Office sheets and planners4 to 10 milestones
Project plan template
A single-page project plan for small teams. It sets down the objective, what is in and out of scope, a table of milestones with owners and due dates, a short risk table, and a box for who needs to be kept informed.
- Type your details or print blank
- Print or PDF, Letter or A4
- Free, no sign-up
On this page
What prints
The heading reads Project Plan unless you type your own. Under it are three fields: Project manager, Start date and Target finish. A Project line follows, which prints the name you type. Then come these parts:
- Objective: what success looks like. A ruled box.
- In scope and Out of scope. Two boxes side by side.
- Milestones. A table with Milestone or deliverable, Owner, Due and Status.
- Risks. A table of four rows with Risk, Likelihood, Impact and What we will do.
- Stakeholders and how we will keep them updated. A box that takes the rest of the page.
The settings
- Heading. A title of your own, 40 characters at most; blank gives "Project Plan".
- Project name. Up to 60 characters, printed on the Project line.
- Milestone rows. From 4 to 10; the page opens with 7. More milestone rows leave less room for the stakeholders box at the bottom.
The risk table is fixed at four rows. Likelihood and Impact are blank cells; use whatever scale your team uses, such as low, medium and high.
Using the page
Fill the objective in first and keep it to a sentence or two. Then write the out-of-scope list before the in-scope list; stopping scope creep is easier when the exclusions are written down on day one. Milestones should be things that can be finished and checked, not activities. Give each exactly one owner, even if many people help.
If you need steps with resources rather than milestones, the action plan template is a better fit. For a visual timeline, see the Gantt chart template.
Worked example: moving a small office
An office manager plans a move for a six-person firm. Project: "Office move to Elm Street". Project manager: herself. Start October 1, target finish November 30. Objective: "Everyone working at the new address by Monday, December 1, with phones and internet live."
In scope: furniture, IT, mail forwarding. Out of scope: repainting the old space. Milestones: "Sign lease, owner: partner, Sept 25, done", "Order internet, IT contact, Oct 10", "Book movers, office manager, Oct 31", "Pack and label, all staff, Nov 26". One risk: "Internet install delayed. Likelihood: medium. Impact: high. Plan: order early and keep mobile hotspots."
Revisit it
Update the status column at each check-in. A plan that stays on one page tends to get read. Nothing you type is uploaded; it stays on your device.