When it comes to creating and executing a killer project, sometimes the most challenging part can be getting started. Of course, you want to set your team up for optimal success as quickly as possible — but to do that, it’s necessary to take the time to properly plan out and set the foundation for your project.
Now, we know this may sound easier said than done. How can you ensure your entire team is aligned on a project’s scope, timeline, goals, and budget? How can you be confident that you’ve planned and accounted for all the necessary elements for a satisfactory project completion? Enter the perfect project plan template — a fill-in-the-blank roadmap to kickstart any project for success.
What is a project plan?
A project plan is the primary living, organizational document that outlines a project journey, including its critical elements such as goals, timeline, responsibilities, budget, and more. It serves as a framework that aligns entire teams and stakeholders on project expectations and delivery.
What is a project plan template?
While a project plan outlines the framework for success, a project plan template provides the structured starting point to create one effortlessly. This kind of template contains pre-formatted placeholders that help you document and launch various project-related activities, such as project planning, project kick-off meetings, project tracking & deadlines, project budgeting, project reporting, and more. Using a project management template saves you from starting from scratch and reduces the time spent on project initiation.
What should be included in a project plan?
For a project plan to be as effective as possible, it must include the various essential high-level and low-level project details.
Key components of a comprehensive project plan include:
- Project goals: Determine the purpose of a project and define what success will look like.
- Project scope: Provide an accurate project overview, including details about what it will and will not include.
- Project timeline: Map out the due dates and deadlines, including dependencies, to gain an accurate understanding of when the project will be completed.
- Milestones: Define the critical events & achievements within a project to serve as checkpoints for adequate project progress.
- Tasks: Break down the project into manageable, individual tasks and deliverables.
- Roles & responsibilities: Allocate specific roles and project tasks to relevant team members to ensure clarity and accountability.
- Budget: Estimate the project’s cost depending on available funds and other available resources.
- Risks: Identify potential risks and strategies to mitigate them.
What’s the purpose of a project plan?
A project plan is more than just another project management tool — it sets the foundation and framework for successful project execution. This tool is essential for successful projects because it:
- Aligns team members and stakeholders on project goals, expectations, and project execution in one accessible place — minimizing confusion and ensuring everyone’s on the same page.
- Tracks project progress in real-time to efficiently monitor if project schedules are on course for timely completion and if any roadblocks stand in the way.
- Facilitates cross-team communication by providing a centralized reference point to view progress, notify team members of delays or issues, ask questions, and make necessary workflow adjustments.
- Boosts accountability by clearly stating involved project players and their responsibilities so everybody understands where they stand and their role in moving a project forward.
Why do you need a project plan template?
Creating a well-designed project plan that incorporates all essential details in an organized, visually intuitive document can be a time-consuming and intimidating endeavor. After all, a project plan can only lead to the mentioned benefits if a team can clearly understand and follow it.
Here’s where a project plan template comes in— a pre-designed framework to simplify the project plan creation process so you don’t have to start from scratch every time. A project plan template is an invaluable tool for project managers to create effective project plans because it:
- Saves time and effort by providing a ready-made, streamlined structure to jumpstart the project planning process. There’s no need to waste time repeatedly creating a project plan outline, as you can simply fill in the blanks.
- Ensures all key project components are included and that nothing slips through the cracks so you can be confident you’ve covered all the necessary points for a comprehensive project plan.
- Develops consistency across current and future projects since they follow the same planning format. This guarantees every project plan is simple to follow and compliant with expectations.
- Amplifies project plan professionalism by consistently following a well-designed and carefully curated project plan format.
Why use the monday.com project plan template?
The monday.com Project Plan Template is an intuitive, customizable, and visual template for a seamless project planning process. This template is designed to ensure your project team stays aligned and organized from the project planning phase to every phase of the project life cycle. Our top template features include:
- 27+ view types, including Timeline, Gantt, and Kanban, to visualize your project how you see fit.
- Seamless collaboration across teams and project stakeholders through live comments and status updates directly in your project plan document.
- Efficiency-boosting automations to notify relevant task owners about upcoming deadlines, project milestones, and overdue items.
- Extensive integrations to continue working with your existing tools in one place for greater efficiency. Sync due dates with your Google Calendar, or instantly share your Dropbox files with your team.
How to use monday.com’s customizable project plan template?
Leverage our project planning template for success with eight simple steps.
Step 1: Choose the Single Project Template from our template center
You’ll then be able to customize the template to fit your project’s unique needs.
