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• What is an implementation plan? 6 steps ...

What is an implementation plan? 6 steps to create one

An implementation plan—also known as a strategic plan—outlines the steps your team should take when accomplishing a shared goal or objective. This plan combines strategy, process, and action and will include all parts of the project from scope to budget and beyond. In this guide, we’ll discuss what an implementation plan is and how to create one.

Projects require planning to be successful. Would you build a house without a blueprint? Probably not, because nailing pieces of wood together without a plan could lead to disaster. The same concept is true in the corporate world. An implementation plan functions as the blueprint for any shared objective. Your plan should include everything from the project strategy, to the budget, to the list of people working on the project. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss what an implementation plan is and how to create one. These steps can help you and your team prepare for projects both big and small.

What is the purpose of an implementation plan?

The purpose of an implementation plan is to ensure that your team can answer the who, what, when, how, and why of a project before moving into the execution phase. In simple terms, it's the action plan that turns your strategy into specific tasks.

A good way to know whether your implementation plan is effective is to hand it to someone outside of your team and see if they can understand the project in its entirety. Your implementation plan should leave no questions unanswered.

How to create an implementation plan in 6 steps

If you want your implementation plan to be comprehensive and beneficial to your project team, you’ll need to follow specific steps and include the right components. Use the following steps when creating your plan to reduce the risk of gaps in your strategy.

1. Define goals

The first step in the implementation process is defining your goals . Determine what you hope to accomplish when your project is complete, like whether you hope to win over a new marketing client or revamp your internal content strategy. Starting with your project objectives in mind can help flesh out your project plan. 

Tips to consider:

Ask questions: When defining your goals, you and your team may want to ask questions about your project such as, “What are we trying to achieve with this project? What deliverables do we hope to produce? Who are the stakeholders we plan to share our project deliverables with?”

Brainstorm risk scenarios: Although you’ll perform a more in-depth risk assessment later on in your implementation plan, brainstorming potential risk scenarios early on gives you a more realistic idea of what you’re able to achieve. 

2. Conduct research

Once you have a broad idea of the project goals you want to achieve, you can hone in on these goals by conducting research such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, or observations. Your research should come from key experts in your field. These experts may be team members or external stakeholders. Your research outcomes should include a list of what your project timeline, budget, and personnel may look like.

Collaborate using shared tools: Collaboration is easier when you have the right communication tools in place to do so. Use a team collaboration tool to share your project goals and get feedback from others, regardless of their location. 

3. Map out risks

You brainstormed risk scenarios in step one of your implementation strategy, and in step three, you’ll map out all the potential risks you may face in your project. Risks can include anything from paid time off and holidays to budget constraints and loss of personnel. 

A great way to map out your risks is by using a risk register. This tool will help you prioritize project risks and prepare for them accordingly. You can also conduct a SWOT analysis , which will identify any weaknesses or threats affecting your project. 

Be flexible and proactive: Mapping out risks is more than just a preparation strategy. If you identify preventable risks during this stage of the implementation plan, you can take action to prevent those risks. This may mean adjusting your initial project goals. 

4. Schedule milestones

Scheduling your project milestones is an important step in the planning process because these checkpoints help you track your progress during execution. Milestones serve as metrics—they are a way to measure how far you’ve come in your project and how far you have left to go. 

To visualize project milestones and keep your entire team on track, use a Gantt chart . With a Gantt chart, you can visually lay out your implementation schedule and show how long you think each task will take.

Add wiggle room: Things don’t always go as planned, even if you do everything in your power to a schedule. By adding wiggle room to your schedule, you can ensure your project stays on track instead of keeping tight milestones and failing to meet them.

Clarify dependencies: Dependencies are tasks that rely on the completion of other tasks. Clarifying your dependencies makes it easier to keep the project on track and hit your milestones.

5. Assign responsibilities and tasks

Every action plan must include a list of responsibilities with team members assigned to each one. By assigning responsibilities, you can assess the performance of each team member and monitor progress more closely. Using a RACI chart can be an effective project management tool for clarifying roles and responsibilities. 

Assigning responsibilities is different from assigning individual tasks. One team member may be responsible for overseeing the project review, while you may assign three other team members to handle the delivery and communication of the project to various teams for review. When you assign responsibilities and tasks, be sure to make your expectations clear. 

Communication is key: When you assign roles, responsibilities, or tasks, it’s best to communicate why you’re choosing one team member over another. Instead of letting team members question why they have specific roles, you can use this step in the planning process as an opportunity to highlight team member strengths.

Track responsibilities in a shared tool: Having a shared tool, like project management software, can give team members clarity on who's doing what and by when.

6. Allocate resources

Resource allocation is one of the best ways to reduce risk. If you can plan out what resources you need for your project and ensure those resources will be available, you’ll avoid the risk of running out of resources mid-project. If you notice that you don’t have enough resources in this step of the implementation process, you can adjust your project accordingly before it kicks off. 

Resources may include money, personnel, software, equipment, and other physical or technical materials. Time can also be a resource because the team members you need to complete the project may be working on other projects.

Tips to consider: Ask yourself the following questions when identifying available resources for your project: 

What is the project’s priority level? 

Who is available to work on this project? 

What budget or tools are available? 

What additional resources do we need? 

Who needs to approve the resource allocation plan?

Following these steps as you create your implementation plan will increase the likelihood of hitting your project goals. Having a checklist of the items to include in your implementation plan can also lead to successful implementation. 

What to include in an implementation plan

Knowing how to create your implementation plan is crucial, but you also need to know what to include in your plan. This checklist includes the six most important items you’ll want to consider if you want to move forward with a successful project. 

1. Objectives

You’ll outline your project objectives in step one of the implementation process. Set your goals and decide what metrics your team will use to measure to monitor progress. By clearly identifying your project objectives, you and your team can measure progress and performance as you move forward.

2. Scope statement

You’ll set the scope of your project in step two when conducting research. Your project scope statement should outline the boundaries you’ve set for your project and broadly define what goals, deadlines, and project outcomes you’ll be working toward. Defining your project scope in the implementation plan can help prevent scope creep when you’re farther along in the project.

3. Outline of deliverables

Deliverables are the tangible goals of your project. Outlining the deliverables you hope to create can serve as a resource when managing time frames, delegating tasks, and allocating resources. 

4. Task due dates

Although the project timeline may change as your project progresses, it’s important to clarify your expected due dates during implementation planning. When you estimate task due dates, you can schedule milestones around these due dates and plan for project completion. You will commonly see Gantt charts used for strategic planning and implementation planning. This is because Gantt charts display information in a follows a linear path, similar to a timeline. 

5. Risk assessment

You’ll conduct your risk assessment in step three of the implementation process. Whether you use a   risk register , SWOT analysis , or contingency plan to identify risks , be sure to include these documents in your plan. That way, others involved in the project can look through your findings and potentially help you prevent these risks. 

6. Team member roles and responsibilities

You assigned roles and responsibilities to team members in step five of your plan, and keeping a detailed record of what these are can hold everyone accountable. Whether you use a RACI chart or another tool to clarify team member roles, there should be a place in your plan for everyone to refer to in case questions arise. 

Your implementation plan will likely be unique to the project you're working on, so it may include other components not listed above. However, you can use the six items above as your guide so you know your plan is comprehensive.

Many aspects of project implementation overlap with strategic planning. As a project manager , working on the project implementation plan while you are also working on the strategic plan can help minimize the total time spent on planning.

Another way to save time during the planning process is to house all of your plans in a work management platform. When your project team is ready to start the implementation process, everything is in one convenient place.

Benefits of having an implementation plan

There are many benefits to implementation planning, with the top benefit being an increased chance of project success. Implementing a project plan creates a roadmap for executing your project so you can prevent issues from occurring. 

Other benefits to having an implementation plan include:

Improved communication between team members and key stakeholders

Better organization and management of resources

Increased accountability for everyone involved in the project

More structured project timeline and daily workflow

Easier collaboration between team members

Going straight into the execution phase without an implementation plan may feel like walking on stage to give a speech without knowing what you’re going to say. Preparation is key for top-notch performance. 

Simplify implementation planning

Knowing the steps for implementation planning is the foundation of project management. A well-planned project leads to a successful project.

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What Is an Implementation Plan? (Template & Example Included)

What Is Project Implementation?

Project implementation, or project execution, is the process of completing tasks to deliver a project successfully. These tasks are initially described in the project plan, a comprehensive document that covers all areas of project management. However, a secondary action plan, known as an implementation plan, should be created to help team members and project managers better execute and track the project .

What Is an Implementation Plan?

An implementation plan is a document that describes the necessary steps for the execution of a project. Implementation plans break down the project implementation process by defining the timeline, the teams and the resources that’ll be needed.

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Implementation Plan Template

Use this free Implementation Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.

Implementation Plan vs. Project Plan

A project plan is a comprehensive project management document that should describe everything about your project including the project schedule, project budget, scope management plan, risk management plan, stakeholder management plan and other important components. An implementation plan, on the other hand, is a simplified version of your project plan that includes only the information that’s needed by the team members who will actually participate in the project execution phase, such as their roles, responsibilities, daily tasks and deadlines.

Project management software like ProjectManager greatly simplifies the implementation planning process. Schedule and execute your implementation plan with our robust online Gantt charts. Assign work, link dependencies and track progress in real time with one chart. Plus, if your team wants to work with something other than a Gantt chart, our software offers four other project views for managing work: task lists, kanban boards, calendars and sheets. Try it for free today.

Key Steps In Project Implementation

Here are some of the key steps that you must oversee as a project manager during the project execution phase . Your project implementation plan should have the necessary components to help you achieve these steps.

1. Communicate Goals and Objectives

Once you’ve outlined the project goals and objectives, the next step is to ensure that the team understands them. For the project to succeed, there must be buy-in from the project team. A meeting is a good way to communicate this, though having project documents that they can refer to is also viable.

2. Define Team Roles and Responsibilities

The project manager will define the roles and responsibilities and communicate them to the project team . They should understand what they’re expected to do and who they can reach out to with questions about their work, all of which leads to a smooth-running project.

3. Establish the Success Criteria for Deliverables

The project deliverables need to meet quality standards, and to do this there must be a success criteria for handing off these deliverables. You want to have something in place to determine if the deliverable is what it’s supposed to be. The measurement is called a success criteria and it applies to any deliverable, whether it’s tangible or intangible.

4. Schedule Work on a Project Timeline

All projects require a schedule , which at its most basic is a start date and an end date for your project. In between those two points, you’ll have phases and tasks, which also have start and finish dates. To manage these deadlines, use a project timeline to visually map everything in one place.

Free Implementation Plan Template

Use this implementation plan template for Excel to define your strategy, scope, resource plan, timeline and more. It’s the ideal way to begin your implementation process. Download your template today.

5. Monitor Cost, Time and Performance

To make sure that you’re keeping to your schedule and budget, you need to keep a close eye on the project during the execution phase. Some of the things you should monitor are your costs, time and performance. Costs refer to your budget , time refers to your schedule and performance impacts both as well as quality. By keeping track of these metrics, you can make adjustments to stay on schedule and on budget.

6. Report to Project Stakeholders

While the project manager is monitoring the project, the stakeholders, who have a vested interest in the project, are also going to want to stay informed. To manage their expectations and show them that the project is hitting all its milestones, you’ll want to have project reports , such as project status reports. These can then be presented to the stakeholders regularly to keep them updated.

What Are the Key Components of an Implementation Plan?

There’s no standard one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to creating your implementation plan. However, we’ve created an implementation plan outline for your projects. Here are its components.

• Project goals & objectives: The project goal is the ultimate goal of your project, while the objectives are the key milestones or achievements that must be completed to reach it.
• Success criteria: The project manager must reach an agreement with stakeholders to define the project success criteria.
• Project deliverables: Project deliverables are tangible or intangible outputs from project tasks.
• Scope statement: The scope statement briefly describes your project scope, which can be simply defined as the project work to be performed.
• Resource plan: Create a simple resource plan that outlines the human resources, equipment and materials needed for your project.
• Risk analysis: Use a risk assessment tool like a SWOT analysis or risk register. There are different tools with different levels of detail for your risk analysis.
• Implementation timeline: Any implementation plan needs a clear project timeline to be executed properly. You should use an advanced tool such as a Gantt chart to create one.
• Implementation plan milestones: You need to identify key milestones of your implementation plan so that you can easily keep track of its progress.
• Team roles & responsibilities: The implementation plan won’t execute itself. You’ll need to assign roles and responsibilities to your team members.
• Implementation plan metrics: You’ll need KPIs, OKRs or any other performance metrics you can use to control the progress of your implementation plan.

How to Write an Implementation Plan

Follow these steps to create an implementation plan for your project or business. You can also consider using project management software like ProjectManager to help you with the implementation process.

1. Review Your Project Plan

Start by identifying what you’ll need for the execution of your implementation plan:

• What teams need to be involved to achieve the strategic goals?
• How long will it take to make the strategic goals happen?
• What resources should be allocated ?

By interviewing stakeholders, key partners, customers and team members, you can determine the most crucial assignments needed and prioritize them accordingly. It’s also at this stage that you should list out all the goals you’re looking to achieve to cross-embed the strategic plan with the implementation plan. Everything must tie back to that strategic plan in order for your implementation plan to work.

2. Map Out Assumptions and Risks

This acts as an extension to the research and discovery phase, but it’s also important to point out assumptions and risks in your implementation plan. This can include anything that might affect the execution of the implementation plan, such as paid time off or holidays you didn’t factor into your timeline , budget constraints, losing personnel, market instability or even tools that require repair before your implementation can commence.

3. Identify Task Owners

Each activity in your implementation plan must include a primary task owner or champion to be the owner of it. For tasks to be properly assigned, this champion will need to do the delegating. This means that they ensure that all systems are working as per usual, keep track of their teams’ productivity and more. Project planning software is practically essential for this aspect.

4. Define Project Tasks

Next, you need to finalize all the little activities to round out your plan. Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What are the steps or milestones that make up the plan?
• What are the activities needed to complete each step?
• Who needs to be involved in the plan?
• What are the stakeholder requirements?
• What resources should be allocated?
• Are there any milestones we need to list?
• What are the risks involved based on the assumptions we notated?
• Are there any dependencies for any of the tasks?

Once all activities are outlined, all resources are listed and all stakeholders have approved (but no actions have been taken just yet), you can consider your implementation plan complete and ready for execution.

