Building Project Management Templates for Your Project

Developing the right project management tools to manage project performance is the first step to project structure and success. Unfortunately most companies do not start out with sophisticated and expensive project management software but rather start with a collection of home grown templates usually in MS Excel and Word format. Where do you start?

Look at what elements are required to manage your project. If you use the PMBOK based process groups, you can select a few key tools to setup a basic structure for your project. By starting with the development of several key tools, you can start a basic framework that is applicable to most projects. By covering the five process groups you setup a structure that supports the project throughout its whole lifecycle. At some point you may find that you may need to add to the list of required tools depending on the type of projects, complexity and risk. This initial list according to process group will get you started.

Initiating 

Project Charter. This document is used to authorize the start of your project. Contains basic initial details such as Project Name, High Level Scope, Anticipated Budget Estimate, Sponsor, Project Manager and Steering Committee.

Planning 

Project Plan. A governance document that details a number of the PMBOK Knowledge areas such as Scope Management, Cost Management, Communications, Risk Management, Time Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Integration Management, Procurement Management.

Project Schedule. The detailed work breakdown that identifies tasks, resource requirements, task duration and dependencies. Many people use a tool such as MS project to develop a Project Schedule with Gantt Chart.

Risk Assessment. A measurement tool to identify the associated risks on the project.

Executing & Monitoring 

Actions/Issues Log. A quick start tool to identify project issues and actions not typically covered by the project schedule. Typically includes item description, target completion, status, priority and associated notes.

Risk Register. This lists the identified risks against the probability of occurrence of the risk event vs. the associated impact if realized. A good register also includes a measurement mechanism to identify the severity level and which ones the project will address, monitor or dismiss.

Closing 

Close-Out Document. A capture of the lessons learned process that also includes project finalization details, performance vs. expectations and archives of related materials.

Setting up these seven tools will give you a basic project tool kit to manage your projects. And even using templates in Word, Excel and PowerPoint will initially provide you with a simple but useful structure. I have found that in organizations just embarking on project management methodology, stakeholders more readily adapt to using such familiar tools. As you grow your resources, try adding additional templates that can be used to support your organization's typical project needs.

How to Use Your Project Plan Template to Eliminate Feeling Overwhelmed

Often when working on their businesses or in their jobs, people have so many responsibilities and tasks that pile up quickly. While this situation can be considered a sign of success, it can easily lead to a sense of overwhelm, deterioration in the quality of work in the form of sloppy or shoddy performance, and even a failure to complete all the tasks someone has committed to accomplishing.

In the face of this complexity, it can be hugely useful for people to turn to a project plan template to help manage the intricacies of moving several fronts at once. However, many shy away from the use of project plan templates because they may feel there is not enough time to plan, or project planning templates are not a useful way to invest their limited amount of time. This consideration is actually quite limiting and, on the contrary, not planning effectively is often a reason why employees, managers, or business owners may experience being overwhelmed and overworked.

So how can a person use a project plan template effectively to combat those feelings of overwhelm and not being in control? The process is quite simple and straightforward. The objective of a project plan template is to capture, to the greatest extent possible, all the actions and steps that need to be taken from the beginning of a project to its completion, in the order those moves need to be made.

Why is the scope of such a template naturally so large? By reviewing an all-inclusive tool in this way, a person using this organization device can be confident knowing everything that needs to be tracked and on paper (or on the computer) is in fact accounted for. Surprisingly enough, overwhelm tends to disappear for many people at this point. Overwhelm disappears in this way because overwhelm is primarily a function of a person not feeling that they are in control, or that they do not have a solid grasp of what needs to happen in order to produce certain results. So, it is usually when those next actions are laid out in a systematized way that the overwhelm disappears. It really is that simple!

Use a Project Plan Template to Get Projects Done Faster

As a business owner, you know that everyday you've got what seems like a million and one things to do and it always seems like you never have enough time. And if you've got several projects on the go, you might wonder how you'll keep everything organized so that you meet your deadline and have more happy (and repeat!) clients. And this is where a project plan template can come in very handy.

