Project Plans and Schedules - Critical for sure, but not the same

Project Plans and Schedules are both key documents in the world of project management, but they serve separate and distinct purposes. As a Project Manager, I purposefully ensure that project stakeholders understand the differences, and the value they each bring to the table, to eliminate any potential confusion. In addition, once the project plan and schedule are base-lined, I require all project team leaders, and usually other key stakeholders to read both before project kick-off, and present condensed versions of both during the formal Project Kick-off Meeting.

So let’s briefly unpack them individually:

A Project Plan is a comprehensive document that first outlines the project’s:

• Scope

• Goals & objectives

• Budget

• Business requirements

• Expected project deliverables

• Governance (who’s officially responsible to who, and for what)

It also typically includes details such as the project's:

• Resource requirements (people, 3rd party services, and assets)

• Roles and responsibilities

• A general breakdown of the required work to be completed

• Cost management overview

• Project stakeholder overviews

• Human resource plan

• 3rd party vendor plan

• Asset procurement plan

• A plan for communicating with each stakeholder group

• Project status reporting tools, processes, and timing

• Plan for tracking issues, problems, and defects

• Quality management plan

• Project Schedule (a subset of the Project Plan)

• Identification of initial project risks

• Lessons learned from similar past projects

Note: I did say “comprehensive document”, but the actual level of detail depends on the project’s size and complexity. Everything in project management needs to be right sized for the initiative at hand, and that includes right sizing how much project management rigor to apply. I will be writing a blog post on project management right-sizing in the near future.

Now for the Project Schedule. This document, usually in the form of a hierarchical report created from a project scheduling system (such as Microsoft Project®), lays out the specific tasks and activities that need to be completed in order to successfully execute the project plan. It includes details such as: Start and end dates for each task, the resources that will be required, and the dependencies between tasks. A project schedule is a subset of the project plan and it is used to track project progress and make adjustments as needed.

In summary, a project plan is a high-level document that outlines the overall strategy and approach for a project, while a project schedule is a detailed document, usually in an automated format that outlines the specific tasks and activities that need to be completed in order to execute the project plan. They both are important components of project success, with the project plan establishing the overall direction and objectives, while the project schedule is used to track progress and make adjustments as needed.

Now you know. Carpe Diem - ML