Implementation Plan Example

Implementation plans are used by companies across industries on a daily basis. Here’s a simple project implementation plan example we’ve created using ProjectManager to help you better understand how implementation plans work. Let’s imagine a software development team is creating a new app.

• Project goal: Create a new app
• Project objectives: All the project deliverables that must be achieved to reach that ultimate goal.
• Success criteria: The development team needs to communicate with the project stakeholders and agree upon success criteria.
• Scope statement: Here’s where the development team will document all the work needed to develop the app. That work is broken down into tasks, which are known as user stories in product and software development. Here, the team must also note all the exceptions, which means everything that won’t be done.
• Resource plan: In this case, the resources are all the professionals involved in the software development process, as well as any equipment needed by the team.
• Risk analysis: Using a risk register, the product manager can list all the potential risks that might affect the app development process.
• Timeline, milestones and metrics: Here’s an image of an implementation plan timeline we created using ProjectManager’s Gantt chart view. The diamond symbols represent the implementation plan milestones.
• Team roles & responsibilities: Similarly, we used a Gantt chart to assign implementation plan tasks to team members according to their roles and responsibilities.

Benefits of an Implementation Plan for the Project Implementation Process

The implementation plan plays a large role in the success of your overall strategic plan. But more than that, communicating both your strategic plan and the implementation of it therein to your team members helps them feel as if they have a sense of ownership within the company’s long-term direction.

Increased Cooperation

An implementation plan that’s well communicated also helps to increase cooperation across all teams through all the steps of the implementation process. It’s easy to work in a silo—you know exactly what your daily process is and how to execute it. But reaching across the aisle and making sure your team is aligned on the project goals that you’re also trying to meet? That’s another story entirely. With an implementation plan in place, it helps to bridge the divide just a little easier.

Additionally, with an implementation plan that’s thoroughly researched and well-defined, you can ensure buy-in from stakeholders and key partners involved in the project. And no matter which milestone you’re at, you can continue to get that buy-in time and time again with proper documentation.

At the end of the day, the biggest benefit of an implementation plan is that it makes it that much easier for the company to meet its long-term goals. When everyone across all teams knows exactly what you want to accomplish and how to do it, it’s easy to make it happen.

Implementation Plan FAQ

There’s more to know about implementation plans. It’s a big subject and we’ve tried to be thorough as possible, but if you have any further questions, hopefully we’ve answered them below.

What Is the Difference Between an Action Plan and an Implementation Plan?

The main difference between an action plan and an implementation plan is that an action plan focuses exclusively on describing work packages and tasks, while the implementation plan is more holistic and addresses other variables that affect the implementation process such as risks, resources and team roles & responsibilities.

What Is an Implementation Plan in Business?

A business implementation plan is the set of steps that a company follows to execute its strategic plan and achieve all the business goals that are described there.

What Is an Implementation Plan in Project Management?

Implementation plans have many uses in project management. They’re a planning tool that allows project managers to control smaller projects within their project plan. For example, they might need an implementation plan to execute risk mitigation actions, change requests or produce specific deliverables.

How to Make an Implementation Plan With ProjectManager

Creating and managing an implementation plan is a huge responsibility and one that requires diligence, patience and great organizational skills.

When it comes to a project implementation plan, there are many ways to make one that’s best suited for your team. With ProjectManager , you get access to both agile and waterfall planning so you can plan in sprints for large or small projects, track issues and collaborate easily. Try kanban boards for managing backlogs or for making workflows in departments.

Switching up the activities after a milestone meeting with stakeholders? You can easily update your implementation plan with our software features. Add new tasks, set due dates, and track how far along your team is on their current activities.

Implementation plans are the backbone of an organization’s strategic overall plan. With ProjectManager, give your organization the project management software they need to gain insight into all resources needed, view activities on their lists and collaborate with ease. Sign up for our free 30-day trial today.

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Free Implementation Plan Templates

By Kate Eby | January 16, 2024

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We gathered seven free implementation plan templates, complete with customizable sample copy. These templates serve as invaluable tools for professionals, ensuring that each step of the implementation process is thoughtfully planned and executed.

Included on this page, you’ll find a  project implementation plan template , a  software implementation plan template that includes a Gantt chart, a  business strategy implementation plan template , and an  implementation plan presentation template for presenting to stakeholders, among others. You’ll also find details on the  elements of an effective implementation plan and helpful instructions for  how to create an implementation plan template .

Excel Simple Implementation Plan Template

Download the Sample Simple Implementation Plan Template for Excel 

Download the Blank Simple Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

Use this simple implementation plan template available with or without sample copy to streamline your implementation-execution process. Easily organize tasks into distinct phases, ensuring clarity and focus. By assigning responsibilities, setting priorities, and monitoring task status with start and end dates, teams can achieve enhanced accountability. By completing this basic template, you can mitigate potential oversights and keep your implementation plan on course. 

For insights on aligning your project steps with overarching goals, view this  collection of free project timeline templates .

Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel

Download the Sample Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

Download the Blank Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

This project implementation plan has more features than the simple template. It serves as a comprehensive tool for meticulously planning and visualizing the trajectory of your implementation project. Download a blank version or one with sample data to help you complete the template for your project. By segmenting tasks into phases ( Initiation and Development, etc. ), it provides methodical progression structure. The Gantt chart offers an intuitive visual snapshot of the entire project-implementation timeline. Adopting this template will not only enhance organizational efficiency but also provide a clear roadmap for the project's successful execution.

Software Implementation Plan Template

Download a Sample Software Implementation Plan Template for

Excel | Google Sheets

Download a Blank Software Implementation Plan Template for 

Excel | Google Sheets  

Steer your software deployment with precision using our comprehensive software implementation plan template, complete with an illustrative Gantt chart timeline. This module-by-module template — available with or without sample text — facilitates meticulous planning. Complete the  Work Breakdown Structure  (WBS) column for task-specific numeric identification. Use the  Responsibility Column to allocate individual tasks to specific team members and how long each might take in the  Estimated Duration in Hours column. Add when you expect the task to be complete in the  Target Completion Date  column. A distinct  Burndown  vertical bar chart showcases the volume of tasks accomplished and those pending for each module, providing a clear visual indicator to assess if the team is on track to meet the implementation milestones on schedule.

For more implementation plan resources and solutions, see this  article on how to create a successful implementation plan .

Microsoft Word Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template

Download the Sample Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template for Microsoft Word  

Download the Blank Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template for Microsoft Word    

Harness the power of this business strategy implementation plan template to streamline your project's path from vision to execution. This template — available with or without example text — methodically breaks down your initiative into vital sections. You’ll find an introductory overview, task delineation, and schedule outline to security considerations and performance metrics. With built-in sections for documentation, references, and management approvals, it ensures a comprehensive yet concise representation of your strategy.

Excel New Process Implementation Plan Template

Download the New Process Implementation Plan Template for Excel

Elevate your process rollout with this new process implementation plan template. This all-encompassing template provides an interactive platform, wherein task progression automatically refreshes the Gantt chart as you make updates. It also provides intuitive widgets that spotlight task progression, financial tracking, and upcoming deliverables. Together these features furnish stakeholders and teams with a consolidated view of critical performance indicators.

PowerPoint Implementation Plan Presentation Template

Download the Implementation Plan Presentation Template for PowerPoint  

Use this template to easily present your implementation plan to team members and key stakeholders. This engaging visual tool lets you delineate tasks within an adjustable bar chart, catering to the timeframes essential to your plan. Incorporate pivotal milestone markers for critical accomplishments, and utilize the integrated  Progress Overview section to swiftly evaluate how well your implementation strategy is working.

Check out this article on free implementation plan templates in PowerPoint format for more resources.

Elements of an Effective Implementation Plan

The elements of an effective implementation plan include clear objectives, outlined steps with timelines, and task assignments. It also has continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms.   

Here's a list of the elements for an effective implementation plan and what they include:   

• Objectives:  Clearly defined goals and outcomes the plan seeks to achieve. This section gives direction to the entire process. 
• Tasks/Actions: Specific steps or tasks required to achieve the objectives. Each action should be clearly articulated and avoid ambiguity. 
• Responsibilities:  Assignments for each task to a person or team to provide accountability and clarity on who does what. 
• Timelines:  Specific deadlines or milestones for each task or action.. 
• Resources:  Identification and allocation of resources (such as finances, manpower, or materials) needed for each task. Completing this section ensures the project doesn't stall due to lack of necessary inputs. 
• Stakeholders: List of individuals or groups who have an interest in the implementation. Keeping stakeholders informed can aid in garnering support and addressing concerns. 
• Risk Management: Identification of potential risks or challenges, along with strategies to mitigate them. Learn more about  risk management planning .
• Communication Plan:  A strategy for how information will be disseminated among team members and stakeholders. This  guide to creating a communication plan can help you get started.  
• Monitoring and Feedback Mechanisms:  Methods to regularly track progress and gather feedback, so you can make necessary adjustments and improvements in real time. 
• Contingency Plan:  Backup strategies or actions to take if primary tasks do not proceed as planned. These details help ensure the plan remains flexible and adaptable. 
• Evaluation Metrics:  Criteria to measure the success or performance of the implementation. Use this data to determine if the plan is meeting the objectives. 
• Documentation:  Maintain records of all actions, decisions, and changes. These documents aid in transparency and future reference, and they ensure that all involved parties are on the same page.

How to Create an Implementation Plan

When creating an implementation plan, first define the objective. Then list all tasks, set dates, assign roles, and track progress. You’ll also need to identify milestones and review and make adjustments as necessary. 

Here are the steps to create an implementation plan:    

• Define the Objective Clearly state what you hope to achieve with this implementation. This could be the launch of a new product, such as the rollout of a new electronic vehicle (EV) charging stations. 
• Perform Stakeholder Analysis Identify all parties involved in the implementation. This includes the project team, end-users, management, and any external stakeholders. 
• Execute a Feasibility Study Thoroughly evaluate the project's potential by analyzing its economic, technical, and operational aspects. This activity involves identifying potential challenges, resource requirements, and risks to ensure that the project is well-founded and worth pursuing. 
• Design and Develop Your Plan Translate your project concept into a detailed plan. This plan will encompass a comprehensive project outline, including specific tasks, responsibilities, timelines, and resource allocation. 
• Establish Timeline and Milestones Estimate how long each task will take and set up a timeline for the entire project. Highlight key milestones on the timeline, so it’s easy to see when the project reaches a notable achievement. 

Use a Plan Template to Create the Implementation Plan Now that you have all the details necessary, use a simple implementation plan template to document it. Using a template can streamline and guide the process of executing your projects, ensuring organized and efficient project management.  

Enter Task Details For each  Action  in the simple implementation plan template’s seven phases, provide a description, and add the  Party Responsible, Priority, Status, Start Date, End Date , and any relevant  Notes to the corresponding fields.   

• Establish a Communication Plan Decide how you will keep everyone informed about the project's progress, changes, or updates. Options could include scheduling regular meetings, sending email updates, or using project management software.
• Deploy Pilot Testing Launch a scaled-down version of your project to a limited audience or in a controlled environment. You'll gather valuable feedback from pilot users, which will inform your adjustments and refinements. 
• Execute Full-Scale Rollout Execute your project on a broader scale, following the finalized project plan and incorporating insights gained from the pilot test.
• Review Performance and Optimize Continuously monitor project performance against established metrics and objectives, and make changes as necessary. 
• Create Documentation Plan Document all aspects of the implementation plan, ensuring you establish a reference point and a record of decisions, justifications, and changes. 
• Review and Evaluate Once the implementation is completed, review the entire process. What went well? What could be improved? This retrospective analysis can inform future implementation plans.

Easily Create and Monitor an Implementation Plan in Real Time with Smartsheet

From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity -- empowering you to get more done. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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10 Implementation Plan Templates in Excel & ClickUp

Praburam Srinivasan

Growth Marketing Manager

February 13, 2024

Effective planning is instrumental to your organization’s success. A good plan becomes the roadmap of an idea or strategy, guiding it from conceptualization to launch and maintenance.

Mastering the art of effective project management and planning can be daunting—even for the most seasoned pro—because it requires a lot of collaboration and coordination of tasks, people, and resources.

So how do you create an effective plan and ensure you have all the crucial details? You use an implementation plan.

An implementation plan creates a detailed roadmap to take your project from start to finish and helps you brainstorm your overall strategy for success. It guides your team’s focus while mitigating risks and planning for contingencies .

It can feel overwhelming to make an implementation plan from scratch. Thankfully, fantastic implementation plan templates are available that streamline your workflow, ensuring your team is more productive.

Let’s look at 10 free templates for project implementation planning , covering a variety of scenarios and needs, which you can use to start planning your next project .

What is an Implementation Plan Template?

What makes a good implementation template, 1. clickup project implementation plan template, 2. clickup advanced implementation plan template, 3. clickup implementation plan for recruitment template, 4. clickup implementation plan for simple, complex, and enterprise teams template, 5. clickup call center implementation project plan template, 6. clickup help desk implementation project plan template, 7. clickup iso 9001 implementation project plan template, 9. clickup implementation management template, 10. excel project implementation plan template by viindoo.

An implementation plan template is a pre-built framework that guides your project. It outlines all the steps, tasks, resources, and timelines needed to make your project a success. You and your project team can use this implementation strategy in the planning stage to thoroughly investigate the process and consider the resources you’ll need.

This ready-to-use tool allows you to focus your time on your strategy execution instead of building a planning framework from scratch. When filled out, the template becomes a roadmap for your team. It records your team members’ responsibilities, task deadlines, and the project’s next steps.

Implementation plan templates vary depending on your project, organization, and project management team’s needs. Many templates will include sections such as:

• Project objectives
• Deliverables and individual tasks
• Timeline view
• Roles and responsibilities with project stakeholders
• Risk management 
• A list of all other variables, and in some cases, budget constraints, potential risks, and contingency plans

Your implementation plan should be a living document, changing with your project’s evolving needs as it moves forward. The ready-to-use templates need to be flexible and easy to update.