Consider for a moment that in order to run a successful business, whether it is an affiliate marketing business, web development, writing, MLM or even an "offline" service business, you have to keep things organized and scheduled.

If you don't not only will you not get things done that need it, you'll soon find yourself having a severe lack of motivation to reach your goals. And this, more than anything, can cause you business to fail. Once you lose focus, it can be incredibly hard to get back on track. Having a daily schedule helps. As does having a project plan template.

Now, I can almost hear you saying how complicated that sounds. But really it is only as complex or complicated as you want it to be. So, what's the best way to come up with a project plan template? Pick your most complex current project, list everything in bullet point form such as specifications (measurements, page or word counts, etc.) as well as time lines and milestones.

Then, with this done, take the outline and simply rewrite it so that it is in a "blank" state. It is always easier to take things out of the outline depending on the project then to try and put them in, which is why the first time you create your project plan template you should use the most complex project you have as a sample.

Now, here again you might be thinking that the best way to go is to immediately jump into a new project and you may see the extra step of using a project plan template as a waste of time. But, consider the fact that with this type of template available, you can quickly and easily figure out the major and minor requirements of the project in question and be able to effectively schedule milestones for yourself, which is important especially if it is a big project. Once you've finished the tasks for that day, set the project aside and do something else.

Main Features of Project Charter Template

Project management has never been a very smooth process especially if you do not have the right tools. The success or failure of every project lies with whether or not the right foundation and ground breaking work was put in place during the planning stage. Skipping any planning process or having it shortened would improve the chances of failure hence the need for the use of project charter template, a tool that offers you a step by step guide of what you should include in your project plan.

Project charter template offers you a step by step guide on what you should have included in your project charter. Among the available templates is the scope statement template that defines in detail the full scope that the project at hand will cover. The management plan template outlines in several simple steps what your management plan re to ensure that you achieve your desired result.

Cost is an important part of any project management and if any project is to succeed, costs should be kept down. The cost management template enables you present your costs in a very clear manner that your financiers will understand without struggle, unlike when you are to design your own cost template. How the work to be done is broken down into units together with how such work done are managed to meet the required quality is also listed down in the charter template hence making it easy to be used.

Risk control is a prerequisite when it comes to projects management. Personnel management also needs to be approached well hence the project charter template would offer you the best way forward that will enable you manage your projects well.

How To Go About Preparing An Action Plan Template

Action plan template is a tool used to point out activities required to achieve commercial, administrative or other specific goals addressed during assessment process of the concerned project. Proper implementation & subsequent achievement of preset goals is a time consuming & tough job. After strategic goals are put in place via the assessment process, provisions have to be made for passing over the ideas to the members of a collaborative project.

Several time bounded meetings have to be held at the project site or the institution office to reach a fruitful & feasible decision regarding the final action plan. The project moderator here has a number of key responsibilities. At the beginning, he should help project members understand the needs of constructing a transparent & comprehensive plan template. After this point is made clear to them, the members should be provided with a few templates to obtain their views on them. The moderator should discuss this issue open mindedly, as project members here may object on several points made in the plan & thus propose a construction of a whole new plan. If any changes have to be made, then discussing those points & inscribing the new action plan may take several other meetings. Matters may get delayed due to all this, as every implementation step put up in the plan has to be written in a format which should be understandable for people who will lead the project to its ultimate goal.

An ideal action plan template must have an uncomplicated outlook, must facilitate understanding of individual roles among project team members & manifest any project infeasibility. They should be capable of bringing you out of all the dilemmas and bringing you on the right path. It should be written in a tabular format so that individual points don't get overlapped with each other, thus providing it a professional & readable look to it.

What Is Project Management?

