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Basic Project Management Templates
The ITS Project Management and Business Analysis Organization (PMBAO) provides a basic project delivery framework containing tools, templates and processes. The project methodology contained in this site explains the steps to follow for any project. They are listed in sequence, by phase. The information is intended to be a reference tool to assist in the management of a project from start to finish. *This symbol indicates a required document
Phases: Discovery | Planning | Design | Build | Testing | Deliver & Close | Manage
Discovery
The purpose of the Discovery phase is to develop the Project Charter to formalize project purpose, objectives, scope and deliverables, identify key stakeholders and potential budget requirements. Project complexity should be classified to ensure the proper level of project management rigor is applied. It’s also a time to look at key resource availability. Project sponsors and stakeholders decide whether to commit to the project.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Draft Project Charter, review with key stakeholders and seek final approval before continuing with the project. |
Define a number of key project elements including a project description, scope definition, and roles/responsibilities. The documentation and review of these key project elements at the beginning of the project helps to avoid misunderstandings or confusion later on. |
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Review project sizing criteria |
Determine the level and type of project management most appropriate for your project. |
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Determine resource requirements |
Estimate required resources by role and skill set. Discuss with the manager from each area involved to identify resource availability and gaps. |
Planning
During this phase, the Project Manager works with the project team to document high level functional and technical requirements. The Project Manager defines high-level resource, cost and time estimates, and begins developing a project plan. This is also the time to develop a project management plan. The project management plan defines how the project is executed, managed, and closed. The project management plan’s content varies depending on the application area and complexity but may include plans for: scope, requirements, schedule, cost, resources, communication, risk, procurement, and stakeholder engagement.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Hold requirements-gathering sessions |
Work with project team members to document high level functional and technical requirements |
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Project Schedule (WBS)* |
Create high-level project schedule |
Document project tasks, deliverables, milestones, schedule, and resources. The project schedule will be modified as more is known |
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Create communication plan |
Establish agreement on how team will communicate important information during the project |
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System Architecture Document |
Define high-level system architecture plan |
Prepare high-level architecture diagram showing integration with other systems and internal technical structure |
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Budget Tracking Spreadsheet |
Create project budget and compare the planned budget against actual costs |
Compare monthly actual costs against planned budget to determine whether spending is on track |
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Provide view of project team |
Show who is on the team and the role they play |
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Conduct project kick-off meeting |
Familiarize the project team with the project, review key elements from the project charter, review project management processes (risk, issue, change management) and receive buy-in from all project participants. |
Design
This phase is where the actual implementation or execution work begins. Project tasks and deliverables are completed and the project begins to realize the objectives and scoped defined in the Project Charter.
Design activities focus on translating the business requirements into system specifications, essentially creating “blueprints” for developing the production system.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Describe how the product will work entirely from the user's perspective |
Detail what the finish product will do, how a user will interact with it, and what it looks like |
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Technical Design Specification |
Provide a detailed description of each technical requirement to be implemented as part of the project. |
Include a complete technical assessment of each customization object identified to be in scope. Define data structures, relational database models, choice of programming languages and tools, algorithms, etc. |
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Develop strategy to be followed for testing |
Include detail in strategy when a simple test plan doesn't cover all of the areas of testing that need to be performed to ensure solution is working as planned |
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Change Management Plan |
Prepare and support individuals, teams and organizations in making organizational change |
Document sequence of steps or activities in order to drive individual, team or organizational transitions and ensure the projects meets its intended outcomes |
Build
Build consists of developing or configuring project hardware, software, and business processes according to the agreed-upon specifications.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Prepare for testing |
Build a comprehensive list of unit, string and integration tests and their overall status and testing dates. The Traceability Matrix should be referenced |
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Production Cutover Plan |
Prepare for Cutover |
Describe the activities to bring the system live and transition the business. Include an approach for a dry-run of system cutover process and deployment team activities. |
Testing
The Testing phase ensures that all components of the solution are thoroughly tested, the production system is set up, mock system cut-overs are completed, and the training program is fully executed.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Detail how functional and technical support will be provided |
Develop a step-by-step plan to ensure functional and technical solution support is provided to new users/business units during go-live and stabilization. |
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Develop Go/No Go Criteria |
Provide a detailed assessment as to the feasibility of moving the project forward towards go-live. It must result in sign off from key stakeholders and/or Steering Committee |
Deliver & Close
At Deliver & Close, the new system has been implemented and the project team will monitor it for a pre-defined period to ensure it is stable. All components of the solution are fully installed in a production environment and become operational to business users.
The practice of project closeout ensures that all project activities are complete and transferred as appropriate. The project should be assessed, and lessons learned and best practices applied to future projects.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Review project and assess schedule, budget, and resources. |
Meet with project team to discuss pluses and deltas during the project. Identify product or services to be transitioned and agree on process and acceptance criteria. Conduct final project closing meeting to ensure no outstanding issues remain. Review lessons learned. |
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Document lessons learned |
Bring together any insights gained during a project that can be usefully applied on future projects |
Manage
Manage is not a project phase. It occurs through all phases of the project. The document templates provided assist the Project Manager to ensure that the project stays on track and is delivered on time and within budget. It also provides documentation that identifies issues, risks, and decisions that occurred during the project for future reference.
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| Templates & Resources | Key Activities | Notes |
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Highlight key project management updates |
Ensure that key activities, change requests, risks, issues, action items and decisions are documented on weekly or monthly basis to provide stakeholder update |
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Manage and control risks, action items, issues and key decisions |
Create at the start of each project so anything impacting the project now or in the future is tracked. Keep log up-to-date through weekly reviews and team meetings |