Do you need an effective implementation planning template for your project management team? These are some of the essential elements to look for:

• Customizable : A template should be a framework that you can customize according to your project’s needs. The more you can modify it, the more relevant and useful it becomes. You should be able to add and remove sections, such as resource allocation, objectives, and risk assessment, as needed. Customization options will make the template more scalable and reusable 
• Collaborative : If only one team member can update the framework, your project management team will accrue many admin hours. A template is more effective when it allows for easy collaboration. Your team can update their portion of the roadmap as they move through their tasks and paint a more accurate picture of the project’s progress, giving you or your project manager more time to focus on other needs
• Built-in milestone evaluations : A template’s success increases when it includes a way to evaluate project milestones. These evaluations alert you to potential issues or roadblocks and help you adjust your strategy to keep the project on track. They can also help create more realistic and achievable goals 

A great template should be user-friendly and empower your team to create a thoughtfully planned implementation strategy. With these key features, an implementation plan template helps teams deliver better results.

10 Implementation Plan Templates to Use in 2024

Want to find a great template for your next implementation planning session? Whether you are launching a product , improving an internal process , or needing help to onboard new clients, these 10 implementation planning templates will guide you toward success.

Looking for a customizable and user-friendly catch-all template for every project? The ClickUp Project Implementation Plan Template delivers. The template has all the essential features for successful implementation planning in a sleek, easy-to-use format, clear enough even for planning beginners.

Define your project’s goals and objectives to start your implementation plan within the template. The template allows you to break down the goals into actionable steps and assign responsibilities and resources to those tasks.

This creates a clear outline of roles and responsibilities for team members, from the start of the project through launch and into the maintenance phase. The resource overview lets you know who is available and who may need additional help.

From there, you can create a Gantt chart with a few clicks and set more realistic deadlines for each milestone. The handy time-tracking feature helps you determine where roadblocks are and streamline your future planning.

You access additional functionality when you work within the ClickUp platform. You can use the built-in Whiteboard for brainstorming or connect your implementation planning template to other documents within your ClickUp ecosystem for more seamless collaboration. ClickUp offers impressive integration options for the other apps and platforms in your tech stack, fitting seamlessly into your workflow and guiding your project to success.

Looking for a little more from your implementation plan template? The ClickUp Advanced Implementation Plan has what you need. This template includes everything you love about the basic template and adds a new layer of timeline monitoring.

With a glance, this clear and concise implementation plan template provides instant updates on the status of each task in every phase of your project. Track progress bars so you know how each task is going, and stay alert with bright status updates about bottlenecks and roadblocks. The effort monitor also informs you when jobs fall behind and where you might need to add more resources.

The easy-to-use template gives you multiple views for total project oversight, including the project timeline, implementation progress, and a handy Gantt chart. You can easily access the template in the ClickUp platform and customize or tweak it to suit your needs.

Want to get your recruitment and onboarding process on track? There’s a template for that. The ClickUp Implementation Plan for Recruitment guides you through the recruitment process, ensuring new hires have the resources they need for success on your team.

The template acts as a to-do list so you don’t overlook anything during onboarding. It includes completing weekly check-ins and setting up employee tool access. You or your team leader can collaborate with human resources (HR) to update the status so everyone knows exactly where the new hire is in their onboarding journey.

Customize the template to include the planning phases for talent recruitment or add training opportunities for new hires. Add and remove sections with a few clicks to suit your organization’s needs. This template is a must-have template for any HR pro.

The ClickUp Implementation Plan for Simple, Complex, and Enterprise Teams Template is another excellent option for planning your next big project.

The Implementation Overview is a helpful viewing option where your team can find the priorities , progress, and roles on a single page. Due dates and status updates allow everyone to be on the same page by clarifying which parts of a project everyone is currently working on, is stuck on, and has completed.

With plenty of integration options and easy collaboration abilities, this is a template everyone can contribute to without taking hours out of their day to provide status updates. A few taps in the ClickUp platform will update your entire team and give everyone more time to focus on completing tasks.

Are you tackling the enormous task of implementing a new call center? It’s a time-consuming, complex project requiring a lot of planning and coordination. The ClickUp Call Center Implementation Project Plan Template helps you organize your team members, set realistic timelines, and track the project’s progress in real time.

With this template, you’ll manage call center implementation like a pro while informing your team of updates in a single space. Use the template to create a roadmap for the transition and step-by-step instructions for team members collaborating on the project.

This customizable, easy-to-use tool allows you to change everything with a few clicks, so you can develop an implementation plan to successfully launch a new call center.

Everything is readily available on the ClickUp platform, meaning team members can update their task status from any device and keep everyone informed—no matter where they might be working.

Implementing a help desk is a project that requires a lot of your company’s time and resources, but it’s an essential part of meeting your customers’ needs. The ClickUp Help Desk Implementation Project Plan Template streamlines the implementation process and helps you launch your new help desk successfully. You can use this template to create a strategy to reduce the burden on internal resources and complete task due dates, ensuring you reach the execution phase promptly.

Set your help desk team up for success with this template, which includes a clear timeline of daily tasks and an organized workflow to ensure efficiency. The template condenses your implementation plan into one space the entire team can access. This simple tool helps reduce communication errors and clarifies your team’s roles and responsibilities from day one.

Get ready to exceed your customers’ expectations and start planning the launch of your help desk now.

ISO 9001 is the international standard for quality management. Its inclusion within your organization ensures a quality management system that meets your customer and stakeholder needs while adhering to all rules and regulations. While incorporating ISO 9001 within an organization can be transformational, it’s also an incredibly complex process requiring a lot of planning.

The ClickUp ISO 9001 Implementation Project Plan Template Is here to rescue you. This template helps your organization consider the implementation process as you work toward your ISO 9001 certification.

The template helps you consider contingencies and risks while increasing efficiency and enhancing organizational performance. It removes the guesswork from the implementation process and gives you a detailed implementation plan for successful completion.

Is your payroll department struggling? Or are you a new organization creating a payroll department for the first time? The ClickUp Payroll Implementation Project Plan Template helps you create a successful payroll project strategy.

This template clarifies the project scope and task timeline while organizing resources for maximum efficiency. Within the template, easily track the status of each task and see who is responsible for the next steps. This sleek template offers enough space to customize your implementation plan and tick every box.

Start with the template now and explore ClickUp’s great integration options, connecting it with the rest of your tech stack.

Check out these payroll templates !

Your organization can smoothly transition new clients with the ClickUp Implementation Management Template .

This ClickUp implementation plan template follows best practices and focuses on team support and client care. Use the template to bring new clients into the organization while meeting their needs and overlooking no details in their customer journey.

ClickUp pre-populates an implementation plan example as a framework to jumpstart your implementation plan. You can customize the implementation plan example to align with your company’s workflow and needs. The user-friendly design easily adapts to the template, so you create a living document that grows with your company.

Want a project implementation plan that works with MS Office? This Excel Project Implementation Plan Template by Viindoo gives you a beautifully designed spreadsheet where you can plan your next project.

The spreadsheet turns your implementation plan into a functional Gantt chart so that you can track the progress of your project through every step. Gantt charts are excellent for visualizing project tasks and the overall implementation timeline.

Use the information to identify implementation team members’ roles and responsibilities, too.  You can use Excel’s “Edit in Browser” function to collaborate on the implementation plan template with other implementation team members. 

Improve Your Implementation Plans With ClickUp

With the right implementation plan template, you’ll quickly master the art of project planning and strategizing.

Start by choosing a template to guide you step by step when planning. Then customize it to suit your organizational workflow. Each implementation plan template will help you and your team align your organization’s goals, optimize resources, and implementation plan template create a collaborative working environment with clear communication around projects.

The right tools make implementation planning a natural part of your workflow, enhancing your team’s abilities to complete desks without adding to their admin burden. With ClickUp, you don’t need to do this all from scratch.

ClickUp is a tool that can manage all of your projects from start to finish, including your implementation plans. ClickUp implementation plan templates integrate instantly with our robust project management software for effortless collaboration across your entire organization and all your projects.

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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The Ultimate Guide to Implementation Plans

May 4, 2022 - 10 min read

Implementation plans provide step-by-step instructions for everything from digital marketing campaigns to ending hunger in rural communities . They’re used to transform abstract concepts within strategy plans into real-world action. The only downside is that implementation plans can be challenging to pull off. Some industries see as much as a 75% failure rate in plan execution. 

The good news is you can succeed where others have failed by creating a successful implementation plan with the tips and strategies outlined in this guide. 

Keep reading to discover must-have components for implementation plans, a thorough step-by-step planning method, and advice on how to avoid common pitfalls. 

What is an implementation plan?

A project implementation plan (also called a strategic plan) is a combination of strategy, process, and action. It outlines the steps a team will use to achieve a shared objective. An implementation plan covers all aspects of a project , including the budget, timeline, and personnel.

The perfect project plan includes: 

• Objectives, requirements
• Scope assessment
• An outline of deliverables
• Task due dates
• Risk assessment
• Stakeholder, team, and process management plans
• Team member roles and responsibilities
• Resource management
• Communication tools

Roadmap planning breaks down big-picture goals into measurable project phases, tasks, and subtasks. Each category is clearly defined with its own deadlines and resource allocations. Tasks and subtasks are assigned to team members who will complete and approve each one. 

In other words, if the goal is the "what," the implementation plan is the "how."  

An implementation plan is often presented as a written document or planned in a project management solution . The latter is a better fit for this particular roadmap because, as you can probably tell, implementation plans are complex and comprehensive. Implementation plans should all contain solutions for:

• Tasks and subtasks
• Timelines 
• Collaborators
• Any additional resources

It’s also important to note that having a flexible implementation plan is key for dealing with changes that come up once the project is live. 

What are the benefits of implementation planning?

The benefits of implementation planning range from organizational to relationship-building to increased profitability. A solid implementation plan: 

• Creates an actionable roadmap from project inception to completion
• Makes communication simple and crystal clear
• Improves employee retention in the long-term
• Organizes all resources in one manageable place
• Helps businesses be proactive instead of reactive
• Offers transparency to clients and collaborators
• Builds trust among stakeholders
• Holds everyone accountable
• Outlines a daily and weekly workflow the whole team can follow
• Improves the likelihood of buy-in
• Makes collaboration more fluid and synergistic
• Helps businesses commit to long-term goals
• Gets everyone’s thoughts out of their heads and into one accessible place

When do you begin implementation planning?

Because it’s so involved, it’s important that you don’t begin implementation planning too early or too late. 

Why? The process of creating an implementation plan is time-consuming. Most of the tasks involved require you to wait on communication or approvals from multiple stakeholders. The process also requires lots of research, goal-setting, gathering or defining resources, and getting team availability together. 

Avoid planning too early by waiting until the project is officially greenlit. The definition of greenlit means something different to every agency. However, most would agree that a signed contract and successful deposit payment are good markers. 

After those client onboarding tasks are complete, you can begin implementation planning. Remember, the project can’t begin without these plans, so have a system in place to kick off and support implementation planning ahead of time. 

What is an implementation timeline? 

An implementation timeline is a visual representation of all project-related due dates. That includes:

• The final project due date
• Dates your team needs to complete each phase by 
• Due dates for individual tasks and subtasks 

These dates aren’t set in stone yet. However, accurately forecasting effort and mini-milestones now will make the implementation phase that much easier. 

Implementation timelines are often represented by visual Gantt charts . A Gantt chart uses bars to track the progress of each phase, task, and subtask all at once. Wrike users can add task dependencies, which trigger automatic chart updates and notifications to team members in charge of the next steps. 

Gantt charts also help project managers identify possible roadblocks. With every single step laid out, it’s easy to see where resources are stretched too thin and whether or not milestones are realistic. 

How do you make an implementation plan?

Follow these steps to create a successful implementation plan: 

• Choose an implementation planning tool Project management solutions like Wrike can help teams share information, start and complete approvals, and set up timelines with ease. 
• Holidays or upcoming PTO
• Delivery time for goods and materials
• Additional training or onboarding of outside team members
• Review the strategic plan Ask yourself, where do the implementation plan and strategic plan align so far? Where does it conflict? When in doubt, always edit your implementation plan to support your strategic plan. 
• What the project is
• Why it’s important
• Who is involved 
• What is each person’s role in the project 
• What all parties hope to achieve
• The obstacles you foresee and how your team will overcome them
• Which ROIs you’ll use to measure success
• Is available for the project as a whole 
• Should be allocated to each key phase
• Will be monitored, and who will oversee it
• Will be broken down into trackable categories
• Collect related materials Gather the documents you need to plan and execute the project all in one place. Include data from past projects that may help you accurately forecast this one. 
• Define how progress will be measured and monitored Choose KPIs that align with your project goals, then chart progress within your project management solution. Come up with a plan for who is in charge and how often they’ll check in. 
• Outline management buy-in criteria Get crystal clear on what managers are looking for, what information they need to approve or reject, and any other information that will decrease resistance. 
• Do a stakeholder analysis Create a chart that defines each stakeholder’s level of impact, influence, and attitude. Explain the evaluations further and create an action plan for each person or group. 
• Clarify day-to-day operations Include a work plan that goes over which processes will be used, which will be changed, and how future changes will be dealt with down the road. Choose who is responsible for approving, managing, and finalizing adjustments as they come up. 
• Everyone’s preferred mode of communication
• What type of updates are expected when 
• And how information will be shared  Also, designate communication channels and leaders who will oversee them.  Don’t forget to loop in both your implementation leader and strategy director. Stakeholders do not need to sign off on this section. However, you may choose to share it with them so they can see how you plan to keep everyone on track. 
• Identify key project phases, tasks, and subtasks Break the project goal down into actionable steps. Give each phase a name, deadline, and set of related tasks. Use project status updates in Wrike to communicate task and subtask due date expectations with everyone involved. Updates are formatted as dropdown menu options which make it easy for individuals to quickly update the entire team when they’ve moved on to the next step.  After, assign team members to complete and approve each task. Set up task dependencies within Wrike, so status notifications are automatically sent to those who were waiting to move on to the next step. 
• Go over security needs If your project deals with sensitive data, outline what you’ll need to keep the entire project and team compliant throughout. List all digital and physical information sources that require privacy (think sensitive company financial data, home addresses, credit or bank account information, etc.). 
• Provide a glossary Include industry terms that clients, stakeholders, and teams will need to know throughout the course of the project. Add project-related abbreviations, slang, or resource nicknames you expect will come up in communications. 

What are the components of an implementation plan?

