports the task of outlining the project objectives. 

Step # 3:  Define Deliverables

Identify all of the deliverables and steps needed to achieve the project goals. By detailing this information, you can visually see what has been completed and what is left to finish. Also, estimate the dates for each of the deliverables in your plan; this will help you tremendously in step 4. 

Step # 4:  Create The Schedule Of The Project

Have a look at each deliverable and the defined series of tasks completed to achieve each one. For every task, block out the time it will take and necessary resources. This approach creates space and dedicated energy to accomplish your goals.

Step # 5:  Recognize Issues And Complete A Risk Assessment

There isn't any project that may be without any risk. Just hoping for the best won't be the right thing to do. If you see any issues that are sure to happen, then you must do a risk assessment. You must know how you can manage risk in your projects and consider those steps that will help you prevent a few risks from happening or limit the harmful impact. This is a common area where business owners drop the ball, failing to analyze risk factors and creating an effective risk response plan.

What are the main management plans Included in the traditional Project Management Plan?

The basics of a project management plan have:

• Integration Management Plan

• Scope Management Plan

• Schedule Management Plan

• Cost Management Plan

• Quality Management Plan

• Resource Management Plan

• Communication Management Plan

• Risk Management Plan

• Stakeholder Management Plan

  Additional commonly use management plans:

• Requirement management plan 

• Change management plan

• Configuration management plan 

Let’s examine the very last two plans together. As we are in the middle of execution, our plans tend to adjust as we gain more information or get further into development. The Change Management plan and Configuration Management plan comes in handy to track the historical progress, which can become an asset as we record our lessons learned.

The main difference between the change management and the configuration management system is that the former deals with plans, processes, and baselines, whereas the latter deals with the product specifications. For example, a change management system is an additional funding requirement. An example of configuration management may be the extra feature added to a product. 

There are certain conditions for each:

Conditions For The Change Management:

- Delay in schedule: You will need to develop a whole new schedule that reflects your current situation.

- Cost overrun: You will need to re-estimate your cost to complete the whole project.

Conditions For Configuration Management:

- Market competition enforces a new feature on products.

- The project took this long that the new product is now obsolete, so an update is essential.

- The client has requested you to add some more functions.

- Because of a cost overrun, a few features are removed from the new product.

- For the completion of the project early, a few features are removed.

Configuration Management Vs. Change Management:

These two do not compete for a single space. They both are used for different things. As per the PMBOK Guide 6th edition, "Configuration control is focused on the specification of both the deliverables and the processes, while change control is focused on identifying, documenting and approving or rejecting changes to the project documents deliverables, or baselines."

If there is any change in the product configuration, then it will also affect the project scope. This way, you will update the project plans, schedule baselines, and also update the costs. Change configuration has a larger scope as compared to configuration management.

This was all that you must know about the project management plan. Many companies have won at their projects only because they had a clear and defined project plan working effortlessly. This plan is referred to again and again during the project lifecycle.