There is plenty of speculation available concerning the definition of project management. However, what is project management in actuality? What do managers have to be knowledgeable about in order to create projects that are successful? We are going to talk about the basic concepts of project management.

People are born with the ability to solve problems. When a difficult issue hinders us from achieving our goals or other positive things that we want to achieve, we use all of our known resources to devise a plan that will solve those issues and help us get what we want. Via projects we try to find answers for the issues that are presently stopping us from reaching our goals.

What is a Project?

A project is a short term task that intends to provide an answer to a difficult issue. It involves putting a new plan in place in order to get positive results. The majority of projects are basically the same in nature. They generally have these components:

An established time of existence, which consists of both a beginning and ending date

Specified goals of what has to be accomplished

Certain allotted budgets and revenue

Specified goals with guides to assess success

It does not matter how large the project is or how difficult it may be, the action plan is the key to it being successful and the foundation for its life cycle. A good plan exists due to project management.

What is Project Management, Again?

Project management is basically the action plan that is used to combine and optimize the required assets to effectively finish the project and obtain the desired outcome. Project management consists of the general plans, action plans, particular tasks, timeframes, duties as well as goal expectations. Project management combines the tools and methods for strategizing, implementing and monitoring the project.

The project management action plan goes through these steps:

Initiating

Planning

Implementing

Monitoring/Ending

What is Project Management in Actuality, Really?

There are two basic methods for project management:

1.Bottom-up-approach (participatory):

Participants figure out and study the requirements, the options to fix the problems or come up with new methods to make a situation better. A plan is submitted after the contingency stages.

2.Top-down approach (directive):

An upper level manager gives the project to the project manager.

Even though it takes up more time, the bottom-up project method is the better method because it places the authority wherever there is potential and opportunity. It gives authority to everyone that is participating and it also gives them opportunities for making decisions for all aspects of the project management stages. This method also makes all commitments and accountabilities much stronger. In addition, it creates values that can be followed for the long term.

The top-down method specifies the requirements and methods for tackling them. Managers determine who will have authority, how the project will be done, and what assets will be used and how long the project will last. This method does not provide the same values as the bottom-up approach, but it does give faster answers.

The project participants might not be active in all parts of the project management stages; however, there are chances for them to stay in a supportive position.

Manager's Key Guidelines to Successful Project Management:

It doesn't matter what type of method is applied, the top-down or the bottom-up, most parts of the components are created, implemented and watched by the project manager.

Here's a set of rules to help your project campaign:

* Make sure that the project's goals are solid, obtainable and reachable. The SMART tool is a helpful example.

* Create a workable outline with designated tasks, timeframes, duties, needed assets, expectations and guidelines.

* Identify project stakeholders: A stakeholder is anybody who is interested, influenced or affected by the project.

* It is essential to establish participants and their duties from the very first of the project. A stakeholders analyses would be the best way to handle this.

* Understand the project's hardships, setbacks and risks. If you know how to identify project restrictions and hardships at the start, it will be much simpler to handle them when they occur. Also, have a backup plan for when something does not go as you envisioned it.

* Establish a project budget. Itemize all costs of the project and determine the cost of each expense such as administrative, delivery, outsourcing, so on and so on. This will give you the capability to adequately manage the budget.

* Pinpoint the resources of the project such as the skills, capabilities, physical assets as well as intellectual assets. Create a listing of everything involved. It is essential to understand and work with the project resources. This is a wonderful strategy for re-cycling the team's skills and experience and putting them on a totally different playing field.

* Pinpoint the strategies and plans that are required for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the project.

* Correspond-Correspondence and interaction are very important in project management. You need to describe and provide credibility of your projects to your clients, partners and investors. You have to discover methods for making them interested enough to want to invest and be supportive of the project. Make sure that everybody constantly knows what is going on and what to expect during the course of the project. Get them involved by utilizing their expert planning and implementing skills as much as you can. Write everything down, even if it requires a lot of your time. You should always have good documentation of the project's progress and success.