There are 13 components every implementation plan needs to have:

• Selected tools
• Preliminary research
• Strategic plan alignment
• Project summary
• Resource and materials list
• Goal monitoring and measurement
• Buy-in criteria
• Stakeholder management
• Operations plan
• Management plan
• Key phases and tasks
• Glossary of terms

A simple implementation plan template

Your own project implementation plan will have lots of information included, but a simple table including the steps needed to launch the project is always a good place to start.

In this example, a small business is preparing to launch an online store to sell its products. Let's take a look at how this looks on a simple table. 

What are implementation planning best practices?

• Always be as specific as possible 
• Don’t shy away from consulting experts and conducting additional research as needed 
• Pull data from similar past projects (successful and unsuccessful), then apply what you learned 
• Remember that 100% alignment between all stakeholders and personnel across the board is unrealistic 
• Use a project management solution to quickly update plans when changes come up 
• Centralize communication to save time and keep everyone on the same page 

What information do you put in an implementation schedule?

Include an outline of the project timeline, goals, and tasks to keep teams on the same page. Combine that with key updates on:

• The progress of major phases
• Adjustments made to budgets, timelines, or personnel
• Upcoming challenges and planned solutions

Implementation schedules are also meant for stakeholders, so the information you put in one needs to be tailored toward their needs. Identify each stakeholder’s level of involvement and what information they want to receive. 

What is the implementation process?

The implementation process is the step-by-step plan a team follows to achieve a shared objective. Each step is concrete and actionable. These instructions should be easily understood by anyone who reads them. 

What is a good implementation plan example? 

One good implementation plan example comes from Outdoor Equipment Manufacturer MTD . The brand uses Wrike to optimize its complex product development process. 

Their projects involve having multiple active tasks open across a variety of teams at the same time. As a result, their implementation plan relies on custom workflows, visual progress updates, and a bird’s eye view of what’s going on across the entire organization. 

Who creates implementation plans?

Project managers create implementation plans. They may choose to collaborate with team leads, subject experts, suppliers, and stakeholders to add important details. However, project managers are responsible for drafting, revising, and monitoring implementation plans the whole way through. 

What are the challenges of an implementation plan?

• Foggy vision Implementation plans are only as good as the strategy they’re based on. Connect back to your original goals and strategy plan frequently when drafting the implementation process. 
• Bad communication Instant messenger notes and email updates tend to get lost over the course of a project. Centralize all communication in your project management platform. In Wrike, use @ mentions to loop in stakeholders and collaborators. 
• Lack of training Hire outside specialists or plan time for proper employee training on new projects, especially if those skill sets come with a learning curve. 

How to use Wrike as implementation planning software

Create a foolproof project plan using Wrike’s visual Gantt charts, detailed task options, and robust templates . Each of these features helps project managers easily make and monitor progress. Use our two-week free trial to save time with customizable implementation plan templates you can use over and over again.

Maria Waida

Maria is a freelance content writer who specializes in blogging and other marketing materials for enterprise software businesses.

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How to create an effective implementation plan

An implementation plan is a formal document outlining step-by-step instructions and specific tasks required of team members to successfully achieve project goals or objectives. It’s a crucial component of project management , serving as a helpful roadmap for completing projects that support larger strategic initiatives. 

Once organizational strategies have been determined, the individual actions and step-by-step process of achieving these strategic objectives necessitate introducing an implementation plan.  

According to KBV Research, the global Project Management Software Market is anticipated to reach $17.75 billion by 2030 . However, additional research shows that up to 80% of IT projects fail to meet their objectives and experience considerable delays or exceed planned costs.

This article explores the vital role of an implementation plan in project management, covering its definition, benefits, challenges, and essential components. It also guides readers in creating their own plans, offering key advice for successful project outcomes.

What is an implementation plan?

An implementation plan is a formal document detailing the individual steps and tangible actions project teams must take when pursuing a shared goal or objective.

The plan is a process in project management and supports an organization’s wider strategic busi n ess priorities , setting out the specific requirements and responsibilities for orchestrating successful project execution.

The plan provides project teams with a holistic view, giving them insights into a range of factors, i.e., the project’s value proposition, budgetary requirements, timeframes, potential risks, and time-to-completion. 

It should encompass the end-to-end project lifecycle, enabling teams to determine the scope (the extent of what the project covers) and scale (the size or proportion of the project) while ensuring all actions are aligned with overarching strategic prerogatives.

11 Essential components of an implementation plan

Implementation plans will undoubtedly differ depending on the project’s scale, scope, perceived time-to-value driving organizational objectives, etc. 

The foundation of any effective implementation plan, however, includes meeting some essential criteria, which include :

1. Outline project objectives

Before the project launch, an implementation plan should identify the project’s end goal to create a consensus on project parameters. Project leaders can refer to SMART criteria to define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound objectives to make up key project milestones. 

Defining the project’s ultimate aim better enables teams to ensure project activities align with the organization’s wider strategic direction. To keep things on track, create a checklist that monitors the completion rate of key project goals, milestones, and other strategy-dependent factors.

2. Create a scope statement

A scope statement outlines the project’s actions and deliverables, identifies the project boundaries, and sets standards for meeting acceptance criteria. 

An implementation plan should produce a structured document for stakeholder alignment. This will give them a critical reference throughout the project timeline and clearly communicate what is within and outside the project trajectory to clarify its parameters. 

Scope statements help provide a clear understanding of what is expected–helping to prevent misunderstandings and ensure alignment between teams and stakeholders.

3. Launch a thorough risk analysis

Identifying potential risks and uncertainties raises awareness of any unforeseen challenges that may affect the project’s success. 

Implement risk mitigation strategies such as a SWOT analysis that gives teams a robust framework for honing in on any Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats that may arise throughout project execution. 

Implementation plans should aim to include contingency plans that provide project teams with solutions for combatting project obstacles, i.e., missed deadlines or budget limitations, and regularly revisit and update risk management efforts as the project progresses.

4. Success criteria

Success criteria outline ideal project outcomes, identifying the milestones shaping what success means for your project. 

Start by connecting these criteria to your project’s goals that turn abstract objectives into tangible accomplishments. Involve stakeholders in determining viewpoints, giving teams a well-rounded understanding of what exactly project success looks like. 

Collaboratively refine these criteria, incorporating different data points to establish a comprehensive evaluation framework. Regularly reassessing and adapting the requirements as your project unfolds allows your team to navigate changing dynamics and enables a more targeted path to project success.

5. Outline of project deliverables

Project deliverables are the tangible outcomes that define project success. For example, in an implementation plan for an IT project, teams establish project deliverables through key steps. The team first figures out exactly what they want the system to do and writes it down in a detailed plan (Functional Specifications Document). 

Then, they start building the system by writing the code and creating a guide on how to test it (Test Case Documentation). After testing to make sure everything works and tracking any issues, they release the final product (Live System) along with guides for users (User Manuals). 

Each of these steps outlines concrete project deliverables, making it clear and organized for everyone involved.

6. Team roles and responsibilities

In crafting an implementation plan, defining team roles and responsibilities is pivotal. Start by envisioning the project landscape, identifying the key players and their distinct contributions. 

Foster open communication channels to ensure a shared understanding of each team member’s role, promoting collaboration. Use clear communication tools and regular check-ins to reinforce accountability and streamline workflow. 

This approach to team roles and responsibilities ensures a cohesive and efficient working environment, where each member contributes strategically to the project’s success.

7. Project resource plan

Develop a resource plan outlining the required personnel, equipment, and materials. Address resource constraints and explore alternatives. Regularly monitor and adjust the resource plan to accommodate changing project needs. 

8. Implementation timeline

Create a detailed timeline outlining key milestones and activities. Use project management software to visualize dependencies and critical paths. Regularly update and communicate the timeline to keep all stakeholders informed.

9. Implementation plan milestones

Establish significant milestones to mark key achievements throughout the implementation process. Celebrate these milestones to boost team morale and maintain momentum. Ensure milestones are well-defined and aligned with project objectives.

10. Implementation plan metrics

Identify and establish key metrics to measure the success of the implementation plan. Regularly track and analyze these metrics to gauge progress and identify areas for improvement. Adjust the plan as needed based on metric insights.

What are the benefits of an implementation plan?

Implementing a robust implementation plan in project management can be a game-changer, offering a range of benefits. A clear roadmap for streamlined processes and enhanced resource efficiency brings plentiful advantages.

Let’s explore further: 

Clarity of purpose

Implementation plans provide a clear roadmap, offering a tangible structure for project teams to follow. This clarity of purpose aligns everyone involved with the project’s overarching goals and objectives.

Efficient resource allocation

A well-crafted implementation plan helps efficiently allocate resources, be it human, financial, or technological. This optimization ensures that resources are utilized judiciously, preventing unnecessary bottlenecks.

Risk mitigation

One of the primary advantages of an implementation plan is its ability to identify potential risks and challenges early. This foresight enables teams to develop effective risk mitigation strategies, minimizing the impact of unforeseen obstacles.

Enhanced communication

Implementation plans establish a foundation for effective communication. Team members, stakeholders, and management are kept informed about project milestones, progress, and potential hurdles, fostering a collaborative work environment.

Measurable progress

Breaking down the project into milestones with defined deadlines allows for measuring progress. This keeps the project on track and provides stakeholders with a tangible sense of achievement.

What are the challenges of an implementation plan?

While the plan provides structure and guidance, adaptability and responsiveness to evolving circumstances are equally critical for navigating the dynamic landscape of project execution.

Finding balance in the implementation process is important for realizing the full potential of a well-crafted plan. This will mean identifying and understanding several challenges that may arise during project implementation. 

Resistance to change

Team members often resist implementing a new plan because they have become accustomed to existing processes. Overcoming this resistance requires effective change management strategies and clear communication about the benefits of the new plan.

Resource constraints

Despite meticulous planning, resource constraints may arise, leading to potential delays. This challenge requires ongoing monitoring and flexibility to adjust the plan as needed.

Balancing detail and flexibility

Striking the right balance between a detailed plan and the flexibility to adapt is challenging. Too much rigidity can stifle creativity and problem-solving, while excessive flexibility may lead to a lack of accountability.

Communication overload

While effective communication is a benefit, an overload of information can lead to confusion. Finding the right cadence and channels for communication is essential to prevent information fatigue.

How to create an implementation plan

The implementation plan drives a project forward in project management, fusing strategic blueprints and plans into concrete results. 

Project leaders must follow a structured approach encompassing several key steps to navigate this crucial stage successfully.

Define project goals

A clear articulation of project goals is at the heart of any successful implementation plan. Often aligned with broader organizational objectives, these goals act as the guiding lights that inform subsequent decisions and actions. Defining these goals with precision not only provides a sense of direction, but also facilitates the establishment of measurable success criteria.

Conduct research

A thorough understanding of the project’s landscape is essential for effective implementation. Research involves delving into industry best practices, analyzing market trends, and evaluating similar projects. This information enriches decision-making and enables teams to expect challenges and devise adaptive strategies.

Define project outcomes and deliverables

Building on the foundation of project goals, the next step involves clearly defining the outcomes and deliverables expected from the implementation. These tangible markers serve as benchmarks for success and guide the team’s efforts toward producing measurable and impactful results.

Identify potential risks and challenges

In any project, uncertainties and obstacles are inevitable. Identifying potential risks and challenges allows project managers to develop risk mitigation strategies. This proactive approach empowers teams to navigate unforeseen hurdles with agility, ensuring the project stays on course.

Set project milestones and deadlines

Breaking down the implementation process into manageable milestones is essential for tracking progress and maintaining momentum. Establishing deadlines for each milestone creates a sense of urgency and accountability, fostering a structured and time-bound approach to project execution.

Assign team roles and responsibilities

Successful implementation hinges on the collaboration and coordination of a well-structured team. Assigning clear roles and responsibilities ensures that each team member understands their contribution to the project. This clarity minimizes confusion, optimizes workflow, and enhances overall efficiency.

Determine resources needed

Resource allocation is a critical aspect of implementation planning. This step involves identifying and securing the human, financial, and technological resources required for successful project execution. Adequate resource planning prevents bottlenecks and delays, ensuring a smoother implementation process.

Acquire management and stakeholder buy-In

Securing the support and buy-in of key stakeholders and upper management is fundamental to the success of any project. Communicating the value proposition, addressing concerns, and aligning expectations fosters a collaborative environment that enhances the likelihood of success.

Ensuring swift project management in the digital transformation era

Implementation plans are indispensable roadmaps in project management, gaining heightened significance in our technology-driven era. 

Beyond basic guidance, they are pivotal in optimizing resource usage, addressing risks, and facilitating seamless communication. Their importance lies in their ability to provide a detailed and well-coordinated approach, guiding businesses through the intricacies of digital transformation with precision. 

Implementation plans emerge as essential tools, ensuring projects align with objectives and successfully navigate the challenges posed by technological advancements. 

As organizations strive to stay ahead in this dynamic environment, the strategic nature of these plans becomes increasingly evident, offering a structured path for effective project execution amidst the complexities of technological evolution.

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Project management

Implementation plan: What to include and 5 essential steps

A project plan or project implementation plan is a key strategic document that keeps teams on track throughout a project, indicating how a project is expected to run along with who’s responsible for what. It’s an extremely valuable planning tool — one that can be the difference between project success and project failure.

It’s also a fairly comprehensive document, and if you’ve never built one before, the concept can feel a bit overwhelming.

In this post, we’ll give you a five-step plan for building and implementing a project plan. First, we’ll walk you through what a project implementation plan looks like, why you should create one for every project, and what each plan should include.

• What is a project implementation plan?

A project implementation plan is a document that defines how a project will be executed. Implementation plans outline the project's goals, scope, and purpose, as well as listing the resources (including team members) necessary for a successful project.

Project implementation plans are sometimes called “strategic plans” because they lay out the strategy proposed for a project. But we like the longer name because it conveys more than just strategy: It suggests a process going into action, and it answers the question of how a team will arrive at a goal.

A project implementation plan serves as a critical reference point throughout the project's lifecycle, ensuring everyone is on the same page and everything is on the right track. It's a vital document for guiding decision-making, mitigating risks, and ultimately ensuring the successful completion of the project from start to finish.

The Teamwork.com guide to project management

Get best practices, tips, and methodologies to enhance your project management approach with our free guide.

• Why every project should start with an implementation plan

Why start each project with an implementation plan? Simple: because you want the project to succeed, and you want an objective way to know if it succeeded.

