No design know-how required. A vertical infographic is a creative way to present the tasks and timeline required to execute on a project. Big icons help the reader better understand each step. Plus, the milestones are broken out and easy to skim. Not looking for a roadmap? You can also use a timeline infographic to plan out your schedule. Not only can you add tasks but also any risks, dependencies and constraints at each stage which might throw off the expected completion date. Onboarding new employees is a project that practically begs for a checklist.
Want a way to quickly add and delete items in your checklist? The above project plan checklist is a smart template, meaning you just need to press Add or Delete to add or remove rows. This project checklist template is for onboarding, but you can customize it for any project and divide the tasks by milestones. Pro Tip : Not a designer?
No problem. Once your team dives into working on a project, there will almost certainly be changes that need to be made to the project plan. Unforeseen obstacles come up, certain tasks take longer to complete than expected, and other snags happen. Creating a project status report will help you keep track of your progress, while also communicating it effectively with other parties.
This project status report template provides a simple one-page snapshot that stakeholders can understand at a glance. The status of each item and any issues are easy to skim. This template goes beyond issues to highlight any risks, variables or assumptions that might interfere with meeting the next milestone or closing out the project. When creating a multi-page project plan, be sure to include a summary.
This will help make your project plan more reader-friendly and easier to scan. Real-Time Collaboration lets teams work together to design plans, provide feedback, and make edits in real-time. Learn about Real-Time Collaboration here. Want a simpler solution to creating a work schedule? Try a work plan template. Simply add your text to fill out the plan for each day.
Or use our calendar maker tool to browse schedule templates and customize them for free. This sales work plan template goes beyond planning.
It also helps managers assess the quality of the work and if the employees in question were able to meet their deadlines. Which is a great asset come performance review time. Project execution depends on properly mapping out all the tasks and activities first. Then, once you get going, you can monitor progress based on your roadmap. Continual monitoring is key and be prepared to revise your goals and your roadmap as the project progresses. This simple work plan template clearly outlines which team is responsible for what, and when, so you can keep everyone aligned as work is carried out.
Communicating across teams can be a nightmare sometimes, especially as your company continues to grow. So assigning common titles for each step of the process in your project plan can make communication a bit easier.
In the process map template below, they used eight simple keywords for each step of their project. The common words and phrases in this simple project planner template will make communication a lot smoother.
Further Reading : Our guide to creating process infographics , with templates. The success of a marketing plan relies on setting clear goals—including specific metrics and outlining the steps your team will take to get there.
This marketing project plan template is incredibly detailed, with sections for goals, competitor analysis , workflow and more. Click on the template image for a full preview. That said, sometimes you need a simple project marketing plan to help pitch your agency and provide a high-level overview, like this template does.
Further Reading : Our guide to marketing plans , including formatting tips, how to visualize data creatively and easily and templates to get started. You can also build out a full strategic plan to identify priorities, goals, key stakeholders and more. This infographic lays out best practices for this process; click the image to see the full visual.
A fundraising timeline can be critical to your campaign—from start to finish. Include it in your fundraising plan to illustrate targets. Then, add it to your internal reports as the campaign progresses to show the amount raised to date. You can also release it to your donors to motivate them to contribute as you inch closer to your goal.
A communications plan should prepare your organization for key events or dates, but be flexible enough to adapt to changing times, advises the Council of Nonprofits.
This template addresses all these areas. Also think about including a timeline of key events and special days such as World Mental Health Day. Further Reading : Our complete guide to nonprofit marketing or nonprofit communications. Using project process maps in healthcare help stakeholders understand an entire process, without resorting to confusing documentation.
Visuals help with comprehension, especially regarding the sequence a project will follow. These visuals can take the form of timelines, flowcharts, step-by-step infographics and more.
This planning process timeline is a high-level overview of building a new hospital, from service offerings to architectural plans. Process mapping in healthcare also helps with outlining an existing system and then analyzing how that system can be improved.
Learn more: Venngage for Healthcare Organizations. This process map looks at improving how healthcare organizations put in place new medical administrative processes. Further Reading : Our post on branding guidelines , including a template specific to the healthcare industry. Financial services have typically relied on referrals for new customers.
That said, millennials and Gen X prefer to do their own research online , making newer marketing strategies such as search engine optimization, content and email marketing essential. Our guide to marketing plans has in-depth templates to help you plan what strategies will work for you. This layer infographic can be edited to visualize key parts of a marketing plan such as local SEO or video marketing.
You can also use a mind map to plan out your entire marketing strategy, from outreach to content to inbound, like in this template. Further Reading : Our post on case study examples , with templates that work across industries. Multiple studies have found that people tend to remember images better than words. With that in mind, look for ways to incorporate visual memory-prompters in your project plan design.
