One Project Plan Does Not Fit All Projects

There is a great deal of science in project management but theres also a lot of art. The art comes in
deciding which processes, tools and techniques are best for each new project. The easy answer is to
use the same project management plan steps on every project. That approach buries small projects
with paperwork, meetings and processes that dont contribute to the odds of success. On the other
hand, it often leaves large strategic initiatives with insufficient project management and overly
simplified techniques. You should select the techniques and processes that will improve the projects
end results. In this article, I suggest the right project management plan steps for projects of various
sizes.
Your project planning begins with the definition of the project scope. That is the basis for the scope
statement, the work breakdown structure (WBS) and the estimates of cost and duration. The amount
of project planning you do correlates to the size, risk and complexity of your project. On smaller
projects, you may skip risk & quality management entirely and do minimal work in the other areas
listed below. However, every project management plan should include a scope statement and a work
breakdown structure (WBS). Lets look at examples below.

Project Management Plan Steps for Different Sized Projects

Tier #1 Small Projects: Done within one department for the manager or your boss.

Tier #2 Medium Projects: Affect multiple departments or done for customers/clients.

Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Organization-wide projects with long term effects.

Project Management Plan Step #1: Identify Stakeholders

Tier #1 Small Projects: Usually skipped; this step is not necessary on an in-department project
where the manager is the primary stakeholder.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Process to identify stakeholders across the organization. Prevents
surprises when we must add late arriving requirements that cost more.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Process of surveys and interviews to identify internal and external
stakeholders affected by the project so we can consider their requirements.

Project Management Plan Step #2: Project Business Case

Tier #1 Small Projects: Often skipped because we dont need formal project approval.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Organizations with sound project management processes require a
business case to justify a projects priority versus other projects in the portfolio.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: The amount of financial and human resources requires detailed
justification and demonstration of the strategic impact and benefit of the project.

Project Management Plan Step # 3: Project Charter

Tier #1 Small Projects: A 1-page broadbrush plan is enough.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: The project charter addresses the project business justification,
acceptance criteria, and rough estimates of the human and financial resource requirements.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: The size of the investment in these projects usually requires extensive
documentation of risks, benefits and impacts on other strategic initiatives and the organization as a
whole.

Project Management Plan Step #4: Gather Project Requirements

Tier #1 Small Projects: Usually limited to a meeting with the boss where we define the projects
Measure of Success (MOS).
Tier #2 Medium Projects: We survey stakeholders for their requirements. After considering each
requirement, it is included or explicitly excluded from the project.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: An extensive process of identifying and analyzing requirements
gathered from the stakeholders. Additionally, we assess stakeholders in terms of their interests in the
project and their ability to influence the projects success (positively or negatively).

Project Management Plan Step #5: Project Scope Statement

Tier #1 Small Projects: A short statement of the projects result and acceptance criteria.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: A more detailed scope statement that covers the major deliverables,
assumptions, constraints.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: A full scope baseline development with explorations of alternative
means of delivering the project scope.

Project Management Plan Step #6: Stakeholder Management &

Communications Plan
Tier #1 Small Projects: Not necessary with the limited stakeholder group.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Communications plan developed, taking into account the information
requirements of the stakeholders.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Plan for meeting stakeholders communication needs and actively
managing all stakeholders issues so they are resolved .

Project Management Plan Step #7: Project Change Control

Tier #1 Small Projects: Project sponsor approval is the only requirement.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Use existing organizational process for change control (if it exists) or
develop a project specific change procedure. It includes analysis and documentation standards and
identification of specific individuals authorized to approve changes of a specific size.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Change control and configuration management are often combined for
handling changes to project baselines as well as changes to the specifications of the deliverables.

Project Management Plan Step #8: Project Schedule

Tier #1 Small Projects: Schedule based on work estimates made by the team members.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Schedule based on work estimates plus work packages for each
assignment.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Work-based schedules, work packages with estimates and a work
breakdown structure (WBS) dictionary.

Project Management Plan Step #9: Project Procurement

Tier #1 Small Projects: Usually handled by purchasing department.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Competitive bids on larger purchases. Request for Quotations (RFQs) on
smaller purchases.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Full competitive bid process.

Project Management Plan Step #10: Project Quality Management

Tier #1 Small Projects: Usually skipped.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Quality control effort to measure deliverables against their quality metrics
and specifications.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Quality control plus active quality assurance with continuous
improvement effort for the processes that produce deliverables.

Project Management Plan Step #11: Human Resource

Management
Tier #1 Small Projects: Usually skipped.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Simple resource acquisition plan with limited training provided to team
members.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Human resource staffing, acquisition and team development plans are
fully detailed. We tie them to gaps in the requirements versus capabilities analysis.

Project Management Plan Step #12: Risk Analysis

Tier #1 Small Projects: 1-2 hours total.
Tier #2 Medium Projects: Qualitative risk analysis with a risk response plan for 5 10 key risks.
Tier #3 Strategic Projects: Qualitative and quantitative analysis with a risk response plan for
several dozen risks.