Starting each project with an implementation plan accomplishes quite a bit for most teams and businesses, primarily because it creates a shared sense of vision and understanding and points toward a clearly defined goal.

Most teams realize these four benefits (and plenty more) when they create a thorough and functional project implementation plan:

It creates an actionable roadmap of the scope of work

Projects run the gamut from extremely simple to lengthy and complex. The more complicated and interconnected the project, the greater the chance for confusion.

Whatever the level of complexity, chaos ensues when team members aren’t clear on what to do, when to do it, or why they’re doing it.

A project implementation plan is the antidote to this kind of chaos because it shows all parties what the path forward looks like (the roadmap ) — as well as what is and isn’t on that path (the scope of work).

It makes goals and communication transparent to all stakeholders

When all parties understand the goals of a project, you lessen confusion around those goals. There may still be disagreement on how to best achieve a goal, but there’s no confusion about what the team is aiming to accomplish.

Also, a central, accessible document containing all relevant aspects of a project creates a single source of truth for teams, managers, executives, vendors, customers, and more. When anyone and everyone associated with a project is working from the same playbook, teams and businesses enjoy clearer, more focused, and more transparent communication .

It holds your team members accountable

Around 70% of businesses report having at least one failed project in the last year. We’ve all been part of a project where no one seemed accountable for problems or even total project failure. Of course, no one likes taking the blame and finding a scapegoat isn’t always terribly productive. Still, if you have a team member or business unit that’s consistently failing to deliver, you want to know.

A strong project implementation plan makes clear who’s responsible for what within a project. It gives project managers and team leads a stronger understanding of task accountability, helping to hold team members accountable for their work.

And most of the time, better accountability comes with better results!

It helps your entire team stay on the same page

You’ll never completely eliminate scope creep (something that occurred within more than a third of projects in 2021), nor should you. Parameters for various deliverables or even the entire project can and do change over the course of a project, and sometimes a change in scope is clearly the right decision.

But not all scope creep is good. Especially with longer or more complex projects, it’s common for team members to lose focus on the top-level goals — not to mention the specific steps needed to reach those goals.

This loss of focus is preventable, though, as is the scope creep that grows from it. A project implementation plan keeps the big-picture goals and the steps required to meet them in focus. When a change in scope is warranted, it should be documented within or alongside the implementation plan.

• Essential components of a great implementation plan

Most well-designed implementation plans contain these essential items, though it’s important to note that implementation plans vary widely, just like the projects they’re attached to.

These elements comprise a solid foundation for your next implementation plan. Start with these, but feel free to add additional elements that make sense for your industry or project type.

1) Scope statement

The scope statement outlines the scope of the project — essentially, what work will be performed in the project (and what work would be considered out of scope).

2) Project milestones, goals, and key objectives

Project goals are the high-level outcomes the project aims to achieve. Key objectives are the steps or intermediate outcomes that will occur throughout the project in support of the project goals. Project milestones are the points of measurement along the way, usually significant or tangible in some way.

Examples of milestones across a few industry contexts include wireframe completed, beta launch, copy drafted, or the completion of a phase, segment, or function that’s part of the whole.

3) Detailed resource plan

A project’s resource plan indicates which human resources are involved along with their time or workload commitment. You should also include materials and equipment (typically, only what’s beyond the standard stuff every employee already has) needed for successful project completion.

4) Estimated implementation timeline

A key element of any implementation plan is a concrete timeframe for the project (and its implementation). These dates are rarely perfect at the outset of a project, but they provide a goal to work toward and give stakeholders some context for what they’re signing off on.

Most project teams use project management software for creating project timelines , often in the form of a Gantt chart.

5) Implementation plan milestones

Your implementation plan may benefit from its own set of internal milestones, separate from the broader project milestones. These internal milestones are more useful on highly complex projects with multiple levels of approval and numerous departments supplying information.

Implementation plan milestones could look like these: initial stakeholder information gathered, plan drafted, plan discussed and feedback incorporated, final sign-off by all stakeholders.

6) Implementation plan KPIs & metrics

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) or other metrics reveal how well the team is accomplishing the implementation plan. Establish measurable indicators, state what they are within the plan itself, and then track them over the course of the project.

Here, a quality project management tool is essential if you want to succeed with measurements that span the length of a project.

• 5 easy steps to create your project implementation plan

Now you know what needs to go into your project implementation plan — but how do you actually create one and get the implementation process started?

We know this process can seem daunting at first, and it does take some upfront work. But the process doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. Follow these five easy steps to create an implementation plan that helps keep your project and your team on track. Then, as future projects arise, use these questions as a template of sorts to create a quality implementation and management plan for each one.

Teamwork.com’s project management template is an easy way to start building your plan today.

• 1) Define your goals and milestones

Before you can create a plan for how to get where you want to go, you need to spend some time deciding where you want to go .

So, before you start building out any other part of a project implementation or action plan, start by devoting time to the what and the where:

What are you trying to accomplish? (Project-level goals)

What needs to happen to reach those goals? (Project objectives)

What are the intermediate steps or milestones that demonstrate progress along the path toward the project’s goals? (Project milestones)

Once you establish goals, objectives, and milestones — and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders and project team members on those goals and milestones — you’re ready to proceed to step two.

• 2) Conduct research by interviewing, surveying, or observing

Research is one key element of a successful implementation plan. In many project contexts, this research looks like interviewing or surveying various stakeholders, subject matter experts, department leaders, and so on — gathering the information necessary to build your implementation strategy.

Sometimes observation is a key strategy as well: Watching what another team (or vendor or external organization) does or has done on a similar project can provide valuable insights.

• 3) Brainstorm and map out potential risks

Every project has inherent potential risks. Some of these can be foreseen, while others seem to come out of nowhere. Take the pandemic as one example of the latter category. Yes, businesses should have business continuity and disaster management policies in place, but few — if any — businesses had a concrete plan of action lined up for a global pandemic.

So, there are risks you can’t plan for and could never predict. But there are plenty of risks that, with a little bit of brainstorming and planning, should be easy to discover. These are the ones you need to target as you perform a risk assessment.

Map out the known risks, along with potential impacts and mitigation strategies for each one. Some risks are entirely avoidable so long as you take appropriate risk management actions. Others may not be completely preventable, but having a plan in place will greatly reduce their impact.

• 4) Assign and delegate essential tasks

Every good implementation plan will include a work plan or action plan that lists out the tasks within the project to a certain level of granularity. These tasks eventually get plugged into a calendar or schedule of some sort, often within project planning software suites like Teamwork.com .

No matter what method or platform you’re using, at this stage, you need to map out or schedule these tasks. As a part of this step, make sure you assign and delegate tasks to specific resources (or, at minimum, specific departments or work groups).

This step is key to successful project execution, as it assigns responsibility and accountability for every task included in the plan, bringing clarity to who’s doing what and when.

• 5) Finalize your plan and allocate resources

Next up is allocating resources. You already assigned tasks to people (or departments) in the previous step, so what do we mean here that’s any different?

Put simply, there’s a difference between putting on paper that “Sam will handle task 35” (assigning tasks) and actually making sure that Sam has the capacity to handle task 35 (allocating resources).

In step 4, all you really did was determine who’s doing what. Now, during resource allocation, you make sure that your assignment plan is achievable. Resource allocation means assigning tasks to resources that are actually available. In other words, you need to make sure task 35 doesn’t land on Sam’s desk the same day as 10 other tasks.

Last, once everything else about your plan has been crafted, vetted, and approved, it’s time to finalize the plan. Usually, this involves sending out the completed plan for a final round of approvals.

Once approved, the project implementation plan becomes a single source of truth for the team and other stakeholders. So make sure to store the plan in a central, accessible location. ( Teamwork.com is a great place for this , if you ask us!)

• Create an effective project plan with Teamwork.com

Creating a project implementation plan requires careful planning and attention to innumerable details, but the results are worth the investment. Increase your project success rate, productivity, morale, and more by keeping teams focused on the right shared outcomes.

We’ve hinted at this a few times already, but project implementation planning (along with all the other documents and documentation you need to prepare to get a project off the ground) is infinitely easier when you use the right tools.

Teamwork.com is a powerful all-in-one platform for client work — including complete operations control and project management — that gives you a central location to store project data, robust yet flexible templates, and visibility into current and past project data. Teamwork.com can cut down on the detail work and keep your information organized in a digestible, more user-friendly way, ultimately empowering you and your teams to achieve better work for your clients, be more profitable, and stay on track.

See more of what Teamwork.com can do for your business now — get started now for free, view our comprehensive pricing plans , or book a demo today.

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• Small Business
• The Top Project Management Software for Small Businesses

The 6 Steps for Creating the Perfect Implementation Plan

Our Small Business Expert

Whether you’re starting a new business, creating a new team, or trying out a new marketing strategy, you can’t dive right in and throw money at the first solution you stumble upon.

Strategic project planning is the cornerstone of a successful venture, just like every other business decision you make. You need an implementation plan to help you navigate the treacherous waters of undertaking a new strategic decision.

Overview: What is an implementation plan?

An implementation plan supports a strategic action plan process for all kinds of business operations and practices, whether you’re executing a new marketing plan or introducing a new software platform to your organization.

The implementation plan dictates the actions and methods you’ll use to turn your strategy into reality.

How to create an implementation plan

Building your strategic implementation plan may seem daunting the first time but don’t worry, I’ve laid out the six implementation plan steps.

Step 1: Brainstorm your desired outcomes

The first step is envisioning and determining what the final outcomes will be. Whether it’s the adoption of a new software tool or a change in your team management strategy. Start with the endgame in mind.

Here are a few questions you need to answer about these outcomes:

• Who stands to benefit from this change or addition?
• How will they benefit?
• What metrics will measure success?

Keep in mind the answers to these questions may shift as your implementation progresses. Just think of your answers as a springboard for the process.

Tips for brainstorming your desired outcomes

To help the process along, I’ve come up with a couple of tips to help you structure your outcomes.

• Set goals: Base the goals of your implementation on the best possible scenarios, including launch dates, secured clients, improved productivity numbers, etc.
• List contingencies: Implementing anything into your business strategy is a long process, prone to change. That’s why it’s important to brainstorm contingent scenarios. The risk assessment you conduct later in this process will help clarify these scenarios and contingencies.

Step 2: Assign implementation responsibility to an owner

While it’s too early to start delegating individual responsibilities, it’s important to establish an overall owner for this implementation process. This owner will take charge of tracking team productivity, assign individual tasks, and steer the implementation when the team veers off course.

Tips for assigning the implementation to an owner

One of the hardest decisions you’ll make during this entire process is choosing someone to lead the planning and execution of your implementation strategy. Here are a few tips to help you make that choice.

• Look for a great communicator: Everything about an implementation strategy or project is dependent on great communication, especially from those responsible for its success. Make sure the owner you choose has a long history of quality and timely communication with their teammates and superiors.
• Look for an innovative thinker: The best leaders operate well under pressure and find innovative ways to solve unique problems. Your implementation will hit a few bumps along the way, so it’s best to have someone competent behind the wheel.

Step 3: Conduct a risk assessment

It’s time to ensure you understand all of the pitfalls before you proceed with your implementation plan. You don’t want to work halfway through the process before you realize you didn’t plan out buffer days to handle scope creep or additional panic funding in the budget.

This is why it’s crucial to conduct a risk assessment before committing to this implementation.

Tips for conducting a risk assessment

Developing your risk assessment is your best defense against issues that might derail your entire implementation strategy. Here are a couple of tips for identifying and mitigating those risks.

• Make your risk assessment a group effort: It’s not possible for your implementation owner to know every issue the team might face. It’s crucial to bring the team together for brainstorming sessions to gather all types of perspectives for risk and solution identification.
• Evaluate case studies similar to your own implementation strategy: Nothing beats learning about the risks facing your project than studying those who’ve executed similar strategies to yours. Find out what worked and what didn’t from the primary sources rather than only relying on hypothetical speculation.

Step 4: Establish a budget

Budgeting. Everybody’s favorite project pastime (except mine). The key to a helpful implementation plan budget is to make all items and expenditures easy to measure and track.

Keep everything organized using spreadsheets or interactive budget tools offered by many project management platforms, such as Mavenlink or monday.com .

The two most pressing questions of this phase are:

• What will it take to make this implementation plan a success?
• How much are you willing to spend to make it a success?

Tips for creating a budget

Creating a budget is intimidating, but with the help of a few tips, you’ll be filling out your line items with ease.

• Take your risks into account: Risks pose a threat to any budget, whether those risks lead to longer execution windows, additional teammates, or the need for supplementary resources. Make sure you build buffers into your budget to make room for these issues.
• Use similar implementation examples as a baseline: Like creating a risk register, it’s always best to use similar scenarios to inform the decisions you make with your current implementation plan.

Step 5: Create and delegate your implementation plan tasks

Your implementation has an owner, and so should every task in the process. These owners are responsible for executing said tasks in your plan and reporting back progress to the overall manager. These owners are also responsible for handling the respective risks associated with these tasks.

Tips for delegating your tasks

Your tasks are specific to the type of implementation plan you put together, so I will leave that to you. Instead, I want to focus on giving you a couple of pointers for delegating your tasks.

• Communicate your reasons to each team member: It’s one thing to hand out roles, and it’s another to explain the reason for each choice. Explaining the rationale behind each choice will provide purpose and motivation for each team member to succeed in their tasks.
• Set clear expectations: While the line “impress me” has its place in movies and TV shows, it isn’t a very effective mindset to use on your employees. Instead of leaving the end product up to your team, make sure you set clear expectations of what you want to see in your project deliverables. Clear expectations produce clear results.

Step 6: Develop your implementation plan schedule

You’ve gathered foundational information and now it’s time to take that and construct your plan. Like any well-crafted narrative, your implementation project schedule will include a beginning, middle, and end.

The beginning includes all of your initiation actions (setup, delegation, etc.), the middle consists of all your execution actions and progress tracking, and the finale includes all of your assessments and last-minute quality control.

You’ll want to make sure the scheduling decisions you make lead to the quickest and most cost-effective implementation without sacrificing quality. Use tools and strategies such as the work breakdown structure and critical path method to plan out the most efficient handling of tasks.

Tips for developing your schedule

This may be your first time putting together an implementation plan. If so, these tips will help you map out your process.

