A common (and often mistaken) interpretation of a project plan is a schedule and nothing more... this is also the same trap that novice project managers may fall into. In reality, a project plan is much more than a Gantt chart...

1. “Best practice” items to consider for
any project (see PMBOK)
Scope Management
Requirements Management (often
included as part of Scope Management)
Change Management (often included as
part of Scope Management)
Time (Schedule) Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Human Resource Management
Communications Management
Stakeholder Management (in practice,
may be part of Communication
Management)
Risk Management
Procurement Management
Additional types of plans that may
be considered
Configuration management
Product and project documentation,
engineering drawings
Source code
Defect management
Prioritization process
Who is involved?
Deployment management
Early adopters or beta program
Training program
Manufacturing or supply chain
management
Build vs. purchase
Manufacturing location, supply chain
architecture, etc.
Regulatory management
Construction codes
FDA submissions, etc.
A PROJECT PLAN
NOT JUST A SCHEDULE…