Useful project management templates for managers

Project management requires a lot of planning and to make things easier we have collected a few templates that will be helpful to project managers. The templates are used within the Standard CAM2P™ Model and can be customised to the industry or organisation and adapted to a business line, division, or project classification.

The first template is “The idea statement” which contains general information as well as details of your project. The next paragraph will talk you through the template.

The Idea Statement

The idea statement covers three essential questions:

1. What is the project,

2. Why is the organization doing it, and

3. What is the project strategic alignment?

Project General Information

The first part of the template will require you to include detail information about your project such as project title, number and manager. Underneath you will find space for background information which you can use for additional information.

Ideally, for most projects each item should be limited to one or two sentences. It is best to stay brief!

Idea Statement Sections:

Project Description

In this section you should include a project description and explain the project output. Outline what the organization wants to accomplish with this project and what will the project will give the organization when its done?

The output of the project can be physical or otherwise: for example a house, software, school or a business plan.

Project Justification

Then we move on the project justification:

Why is the organization doing the project?

What is the driver – reasons for the project?

Justification is related to the outcome of the project, and it is about the expected benefits. For example, the new software should improve productivity by X%.

For business projects, usually, the primary driver is profit, increasing revenues, decreasing costs. However, for NGO, government, or not-for-profit projects the driver might be social or community needs.

Strategic Alignment

In this field you should explain how this project aligns to the organisation strategic direction and objectives?

The concept here is that organisations should not approve a project unless it aligns to the organisation’s strategic direction, mission, and purpose.

Stage Gate 1

This is a template for Stage Gate 1 and in the following paragraph we will talk you through the template.

Section: Summary of Prior Work

This section might be necessary for management reviews, especially if some of the decision makers do

not have a clear idea on the project. The “submitter” should provide any additional information necessary

that is not already on the Idea Statement.

Section: Stage Gate 1: Strategic Alignment

This section is for the management and will be a documentation of their decision. Management can approve the idea as submitted, reject it, request revisions, or put it on hold for short or long time. Even if the idea does not align to strategic objectives, the organisation may still want to continue with the project for one reason or another.

Management Other Comments or Instructions

This field should be used by the management and provide any comments or instructions to let the sponsor and project manager know on how to proceed.

We hope you enjoyed reading our instructions for using project management templates and you can use this knowledge for you next project. If you are interested in further templates we recommend our eBook “Project Management Templates” which can be downloaded from bookboon.com. We wish you good luck with starting your project and hope you avoid the worst project management mistakes!