• Break tasks into milestones: Milestones provide your team with motivation and an ability to measure progress through grouped task signoffs.
• Create schedule buffers: Your implementation schedule is where you take the possibility of scope creep into account. Make sure you plan out scheduling buffers to account for inflated process times.

The best project management tools for creating an implementation plan

You don’t have to create your implementation plan all by yourself in spreadsheets and Word documents. You’ll find lots of project management software options out there well-suited to help you plan, manage, execute, and evaluate your implementation strategy.

To make it easy for you, I’ve listed three options that’ll cover all of your needs.

1. Mavenlink

Mavenlink is the perfect “do everything” project management software for enterprise-level users. It’s a simple, powerful tool that’ll provide you with every function you need to plan and carry out strategy implementation and project steps, from task dependencies to budget reports.

Mavenlink is a powerful and “by the book” project management tool that’ll handle anything you throw at it. Image source: Author

Mavenlink is far better suited to enterprise-level users due to its pricing but if you can afford this platform, it is well worth the money. I’d especially recommend this software option to users looking for an experience that’ll show them the ropes of project management software.

Scoro is fantastic for many reasons. It’s easy to navigate (although learning some functions involves a learning curve), it offers nearly every project management feature you could ask for, and the report selection is extensive.

I want to focus on that last benefit because Scoro gives you some of the best reporting options I’ve ever seen.

Scoro offers detailed and actionable dashboards. Image source: Author

While the execution actions of your implementation strategy are important, tracking your progress is the key to ensuring and showing that success. Scoro gives you all kinds of report options that’ll help you measure activity, budgets, and even the “success rates” of tasks.

I’d recommend Scoro to users who are dealing with complicated implementation plans with many moving parts that require consistent attention.

3. monday.com

When it comes to a combination of ease of use and versatility, monday.com is second to none. It is one of the easiest project management tools I’ve ever used and I would recommend this platform for nearly any user of any experience level.

Unlike the other two options, monday.com relies on its customizability to provide you with all kinds of features you’d use to plan out your implementation strategy.

monday.com’s user interface is very simple to learn and pleasant to use. Image source: Author

Using what it calls a “board” system, you are able to track your implementation plan tasks, delegate responsibilities, create dependencies, measure success through reports, and even create budgets.

This is the perfect tool for anyone looking to step away from the traditional project software experience and try something new.

The Ascent has your back beyond the implementation plan

Project management and business strategy are about more than planning. Growing your business requires solid execution and thorough after-the-fact evaluation.

That’s why we at The Ascent want to help you every step of the way with countless guides, from project management basics and best practices to detailed software reviews and alternatives pieces.

We regularly post and update our content to reflect the constant changes you’ll face while completing projects (even when dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic ), so be sure to stay up to date on everything we have to offer.

We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent, a Motley Fool service, does not cover all offers on the market. The Ascent has a dedicated team of editors and analysts focused on personal finance, and they follow the same set of publishing standards and editorial integrity while maintaining professional separation from the analysts and editors on other Motley Fool brands.

The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters.

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What is a Project Implementation Plan + Templates

What is a project implementation plan, do we really need project plans (benefits), anatomy of a project implementation plan, executing your project implementation plan (steps), project implementation plan templates.

At the outset of any large project, project managers have the challenging task of organizing team members and creating a strategic plan for completing project objectives. There are many ways that leaders can help lead employees towards planning a cleaner implementation process, such as well-organized Gantt charts, project execution plans, project management software, and other collaboration tools.

While there are many project management tools a project team can use to monitor their progress, one of the best practices is to create a project implementation plan. These detailed plans help you reach your project goals and give managers insight into how well teams are sticking to timelines and metrics throughout the project process.

A project implementation plan (also known as a strategic plan) outlines all the steps within a planned project. The implementation strategy should include detailed information regarding the project, such as timelines, budget, project stakeholder expectations, scope, and deliverable acceptance criteria. The different tasks are often broken down into more manageable and assignable tasks and subtasks with their own timelines and requirements. As you map this information out, the project manager, stakeholders, and project teams will clarify goals, end deliverables, and deadlines.

It is easy for project managers to assume that project plans are more complex than they're worth. While not every project category is suitable for a complete extensive project plan, actual implementation can get messy in larger, more complex projects without clear guidelines. Here are just a few benefits of project implementation plans:

• Keeps your teams on track regardless of their task
• Helps teams better understand the process and workflows of other groups, leading to better collaboration
• Ensures everyone is on the same page, preventing miscommunications on expectations or plans
• Creates transparency for all teams involved, including stakeholders
• Adequate resources are allotted, resulting in smooth vendor transactions and preventing last-minute orders and extended hours for team members
• Creates accountability for project managers and team members
• Earlier risk identification
• More reliable timelines for task and project deadlines
• Helps ensure all project resources and information are in one central and accessible place
• Fosters trust in critical stakeholders

To help understand how a project implementation plan works, it first helps to know their architecture. Below are the standard components of an implementation plan that you can use to help ensure project success!

Project objectives and goals

A successful implementation plan will have details of the projects' key components, such as main objectives and goals. These milestones should be communicated and decided upon in detail with stakeholders to ensure everyone is on the same page. Break the individual goals and objectives into detailed pieces and ensure everyone agrees on the points and expected outcomes before moving beyond this first step. The easiest way to ruin a well-detailed implementation plan is to have a stakeholder later read the listed goals and express that it goes entirely against their desires.

Project scope assessment

Scope creep is something that is the bane of many project managers. By detailing the exact project scope and expectations, you can agree with stakeholders about what work you are willing to do and what falls outside of that scope. When you put your limits and offerings out there right away, it makes it much easier to tell a pushy client "no" and to point to your previously agreed-upon scope and objectives.

List of project deliverables

Create a complete list of project deliverables from every task applicable. Telling your stakeholders upfront what you will be giving to them at the end of different project phases helps them know what to expect and protects your team from constant requests for information. Showing your teams what is expected by the end of an objective can also help them envision the bigger picture, as it can be easy to get lost in the details.

Scheduling, subtasks, and due dates

Your plan should have an implementation schedule showing both long-term and short-term task goals and the time frames that these significant tasks and subtasks should be completed within. You should detail an entire project timeline. However, it also should be understood that dates may change slightly throughout the process. The timeline should show the expected project completion deadline and any deliverable due dates.

Risk assessment and dependencies

An implementation plan should include a contingency plan in the case of challenges or roadblocks along the way. Most projects have unexpected changes throughout the process, and while often these are manageable, it is crucial to identify where things can go wrong in the project that may set you off track. Looking at dependencies across the plan can help you avoid these issues and decide how to counteract them if anything occurs.

Stakeholders

Identifying key stakeholders is essential in understanding the project's aims, the deliverables' goals, and the reasoning behind decisions. To help everyone know how to best approach the project, create a list of all stakeholders and other meaningful contributors and their role in the process. These details can help project managers know where to turn if questions arise and how to communicate deliverables and additional information to clients best .

Ensuring that you have adequate resources for a project, from hardware and facilities to personnel hours, is crucial to plan execution. By creating a list of all needed supplies and human resources, you can ensure that you have everything you need to complete the plan from start to finish successfully. The last thing you want is to be close to a deadline and realize that you forgot to order essential items or underestimated the employees needed to complete the project.

As you start to act on your implementation plan, make sure to tailor your actions to your team's specific needs. If you have a much smaller project team, you will most likely follow these steps differently from a multi-team endeavor. Regardless, here are the basic steps you will most likely track to execute your implementation plan:

1. Thoroughly conduct any necessary research.

Think about what information you need for the successful implementation of the project. Take time to interview your stakeholders, team leaders, and others involved to figure out what goals, deliverables, and resources your project will need. The more details you can gather about pain points, needs, and timelines, the easier it will be to start creating your plan, and the fewer drafts you will have to go through before finalizing it.

2. Draft the plan (including the elements above).

Once you have gathered all of the research, you need to draft your plan. Gather all of the information you found in the first step, and start slotting it into the appropriate sections of your implementation plan. Follow the structure we provided in the previous section of this article, or look further for templates that you can use to start. Once you have a good design in place for your project implementation plans, you can draft new ones off of similar projects to save yourself time.

3. Circulate to the team for buy-in and feedback.

After you have finished a primarily complete draft of the plan, start showing your team and stakeholders for edits and buy-in. Showing a comprehensive vision for what the project could look like can help gain the trust of clients and team leads as you move forward with the project. Be sure to consider all feedback as you develop your document, as diverse perspectives will help cover any areas you may not have considered. Try to make sure everyone has time to review the plan before moving forward.

4. Designate a strong project lead.

Picking a project lead is crucial for starting up a new project implementation plan. You want someone whose strengths will lend to the project's needs, and ideally, who has experience with some of the teams or stakeholders already. Pick someone you trust whom you think will help you hit all deadlines and deliverables while expertly approaching any challenges along the way.

5. Clearly define teams and resources.

Rather than abstractly alluding to needing a general amount of human power and physical resources, detail as much as possible whom you will assign to these tasks and precisely what types of resources you will need. Pick teams that you think will be best for different jobs and subtasks so that you can start ensuring that you have all of the personnel needed to reach your goals. Make sure anything that needs to be ordered is lined up and approved so that there aren't delays down the line.

6. Set regular status meetings with key stakeholders.

Decide how often you want to meet and update stakeholders on the project's status. More regular meetings mean that they can grow through a more collaborative relationship and grow their trust in your leadership. On the other hand, if you meet too regularly and don't have many updates, it can lead to frustration from those who have busy schedules and strain your relationships.

7. Set major milestones for cross-functional alignment.

Making milestones throughout the project helps ensure all teams and project leaders will be in sync. Ensuring that pieces of the project come together across all departments by specific deadlines can help make sure that no one team starts lagging or getting off track without managers noticing before it becomes a more significant issue.

Using a template to start your project implementation plan can help give you a head start on your needs. We have collected a few different templates here for your team to pull from as they start considering what format will work best for their next project:

• PowerPoint Business Project Plan Presentation Template
• Excel Gantt Project Planner Template
• PowerPoint Project Milestone Timeline Template
• Excel Project Timeline With Milestones
• Excel Work Plan Timeline With Phases

As you get started on your next project, consider taking the time to plan it out with an implementation plan. Through improved communications, more inter-team collaboration, and set expectations, you help your teams and stakeholders feel more confident in the project process and ensure that everyone is on the same page throughout the project. When you take the time to detail out your deadlines, resource needs, potential risks, and milestones, you set yourself up for success.

Get organized and communicate with a client portal.

Portal is a no-code customer portal solution that lets you offer clients a unified hub for messaging, file-sharing, eSignatures, payments, forms, and self-serve support. Portal enables you to design a customized client experience that elevates your brand in all customer interactions. Try Portal for free .

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How to create a project implementation plan

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What is an Implementation Plan & How Do I Create One

The primary purpose of creating a project plan is to execute the project successfully. Successful execution of a project is impossible without an implementation plan.

An organization may get stuck on how to execute its project or may execute it incorrectly without an implementation plan.

Project managers can easily and effectively manage the project process if they follow the steps highlighted in the project implementation plan and get the desired result.

You can avoid failure in the project execution phase and attain project success with a well-detailed implementation plan.

This article will reveal every important detail you need to know to create an effective implementation plan.

Let’s get started.

What is an Implementation Plan in Project Management?

You can define an implementation plan as a project management tool that outlines a step-by-step process to bring a project from start to completion.

In other words, your implementation plan lays down the process or procedure a project manager and the project team must follow to execute a project successfully.

A project implementation plan is a detailed document containing a list of tasks with individual roles and responsibilities . It determines the project goals, timeline, and resources needed to support successful implementation.

There is a difference between a strategic plan and an implementation plan. The simple difference is that strategic plans describe the project manager's implementation strategy while implementation plans convert a strategy into an actual task.

Key Components of an Implementation Plan

1. project goals and objective.

A project needs to have a goal or objective. An object is a key milestone that the project team must complete to achieve the goal. The organization can choose an objective during strategic planning sessions.

2. Success Criteria

Key stakeholders and project leaders have to reach a mutual conclusion on what would be described as the project’s critical success factor ( CSF ) and how to measure success.

3. Scope Statement

The scope statement is a critical component of an implementation plan. It is a brief description of your project scope. Proper project scope management is critical for effective project planning .

4. Resource Plan

A resource plan is one of the key components of an implementation plan. Create a detailed resource plan containing every resource needed for successfully implementing the project.

These resources can be human resources, equipment, and every material required to carry out the project.

5. Risk Analysis

You can effectively use risk assessment tools to identify all the potential project risks you may encounter.

6. Implementation Timeline

To have a successful implementation plan, you will require a clear project timeline . You get a clear overview of individual tasks in your project and project deliverables with a project timeline.

7. Implementation Plan Milestone

If you want to measure progress when executing your project implementation plan, it is vital to identify key milestones which you will use to track project progress. Schedule milestones in your project execution plan around due dates set for project completion.

8. Team Roles and Responsibility

There is a need to assign responsibilities to team members, with everyone knowing what role or responsibility is assigned.

9. Implementation Plan Metrix

Define metrics such as the Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs ) and other key metrics to control the implementation plan's progress effectively.

How to Write a Project Implementation Plan

You must have accurate knowledge to create a solid implementation plan. Here is a detailed outline of how to write a project implementation plan.

1. Research and Discovery

The first step is identifying what you require to create an effective project implementation plan. You will have to conduct research to answer these questions.

• What kind of teams are needed to achieve the strategic goals?
• What is the time duration required to execute the strategic plan?
• What resources are required, and what quantity should be allocated from the budget?

You must conduct a strategic interview with key stakeholders, key partners, customers, and team members to gather the required information.

This strategic interview aims to determine what components and assignments are essential and what factors are of greater importance so you can prioritize. List all the set project goals you wish to achieve and cross-embed the strategic plan with the implementation plan.

Finally, everything must align with the strategic plan for the project implementation plan to work.

2. Identify Assumptions and Risks

Identifying risks and assumptions in your implementation plan is important. Examples of assumptions and risks in your implementation plan include paid time off or holidays, market instability, damaged tools, budget constraints, and losing personnel.

You must consider all these factors before executing the implementation plan.

3. Assign Responsibility

Assigning responsibilities is vital when carrying out each activity in the implementation plan. For a task to be properly assigned, the manager must delegate specific roles and responsibilities to team members.

After assigning tasks, monitor them to ensure that all assigned tasks are carried out effectively.

