What's included

• 1. Outline business justification and stakeholder needs

  How important is this project to the organizational objectives? How does it tie in with the goals for the year or quarter? What do the involved stakeholders expect?

• 2. List of requirements and project objectives

  What objectives must the project achieve to be successful? What features and capabilities should the deliverables have?

• 3. Project scope statement

  This statement describes the project and its steps and requirements. It is the reference to get agreement and buy-in from external stakeholders in the project.

• 4. List of deliverables and estimated due dates

  You can use a simple list, flow chart, spreadsheet, or Gantt chart to map out all the project work, assign to teammates, set due dates, and mark any dependencies.

• 5. Detailed project schedule

  It is a clear calendarization of all required tasks and timelines. It shows the project's duration, who is doing what, and when each task begins and ends.

• 6. Risk assessment and management plan

  Risk management includes not just assessing the risk itself but developing risk management plans to communicate how the team should respond if these events happen.

• 7. Defined roles and responsibilities

  Clarify the responsibilities of each person on the project team, including the external stakeholders. Various tasks may include reviews and approvals from specific stakeholders, though typically, many of the project's key stakeholders are not involved in all aspects of the project. Other contributors to a project may include auditors, quality and risk analysts, procurement specialists, etc.

• 8. Resource allocation

  When it comes to resource allocation in project planning, you break down and allocate your team's time, materials, and budget. You should identify all available resources and resources for each task if known. Estimate their costs and contributions.

• 9. Quality assurance (QA) plan

  Creating the QA plan involves setting the project standards, acceptance criteria, and metrics that will be used throughout the project. This becomes the foundation for all quality reviews and inspections performed during the project.

• 10. Communication plan

  Your communication plan must answer: who receives the reports and who prepares and delivers these reports. You can go as far as to include the format in which the reports are created and shared.