Category Archives: Project Management

Project-Checklist.docx

Information Technology, Project Management,
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This document is a standard project checklist to use as you plan, organize and kickoff your project.  When launching a project, there are many things to be done and it is easy to forget some important and critical steps.  This project checklist helps you ensure you have all the major things covered.

The project checklist includes line items for high level tasks such as project goals, objectives, and a kickoff meeting.  It also includes more detailed items like scheduling regular stakeholder update meetings and preparing training materials.  

Enter your project name in the header, then click the checkbox in the project checklist to mark an item as completed. 

FMEA-Template.xlsx

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This FMEA Template (Failure mode and effects analysis) is built in Excel and automatically calculates the RPN score for you.  The FMEA is intended to help mitigate risk with a process, product or project. 

To begin using the FMEA template, identify all of the process steps or functions associated with your process or project.  Enter all of these into Column B of the template.  Next, identify potential failures (or problems) that can occur at each of these steps and enter them into Column C.  Also, identify the effects or impacts of each failure occurring and enter that into Column D.  Try to identify causes of the potential failures and enter them into Column F.  In Column H, enter any existing controls that are in place to address each of the potential failures you have identified. 

To complete the blue section of the FMEA template, you will need to assign Severity (Column E), Probability (Column G) and Detectability (Column I) scores for each potential failure.  Use a scale from 1-10 for each of these scores.  For Severity, 1 is not at all severe and 10 is extremely severe.  For Probability, 1 indicates not at all likely to occur, and 10 indicates certainty that it will occur.  For Detectability, 1 indicates it is very easy to detect and 10 indicates it is very difficult to detect (note this one may be opposite of what you expect). 

Once you enter all of these scores, the Risk Priority Number (RPN) will be calculated for you.  The RPN is calculated by multiplying the Severity times the Probability times the Detectability.  Items with the highest RPN should be addressed first.

To complete the green section, enter recommended actions to address the cause of the potential failure and assign an Owner to carry them out.  Once the actions are completed, enter them into Column M.  After actions have been completed, enter the new Severity, Probability and Detectability into Columns N, O and P.  A New RPN score will be calculated for you in Column Q. If you have properly addressed the cause of the potential failure, the New RPN should be much lower than the original RPN.

Microsoft-Project-Example.mpp

Information Technology, Project Management,
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Microsoft Project Plan

This Microsoft Project Example is a Project Plan for an IT project involving data loads from a front end website into back end ERP systems.  The Microsoft Project Example highlights the following:

  • Grouping of Tasks in a hierarchical fashion
  • Resource Allocation and Resource Leveling
  • Work hours assigned and Confidence in estimates
  • Task Prioritization and Task Flexibility
  • Task Categorization
  • Predecessors to show which tasks are dependent on the completion of others
  • Estimated Start and Finish Dates

The MS Project example also shows the Gantt Chart with the tasks, duration, predecessors and resources.  The project plan accounts for gathering requirements, designing the solution, testing, implementation and training.

Test-Plan-Template-Excel.xlsx

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This Test Plan Template (Excel) is intended for the testing of software and information systems.  It is useful to prepare the Test Plan well ahead of testing and should be reviewed by the project or product manager, as well as others who have gathered the requirements.

The Test Plan Template contains separate tabs for each set of features to be tested.  Each row in a tab is a test case to be performed, and has a place to document the Expected Result as well as the Actual Result.  The Status of each row should be populated with “Pass” or “Fail” upon completion of the test case.  This will automatically highlight the row green or red.  Test data used in each test case should also be recorded in the test case row for future reference.  For any test case that fails, the details of the error or failure should be recorded in the Comments column.

Since the test plan template is built in Excel, the Overview tab is able to automatically calculate the number of cases Passed, Failed, and Remaining, as well as percentages for each.  The “Test Summary” at the top of each tab is also automatically calculated and does not need any manual editing.  The change log, reference material, overview, etc is also maintained on the Overview tab.  

Project-Kickoff-Presentation.pptx

Project Management,
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This is a Project Kickoff Presentation that can be used for a variety of project types.  It is intended to be used at a project kickoff meeting with relevant stakeholders, project sponsors, and project team members present.  The meeting is typically led by the project manager or a project sponsor. The tone of the meeting should be motivating to encourage interest and commitment to the project. Depending on the size of the project, the meeting can be between one and two hours, including time for questions. The kickoff meeting provides high level information about the project and does not get into granular details of the project implementation. The slides are in wide screen format.