4. Determine Activities

Finally, you must recognize all the important activities to complete your plan. Here are some questions that can help you decide on important activities to include in your implementation plan.

• What is the organizational structure?
• Who are the project’s key players?
• What are the crucial steps and key milestones you want to accomplish?
• Do you have task dependencies you need to factor in?
• Which activities are essential for completing the project’s strategic initiative?
• What are the stakeholder requirements?
• What are the allocated resources?
• What are all the potential risks involved in the project?

After implementing these questions, your implantation plan is complete and ready for execution.

You may need project approval from the top executives before you can start implementing your plan.

Implementation Plan Example

Implementation plans are widely used across various organizations and have wholesome benefits.

The primary goal of an implementation plan is to implement company strategy effectively and create a workable step-by-step process of bringing the project to completion.

Here is a detailed example of how an implementation plan works.

Benefits of an Implementation Plan

The implementation plan plays a key role in the success of the overall strategic plan. Without the implementation plan, project managers will not be able to execute the project’s implementation strategy, resulting in project completion.

Throughout the project's implementation phase, the project manager, key stakeholders, and the entire team have a clear direction to execute the project easily.

1. Increased Cooperation

If each team member works in isolation or does not work well with other team members, it will affect the project’s result. With an implementation plan in place, you can foster cooperation within the team.

Working with other members is easier when everyone knows what is expected of them and the steps to be followed in the implementation plan with their tasks.

An implementation plan helps to bridge the gap between team members to ensure everyone works in sync with themselves.

Buy-in in project management means getting stakeholders on board with the project mission and vision and involved in the decision-making process.

Suppose you do a thorough job in your research and acquire all the relevant information for successfully implementing the strategic plan. In that case, you can buy in from key project stakeholders and important partners involved in the entire project.

The up-side to this is that you can always get buy-in with a well-structured and detailed implementation plan.

3. Meeting Goals to Ensure Project Success

Communication and clear understanding are key to accomplishing project goals. Setting a goal and getting every team member to understand how to accomplish this goal is possible through the implementation plan.

Ensure you carry along the strategy director and implementation leader when creating communication channels for the implementation plan.

Best Practices for Implementation Planning

Putting these principles to work within your team while executing the implementation plan will guarantee success in executing the project.

1. Create a Designated Implementation Team

A specific team focused on ensuring the productive implementation of a particular plan is essential. Create a specific team burdened with the responsibility of ensuring that the success of an implementation plan increases the chances of success even though it is not compulsory.

2. Create a Shared Vision Among All Team Members

Your team members must clearly understand the implementation plan's purpose. If the vision is clear to them, a deeper connection to the work will be established, which will serve as a motivating factor.

Always encourage team members to express their views on the strategic and implementation plans.

3. Choose a Dependable Team Leader

The team leader has to properly orient and coach the team members on the best ways to carry out their implementation plan tasks.

This individual should seek guidance from past implementation plan leaders and use the information gatherers to improve the implementation process.

In certain cases, you can have more than one team leader (multiple team leaders), and their responsibilities will differ a little from each other.

Within the team, a champion will be mostly responsible for getting things done, and a viable management sponsor who helps the team scale obstacles will be required.

4. Define Actionable Plans

To make remarkable changes in the implementation process, you must stay on course, identify challenges and discover the reasons for these problems.

You can identify these challenges through

• Brainstorming
• New-members information form
• Notecard method

With these techniques, you can easily identify various project management challenges , gain more insights into the project implementation plan and create solutions to the identified challenges.

You can effectively implement the Notecard method in this manner. You need to ask the team members three important questions.

• What is the single biggest challenge facing the team?
• What will be the most relevant issue in the next five years?
• What is the best strategy to tackle these issues?

After the cards have been submitted, the next step is to identify the most similar answers and isolate them to be deliberated.

5. Create an Action-Oriented Plan

Create an action plan focused on incremental action and not just having continuous discussions. Your plan must encourage you to take significant steps that will accumulate in you getting the desired result.

While creating a project implementation plan, ensure it is reality-based. Creating a non-reality-based plan means trying to achieve something you cannot. In other words, your plan should not be trying to solve a proxy problem.

In creating your plan, it is important to identify what you require to impact the identified challenges and make notable changes.

For example

• What organizational resources are required to get the work done?
• How do you allocate resources to the needed areas?
• What are the additional resources required to complete the project?

You will create a detailed plan to impact the identified issues with this knowledge.

6. Value Communication

Constant communication with the team enables you to see the project better, keeps the project transparent, helps generate new ideas and strategic initiatives, and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Regular and honest communication among team members will foster cooperation and enhance productivity. Ensure that the team’s contributions during discussions are perceived as valuables and let them know they are expected to contribute.

You can use team management software to foster better communication among your teams and manage your teams effectively.

7. Monitor Progress and Incremental Success Consistently

Ensure you perform constant evaluations and analyses to ensure you are still on track regarding the implementation process. You can hold progress report meetings to measure and analyze development.

By constantly monitoring progress, you will be able to identify potential risks, make the necessary adjustment before a crisis hits, and allow you to adapt before processes or expectations become solidified.

Celebrating milestones encourages team members and helps them to feel valued and part of something that works. The team will remain motivated and willing to see the process through by celebrating milestones. You can use project tracker software to track your tasks and projects.

8. Involve the Right at the Appropriate Time

This best practice involves discovering the best time to involve upper management. In the project initiation phase , you must include key decision makers and not just any team member.

You should list out critical tasks that you must execute and select the right personnel to carry out these tasks. The next move is allocating resources and determining what tasks you require to complete the larger task.

Having the right people working with you will guarantee the success of the project implementation plans.

9. Publicize Your Plan

Maintaining transparency with team members and management is important to the success of the implementation plan. During implementation planning, it is not advisable to indulge stakeholders' involvement at all times.

Ensure you make your plan available to higher-ups to keep your team accountable down the line.

Implementation Plan FAQs

The most significant difference between an action plan and an implementation plan is that an implementation plan addresses various factors that affect the implementation process, such as risks, resources, and team roles and responsibilities. On the other hand, an action plan is focused on describing work packages and tasks.

The project manager is responsible for creating the implementation plan for a particular project or series of projects.  With the help of stakeholders and certain team members, the project manager can develop a comprehensive implementation plan. 

The implementation process in project management is a series of events in which plans, strategies, and goals are converted into actions to accomplish strategic project objectives and goals.

Useful Project Management Software for Successful Implementation Planning

You do not have to go through the rigorous stress of creating your implementation plan in a spreadsheet or Word document.

Many simple project management software tools help you create your implementation plan with an implementation schedule best suited for your implementation and execution plan.

Here are the project management software tools that will give you your desired results.

• Monday.com is a highly-customizable project management tool that provides users with various tools for creating and tracking your implementation plan, dependencies and budgets, and delegating responsibilities.
• ClickUp is an affordable project management software that offers the most inclusive free-forever plan with extensive functions not limited to successful project implementation planning and execution.
• Wrike is a powerful project planning tool that helps you create and execute your strategic implementation plan.

Every wise project manager knows that having a well-structured implementation plan increases the likelihood of completing the entire project. Taking the implementation planning process as a vital part of the project is very important because a lot depends on this process. With the right software tool, you can easily create an implementation plan suited to your specific project need.

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Anastasia belyh.

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

• Project Implementation Guide

Project Implementation Schedule: The Key Components

by Eric Morkovich · Published March 16, 2011 · Updated June 26, 2023

The project implementation schedule is an important time management document that defines and schedules the major phases of project work being carried out to fulfill the desired project objective(s) and achieve the expected deliverables. This document describes project initiatives as a logical sequence of events over time to progress the project from its original concept to the final implementation. Usually, the document is used against progress of the project to monitor and assess ongoing activities and to create status reports.

The development of the project implementation schedule refers to the following two statements:

• The schedule creates a framework for the whole project implementation plan and facilitates creation of the work breakdown structure (WBS) by placing the related activities, tasks and responsibilities on timeline.
• The schedule outlines the project phases and their overlaps and shows them on the common project’s timeline.

In the project implementation schedule , the following information (the key components) should be provided in a clear and easy-to-read format:

• Number and brief descriptions of project phases. A project phase is a manageable portion of work that is accurately defined and measured by a deliverable and time-frame. Usually the project phase is divided into logically dependent activities to compete a certain job. Each project phase should be briefly described during the Project Setup process to provide an overview of the jobs being initiated and completed during that phase.
• The deliverables set being archived within each project phase. Completion of each project phase results in achieving or producing deliverables. The implementation schedule should specify a specific set of deliverables being achieved after successful completion of every project phase.
• Major activities for each deliverable. During implementation of each project phase, the major activities should be outlined in order to achieve each deliverable, within the defined time-frame of that phase.
• Key milestones. The way to audit and control implementation of each project phase is to define check-points (the key milestones) to be conducted on a regular basis during the implementation process.
• Responsibilities and assignments. Completion of each project phase requires allocation of responsibilities. The project manager should set employee responsibilities and assignments per project phase and also define who is responsible for and assigned to the delivery of the major activities within each project phase.
• Dependencies. A dependency is a measure of interaction between two or more project phases that identifies how one project phase exerts influence on other phases. Dependencies define an overlap between several project phases and identify what deliverables result in successful completion of two or more phases.

When all the components of the schedule for project implementation are defined and the schedule is developed and designed, you need to make sure that this document has been checked and approved by stakeholders (the sponsor) and the project manager in order to ensure that its content is appropriate and its targets are clearly stated and achievable.

Tags: implement schedule tips

Eric Morkovich

Eric is an enthusiastic project manager who has worked on various projects in the software industry for over ten years. He took on a variety of roles and responsibilities for projects and teams. Today Eric helps product companies review and improve their software definition, development, and implementation processes. Follow Eric on Twitter .

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Implementation plan: how to carry out your project from A-Z

Managing a new project is like baking. If you want to control the results, you need to follow a recipe. Even if you’re tackling something completely new, re-using steps and processes from a related product can help you avoid certain setbacks and headaches.

Developing and optimizing an implementation plan can help you keep teams on track, avoid duplicate work, and minimize time-consuming decision-making. It’s one of the best ways to bring big strategic goals to life without overusing resources.

In this article, we’ll cover what an implementation plan is, why it matters, and the optimal way to create your own.

Get started with monday.com

What is an implementation plan in project management?

An implementation plan is essentially a detailed, step-by-step recipe for completing a project, process, or business objective.

It outlines specific steps and who’s responsible for them. It goes beyond deliverables like in a work breakdown structure (WBS) and dives deeper than strategic objectives, scope, and milestones like in a product roadmap. An implementation plan gets down to brass tacks and lays out the process, so even the newest of new hires fully understands it.

For example, if your high-level goal is to improve your marketing campaign, you can break it down into tangible steps such as: creating flyers, updating your website landing pages, and more.

Then you can assign each activity an owner and add important information about its status, timeline, priority, progress, and more.

Companies often develop an implementation plan to reach specific objectives from a strategic planning meeting. In the example above, the strategic objective of the month’s project is to improve marketing campaign performance. The team broke that goal down into separate deliverables:

• Site redesign
• New banner ads

Because the board builds the workflow onto the table, there’s no need to further separate the tasks into design, development, and final approval stages. All team members can see important information at a glance.

Even if you use another view, like a Kanban board , you could easily add columns to represent your workflow, rather than creating extra cards and confusion.

With other planning strategies out there though, do you really need to learn another method? We’ll break down why it may be worthwhile.

Why do you need a solid implementation plan?

In 2020, research found that 31% of projects failed—at least partially—due to poor upfront planning. A solid plan reduces the chances of failure with a better, smoother process for everyone involved. Let’s take a closer look at 4 benefits of implementation planning:

Benefit #1: It facilitates smooth collaboration between teams and leaders

Structure makes it easier for teams to work together. A shared implementation plan and schedule gives every team member and leader insight into who’s doing what at any given time. So if someone has something to contribute at any stage, they can easily step up. A shared plan also boosts communication when everyone can see the full picture and ask questions or receive help along the way.

Benefit#2. Everyone stays on track

With a solid plan, there’s never any doubt about the next steps to take. That helps keep everyone on track throughout the project. Your team doesn’t miss a step wondering what comes next after they finish a task. With a project management implementation plan, everything is laid out clearly from start to finish.

Benefit #3. Implementation plans ensure teams see core benefits

The implementation plan can act as the compass guiding your team towards true north, in this case, the end benefits and strategic objectives. When your marketing team renews a campaign, the objective isn’t to make something new. The goal is to improve the ROI or reach a new demographic.

( Image Source )

When done right, the plan goes beyond outcomes to make sure that your company benefits from the project.

Benefit #4. Follow the shortest path to the desired outcome.

There are a lot of ways to get from point A to D. The plan should help your team avoid scope creep and stick to the shortest path to success. Like a GPS, a plan helps you avoid windy country roads that considerably slow you down. As a company, enjoying the view is rarely a priority.

Before we start diving in to creating one—those were some pretty nice benefits, after all—let’s take stock of what’s needed on our end to make it happen.

What does a project implementation plan consist of?

A thorough plan includes objectives, activities, a schedule, teams and responsibilities, milestones, KPIs, and even some contingency plans. Together, these elements are the building blocks of a solid foundation for project execution.

Of course, the must-haves depend on the scope of the project. Replacing the company printer probably only needs a 3-step action plan. Let’s break down what’s typically included in a project implementation plan:

• Goals or objectives

Your project should have a specific goal or objective. Aimless projects are a great way to empty company coffers for no reason. On the other hand, you don’t need to brainstorm a new goal from scratch every time. You can choose objectives from strategy planning sessions or meetings with customers or stakeholders.

• Core deliverables and activities to make objectives a reality

What do you need to deliver on the project goals? Break down these core deliverables into a step-by-step work plan. These action steps are what most employees think of when they hear the word plan.

• Implementation schedule

It’s not enough to just plan out the specific actions to take. When you do what matters. A schedule is essential for implementing a project effectively. If you’re working on a building site, carpenters won’t have much to do if they arrive before the foundation is finished.

• Teams, roles, and responsibilities

Who will work on the project and what deliverables will they own? A clear division of labor is a necessity, at least at the team level, to avoid duplication and confusion.