Are You a Slave to Project Management?

Gantt charts - loathe them or love them?

They are a fundamental tool in a project manager's toolkit. However, an unseasoned project manager can find that they can take over the project and result in reduced control. How so? In this article we will look at their potential pitfalls and provide some tips and strategies for ensuring successful project management. Gantt charts are, after all, just one of many ways of presenting the project planning and actual data that has been input.

To start we will be clear that we are not going to deal here with repetitive implementation / rollout projects where a template plan has been refined over a series of projects and becomes a standard checklist for project management. This article is about those one off  projects. These projects may be within organisations small, medium and large.

Most larger organisations have well developed and run 'IT' departments. They usually have formal project offices with established plan templates and standards, with project office staff and automated plan analysis systems (for example seeking orphan tasks / missing dependencies and so on to measure overall 'plan quality'). Smaller organisations - for example, 'IT solutions houses' - may lack this level of sophistication but will certainly use detailed project plans.

What is good about Gantt charts?

Gantt charts are an excellent format for presenting dependency and progress data, but as with most things in life, the returns will be dependent on the investment. So, the more care that goes into the project plan data set-up, then the better will be the feedback. However, there is a danger that the level of detail that can be built into the typical project plan can itself require a disproportionate amount of project management maintenance. We will not go into great detail here, but dependency and critical path management are of major importance. So, 'sweating the detail' in the plan is critical at the outset.

This leads to the actual project management overhead getting out of kilter with the budget allocation. What suffers then? An overloaded project management team, under-maintained plan / actual data or both even together. The result is Gantt chart slavery.

So, how do we avoid this paradox?

The approach should be based on a comprehensive Risk Assessment of a project at or before formal startup. The risk areas to be considered will certainly include:

- organisational politics and readiness

- organisational technology literacy

- organisational staff skills level

- technology proposal

- business risk (eg market / competitive pressure; degree of process change required)

- timescale - rate of business change

- resource including $ availability

- commitment of sponsors

The outcome should be categorisation of the project as Low, Moderate or High Complexity. Note that a Moderate Complexity project may have a High Complexity phase (and this links back to Contingent Project Management - dynamic tuning of the project management process itself during the project).

These differing levels of Complexity would require differing levels of project management effort allocated in the resource budget. A rough guide would be:

Low Complexity - project management effort 7-11% of overall resource budget

Moderate Complexity - project management effort 12-17% of overall resource budget

High Complexity - project management effort 18-22% or more, of overall resource budget

Undoubtedly these figures will seem inordinately high to some managers. However, more than 30% of projects are deemed failures - and failure is always the result of inadequate project management (which includes Risk Assessment and Management). So, the 'buck stops' at the quality or quantity of project management.

Project Managers Must Have Proper Information About Project Tracking Software

Need help organizing project planning boards, activity time frames, and task designations? What this particular office needs is a project tracking software. The project tracking software is basically a program, possibly downloadable from the World Wide Web or purchased in CD ROM or hard disk form and then downloaded into the computer's desktop system. It can also be a software that translates into a program that is accessed only through the Internet, and then, through this, one will be able to track activities more easily and efficiently.

What Project Tracking Softwares Can Do

The features installed in project tracking softwares available in the market these days actually vary depending on the company that manufactures the software program. But there are some characteristics that are inherent in task tracking softwares. Among these characteristics are as follows:

1. Creating project plans. A project tracking software typically has templates where one can put in all the projects he currently has at hand and then draft a plan out of all of them. This way, there will be no more struggling with dusty chalk boards or messy tasks calendars. Also no more panicking when the office organizer gets lost from its storage space in the desk drawer. All one has to do to be reminded of his project plans is to check it out when he opens his computer. Also, through this template or draft plan, he can update the progress of his projects as often as he wants, and then, get an overview as to what projects are already finished, what projects need to be given extra attention, which needs to be attended to as soon as possible, and which can be set aside for the time being.

