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Synopsis

What is a project plan? Below, we'll explain how to write a project plan, how to use the top project plan tools to complete your project on time, how to customize our Project Plan to get you started, and if you read to the end, you'll learn some project plan examples of how the project planners at the Hoover Dam completed production on the world's biggest masonry project since the great pyramids a whole two years ahead of schedule.

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Potential risks in a project plan can be prepared for by conducting a thorough risk assessment at the beginning of the project. This involves identifying potential risks, assessing their impact and likelihood, and developing strategies to mitigate them. These strategies could include allocating resources for risk management, developing contingency plans, and regularly reviewing and updating the risk assessment as the project progresses.

The Hoover Dam project is a prime example of successful project planning in large-scale projects. The project was completed two years ahead of schedule, which is a significant achievement for such a massive undertaking. This success can be attributed to meticulous planning and execution. The project planners used advanced project management tools and techniques for the time, including detailed work breakdown structures, precise scheduling, and rigorous risk management. They also fostered strong communication and collaboration among the team members, which helped in addressing issues promptly and effectively. Moreover, they ensured that the project scope was clearly defined and understood by all stakeholders, which helped in avoiding scope creep. Lastly, they had a robust change management process in place to handle any changes in the project requirements or constraints.

The project plan template can be customized to suit specific needs by adjusting the timeline, scope, and resources according to the unique requirements of your project. You can add or remove sections, change the format, or modify the layout to better fit your project's needs. It's also important to continuously update the plan as the project progresses, to reflect changes and adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

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To write your project plan, five key questions need to be answered. To answer these critical questions, we've collected a series of top tools from our project plan template, like a PERT Chart, Critical path diagram, Work Breakdown Chart, Project Risk Analysis, and Issue Tracker, which are just some of the many slides that are available in our Project Plan template.

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The project plan template can help in visualizing the project scope and preparing for potential risks by providing a structured format to outline all aspects of the project. It includes tools like a PERT Chart, Critical Path Diagram, and Work Breakdown Chart, which help in visualizing the project scope by breaking down tasks and timelines. The Project Risk Analysis tool helps in identifying and preparing for potential risks. The Issue Tracker keeps track of any issues that arise during the project, ensuring they are addressed promptly.

An Issue Tracker can significantly contribute to the success of a project by providing a centralized system for recording, tracking, and managing issues that arise during the project lifecycle. It helps in identifying and resolving issues in a timely manner, thereby reducing the risk of project delays. It also promotes transparency and accountability among team members, as everyone can see what issues are outstanding and who is responsible for resolving them. Furthermore, it can provide valuable insights for future projects, as it allows for a review of what issues occurred, how they were handled, and how they can be prevented.

Project Risk Analysis plays a crucial role in a project plan. It helps in identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks associated with the project. It provides a way to understand the potential impact of risks on the project's objectives and helps in making informed decisions about how to manage and mitigate these risks. It also aids in contingency planning, allowing the project team to be prepared for unexpected events. This proactive approach can significantly increase the chances of project success.

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PERT chart

The first step in any project plan is to ask, "What is the project scope?" Project scope is a detailed account of all the project's elements, like related activities, resources, timelines, and deliverables. Without a thorough scope, you could find yourself adding activities to a project, that then extends the timeline, which puts you behind schedule, and then all of a sudden you understand why government projects take so long! Except not the Hoover Dam - which we'll cover at the end of this article.

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Government projects often serve as valuable case studies for project scope and timeline management. They often involve complex, large-scale tasks with multiple stakeholders, which can lead to scope creep and timeline extensions if not properly managed. Lessons learned include the importance of clearly defining the project scope from the outset, including all related activities, resources, timelines, and deliverables. This helps prevent the addition of unplanned activities that can extend the timeline and put the project behind schedule. Furthermore, realistic and flexible timeline management is crucial, as unexpected delays can occur. Regular monitoring and evaluation of the project's progress against the timeline can help identify potential issues early and allow for timely adjustments.

Yes, the Hoover Dam project is a great example of a successful project due to a well-defined project scope. The project was meticulously planned with a clear understanding of the tasks, resources, timelines, and deliverables. This comprehensive planning and clear scope helped in the successful and timely completion of the project.

The key components of a project scope typically include the project's objectives, deliverables, milestones, tasks, costs, and deadlines. It also includes the project boundaries, the identified needs and requirements, the project's participants and their roles, and the methods used for approving deliverables and changes in the scope.

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However, even the tasks you do plan for can hold your project back. That's because many tasks are dependent on one another - even those that don't happen in order. A PERT Chart is a visualization that tracks these various tasks in a freeform flowchart to show their dependency on one another with arrows. Instead of a GANTT Chart that flows left to right in a timeline format, tasks might not be solely sequentially dependent, as you might have to go back and repeat work on one task that changes a future task and vice versa. The arrows also dictate whether something is directly connected versus dependent without resources. Dependent without resources refers to when the tasks aren't connected to each other but still relate. (Slide 5)

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Potential risks in project planning include unrealistic timelines, scope creep, resource allocation issues, and dependencies between tasks. A PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) Chart can help address these risks. It visualizes the tasks in a project, their dependencies, and the sequence in which they need to be completed. This allows for better planning and management of resources, and can help identify potential bottlenecks or delays in the project. It also allows for the identification of tasks that are not directly connected but still related, which can help in managing the overall project scope.

A PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) Chart can assist in managing tasks that are not sequentially dependent by providing a visual representation of the tasks and their dependencies. This allows project managers to see the relationships between tasks, even if they are not in a sequential order. The chart can show tasks that might need to be revisited or that can be worked on simultaneously. It also helps in identifying tasks that are directly connected versus those that are dependent without resources, meaning they are related but not directly connected.

In the context of project planning, 'dependent without resources' refers to tasks that are not directly connected to each other but still have a relationship. These tasks may not share resources or have a direct impact on each other's completion, but changes in one could potentially affect the other in some way.

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For instance, think of how a product launch is directly dependent on a feature test but is indirectly related to a product website. You still need a website to sell your product, but you don't need a website to make your product - unless your product is a website. A great example of this is actually what happened when the Six companies company started the Hoover dam project. They not only had to build a dam, but they had to build an entire town to house all the workers to build the dam. More on that at the end of the article!

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A great example of a complex project that required extensive planning and resource management is the construction of the Hoover Dam. The Six Companies company not only had to build the dam itself, but they also had to construct an entire town to house all the workers involved in the project. This required careful planning and allocation of resources to ensure the successful completion of both the dam and the town.

A product launch is directly related to other aspects of a project such as product development, testing, and quality assurance. These are the stages that directly contribute to the creation of the product. Indirectly, a product launch is related to aspects like marketing, sales, and customer service. These aspects do not contribute to the creation of the product but are crucial for its successful launch and post-launch performance in the market.

Some potential risks in project planning include unrealistic timelines, inadequate resources, scope creep, poor communication, and unforeseen circumstances. These risks can be prepared for by setting realistic timelines, ensuring adequate resources are available, clearly defining the project scope, maintaining open and clear communication, and having contingency plans in place for unforeseen circumstances.

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Critical path

The timeline to complete a project is the second most vital question to answer. Timelines are vital to a project's success. In order to meet that timeline, you need to forge a critical path. Critical paths show the dependency and connection between a project's most important tasks. The template we created has multiple slides to help structure your critical path, either with a flowchart (Slide 6), with a table (Slide 7), or with a table and Gantt Chart.

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This visualization tabularizes your critical path across the tasks, responsible team member, start and finish date, duration of the task, and its current status. The GANTT Chart at the bottom divides these tasks into SPRINTS with the sub-tasks underneath. Because this Gantt chart correlates to critical path, the arrows can be used to show the dependencies between these tasks. This can be used to determine which (if any) single decision can make or break another one. (Slide 8)

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Work breakdown chart

The next task in a project plan is to determine what resources are available. Work breakdown structure tackles resource allocation, time management, and budgeting all in one so resources match up to the project scope you just created.

This slide has a work breakdown visualized like an org chart and shows the main tasks and subtasks to accomplish the goal. While this visualization has each budget listed under its task name, this could also be edited to track the role of the team member responsible as well. To track each task's progress toward completion, the middle of each task shows percentage-based status bars. For instance, if your task was to learn how to make a project plan, congratulations, you're 50% of the way done! (Slide 11)

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Project risk analysis

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This risk analysis table breaks down the risks associated with your project and then ranks them based on impact and probability of occurrence. Multiply these together to calculate a risk value, or an estimate of the cost of the risk. (Slide 18)

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Inform your risk analysis with this risk matrix to track risk likelihood against level of consequence. If a risk has an catastrophic level of impact and certainty, it needs to be managed carefully. (Slide 19)

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Issue tracker

Here's one last tool to help with risk management - an issue tracker, which is helpful to assess if your project is on target according to what you thought at the start or if need to push your timeline back. This pairs well with the PERT chart, since if dependent tasks become issues, it could be a red flag to push back your project timeline. This is helpful for complex, mid to large scale projects - like, say, the Hoover Dam! (Slide 16)

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Case study: Hoover Dam

So how did the Hoover Dam end up two years ahead of schedule? While the Dam was the largest government project in history at the time, in order to win the bid, the Six Companies group had to put up the first $5 million themselves. Then, they faced fines for every day they went behind schedule. This incentive mandated that they find ways to stay on schedule - great motivation for any project plan.

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One of the ways the project saved time was by not waiting for the town to be built before they started work on the dam. *If this was visualized on a PERT Chart, the project planners could see that the two tasks were dependent without resources, as noted by the blue arrows in the above visualization. Since one required concrete and steel and the other required lumber and food. Because they started in 1931, two years into the Great Depression, they had access to a wealth of workers looking for a job. So workers started six months ahead of schedule and lived in a "rag town" while they waited for utilities to be piped in from 500 miles away.

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In order to stay on track, the project planners also had to get around another critical issue: the dam required so much concrete that if they poured it all in one block, it would take over 125 years to cool. This was the critical path needed to overcome to finish on time. They would have to break up this large task across multiple, smaller tasks in order to reach their target end date. The solution: pour the concrete into five-foot blocks, then use pipes to pump cold water through each block to cool it enough to pour the next block on top of it. While 80% of projects don't set baseline schedules, this extreme attention to timeline made all the difference.

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Conclusion

If the tools to make a solid project plan are in your way, you need this presentation. Download the Project Plan for more slides on the Impact and Effort matrix, Project Portfolio, Status Reports, Stakeholder Registers, Task Prioritization, and many more to save time and hours of work.

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