Project Plan Template and guide notes

Project Plan
Team/Specialty Completed by Date
1) Project Title
2) Project Background
3) Project Objectives
4) Project Scope and Exclusions
5) Project Team
6) Outline Proposal
7) Process and Methodology

8) Risks and Contingencies
9) Baseline Evaluation
10) Data Requirements and Metrics
11) Communication Plan
12) Outcome Assessment
13) Reporting
14) Support and Resource Implications
15) Sustainability and Spread

Project Plan
The project plan shows at high level how and when the project’s objectives are to be
achieved. It sets out the various actions that must be undertaken to achieve the objectives
together with timescales, responsibilities and resources required.
Project Title
Define the main title of the project
Project background
You may wish to include the reasons why the project is being undertaken, how it fits with
local and national priorities and some local demographic data alongside some national data.
What is the current state of your service and why does it need to change?
Project objectives
Define the main aims and objectives of the project – what do you aspire to achieve with this
piece of work? Be brief and clear. Don’t use technical jargon or acronyms and remember
that the objectives within the project aims will need to be agreed with all stakeholders.
Project scope
Define what the scope of the project is and what is excluded. It is important to define where
the project begins and ends and help prevent ‘project creep’ in the future – other areas of
work may be identified as different future projects
Project Team
Identify who the members of the project steering group are, who is leading and sponsoring
the project, and who are the wider stakeholders involved in this work? Include their names,
job titles, role within the project, email addresses and contact numbers.
Outline Proposal
Describe what work you are proposing to do as part of the project. What are the project
prerequisites - what needs to be in place at the project start and maintained throughout i.e.
trained staff, equipment etc. Consider the external dependencies that are beyond the direct
control of the project manager but crucial to the success of the project. What are the
deliverables and expected changes as a result of this project i.e. what will be the added
value that this project will deliver? What are the timeframes and milestones?
Process and Methodology
Briefly describe the process by which this project will be undertaken – how do you propose
to do the work? This could include process mapping the whole pathway of care to
understand the current flow of patients and bottlenecks, or defining a data collection plan in
order to analyse the steps within the pathway. How are you going to do it?
Risks and Contingencies
Describe the potential risks and constraints of the project and the contingencies you propose
to overcome these – try to manage expectations here i.e. timeframes and resource
requirements. Identify what could impact on the success of the projects completion and the
actions the project team have agreed to take to minimise these risks. Some elements will
clearly beyond the control of the project, but describe how these have been acknowledged.

Baseline Evaluation
Detail your baseline evaluation of the current service provision using data and information
you have obtained as part of the ‘work before the work’. This is your starting point and a key
part of any future measurement of project success.
Data Requirements and Metrics
Detail the data requirements for the projects and identify the source of the data required. The
project team will need to spend some time thinking about the metrics that will be used to
measure the on-going success of the project and then determine where the relevant data
can be found. This may be readily available and automated or may require manual data
collection. It may be work devising a data collection plan that clearly illustrates these once
the metrics have been decided. The team will also need to determine the definition of each
metric used and the frequency of data collection in order to maintain consistency throughout
the project and beyond.
Communication Plan
Detail how the overall communication will be managed within the project team and wider
stakeholder groups and identify who will be responsible for this. Detail the recipients of
minutes, reports and format of reports at both local and national level. Determine the
frequency of meetings, chair, members to attend and agree on future meeting dates. Also
identify how the project may interface with other programmes of work, either nationally or
locally
Outcome Assessment
Identify what outcomes the project is likely to deliver – what will these look like and how will
you know they have been achieved? Also include quality expectations here in terms of the
expectations of quality assurance, review and control of the project and its outputs and
outcomes. Identify who will be responsible for quality assurance and how this will be
reported
Reporting
Identify how and when reports will be generated and where they will be reported into. In this
section, name the person who will be responsible for the reports.
Support and Resource Implications
Detail the support and resource requirements of the project with ball-park costs. This may
include equipment and people, and details of agreements for core project team members
release to work on the project or attend project meetings.
Sustainability and Spread
Describe how it is envisaged that any improvement or redesign work will be sustainable over
the long term. Detail any additional risks and contingencies that will need to be managed,
plus any on-going data collection and analysis. Also describe the process by which the
learning from the project can be shared and spread to other areas both local and regional
level. Consider what products will best achieve this shared learning i.e. publications,
presentations or peer support groups.