Template · Free

Project Plan

A project plan that stays useful after week one — scope boundary, milestones with exit criteria, dependencies with owners, and a decision log.

No sign-up. No email. Markdown — edit it in anything.

Once the BRD is baselined and a sponsor has committed budget.

Project manager.

Works alongside: BRD · Release Checklist

The template

Instruction lines are marked with > — delete them once the document is filled in.

Project: _______________ Version: 0.1 Date: _______________ Project manager: _______________ Sponsor: _______________

Delete instruction lines (marked >) before circulating.

What we are doing:

Why:

Done when:

One sentence. If you cannot write it, the project is not ready to start.

In scope:

Explicitly out of scope:

The cheapest scope control available. Be specific enough to settle an argument.

A milestone without exit criteria is a date, not a milestone.

#	Milestone	Exit criteria (how we know it is done)	Target date	Owner
M1
M2
M3

Workstream	Lead	Deliverables	Depends on

Name / role	Workstream	Allocation %	From	To

Allocation of 100% across three projects is a plan to miss all three.

#	We need	From whom	By when	Confirmed?	If late
D1				Yes/No

"Confirmed" means the other party agreed, in writing, to that date.

#	Risk	Likelihood	Impact	Mitigation	Owner	Review date
R1		H/M/L	H/M/L

#	Assumption	Impact if false	Validate by
A1


Status reporting	Frequency, format, audience
Steering meeting	Frequency, attendees, decision authority
Escalation path	Who, in what order
Change control	Who approves a scope change

Audience	What they need	How often	Channel	Owner

The single most useful section six months later.

#	Date	Decision	Made by	Why	Alternatives rejected
1

#	Date	Change requested	Impact (scope / cost / date)	Decision	Approved by
1