Definition
Every project must have a project plan, agreed to and signed by the project manager and the project sponsor, which documents the project's terms of reference and forms the basis upon which the project's performance is evaluated.
Project work planning is one of the most demanding of all project management processes. It is a systematic and rational consolidation of different types of estimates into a comprehensive model of how the project's work will unfold and how its resources will be expended over time.
A comprehensive master project plan is the summation of all iterative planning work undertaken during the Planning phase and ensures that all component plans are effectively integrated into a single source document, which is the cornerstone of the project's terms of reference.
During the Initiation Phase, a master project plan is required. During the Planning phase, an MPP should include a work breakdown structure or WBS.
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), the WBS is a “deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables". Each item in the WBS is assigned a unique identifier ( using a hierarchy such as 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, etc.). These identifiers make up the Code of Accounts. The lowest level items are called Work Packages to which times, costs and resources can be assigned. In addition to assigning resources to carry out the work, each work package is assigned to an individual or group responsible for its completion. The Project Plan is reviewed during the Analysis, Design, and Development phases.
Roles and Responsibilities
Standards
The standard is to complete Master Project Plan using the appropriate template provided below. Determine your projects right-sizing category (Simple, Intermediate or Complex) in order to select the appropriate template.
Templates
The following templates are provided:
Samples
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