Icons are one type of visual that can be used to make information more memorable. For example, this project timeline template uses an icon to illustrate each step in the process. This helps reinforce the information, and gives readers a visual to refer back to:. While your project plan should include the details of your project, offering a visual summary will help keep your team on track. Your team will be able to refer back to the timeline quickly, without needing to read through a bunch of text.
For example, this project timeline template outlines that tasks and milestones for each month in a year:. While your priority when designing your project plan should be function, finding ways to make your design engaging is still important. After all, your project plan will help inspire confidence in your team—and the people who will be funding your project. Especially if you can inject some of your branding into the design. Adding surprising design elements will help engage and excite readers.
An easy way to do this is to include icons and images that reflect the theme of your project. For example, this project planning template for a baking company incorporates a donut into the design:. Certain phases of your project may end up taking more or less time than anticipated. Tracking your progress will also help you make informed decisions when planning future projects.
Our process infographic templates can also come in handy here, if you want to visualize the phases in a project. For example, this project planning template uses a simple bar graph to track the duration of each phase.
The updates are tracked in the top right corner:. With Venngage, you can create multiple copies of a design. Are there specific dates that certain tasks needs to be completed on? You may want to create a calendar that specifies what should be done on what day. For example, if your team is executing on an event like a conference, then a calendar is necessary for keeping events for specific dates organized. In this project schedule template , for example, the events are color-coded by type, making it easier to scan:.
An icon chart uses you guessed it icons to represent units of measurement. When coming up with ways to embellish your project plan design, look for opportunities to visualize information that you want to emphasize. An icon chart is a creative and effective way to do that. For example, this project status report template uses check mark icons to rate the success of three different aspects of the project:.
Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.
Try Smartsheet for free, today. In This Article. Simple Project Plan Template. Simple, powerful project management with Smartsheet. See for yourself. Project Action Plan Template. IT Project Plan Template. Software Project Plan Template. Project Implementation Plan Template. Project Execution Plan Template. One-Page Project Plan Template. Printable Project Plan Template. Agile Project Plan Template. Construction Project Plan Template.
Program Management Plan Template. Milestone Chart Template. Project Checklist Template. Project Task List Template. Project Tracking Template. Project Status Report Template.
What Is a Project Plan? Struggling to maintain effectiveness across your remote teams? The Project Planning Process As you begin to plan your project, you should familiarize yourself with the steps involved in thoroughly mapping out a project from start to finish.
To do so, follow these steps: Concept and Initiation: Start by determining the overall concept of your project and how you plan to complete it. Roadmap Creation: In this phase, determine a rough timeline of the tasks necessary to complete your project.
Deliverable Listing: Each project must have specific deliverables, which you should identify during the beginning portion of your planning phase, so each team member is aware of what is expected of them.
Project Milestone Identification: Figure out specific points in the project that you consider to be key milestones. What is a Project Plan? At the very least, a project plan should answer the following questions about a project: Why? What is the problem that this project will address or solve? What are the major deliverables and goals? What are the milestones? What Is the Purpose of a Project Plan? Here are the four biggest benefits of a project plan: Improves communication : By outlining your whole plan for everyone to see, stakeholders can provide feedback early in the process if things are going in the right direction.
A project plan also helps facilitate expectation management by letting you update milestones and timelines as the project progresses. Increases transparency : With a project plan, stakeholders and team members know exactly where to look to get information every step of the way.
Expectations and the project timeline are clearly defined, so everyone is on the same page about priorities and objectives. Increases organization : Many projects have dozens of tasks, dependencies, and milestones, and it can be hard to track how everything is progressing. A project plan makes you think through the timing of each activity and how it affects the rest of the project. You always know how much time to spend on each task and how many things you can accomplish at the same time.
Leave the first row in your spreadsheet blank. On the second row, type in the headers. You could also add more headers for extra granularity, like Budget, Cost , and more. Highlight the text and in the Alignment group, click the center icon to center the text in the headers. To format the headers for proper spacing, highlight all the text you just typed and on the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Format.
Select Column Width and set the width for around so you have enough space to enter in your project information. Select a Project Template Go to Smartsheet. Click on the Project with Gantt Timeline tile, then click the blue Use button.
Name your template, choose where to save it, and click the Ok button. Customize Your Project Plan Template in Smartsheet With just a couple clicks, you can customize the appearance of your project timeline.
Customize Fonts and Colors in Your Project Plan To change the font type and size, or bold, italicize or underline text, click the cell with the text you want to change. On the left-hand toolbar, you will find all the text formatting options. To change the background color of a row, click the far left gray cell to highlight the entire row.
Discover a Better Way to Manage Your Project Plans with Smartsheet From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity -- empowering you to get more done.
Top Project Management Excel Templates Find the top project management templates in Microsoft Excel that you can easily download and use for free to help you track project status, communicate progress among team members and stakeholders, and manage issues as they arise.
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