In the initial phase of every successful project, stakeholders and other interested parties come together in meetings to collaboratively create a vital document known as the Project Execution Plan. This comprehensive document serves as a summary of the entire project and provides forecasts regarding its potential impact. In the following sections, we will delve into the key components and details encompassed within this essential file.

A Project Execution Plan, or PEP, is a document whose main goal is to define how a project will be developed and executed. This plan establishes all the project objectives, team members participating, tasks, milestones, resources, and procedures to accomplish the final product or deliverable. 

All these integral parts aim to fulfill the requirements for project stakeholders, investors, institutions, governments, and other third parties. PEP also intends to satisfy the project timeline, which participants and demand establish. 

You design a project execution plan in the first steps before starting to work. Moreover, a successful project execution plan should be able to forecast all the possible scenarios and measure sharply how much resources will be used and how much labor every stage will need. 

Members that should participate in the project execution phase are the following:

1. Project Manager;

2. Customer;

3. Organization executing the plan;

4. Project team members;

5. Project management team;

6. Sponsors;

7. Influential.

Project Execution Plan Reasons and Benefits

Beyond achieving excellent project deliverables, a PEP benefits the project life cycle and the entire organization. Other benefits are the following:

• It helps to connect teams with the bigger picture. A good project execution plan should provide an overview of the entire project and its objectives. This way, as a manager, you will manage an integrated project team to be aware of all deliverables, the project status, tasks, timeline, and all it needs to achieve.   

• It allows you to determine the right business outcomes better. Project execution plans also are great to compare expectations with real results. This way, you can decide if obtained results are proper for your organization's effort and resources. 

• It helps you to measure the value delivered correctly. With the proper application of KPIs – Key Performance Indicators – you and the team can determine if the project’s execution will provide a value proposition or product that stands out over competitors or related products. Remember that a document of this nature should be capable of forecasting the potential of the product your team will deliver. 

When building your Project Execution Plan, you should have some priorities and consider relevant aspects that cannot be ignored. 

A Project Scope

Think of the project scope as all the elements involved during the project's development whose goal is to ensure the right end of the product. This scope will depend on the scale of the project and the needs that must be met. In other words, the project scope summarizes all the features integrated into your project. The right coverage looking for the project success should include the following:

• A word statement defining responsibilities and roles;

• Limitations of resources;

• The expected deliverables in all the stages of the project;

• All the software, tools, and services required for the project completion; 

• Criteria your organization will use to measure success.

Goal Statements

An objective and plan statement describes what all teams must implement, develop, and complete during the project. In goal statements, fit big and small objectives that summarize or group a series of activities and their results. Some examples of goal statements are deliverables, milestones, and team plans.

Technical and Quality Standards

When team members, managers, and other stakeholders participate in the meeting, they do not only define outputs, goals, or procedures. They also establish quality standards, or, in other words, explain the product level they will deliver. 

Quality standards also reach technical standards, i.e., what technical procedures your team needs to implement to produce deliverables. It also refers to what type of technology the product will utilize.

Project Scheduling

You've already built a project timeline and defined milestones in the project scope phase. Still, your project execution plan (PEP) requires you to clearly outline a full schedule containing all the key activities and tasks. 

Consequently, the project leader and teams should be able to create a work breakdown structure (WBS) where all tasks and their respective deadlines are listed. When you know what tasks should be completed, you can assign them team members.  

Still, remember that a project execution plan is a living document, and the project schedule may be affected by the lack of raw materials or the appearance of unexpected issues. But again, it's your mission as a project manager to prevent relevant changes. 

A Proper Resource Management

Knowing the project's purpose involves meeting all the crucial resources the entire organization will use to reach the final goal. Recognizing the resources is crucial as it enables their effective planning and allocation.

Of course, resource allocation will depend on resource availability and the initial total budget. Often, the resources you can implement to complete the business goals are insufficient for the team to work appropriately. Then, you should adjust the budget or better distribute material, people, or capital.

Organizational Components 

Listing key personnel and their tasks and responsibilities is also important in defining the operational aspects of the project. This way, the team will know who controls the project data, execution, management, finding project sponsors, and other responsibilities. 

With a clear understanding of everyone’s role, you also know who has the authority to make decisions. This practice enhances team communication and collaboration since they can better administer the necessary elements and resources. Besides, authorities should always be available to answer questions about projects, end dates, available resources, and all processes within their jurisdiction.