This project kickoff presentation includes slides for:

  • Goals
  • Benefits
  • Assumptions
  • Scope
  • Project Team
  • Groups Impacted
  • Key Dates and Milestones
  • Implementation Plan
  • Risks and Mitigation
  • Communication Plan
  • Next Steps

Each of the items above should be well planned and thought out prior to the project kickoff. It is common to involve key project members in the creation of the project kickoff presentation content to ensure accuracy and that a wide variety of perspectives have been accounted for. It is also wise to discuss some of the information above with key project sponsors and stakeholders prior to the kickoff meeting to avoid any major disapproval in the meeting. Time should be allotted throughout the presentation or at the end for questions and discussion. Discussion items that are very detailed or are taking too much time should be tabled by the meeting leader, and he/she should assign someone to follow up on that topic after the meeting.

This project kickoff presentation can also be used later in the project if new team members are brought on board.  The presentation can be shared with them to help them get up to speed quickly on the details of the project.

 

Project-Charter-Template.docx

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This is a versatile, professional project charter template that can be used for projects of all different types. The template is fairly detailed. Sections that are not needed for certain projects can be removed. The project charter is usually created by the Project Manager early in the Project Management Life Cycle.

The project charter can be used to “pitch” or “sell” the project to executives or leaders who will decide whether or not to fund the project. It is also used to communicate project details to resource managers who will decide whether or not to commit their team members to the project. Once approved, the project charter authorizes work to commence on the project and gives authority to the project manager to lead the project. Additionally, all project team members should be familiar with the project charter prior to beginning work. This helps ensure that all team members understand the objectives and benefits the team is working towards, as well as what is in and out of scope.

This project charter template includes sections for:

  • Project Overview
  • Objectives and Expected Benefits
  • Problem Description
  • Root Causes
  • Solution Proposal
  • Scope Details
  • Project Milestones
  • Team Members
  • Project Costs
  • Risk Mitigation
  • Communication Plan
  • Additional Details

The project charter is also a great resource to help bring new project team members up to speed who join the project after the initial kick off.

IT-Project-Plan-Template.xlsx

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This IT Project Plan template is intended for small IT projects, roughly 3-6 months.  It has the basic tasks of a project already populated for the Project Manager, Business Analyst and Developer/Programmer.

Additionally, it has places for the Status of each tasks, Start Date, End Date, Duration, and Owner.  The Duration field calculates automatically based on the Start & End Date of the Task.

Be careful with the Status field.  What you enter into this field determines the color of the entire row.  You may enter: Not Started, In Progress, Delayed, Completed, Milestone or (Phase).

Since this is a template for smaller IT projects, it does not provide functionality for Dependencies, a Gantt Chart, etc.  For those types of features, consider using MS Project or another tool instead of Excel.

Cross-Functional-Flow-Chart-Diagram.vsd

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This is a template for a simple Cross Functional Flow Chart Diagram (also known as a Cross Functional Process Flow Diagram). Note that it is built in Microsoft Visio, VSD format.  Visio does not come with most Microsoft Office installations.

Cross Functional Flow Chart Diagrams are used to illustrate processes that are performed by two or more parties.  The process steps are separated by “swim lanes” designating which party performs which step.

This template uses the basic flow chart diagram symbols:

  •     Rectangle for a Process Step
  •     Diamond for a Decision Step
  •     Tube for the Start and End Steps
  •     Annotation for Comments

To make the chart larger, drag the edges to extend the working space to the amount needed.


An example of this template in use can be found here.

Project-Plan-Template.xlsx

Business, Project Management,
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This is a project plan template that can be used across many types of projects. It is built in Microsoft Excel and is simple and easy to use. This project plan template allows for the entering of:

  • Task Name
  • Status
  • Start Date
  • End Date
  • Owner.

Additionally, the Project Plan template automatically calculates the Duration of each task, as well as the Total Project Duration and Project Completion Date.

The project plan template also shades each row a certain color based on which status the task is in. A Completed task shades the row green, an In Progress task shades the row orange, a Delayed task shades the row red.  A status of Not Started does not create any shading and leaves the text black.

To indicate a line is a Milestone, type “Milestone” into the Status field and it will turn the text blue and remove any shading. To indicate a line is a Project Phase (or header of multiple tasks), type “(Phase)” into the status field and it will shade the row grey to mark it as a a phase which does not have a status.

The project plan, also known as a “project schedule”, is created and maintained by the Project Manager. It should be easily accessible to project team members, stakeholders and sponsors. It can also be printed and hung in a common working area to create a sense of accountability for tasks and timelines.

Communication-Plan.xlsx

Business, Project Management,
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This is a template for a Communication Plan.  This type of document is typically used in Project Management.  It is not intended to include the details of the content for each interaction (powerpoint slides, financial information, etc), but to coordinate what needs to be communicated to who and when.

The main components of the plan are: the topic to be communicated, the audience who is being communicated to, frequency of the communication, the channel of communication (or, how the topic will be communicated), and the owner (who is responsible for the communication).

The Project Manager is typicaly responsible for maintaing the Communication Plan and sharing it with parties of interest.