Where to start with Project Management Templates?
Project Management standards and procedures differ wildly from industry to industry. Some industries like pharmaceuticals and health have extremely detailed standard operating procedures (or SOP's for short) where project management templates conform to very specific industry recognised (and sometimes legally required) standards. Other industries don't have any specific recognised standards which means that it can be very difficult for us project managers to know what we should include in our project templates. Nonetheless, it's critical that your project mangement templates are of an extemely high quality to ensure that your project runs smoothly.
So where do we start with our project templates?
I can't stress how important quality project templates are to the overall success of your projects. As Project Manager,how you communicate with your project team, your customers, your partners and your suppliers
will without a shadow of a doubt ultimately determine if your project gets delivered on time and within budget - it's that simple.
Make sure your project scope is crystal clear and watertight - no Risk is key!
Every successful project starts with a clear statement of work. What tasks will you complete? When will you complete them? Who on your team will complete them? I usually kickoff a project with...funnily enough.....a Project Kickoff document. A Project Kickoff document is really the main starting point for all project stakeholders to get a handle on what your project is all about. It usually contains some or all of the following:
Project Management standards and procedures differ wildly from industry to industry. Some industries like pharmaceuticals and health have extremely detailed standard operating procedures (or SOP's for short) where project management templates conform to very specific industry recognised (and sometimes legally required) standards. Other industries don't have any specific recognised standards which means that it can be very difficult for us project managers to know what we should include in our project templates. Nonetheless, it's critical that your project mangement templates are of an extemely high quality to ensure that your project runs smoothly.
So where do we start with our project templates?
I can't stress how important quality project templates are to the overall success of your projects. As Project Manager,how you communicate with your project team, your customers, your partners and your suppliers
will without a shadow of a doubt ultimately determine if your project gets delivered on time and within budget - it's that simple.
Make sure your project scope is crystal clear and watertight - no Risk is key!
Every successful project starts with a clear statement of work. What tasks will you complete? When will you complete them? Who on your team will complete them? I usually kickoff a project with...funnily enough.....a Project Kickoff document. A Project Kickoff document is really the main starting point for all project stakeholders to get a handle on what your project is all about. It usually contains some or all of the following:
- Project Overview - high level summary of the project itself, explained in simple, non-technical jargon with clear objectives and hopefully - measureable objectives.
- Project Team - something as simple as a listing of all project team members including their contact information and background can act as a nice precursor to an initial project kickoff meeting (we hope to talk about our project kickoff template in the near future.)
- Project Plan - Critical Path Summary - ah the all important project plan. In my opinion, don't try to overcook this just yet. Try and keep your plan as high level as possible, clearly showing each project phase, start time, end time, duration and deliverables at an absolute maximum. In show the critical path for your project it will also help you and your team to focus on the bigger picture.
- Risks - Please, please, please, state the project risks up front. Do NOT be afraid to state these explicitly. When you first start managing your projects, your natural instinct might be to hide risks rather than state them up front. Don't! Your team and your customers will appreciate your honesty and you might be surprised how perceptive your client is - they might already be thinking the same thing as you and if they are they will probably appreciate that you are aware of the risks with what you are doing and will do your utmost to avoid or negate these risks.
- Budget - Depending on your project, you may need to detail the budget and expenses allocated to your project. Clearly align your budget to the phases you detailed in your Critical Path Summary.
P.S. If you're looking to kick start your project management template collection, you should check out this excellent project management template. It will set you back $26 but they'll save you days and days of creating your own templates. We've used it quite a lot ourselves and found it to be an excellent starting point for a novice project manager or even for an experienced PM who just wants to benefit from a rock solid project management template.
