.. is the man with the plan. Good when it’s that simple.
It is not uncommon for German project managers in particular to fall into a popular linguistic trap by confusing the English „plan“ with the German „schedule“. Yet, even in German, planning, on closer inspection, encompasses much more than just the scheduling component. According to PMI, the planning activities in a project are divided into the planning of the project organization itself and the planning of time, resources and scope. Both are finally combined into a Project Management Plan.
Put in what belongs in
The Project Management Plan focuses mainly on internal and external project members. Of course, stakeholders can also find interesting things to read about the project. In particular, executives from decision-making bodies are more likely to find the information they need (such as baselines) in a separately prepared form (charts, slides, graphics) than to make the effort to look directly in the Project Management Plan.
The following is a brief overview of the contents:
- Brief Project Description … briefly describes the project, the goals and – if relevant – basic framework conditions.
- Project Baselines … describe the planning baselines for time, budget and scope and provide the reference value for any changes („measuring against the baselines“)
- Internal Management Plans … tend to describe project-internal guidelines and processes for handling scope, schedule, costs, quality, employees, communication, risks and procurement
- External Management Plans … describe the handling of topics that tend to be external to the project, such as requirements management, change management, configuration management and process improvement.
The Project Management Plan is usually not a single document, but a collection of descriptions, notes and instructions to the project team. The format is also not predefined, and will align with the company’s usual documentation forms, and also vary depending on the sub-document.
So, in addition to the ubiquitous Word document, you are quite flexible to use existing project management systems, process documentation tools, or simply PowerPoint for the format.
Who takes care?
The Project Management Plan is written by the project manager. According to PMI guidelines, it is recommended not to develop the Project Management Plan alone, but to do it together with the team and using existing documentation. This includes the activities
- Obtaining expert opinions (Ask the organization)
- Data collection (brainstorming, checklists, focus groups, interviews)
for which you as the project manager anyway relevant skills such as conflict management, solution finding and administrative organization are crucial.
Depending on the demands placed on the plan, the effort required to create it can be very high. It is sometimes difficult to keep an eye on the necessary effectiveness of the documentation. Therefore, if possible, make sure that you do what is necessary without the project becoming deadlocked.
The focus of the plan will always be aligned with the project focus.
- If you have a high organizational complexity in the project, you will probably focus the creation on specifications for structure, cooperation and the resolution of any conflicts.
- If you have a high budget with corresponding visibility in top management, the focus is probably more on controlling and communicating the status.
- For projects with highly complex content and numerous requirements, most of the description is probably more focused on the requirements, the resulting scope, and how to handle changes.
Thus, as a project manager, you create the Project Management Plan that makes the most sense for your specific context. If you have a demanding project in all categories, you can hardly avoid a more detailed plan. If your project is small and manageable, the preparation can be correspondingly short.
If it makes organizational sense and is desired, you should also coordinate the – at least rough – content with your sponsor, especially in small organizations.
Does this really have to be done?
You will have already read it from the description of the contents, some form of Project Management Plan probably has every project. This becomes especially clear when you consider that not all content has to be provided by the project.
If there is already project management guidance from your PMO, you can reuse and reference large parts of it. This includes components such as scope management, schedule management, cost management, change management, people management, communication, risk management and procurement.
Also on the line side, content can often be reused and does not have to be rewritten for each project. Therefore, actively look around (also in the PMO or in other internal compliance units) whether there are specifications for dealing with requirements, with quality, with configuration or with continuous improvement.
It goes without saying that the baselines for cost, time and scope must be described anyway. Thus, the spectre of effort is quickly reduced to the already necessary clarifications in preparation of a project. This template from projectmanagementdocs.com shows how a Project Management Plan can look like.
Thus the answer to the headline is: „Yes, it must be“, but also „In most cases, much is already there“. With this in mind, it is advisable to take a deep breath when the question of the Project Management Plan arises and to calmly think through how to deal with the topic in a way that makes sense for the project.
As always, we wish you every success,