You can organize a complete PEP and set all the individual tasks involved in six simple steps. Below we’ll discuss each step, identifying crucial aspects you can’t ignore. 

1. Celebrate a Meeting with the Entire Project Team

A kickoff meeting is mandatory in the first stage of the process to communicate the overall strategy and tell stakeholders what challenges the project will face. Ensure that everybody shares their ideas and asks questions about the project's end goals, procedures, potential risks, and other elements.

Meetings are the right moment to share and modify the initial project plan according to the employees' and other managers' judgments. In this sense, the projected start and end dates and further details might be changed.

2. Set Up Major Milestones

A plan is a set of hundreds of tasks, one after the other, to complete a major milestone. It is likely your project has multiple large work tasks. In this context, you should shell these large tasks to establish milestones. Milestones will help you to manage minimal tasks and resources better. 

Milestones should consider attainable goals in different stages of the project. So, milestones may be turning points or checkpoints where you check whether everything achieved fulfills the planning. 

3. Divide the Project into Smaller Tasks According to Milestones

This step is an appendix of the previous one since, with clear milestones on the horizon, you can plan tasks to execute them in a specific time. Every job you define should be directly related to the crossroads to achieve its partial goal. You should also track tasks and check whether their development follows the course traced.  

4. Ask Teams to Cross-Review Status

The key to any excellent project execution plan is to promote and encourage communication between team members and among different teams. To do this, ask team members to effectively collaborate with other team members and check what they’re doing while developing the project. Monitoring across different teams and tasks will allow team members to realize mistakes and successes. 

5. Select the Right Project Management Software

You can immediately use multiple project management tools online if you pay the right price or a subscription. A good example of this is ProjectManager. Still, we recommend using MS Excel or MS Project as a good and cheaper alternative.

The latter involves presenting the project’s life cycle through a Gantt chart visualization and new software developments, such as reports, products, and services. You can quickly obtain a reliable copy of Microsoft Project Pro 2021 Global Key at the lowest price on the market on RoyalCDKeys.   

On the other hand, you can also opt for Microsoft Excel, which is contained in the Microsoft suite. You can acquire this valuable tool by purchasing a Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global copy at €5,65.

Both software will help you to plan execution plans, establish your goal statement, and manage specific terms of the project. 

6. Define a Project Manager

The last step is to choose a representative, a project manager who is in charge of reviewing, monitoring, and controlling everything happening during the project. This manager should be a trusted person in the company whose expertise and skills have been proven over time. This manager will focus on the project's overall progress, gathering all efforts to achieve its final goals. 

Building the proper PEP for your project is easier whether you use prebuilt documents or templates to guide you throughout the process. Below we share three of them to keep organized your data and initiatives.  

Project Execution Plan Template

Download it from Smarsheet.

The template corresponds to a Microsoft Word file that includes several sections for having all the crucial data of the entire project. Specifically, it consists of several areas for the project scope, project goals, quality, technical specifications, resource allocation, project schedule, and communication plan. 

This versatile template will ensure your teams carry out all the tasks and reach milestones in the expected time. Project team members and stakeholders can be up to speed on the details and component statuses of your project’s planned execution.  

Free Implementation Plan Template

Download it from ProjectManager.

This free implementation plan template corresponds to a spreadsheet document that will facilitate a project execution plan from the beginning. This file contains all the sections, rows, and columns to define stakeholders, participants, quality specifications, teams, managers, resources, and timelines.  

It will help you to define every aspect of the entire project by creating the steps leading to the delivery of your idea. Download this free template in Excel and start your project on the right foot.

Free Project Plan Template

Download it from Replicon.

This project plan template encompasses all the details your teams need to identify and specify the project's tasks, milestones, and general goals. Project managers can use this simple and easy-to-use file to organize and assemble all the necessary information. This way, employees and hybrid teams will always know everything needed to complete the project.

The Project Execution Plan corresponds to the governing document that determines the boundaries and scope of the project, mentioning all the crucial elements and strategies to execute, monitor and control the project.

A good strategy to start planning the right PEP is reverse engineering, which means people work backward from your end goals. This practice will help you establish the necessary phases to implement the project. 

We hope that we have met your expectations and provided a clear definition of the Project Execution Plan (PEP). Undoubtedly, implementing this vital document is essential to keep all employees aligned and working towards the project's objectives while constructing the desired product.