For project managers, a successful outcome is always preceded by a well-prepared project management plan. A lot of effort is put into planning which helps you prepare a better Project Management Plan.

1. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 1

2. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 2
How To Develop A Project Management Plan
We have been working to increase project success rates for many years. One of the common
reasons for failure has been a lack of project planning. This frequently indicates that the project
management team did not involve stakeholders in the project planning and, as a result, was
unaware of the project's scope. The budget and timetable will be unreasonable if you don't
comprehend the project's breadth. There is a lot of proof that planning is essential to project
management success.
According to the statistics, 12% of all resources are wasted due to bad project planning. Only
25% of organizations are using a project management software. 77% of high-performing teams
use project management software.
How to Create a Realistic and Perfect Project Plan
1. Gather specifications from important stakeholders.
Collecting requirements is crucial once you've developed a project charter and determined the
major project stakeholders. The gathering of needs from stakeholders is the first step in the
planning process. Once you have this knowledge, you may define the project's scope and figure
out exactly what you must give your stakeholders.
At this point in the project planning phase, effective communication skills are essential. Without
efficient communication, it is easy to overlook crucial information that might be harmful to the
project's success as a whole. A project plan guides every step toward completion.

3. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 3
2. Specify the project's scope.
Consider these questions: "What does the team need to deliver?" and "What issues are the
stakeholders seeking to resolve?" Then, create a project template or a project scope statement
in collaboration with your stakeholders to create a detailed description of the project and the
product deliveries. You need to be well aware of the project's limitations and the project plan
help you keep these in check.
For instance, if you are creating a software program for a client, you need to know what will be
and won't be included. Who will make use of the app? What does it hope to accomplish? What
essential features and capabilities must it have?
3. Make a work breakdown framework.
Reduce the project template into smaller, easier-to-manage deliverables and "work packages,"
which are collections of linked activities. This will enable you to allocate resources to various
project components according to the expertise required. The task breakdown structure makes
it easier to plan and coordinate, two crucial aspects of project management.

4. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 4
4. Establish the project's activities.
Make a list of all the project activities in each work package. Take this as a plan of action. The
question "What are the activities that must be carried out to create the project deliverables?"
can be useful.

5. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 5
5. Arrange the project's tasks in order.
The answer is to carry out as many tasks in parallel as you can if you can do so. Almost
everything happens in a sequence. Reducing time-to-market is one of the main justifications for
using formal project management approaches. The capacity to cut cycle time is a competitive
advantage in dynamic, highly competitive businesses.
6. Calculate the resources, expenditures, and time of the activity.
The project template determines the amount of money, time, and resources needed to
complete its activities. Any project benefits from accurate estimating because it helps to
establish expectations, evaluate the viability of the plan, and keep costs in check.

6. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 6
7. Distribute resources among work packages and tasks following abilities and
preferences.
Resources include things like materials, equipment, space, and technology in addition to labor.
After determining the resources you'll need to determine the degree of expertise required for
each activity.
The project's breadth and level of complexity will assist you to decide in which areas you need
to bring in high, mid-level, or entry-level capabilities. You may decide the order in which things
need to happen using this step.
Knowing how long each task will take, how much it will cost, which team members you'll need,
and when those team members will be available (for example, looking into vacation plans to
minimize unexpected delays) can help you create a realistic timeframe.

7. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 7
8. Include backup plans.
A strategy without a backup plan is a lousy idea. As all projects don't go as planned, projects
must have a backup plan. To discover risks that have previously happened on projects that are
comparable to this one, historical data may be examined to establish the contingencies.

8. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 8
Your timetable can be affected, for instance, if a vendor you depend on to provide a crucial part
of your project has a history of performance problems. If this is the case, a backup plan is
required, such as finding alternative providers and calculating the expenses if this risk
materializes.
Here, it's important to take into account both internal and external issues that might affect the
goals of your project. The project may be in danger from a variety of external variables, such as
the consumer price index, the economy, governmental concerns (such as new rules), and rival
activity.
When creating your contingencies, take company culture into account as well. Certain project
plan components may be impacted by the organizational culture.
For instance, it's normal to practice in certain businesses to inflate estimates, yet in others, it's
expected that a project will have precise statistics.
9. Establish a baseline for performance evaluation.
As a control tool for your project, create an integrated scope-schedule-cost baseline for the
project work. Then, to gauge and monitor performance, compare the project's execution to

9. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 9
your baseline. Within the project management software, status reports may be used to
construct these baselines. For the best results make use of Orangescrum which has all the
features assembled for your project plan, tracking, and resource allocation.
Performance has to be tracked during a project. By doing so, you can see problems and address
them before it's too late. After the project is finished, performance evaluation is equally crucial.
This enables you to assess both general and individual performance by comparing actual
outcomes to respective baselines.
10. Keep detailed records.
Create a project plan that includes the project's objectives, timetable, and budget. Plans should
often include continuing stakeholder participation as well as cost management, quality
management, resource management, communication management, risk management, and
procurement procedures (i.e., how to continually engage stakeholders through the lifecycle of
the project.)
11. Create a knowledge base.

10. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 10
Project managers are expected to disclose and document their plans in some businesses
because of the learning culture they foster. This can be a helpful approach to learning from
other people's failures and accomplishments. This could be more difficult in other organizations
where this historical information isn't recorded, and it would be required to speak with other
project managers directly to get their perspectives. Making use of Project Management
software like Orangescrum gives PMOs the ability to handle projects efficiently and track the
project metrics.