Pinnacle Business Solutions is providing key elements of a successful project through a Project Management Success Six-Part Series. While basic in nature, these elements are critical and can help you successfully complete projects for your company.

1. Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com

2. Project Management
Success: Part 3

3. Brandy shares her 15 years of experience in project
management and has created a six-part series highlighting key
elements to a projects success, specifically in the IT
management industry.
Brandy Semore, Pinnacle’s Operations Manager
Follow these actionable steps and advice to help you
improve the outcome of projects you lead or
participate in at your organization.
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com

4. Writing Your Project Plan
This part of the series mainly covers the project plan, but notes the
importance of documenting the scope of work to be performed
since it is an essential element of the project plan.
78% of respondents reported improper project planning and
methodology to be the main culprit to project failure in a recent
study conducted by CMCS.
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com

5. Defining The Scope and Requirements
As mentioned before, to write the project plan you have to
define the scope, and to define the scope, you have to know
what the project requirements are. The next step is to
document that information into your plan.
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6. Make sure your project plan does the following:
•Establishes the “able-to” on a project with confidence
•Tracks progress
•Manages the scope
•Manages risks and remediation
•Serves as the basis of communication
•Confirms resources
•Garners stakeholders’ buy-in and support
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
What Your Project Plan Should Do

7. Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
Results of a Poor Project Plan
The consequences of a poor project plan can vary, but some
things you could expect to encounter would be:
•Lack of stakeholder support
•Poor scope control
•Confused resources
•Missed deadlines
•Overrun timelines
•Underestimated budgets
•Damaged reputation for the company and project leads

8. Your plan should include the following information:
•Phases― periods of a project when work is done.
•Tasks― components of work that must be delivered to complete
the project.
•Milestones― major events with zero duration that normally depict
the start of a stage.
•Deliverables (products) ― output produced by the project and
defined in the business case.
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
Building, Formatting and Delivering the Plan

9. • Reviews― a checkpoint where a deliverable is evaluated
against the business goals.
• Interdependencies― when a deliverable can only be achieved
when a deliverable from another work package (or project) is
completed.
• Documented Risks – some project managers track this as a
separate risk log.
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
Building, Formatting and Delivering the Plan
Continued:

10. Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
Executing the Project Plan
• Call a meeting with your project stakeholders.
• Review your plan to ensure everyone is comfortable with
the fact that the project plan is all encompassing and
viable.
• Present your plan during a project kickoff meeting.
• Reference this project plan every step of the way during
your monitoring and execution phase of the project.
• Track your progress in the plan, and make changes when
changes are needed.

11. Learn More
Have questions for Brandy? Email her at brandy.semore@pbsnow.com
Pinnacle Business Systems www.pbsnow.com
Project Management Success: Part 4
Effective Communication