Vol. 14: Free Resources for Every Project Phase

As you know, project management is divided into five phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure. While each phase requires a unique set of skills, software like ProjectManager has everything you need to guide you through all five phases. With task management, resource management and risk management features in one place, it's easy to empower teams to plan, manage and track their work in real time.?

But we also understand that not everyone is ready to make that leap forward, which is why we have dozens of free project management templates for Excel and Word that address all five project management phases.

While we’ve shared templates in past newsletters, we've dedicated this issue of PM Pulse to some templates that you can download today for free.

1. Initiation Phase - Project Proposal Template

The first step is establishing what the project is about and the business value it'll deliver. You have to sell the project and get it approved or it’s on to the next potential project. That’s where our free project proposal template for Word comes in handy. This extensive document includes everything you need to convince stakeholders that the project is worth the time and effort, from the executive summary to the implementation and acceptance letter.

2. Planning Phase - Project Plan Template

Once the project has been approved, next comes developing a plan which includes listing all tasks and determining the needed resources and how to get them. There will be communication, budget and scheduling plans, defined roles and responsibilities and more. Much of this is detailed in our free project plan template for Word. Here, you’ll find fields to fill in about the project scope, its milestones, phases and tasks, as well as schedule, task dependencies, budget, etc.

3. Execution Phase - Implementation Plan Template

This is where you have to carry out the plan you developed, and all the work that you did will be put to the test. Don’t worry, you’re not working blindly, but we address that in the next phase. Here, we suggest our free implementation plan template for Excel, which breaks down your implementation into strategy, timeline and resources. Now you have a plan by which you can successfully execute your project and stick to the schedule and budget.?

4. Monitoring Phase - Risk Register Template

The monitoring phase is how you ensure your actual effort matches your planned effort. This is how you stay on track, reviewing the project status and evaluating risk and making changes as necessary to keep you on schedule and not overspending. By using our free risk register template for Excel you can identify risk, assign a team member to be responsible for the issue if it shows up, what the response will be and more.?

5. Closure Phase - Lessons Learned Template

You’ve delivered on time, under budget and met the quality expectations of your stakeholders. Now you can sit back and wallow in a job well done. Well, not quite yet. There are contracts to fulfill, teams need to be released and other documentation has to be signed, delivered and archived. But that's not all. You’ll want to debrief with the project team. Our free lessons learned template for Excel is a great tool to capture what went right and what didn’t. That way, for the next project, you can try and repeat the successes and avoid the mistakes.

Upgrade to ProjectManager

While templates serve a purpose, they only can do so much. You have to input data manually and there’s always the danger of old versions floating around. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that does everything templates do, but with real-time data. You can plan, manage and track projects in real time, giving teams a collaborative platform to work better together and managers get the transparency they need to allocate resources more effectively. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.