Following is a list of the project management templates, along with a brief description, that are available on the Free Downloads page. They are divided into two basic groups; one for planning the work, and one for working the plan.

NB: Each of the templates is used in the sample project and you can view them, complete with sample data, as you navigate through the Sample Project page. Also, If you wish to view the blank template, which is a Word or Excel document, you can open each one by clicking on the link on the Free Downloads page.

Click on the question mark to see a brief description of each project management template.
 

Plan the Work
	Project Charter
	Project Scheduling
	Project Organization Chart
	Project Team Communications Plan
	Project Change Management Planning
Work the Plan
	Project Action Items - Open
	Project Action Items - Closed
	Project Issue Management Form
	Project Issue Management Log
	Project Lessons Learned
	Project Meeting - Agenda
	Project Meeting - Minutes
	Project Risk Management Item Tracking
	Project Scope Change Request
	Project Scope Change Request Log
	Project Status Report
	Project Weekly Time Tracking - Employee
	Project Weekly Time Tracking - Summary
	Project Wrap-Up Report

Template Descriptions

Project Charter:

The Project Charter defines the scope, objectives, deliverables and overall approach for the work to be completed. It is a critical element for initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and monitoring the project. It is the absolute master document for the project and as such it should be the single point of reference on the project for goals and objectives, scope, organization, estimates, deliverables, and budget.

There are items within the Charter that are supported by additional project control documents. In these instances the Charter will name the documents involved and describe their purpose and use throughout the project life cycle. This serves to keep changes to the master document to a required minimum while providing a mechanism to monitor and control the key areas of the project on an ongoing basis.

The Project Charter also serves as a contract between the Project Team and the Project Sponsors, stating at a minimum:

• Why are we doing this and what is the overall goal.

• What are the assumptions and constraints going in.

• When do we need to be finished.

• What deliverables must be made to get there.

• What things are not to be done.

• When do the deliverables need to be completed and in what order.

• Who is going to actually do the tasks and where.

• What resources and money (budget) is needed.

• What risks are there likely to be along the way.

• How to keep things on target and monitor progress.

All projects of any significant size will tend to get sidetracked, period. Visualize a nice straight highway joining two cities. Now visualize the twisty, turning, myriad of back roads that also join the two cities. Invariably, most projects will have a hard time sticking to the highway as everyone seems to come up with a reason to veer away from it from time to time. Your job as a PM is to keep everyone on the straight and narrow and out of the swamps. To keep the analogy going, you don’t have time to successfully finish what you are chartered to do if you go off draining all the swamps along the way. The Project Charter is invaluable for use as a continual reference document to reinforce the goals and objectives of the project. If something is being done that isn’t clearly contained as part of the charter, you’re off track.

Project Scheduling:

This document isn’t so much a template, as the topic doesn’t really lend itself to that approach, but rather an explanation of the importance of scheduling to the overall project plan.

Project scheduling is where the rubber meets the road in project management. At the very core of what you need to do as a Project Manager is to document what needs to be done, when it needs to be done by, and who is going to do it. If you don't do those things, your project is well on the road to failure. Fortunately, there are good software applications available to help you with documenting the project plan.

At the end of the day, what you really need to have to properly manage the project deliverables is a good Gantt chart. The Gantt charts will lay out what needs to be done, by when, and who is doing it. This is the one fundamental planning tool you must have - you can do without all the rest of the bells and whistles that come with mature software application functionality - but you can't do without the Gantt chart.

Sample Gantt charts are included in the document.

Project Organization Chart:

It is important to know:

• the overall project organization structure

• the various teams that are involved

• who is on the teams

• who reports to whom.

This document provides a sample organization chart, which you can modify to suit the makeup of your particular project.

Project Team Communications Plan:

Effective communications are a vital part of successful project management. A communications plan is to be established at the very beginning of the project and communicated to the entire team. The plan describes all mandatory regular communications activities. These should include topics such as; reporting, meetings, notices and team building. This plan sets out the timing and responsibilities of essential items; for example, the Project Status Reports for the individual teams and the overall project.

Project Change Management and Change Planning:

Projects almost always bring significant change to organizations and are therefore disruptive. People inherently dislike change and are sceptical towards those things that bring about the change. Those that aren’t directly involved with the project team are likely worried about their role and what might happen to them as the changes take place in the organization. It’s up to the project team to recognize this as a serious matter and plan the appropriate communications to ensure correct expectations. The Project Change Management and Change Planning document is used to address these concerns at a more detailed level.

Project Action Items - Open:

Regular project team meetings invariably generate a list of action items to be undertaken and monitored. This document provides a means of keeping track of open action items by; ID#, description / comments / updates, who it's assigned to, and the dates opened / due / and closed.

These lists should be generated as part of the meeting minutes, and attached to the agenda of follow-up meetings, as a way of keeping track of progress.