Step 2: Define project scope and goals
Create a collaborative document within monday workdocs to write a high-level summary of the project’s scope, objectives, milestones, project deliverables, and other important details. Transfer document details to your board.
Step 3: Divide the project into specific, actionable tasks
Write out all the relevant project tasks and activities that make up the project in individual board items. Assign priority, status options, or important notes and files about each task.
Step 4: Assign team members to each task
With the People Column, simply delegate individual responsibility for each task. Use additional columns to add task managers or categorize responsibility by team.
Step 5: Set clear deadlines and delivery dates
Add accurate dates to your project timeline to map out individual delivery dates and the overall project completion date with the Date Column. Use the Dependency Coumn to visualize task order, ensuring everything makes sense.
Step 6: Bring your project plan to life with different view types
Pick from Gantt charts, Timelines, Kanban boards, and more to visualize your project plan in a customizable and intuitive way.
Step 7: Share your plan with stakeholders and team members for review
Receive feedback and ideas from relevant project stakeholders and project managers to refine the plan to everyone’s liking. Make sure the plan aligns with previously stated goals as well as broader business goals.
Step 8: Consistently monitor and adapt your plan
Stay on your project plan by checking progress and making changes when necessary.
Six of our other project plan templates
We offer plenty of customizable templates for any type of project management need. In addition to our Project Planning Template, some of our top templates include:
1. RACI Chart Template
Make project roles and responsibilities clear using a RACI matrix. Understand and visualize the status of your project with progress and status columns, quickly set up automatic notifications to alert task owners, and use the Gantt chart view for upcoming project milestones.
2. Risk Register Template
Manage all of your potential project risks and visualize risk statuses at a glance through a risk register dashboard. Add risk owners and probabilities, and leverage a smart formula to help asses risk level.
3. Project Portfolio Management Template
Plan, track, and manage complex projects across multiple teams and departments. Streamline project requests and get a high-level visual representation of your entire project portfolio.
4. Project Requests and Approvals Template
Manage all incoming project requests and approvals in one place. Receive real-time notifications to inform relevant team members and stakeholders on project status, unanticipated changes, and more.
5. Budget Tracker Template
Manage each department, team, or individual’s spending according to their allocated project budget and easily spot overspending trends before they derail your project.
6. Agile Project Management Template
Use Agile project planning tools to manage your Agile projects. Plan a project roadmap and manage your sprint backlog with a high degree of flexibility. Build, iterate, and learn while collaborating with stakeholders and keeping your project on track.
Boost planning efficiency and ease with monday.com’s project plan templates
monday.com’s project plan templates allow teams to work smarter — not harder. Watch as project plan organization becomes something intuitive and hassle-free with the ability to drag and drop items, create groups related to categories or stages of a project, and assign individuals or entire teams to each task. Best of all, our templates can be used within monday work management — the complete work management software solution built for teams to execute tasks, projects, and processes efficiently at scale. Try monday work management with a free trial today, and realize your true project planning potential.
Get startedFAQs
Is there a project plan template in Excel?
Yes, Excel offers a simple project plan template, which is a great starting point for small, basic projects. But unlike the project plan templates in monday.com Excel lacks real-time collaboration, automation, and advanced visualization features.
What are the phases of the project management lifecycle?
The project management lifecycle can be broken down into five distinct phases:
-Phase 1: Project Initiation
Define your project’s purpose, scope, and goals, and gain approval to get started.
-Phase 2: Project Planning:
Build a clear roadmap that includes the project’s goals, timeline, tasks, and available resources so your team has a concrete plan for success.
-Phase 3: Project Execution
Bring your project to life by tackling tasks, managing resources, and working toward your goals.
-Phase 4: Project Monitoring and Control
Keep everything on track by checking progress, resolving roadblocks, and ensuring your project stays aligned with the plan.
-Phase 5: Project Closeout
Wrap things up by completing final deliverables, gathering feedback, and reflecting on project success.
What are the 4 main elements of a project plan?
While there are certainly more than 4 elements that make up an effective project plan, there are four main elements that simplify and categorize the contents of a project plan. These include:
-Project budget: Defines the financial framework for your project by estimating costs for resources, materials, and labor.
-Goals and objective: Outlines what the project aims to achieve, both in terms of high-level goals and specific objectives.
-Deliverables: Specifies specific project outcomes, tasks, and expectations to ensure stakeholders and team members are aligned.
-Schedule: Maps out the project timeline, including key milestones, task deadlines, and dependencies, to ensure everything stays on track.
Get started