Project plan template
A project plan sets out how a project will be delivered: what it will produce, the milestones and dates, who does the work, what it costs, the main risks, how people are kept informed, and who has signed it off. This free Word template has a section for each, with prompts and starter rows.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
Write it once the project has the go-ahead, ideally through a short project charter; the signed plan becomes the baseline you measure progress against. Keep the task-by-task schedule in a Gantt chart and the live risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies in a RAID log, and point to both from the plan rather than copying them in.
What's in the template
Project plan
| Project | |
|---|---|
| Sponsor | Owns the outcome; approves this plan |
| Project manager | |
| Version | 0.1 draft |
| Date | |
| Status | Draft or approved |
| Related documents | Charter, Gantt chart, RAID log |
1. Summary
Four sentences at most: what, why, by when and for how much.
2. Objectives and success measures
| Objective | Measure | Target | Checked on |
|---|---|---|---|
3. Scope and deliverables
| Deliverable | Description | Accepted by |
|---|---|---|
Out of scope: what people might assume is included but isn't.
| Out of scope | Why, or where it will be handled |
|---|---|
4. Milestones
| Milestone | Done when | Target date | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan approved | Sponsor has signed section 11 | ||
| Project closed | Handed over; lessons recorded |
Five to ten checkpoints. The tasks themselves go in the Gantt chart.
5. Team and resources
| Role | Name | Time on the project | Responsible for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | |||
| Project manager | |||
| External supplier |
- Equipment, systems or space needed
- Cover for day jobs while people work on the project
- Skills to buy in
6. Budget
| Item | Estimate | Basis of the estimate | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff time | |||
| Suppliers and contractors | |||
| Equipment and software | |||
| Training | |||
| Contingency | |||
| Total |
7. Risks, assumptions and dependencies
| Item | Type | Effect on the project | Response | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk | ||||
| Assumption | ||||
| Dependency |
Track these week to week in the RAID log.
8. Communication plan
| Who | What they need | How | How often | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | Progress, decisions needed, top risks | Status report | Weekly | Project manager |
| Project team | Tasks, blockers, changes | Team meeting | Weekly | |
| Staff affected | What changes for them, and when | |||
| Customers or suppliers |
9. Change control and tolerances
| Project manager can approve | e.g. a slip of up to 5 working days or £1,000, with no change to scope |
|---|---|
| Sponsor approves | Anything larger, and any use of contingency |
| How to ask for a change | Change request form, logged with a number |
| Reporting | When and how progress goes to the sponsor or board |
10. Handover and closure
- Deliverables accepted by the people named in section 3
- Day-to-day ownership handed to the business
- Suppliers paid and contracts closed
- Lessons learned recorded and shared
11. Approval
| Name | Role | Signature | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | |||
| Project manager | |||
How to write a project plan
- Copy in what's already agreed. Take the purpose, objectives, budget ceiling and deadline from the charter or the sponsor's brief. The plan works out how to deliver them; it shouldn't quietly change them.
- Define scope as deliverables. Name the things that will exist at the end (a fitted warehouse, a trained team, a live system) and who accepts each one. Write the out-of-scope list with the same care: it settles arguments later.
- Build the schedule with the people doing the work. Break each deliverable into tasks, get an estimate in working days from whoever will do each one, and put them in the Gantt chart. A milestone is where a group of tasks finishes.
- Check capacity, not just names. Agree how many days a week each person can really give alongside their day job.
- Cost it from the bottom up, noting the basis of each figure, and show contingency as its own line.
- Ask what could stop each milestone. Put the top risks, assumptions and dependencies in section 7, each with an owner.
- Agree tolerances, then get it signed. Set how far dates or costs can move before the sponsor decides. After approval, the plan changes only through an approved change request.
Example: a fictional wholesaler's warehouse move
Extracts from the plan of a fictional 90-person office supplies wholesaler moving from two rented units into one larger warehouse without missing a day of next-day deliveries. Budget: £185,000 including contingency. Out of scope: a new warehouse management system (next year), changing couriers, and the offices, which stay put.
| Milestone | Done when | Target | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan approved | Signed by the managing director | 6 Nov | Operations director |
| Racking installed | Checked and handed over by the installer | 15 Jan | Warehouse manager |
| Locations set up | Every bin location scanned and tested in the stock system | 29 Jan | Stock controller |
| Slow movers moved | Counted out, moved and counted in, with no unexplained differences | 14 Feb | Warehouse manager |
| Picking live in the new unit | A full day's orders dispatched from it on time | 22 Feb | Operations director |
| Old units handed back | Cleared, repaired and keys returned | 26 Mar | Finance director |
Top risk: late racking. Response: order it in November with a delivery-date clause, and keep the old units until the new one is proven.
Common mistakes
- Treating people as full-time. Most project work in a company of 10 to 250 people happens alongside a day job, and a plan that ignores this runs late from week one.
- Dates with no basis. If nobody doing the work gave the estimate, it's a wish, not a plan.
- No out-of-scope list, so every extra request becomes an argument about what was promised.
- Hidden contingency, spread across every line or left out. Show it as one figure that only the sponsor can release.
- Filing it after sign-off. Compare progress with it weekly, and change it through change control rather than letting the two drift apart.
- Forgetting the people whose work changes: staff, customers and suppliers affected by the result, not only the project team.
Frequently asked questions
How detailed should a project plan be?
Detailed enough that every milestone has an owner, a date and a cost behind it. Task-level detail belongs in the Gantt chart, which keeps the plan itself to a few pages for most projects.
What's the difference between a project plan and a project schedule?
The schedule is one part of the plan: the tasks and their dates. The plan also covers scope, money, people, risks and how decisions are made.
Who approves the project plan?
The project sponsor, who owns the outcome and the budget. If the plan needs more money or time than the charter allowed, it goes back to whoever approved the charter, often the managing director or the board.