2. Making project reports. Apart from creating the actual project plan, a project tracking software also usually has the capacity to let the user draft reports on each project in the plan template. Possibly, he can even create presentations with this software. This way, whenever the user has to deal with something that is related to his projects, he no longer has to bother with various other software programs (i.e., which to open, MS Word, PowerPoint, or Outlook?) or files (i.e., what file name or folder name he has saved his project in); all he has to do is to run the project tracking software, select the tasks in question, and everything will be there, including his presentation for their upcoming board meeting.

3. Create a timeline for every project. Aside from making plans and reports on every project, a project tracking software would also play a kind of organizer function for the user - it would tell him just what needs to be finished when, as well as let him create a sort of calendar of activities for each activity.

Safety Plan Template - Why You Must Have One

If you have a business that employs people our you actually care about your staff then you certainly need to implement a safety plan in your business. If you run a construction site or a building a project where there are potential accidents than you certainly need to implement a plan to ensure the safety of every person who comes in touch with your project.

This is not only required by law in most countries, but you should take this responsibility seriously. A plan is going to be your tool to protect your staff and anyone else that may come in touch with your business or project. A template will enable you to create a safety plan very easily without stress or headache.

This template will already have a lot of information already within it and or you simply need to do is modify the plan to suit your project our business. This is then quiet easy to do. How much easier is it to modify a template then to create a document from scratch?

Creating a plan need not be a headache when you use a template. There is no point in re-creating or reinventing the wheel so why would you try to re-invent a safety plan? Smut business means looking at what other people have done and taking their ideas and modifying it to suit your business. We are not talking about copyright issues or plagiarism, but simply getting ideas from what other people have experienced.

You can also purchase plenty of templates online which enable you to have full rights and use the plan within your business or project. A typical safety plan will have issues that need to be addressed on site with your team and these issues should form part of your training. When you implement your plan to ensure that all of your staff, customers, clients, or any other personnel that come in contact with your business or project a well aware of the safety issues that apply to your business.

It is imperative that you implement safety to save headaches and suffering and losses showed the unfortunate occurrence of accidents occur. Everybody wants to avoid accidents so it is smut business to implement safety plans.

Why Project Managers Need Safety Management Plan Template

For a company actively engage in the field of construction, construction management usually involves various phases of work like planning, designing, budgeting, implementation and safety. In most cases, safety is given less attention as more effort is exerted on how to decrease expenses and finding ways to meet target dates of completion. The worker sometimes gets the work done by shortcut which occasionally puts his safety at risk. Whether the job is simple and can be completed in a short period, is not enough reason to waive creating a safety plan. One can never tell what will happen in the future. While it is true that there are so many available downloadable Safety Management Plan templates, it is not always a guarantee that simply filling out the template can make your company compliant. An organized system is to implement and manage the plan is crucial. With the tightening demands of regulatory agencies to craft an effective safe system in your work, more companies have increased their awareness on the need to invest and support their safety management plan.

As reiterated, crafting a safety plan is significant tool in doing business and should not be taken for granted. If you have sincere desire to take care of the safety of your workers, then you need to decide on that plan. There is a variety of information that needs to be considered depending on the actual conditions in the job site. It is not a one man's job as the intention to cover all important safety aspects that are typically needed in doing the work. Besides it might be more practical to generate your plan using a template to save time in drafting and the chance of missing out important details. A simple template usually contains some basic parts like Policy Statement, Safety Rules, and Investigation Processes among others. Make certain that the information you will provide is correct as this will become a communication tool to workers. It would make the job of the safety engineer or the officer in-charge easy.

For large scale projects, there are more relevant information that must be included in the plan depending on the kind of work environment. The Safety Plan is a comprehensive document that may require some time to create. Better be safe than sorry and lose money in the end. It is considered a major accomplishment on the profile of any company to achieve a Zero Man-hours lost to accidents. This record will definitely look good on your next project bidding.