The fifth addition of the Project Management Book of Knowledge, or PMBOK, is 415 pages + 160 pages of annexes and appendices. The Project Management Plan is the key output or application of all of these pages to assist you in managing your project. This presents a real problem of scale and complexity – like having a sledgehammer as the only tool available when a hammer would do.

The goal of this post is to describe a significantly scaled down version of a Project Management Plan – to identify the key concepts to include, without burdening your plan with unnecessary complexity. When you need a sledgehammer, the full PMBOK is available to you.

Plan Fundamentals

The Project Management Plan represents how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled. An effective plan will:

• Clearly state what the project hopes to accomplish
• Identify roles and responsibilities for all involved
• Create a consistent, reliable pattern of communication
• Identify and plan responses to risk
• Effectively catalogue stakeholders and help manage their expectations

Plan Components

The following components represent the essential pieces of any project management plan. You can scale up from here. But, if you were to drop any one of these you are likely omitting a critical element.

1. Project Charter

A Project Charter broadly defines the project as it has been established by the Project Sponsor. It summarizes the purpose, success criteria and high-level requirements so as to provide clear direction in forming a statement of work. Summary-level timelines provide parameters within which the project is expected to operate. And, governance and formal authorization endow the project team with authority and set expectations for monitoring and controlling project activity.

Technically, the project charter is a stand-alone deliverable. But, as we are looking at a pared-down project we want to make sure the contents of the charter are not lost.  Inclusion of a streamlined charter as an opening section of the Project Management Plan is an easy way to make sure it is clear to all involved in planning what we hope to accomplish.

Resource: Project Charter Development

2. Project Integration Management Plan

Project Integration represents those activities that pull together work activities into a complete and coherent project. Put simply, this is the “how” of the project. In this section you should describe the implementation methodology as the means for executing the project work. It is also important to look at how we will make decisions on the project – or “governance.” This section should also detail roles and responsibilities to assign the work at a high level. The project schedule will define specific responsibility for individual tasks and timing for that work.

Resource: Project Management Plan Template

3. Communication Management Plan

The Communications Management Plan documents the process for the planning, delivery and monitoring and controlling of communications throughout the project lifecycle. It also should define roles and responsibilities, describe scheduled communications and define storage of project artifacts.  Much like other sub-plans it describes people and process – and ensure communications management is a key component of our project.

On small projects, the Communications Management Plan may simply be reflected as a Communications Schedule and note where documents will be stored. Such a paired down approach can be sufficient so long as it ensures that regular and accurate communications occur throughout the project.

Resource: Project Communications Plan

4. Risk Management Plan

Every project carries risk regardless of size or complexity. For small and midsized projects, the risk management process may simply involve an afternoon of risk identification and response planning followed by periodic review of the risk register. Employing a risk register that captures identified risks, quantifies and qualifies impacts and logs response plans can significantly streamline risk management – without loses this critical exercise entirely.

Resource: Risk Register with Probability & Impact Matrix

5. Stakeholder Management / User Adoption Plan

A stakeholder is any individual that will be impacted positively or negatively by the project. Creating a stakeholder register should help you catalogue all stakeholders and begin to assess their interests in relation to your project. This plan is often recast as a User Adoption Plan for projects where a key project outcome is the adoption of new technology or tools.

Resource: Stakeholder Register

6. Plan Appendices

Your Project Management Plan should effectively define how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled. However, the plan itself might not have the granularity of specific requirements, tasks and sequences or even resources allocated. Without these things you clearly do not have a project on your hands.

The following should always be included as appendices to the plan if not baked directly into the plan itself: project schedule or work plan, project budget and project scope documents.

Conclusion

Sometimes you need the full breadth of the PMBOK to guide your project to success. But, often a streamlined approach is better sized to the task. With clearly document goals and objectives and roles and responsibilities you will gain direction. By defining project integration and communication and risk management processes, you will gain the necessary rigor to conduct the work. And, by keeping the interests of your stakeholders in mind, you are better equipped to ensure your project will gain acceptance or adoption.