Project Action Items - Closed:

This document is identical to the open action items, with the exception that it has a closed date. It's purpose is to keep a history of all actions which were raised and subsequently closed. Once an open action item is closed, it is cut from the "open" document and pasted into the "closed" document. As the project progresses through time, this document becomes an important reference tool as to what action items were addressed and when.

Project Issue Management Form:

Every project has its share of issues to deal with. Issues are generally something that can't be worked out completely within the project team, and have some outside influence to consider. You may look at an issue as something that resides somewhere between an action item and a risk management item in terms of seriousness or complexity. It may come down to a judgement call by the Project Manager in some cases.

Once an issue has been identified it's necessary to formally report it and monitor it through to resolution. This document provides two sections; one for the originator and one for the reviewer. There are several pieces of information that can be entered, providing the ability to fully understand and track the issue; E.G., what it is, who raised it, when it was raised, who reviewed it, and when and what was the final disposition and impact on the project.

Regular meetings should be held to review and update the status of all open issues.

Project Issue Management Log:

The Issue Management Form traps a lot of data and the amount of information can grow to be of considerable size. The purpose of the Issue Management Log is to provide a summarized list of all issues and their status, to allow for ease of monitoring and reporting.

Project Lessons Learned:

Following the completion of the project, the key participants are interviewed to obtain their feedback on how well the major activities were performed. This document is used to record those responses, which are subsequently collated and an overall summary is produced. A total of twenty-nine different activities under three groupings; project management, development and implementation, and resources and communications are given a ranking from one to ten. Also, a description of the highlights and lowlights is given for each activity.

Project Meeting - Agenda:

This document provides for a standard means of issuing notices of meetings. All relevant meeting details are given, such as; date, time, place, attendees, objectives, agenda items, reference materials and a listing of open action items.

Project Meeting - Minutes:

The Project Minutes - Agenda document is inserted into the beginning of this document to provide the background information as to what the meeting was all about. Additional information is then entered such as a summary of the main items discussed, along with any new action items or issues raised. All new action items are transferred to the open action item list for ongoing tracking.

Project Risk Management Item Tracking:

Effective project management is about identifying and managing risks to the project. The risks should address both people resources and other resource areas. The Project Charter specifies the Risk Management Plan including; activities, roles and responsibilities.

Individual risk items are tracked on the Project Risk Management Item Tracking template. Risk item details such as; description, impact, likelihood, priority, mitigation strategy, and date opened and closed are documented. This document should be reviewed at the regular risk management meetings

Project Scope Change Request:

In spite of having done the very best up-front planning and definition of project requirements, inevitably someone will want to change the scope of the project. Scope “creep” impacts the project deliverables and has been the downfall of many a project.

It is necessary to strictly control project scope to avoid confusion, wrong expectations and the possibility of project failure. This is done by implementing a formal project scope change procedure. No changes are to be made to the approved project scope and deliverables without obtaining approval through the formal scope change management process.

The Project Scope Change Request form is divided into three sections to fully document input from the requestor, reviewer, and decision maker. It supports a cost / benefit type of impact analysis for every requested change. The use of this form is the only way to request and obtain a change to the project scope.

Project Scope Change Request Log:

The Project Scope Change Request Log form is maintained by the Project Manager and provides an overview and status of each and every change requested. A history of all changes is maintained on this form.

Regularly scheduled review meetings of all open change requests are to be done to ensure all requests are dealt with in an expeditious manner and to protect the integrity of the project plan. This document provides the content for that review process.

Project Status Report:

The Project Status Report is the main reporting tool used in the project. The individual teams prepare their status reports and submit them to the project manager. A project summary version is prepared by the project manager and is distributed to the full team and reviewed with the senior project stakeholders, usually on a monthly basis.

The status, and outlook, is documented for all major project areas such as; schedule, scope, staffing / work, budget, milestone deliverables, risk management and issue management.

Project Weekly Time Tracking - Employee:

This spreadsheet allows for keeping track of individual employee time spent on the project by both scheduled and unscheduled activities. Appropriate totals are automatically calculated. Estimates for activity completion percentage and dates can also be entered.

Project Weekly Time Tracking - Summary:

This spreadsheet allows for entering total time spent on the project by employee. Appropriate totals are automatically calculated, providing an overall project summary. Estimates for activity completion percentage and dates can also be entered.

Project Wrap-Up Report:

The Project Wrap-Up Report is prepared by the Project Manager at the conclusion of the project.

Prior to its preparation, an interview process is conducted with all of the main project participants to complete the Project Lessons Learned document. All of the major project activities are given a rating by the participants and an overall summary of all the responses is prepared. The Project Lessons Learned summary document becomes an important component of the project wrap-up. Also, a summary description of the project highlights and lowlights is provided for the major activities.

A listing of any outstanding tasks that should be followed up on post project is provided along with summary recommendations for future projects.

The main purpose of this report is to learn those things that went well, those things that could be done better, and apply that knowledge to subsequent projects.