Do you see what I see when talking about Project Management Plan? Fear and misunderstanding are what I see. They see Project Management Plan as a pile full of formally written text. Every page has the signature of a senior manager. Let’s break down the most important document for any project. [iStock/jazz42] What is a Project Management Plan? It is a plan that outlines how you will manage, monitor, and control the project. Is it necessary to complete a project in a controlled manner? Most of the time, not. Projects are unique. So, it depends.Project Management Plan
What should you include in the Project Management Plan
It might not be obvious what you can include in the plan. So I created a slide deck. It is a little wordy. It is the best way to learn about major topics in Project Management Plan. Please take a moment to review it.

Dmitriy Nizabetskiy’s Practical Guide to Using a Project Management Plan They are not part of the Project Management Plan.
Usually, the plan contains: Three Baselines
Scope Baseline
Plan Baseline
Cost Baseline
Subsidiary plans (knowledge area planning):
Scope Management Plan
Schedule Management Plan
Cost Management Plan
Risk Management Plan
Quality Management Plan
Procurement Management Plan
Plan for Human Resources Management
Stakeholder Management Plan
Communication Management Plan
Plus, there are some additional plans:
Requirement Management Plans
Configuration Management Plan
Change Management Plan
It could also include:
Information about the project life cycle
Description of the project management methodology
Specific projects
How detailed should it be?
There is no limit to the word count that you can aim for. It should be sufficient to complete a project. How can you tell if it is enough?
I read a lot of articles and books on the subject. They all suggest the exact same thing. It is important to describe all processes that are required to make a project run smoothly. This is a bad way to go. It’s scary and overwhelming.
I recommend you work incrementally. It’s not possible to have a complete project management plan right now. You don’t have a comprehensive project management plan today, so your project won’t die tomorrow if it isn’t complete.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get started.
Write down a detailed description of the project team’s work. Include your responsibilities. It could look something like this: “We receive requirements via Skype or email from a customer. Then, I add them to the Confluence and create an “Task Tracker task” to analyze the requirement. When it is time for the analysis of the requirement, I expect that the QA Lead, Dev Leader, and Business Analytic meet up to discuss it. They should prepare clarifications or questions and draft WBS And so forth. They should prepare questions or clarifications and draft out WBS…” It will consist of 90% copying and pasting common Scrum practices. However, I can guarantee that you will do some things differently.
Describe the process for executing actual work. It should contain: What task (or activity) should a team member do next. It should be clear and concise.
What is a workflow? It is necessary to show the life cycle of a task, from its creation through execution at different stages. It should also be clear as to how to verify that a task has been completed.
How to use a task-tracking system. It is actually a guide for the tools you use. It should be closely linked to the task’s life cycle.
How to track and report on progress in a task.
How to escalate problems during the execution of a task.
Avoid using formal language. First, make sure you have a clear description for everyone. It will be refined later.