What is a Project Plan?

A project plan is designed to deliver the intended scope of a project, facilitate

communication among stakeholders, and track planning assumptions and decisions. It
is a living document that can include a stakeholder list, a scope statement, a
project schedule, schedule and cost baselines, baseline management plans,
communication plan, and it can change over the course of a project. It is worth
noting that a project plan is not just a project timeline, although that is an
important component of the plan.

You should always create a project plan before starting a new project. Start with
what you want to achieve from the project and break it down into the things you
need to do in order to accomplish the goal. Then, once you have a high-level plan
of all the things that need to be done, you can think about timing, budget,
resources, and more.

At the very least, a project plan should answer the following questions about a
project:

Why? - Why are we starting this project? What is the problem that this project
will address or solve?
What? - What are we working on? What are the major deliverables and goals?
Who? - Who will be involved in the project and what will be their
responsibilities?
When? - When should the project start and end? What are the milestones?

What Is the Purpose of a Project Plan?

A project plan is one of the most important ingredients for a successful project.
It is used to document and communicate expectations, to control schedule and
delivery, and to calculate and manage risks. In general, it acts as a roadmap for
everyone involved in the project.

Here are the four biggest benefits of a project plan:

Improves communication: By outlining your whole plan for everyone to see,

stakeholders can provide feedback early in the process if things are going in the
right direction. A project plan also helps facilitate expectation management by
letting you update milestones and timelines as the project progresses.
Increases transparency: With a project plan, stakeholders and team members know
exactly where to look to get information every step of the way. Expectations and
the project timeline are clearly defined, so everyone is on the same page about
priorities and objectives.
Increases organization: Many projects have dozens of tasks, dependencies, and
milestones, and it can be hard to track how everything is progressing. A project
plan makes you think through the timing of each activity and how it affects the
rest of the project. You always know how much time to spend on each task and how
many things you can accomplish at the same time.

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How to Create a Project Plan in Excel

Here are some step-by-step instructions for making a project plan in Excel. You’ll
first create the table with your project information, then we’ll show you how to
make your project timeline.
1. Add Headers to the Table

First, you’ll need to add some headers to your table.

Leave the first row in your spreadsheet blank. On the second row, type in the
headers. In this example, we’re using Tasks, Responsible, Start, End, Days, and
Status. You could also add more headers for extra granularity, like Budget, Cost,
and more.

Highlight the text and in the Alignment group, click the center icon to center
the text in the headers.
To format the headers for proper spacing, highlight all the text you just typed
and on the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format. Select Column Width and set
the width for around 15-20 so you have enough space to enter in your project
information.

Create Table Headers

2. Add Your Project Information

Start with the Task column and enter the tasks for your project plan. You can
enter as many or as few tasks as you want. To visually organize your project plan,
we recommend adding a title for each group of tasks or each phase. In this example,
we use Prerequisites, Initiation, Development, Operations and Launch.
Then, enter the person responsible for each task and the start and end dates.
To automatically calculate the number in the Days column, click on a cell in
the Days column and type =, then click the End date cell, type the minus (-)
symbol, then click the Start date cell. Click enter. Drag the bottom right-hand
corner of this cell down the entire column and the rest of the values will be
automatically calculated for you with this formula.
Enter the status of each task. We use Complete, In progress, Overdue, or Not
started.
All the information should now be in your table, but you’ll notice the spacing
is off depending on the length of your text. To fix this, highlight all your
information and in the Cells group, click Format. Select Autofit Column Width to
automatically adjust the column width to your content.
To center your content, highlight the text and in the Alignment group, click
the center icon.