• KPIs and milestones

If your objective is to deliver a physical product, you can set logical milestones, like finished design, prototype, user testing, etc. If you’re working to improve a process or marketing campaign, single out key performance indicators (KPIs). Below, you can see an example of KPIs for improving a Google Ads campaign. They include both platform-specific KPIs and actual output KPIs.

• Contingency planning

What will your team do if something goes wrong? If there are any likely or high-impact risks, you need to address these in a contingency plan.

If it seems like there’s a lot that goes into an implementation plan, you’re not wrong. Luckily, we have a way to break it down into smaller bites.

How to create an implementation plan in 5 simple steps

Here’s how to create an implementation plan that will make a difference.

#1. Start with the objectives

Start with the objectives and figure out what your company or team needs to deliver to get there.

The initial high-level project outline doesn’t need to be detailed. If you’re improving an existing product, start including external stakeholders like customers and retailers at this stage of the process to identify what outcomes they’d like to see.

#2. Figure out the necessary people, roles, teams, and resources

Once you’ve got your deliverables down, you need to figure out how you can make that happen.

• Do you need to bring in some talent from other departments?
• How much budget do you need?
• Do you need to use company vehicles or other equipment?
• Who should own what deliverables?

It’s better to make these decisions early on in the project and let domain experts assist with planning and scheduling specific activities.

#3. Map out core activities and start scheduling

Once you’ve got a few senior engineers, developers, or other experts on board, it’s time to start planning in detail. They can help you avoid costly changes as you move out of the design stage of the project.

Break deliverables down into smaller, actionable steps in this stage and schedule each activity in a way that makes sense. The action plan should be as accurate as possible, but not 100% set in stone. You may have to change it to adapt to the market.

#4. Set clear milestones and expectations

Everyone, from your team to your clients, should be crystal clear about what will be considered a successful project.

#5. Add buffers and contingencies

For larger projects, thorough requirement and risk analysis is a must. Those learnings should shape your resource allocation and scheduling. It’s a good idea to add safety buffers into the schedule to ensure smooth execution. You also need to budget in contingencies for common risks, such as if a team member takes time off.

Bonus step: choose a platform that makes implementation planning easier and more effective

Trying to do project management without the right features is possible, but it’s also an unnecessarily slow and painful process. On the monday.com Work OS, you get access to every feature a project manager could ever want, including:

• Gantt chart or other timeline visualization – want to visualize the timeline of your project? Set up a Gantt chart with a few clicks. You can even edit the schedule in the drag-and-drop timeline view. That makes it easy to check and touch up a project schedule.

• Task assignment with responsibilities and notifications – easily assign work items and entire workflows to teams or individuals. They’ll automatically get reminders for changes, milestones, and deadlines.
• Real-time communication – communicate directly on assigned work item cards with mentions, file attachments, and threaded discussions. That way, there’s no risk of essential information getting lost in a wave of new messages.

• Detailed reporting and dashboards – Stay on top of the project execution and meet your milestones with custom dashboards and reports. Use widgets for status overview, resource management , time tracking, calendar milestones, and more. No organization should leave its projects up to chance. Follow the data.

And that’s just naming a few. To bake the perfect recipe, you need all the ingredients and all of the steps. monday.com can help.

Carry out successful projects with a solid plan

It’s difficult to turn any project from an idea into reality without a solid plan. The risk of creating duplicate work, decreasing team focus, and losing track during changing markets and objectives are exceedingly high. An implementation plan outlines the tangible steps and schedule that helps you manage a project successfully without feeling overwhelmed.

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• Project Implementation Plan

Project Implementation Plan Template

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A key factor that separates the most successful enterprises from the ones that are struggling to stay afloat is the quality of their strategic implementation plan. In other words, in business, an idea is only as valuable as its implementation. Therefore, the next time you’re skimming through what seems like the perfect business plan proposal, keep in mind that only the implementation plan can tell you how feasible the project in question really is. Our implementation plan template can be a great asset in the day-to-day job of any project manager. On this page you’ll find the answer to the most frequently asked questions about this project management tool, as well as a practical template that you can download, customize and use for free.

What is an implementation plan?

A project implementation plan is best defined in the context of strategic planning. To be more precise, strategic planning prescribes, in broad strokes, the guidelines for accomplishing goals or reaching decisions within the organization. The follow-through of these goals and decisions is defined in the strategic implementation plan. It’s a breakdown of generic tasks into actionable steps in an easy-to-understand timeline format, so that everyone involved has a clear picture of the expected deliverables.

What does an implementation plan include?

The most common implementation plan example includes solutions for project requirements like:

• The tasks, subtasks, and potential dependencies between them;
• The available budget;
• The timeline for the execution of all project phases;
• The personnel involved and external collaborators;
• The required resources.

This makes the project implementation timeline the most popular solution for presenting the implementation plan to stakeholders. Ideally and, of course, depending on the size and complexity of your project, you may want to use one that features more comprehensive items like:

• Specific goals and requirements;
• Project scope and risk assessments;
• Documentation outlining the deliverables;
• Tasks, milestones, and their dates;
• Work breakdown schedule;
• Personnel, contractors, and stakeholders;
• Communication venues to be used.

What are the benefits of an implementation plan?

By this point, the purpose of the project implementation plan template within the overall business strategy should be quite evident. Let’s explore some of the added benefits organizations stand to reap by creating a rock solid implementation plan:

• It provides a roadmap of actionable steps from start to finish;
• Improved communication and collaboration within the organization;
• Enhanced long-term employee retention;
• Easier access to resources;
• Better transparency and more trust from stakeholders;
• A more proactive approach to potential difficulties;
• Higher likelihood of buy-in;
• Clear accountability and well-defined workflows.

Tips on creating a project implementation plan

Whether we’re talking about a software implementation plan template, technology implementation plan template, construction implementation plan template or anything else for that matter, project managers can use our project implementation template to help all team members quickly see what they are expected to deliver, when, and what steps and tasks they need to complete. This significantly minimizes delays caused by miscommunication. In addition, this timeline template can be used to show relationships between activities, track individual task progress as the project moves forward, or identify at-risk tasks.

Here are 3 tips to help you start making timelines for your project implementation plans:

The position of a task or milestone on your timeline can be used as a coding element. For example, if certain tasks or milestones are at risk or require paying extra care, they can be positioned above the timeband. It will help keep the implementation timeline tidy.

We believe you should stick with a simple implementation plan template as much as possible. To do so, staying organized is key and the little trick above may not cut it. No worries, there are many ways to keep related tasks and milestones together. For example, grouping them into swimlanes and even sub-swimlanes, using colors and shapes as coding, etc.

Granted, a large percentage of the items on your implementation timeline will require a strict completion date. The more dependencies there are between your tasks and milestones, the more important it is to be specific. On the other hand, others are difficult to predict accurately. In these cases, it’s better to show just the month or year, and save the detailed schedule of operations for the execution plan.

How to use this implementation timeline template

The project implementation plan sample was created with Office Timeline , a robust and easy-to-use timeline maker add-in for PowerPoint. While you can also manually edit the design and replace the default data with your own tasks and milestones directly in PowerPoint, it’s much faster and easier to do so with Office Timeline. If you need additional help on how to make timelines , explore our extensive tutorial section.

Check out the Pro+ Edition and gain unrestricted access to all of the tool's features or give the free version a try and discover just how easy it is to transform raw data into amazing project visuals.

FAQs about project implementation plans and templates

This section offers you brief, informative answers to the most commonly asked questions about project implementation planning and management.

What is an implementation timeline?

An implementation timeline is a working plan that lists all the activities necessary to complete a project or process, along with the responsible parties and the estimated time for task execution. For a more complex initiative, it could also include costs, expected obstacles, and objectives.

What is an implementation process?

An implementation process refers to the strategic approach used to ensure the efficient adoption of new procedures or business processes in an organization.

Generally, a company needs a clear, well-thought-out implementation process to successfully streamline workflows, increase efficiency, or drive business growth. Whatever the strategic goals of your endeavor are, use our project implementation plan template to jumpstart the process and effectively implement the changes you want.

What are the 4 major implementation phases?

The four main functional stages that lay down the foundation of any implementation process are:

Exploration – it involves using data to determine a major need and defining the innovation required for meeting that need.

Installation – at this stage, diverse teams develop for training, coaching, and data system creation purposes.

Initial Implementation – at this point, the created teams support educators to use the innovation, and also strive for continuous improvement.

Full Implementation – this final stage involves the expansion of the existing teams to drive an increased adoption of the innovation, as well as improved outcomes.

If you want to create a timeline that effectively illustrates the stages of your implementation process, start with our easily customizable project implementation plan template . For more inspiration and a wider range of use cases, browse our gallery of timeline templates .

What are the steps to implementation planning?

Here are the steps associated with implementation planning in general:

Forming a project team.

Defining the business process to be implemented.

Setting goals and objectives for the implementation initiative.

Creating an implementation plan that clearly outlines your project’s tasks, their duration and timeline , as well as the roles and responsibilities of all the participants.

Onboarding the project team.

Implementing the new/improved business process.

Conducting a post-implementation review.

Start working on your implementation plan and organize all this data more easily using our free customizable project implementation plan template . For more resources, check out our tips on creating a project implementation plan .

What are the components of an implementation plan?

The following checklist defines the six most important components of an implementation plan:

List of your objectives.

Your project’s scope statement.

Your project’s deliverables.

The due dates of your project’s underlying tasks.

Risk assessment.

Team member roles and responsibilities.

See how these elements would translate visually by simply customizing our project implementation plan template . You can easily replace the placeholder data from the pre-formatted sample with yours, which saves you the hassle of having to start from scratch.

Want more ready-to-use designs to work with? Check out our free project timeline template gallery and choose your favorite.

How do you write an implementation plan?

Use the following steps to write an implementation plan that is both comprehensive and beneficial to your project team:

Define goals – What do you want to accomplish when your project is complete?

Conduct research – Use team collaboration tools to share your project goals and get feedback from team members and external stakeholders about the scope of your initiative.

Map out risks – What are the potential challenges that you may face in your project?

Schedule milestones – These checkpoints will help you track your progress during execution.

Assign tasks – Who does what and by when? This way, you can assess the assignees’ performance and monitor status more closely.

Allocate resources – What is the project’s priority level? Who is available to work on the project? What budget and tools are available? What additional resources are needed?

Learn more about this process with our tips on creating a project implementation plan and bring everything together on a clearly mapped-out work timeline using our pre-designed project implementation plan template .

What is the difference between an action plan and an implementation plan?

The main difference between an action plan and an implementation plan resides in that the action plan describes only work packages and tasks. Meanwhile, the implementation plan is more comprehensive, addressing other variables that affect the implementation process as well, such as risks, resources, team roles and responsibilities.

To better understand the difference between the two project plan types, compare the action plan and project implementation plan samples that we have created for you. You can also browse our diverse collection of timeline templates to find dozens of other clear pre-formatted project visuals.

What are the 4 steps in order to implement a work plan?

Here are the main 4 steps of successfully implementing a work plan:

Define a larger goal along with a set of SMART objectives .

List your resources and assign the tasks required to see your initiative through.

Establish a clear timeline that will represent your implementation schedule.

Use our ready-for-use work plan timeline template to jumpstart this process.

Track progress as the project advances to be able to identify and address potential obstacles.

What is an implementation checklist?

Typically, an implementation checklist comprises 5 key stages:

Standardization – here is where you list the processes and tasks necessary to maintain your innovation/change idea.

Documentation – you need to create a plan that documents the new process and a timeline that will illustrate how the underlying activities need to happen for the change to be implemented.

Measurement – define what elements you need to measure for quality control and the tools for it.

Education – create clear training materials that will help every participant understand the new process.

Resources – determine the teams, tools, and budget required for the initiative’s implementation.

What is an example of implementation?

Generically speaking, the term “implementation” refers to the process of turning intentional, formal plans into practice using a specified strategy. The implementation process can take many forms depending on the industry in which you want to apply it. Here are a few examples:

In computer science and I.T. – implementation usually refers to the installation and deployment of new software, hardware, or technical specifications. Our project implementation plan is an illustrative example for this industry.

In healthcare – implementation refers to putting a program into practice to promote the uptake of new healthcare practices and approaches, such as deploying a system to deliver vaccines.

In business – implementation refers to the execution and rollout of any business plan or strategy that lays out the steps to follow in order to achieve a certain business objective.

For a diverse range of such examples, check out our timeline template gallery. You can download and automatically update any of them in PowerPoint using the free 14-day trial of the Office Timeline add-in .

Legal Litigation Timeline

40,699 downloads

Court Timeline

32,715 downloads

1-Year Plan

123,222 downloads

Updating your template is simple and fast.

Use the Office Timeline PowerPoint add-in to quickly update any of these timeline templates or create your own project visuals. Easily change the texts, dates, colors, shapes and styles of your timeline, right from inside PowerPoint.

Download Free Timeline Maker

Or try our online timeline maker .

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Implementation plan.

Tips for use

You can make the Implementation Plan by yourself, but it is more effective if you do this with a group, such as colleagues who will be impacted by the change. 

Print the template of the Implementation Plan to use in a brainstorm. Use sticky notes to put something in the Implementation Plan. This way you can easily add or move actions if necessary.

For inspiration, have a look at the example of Fleurs Flowers and learn from this application of the Implementation Plan.

Your long-term vision for your company contains many possible innovations. An Implementation Plan is made for one of these innovations at a time. The Implementation Plan helps you to define the concrete actions that are necessary to implement the change, put them on a timeline and have a clear idea who’s accountable. Follow the steps to create an Implementation Plan.

Step 1: Describe the innovation

What is your idea and how will it work in your company? Describe what the innovation consists of, the reason for the innovation, and what you want to achieve for your company.

Step 2: Describe the actions that have to be taken 

To make the changes a reality, you have to take action. Often a change has an impact in several different business units. Determine the business units that are influenced by the change and define the actions that should be taken to make the change. Make sure to mention specific actions, for example: "Organise sales training", "Customise product catalogue" or "Create a Facebook page".

Describe for each business unit which actions should be taken:

• People: Do you need to hire new employees? Is there a knowledge gap that needs filling? Are you going to outsource activities or acquire new skills?
• Processes: does your innovation require a new way of organising processes? Is a new work method needed? Do you have to set up a new department? Is a different management style necessary?
• Technology: Is the technology you’re currently using good enough for your new business? Or do you have to invest in new technology? Do you need new IT systems?
• Knowledge & materials: can you repurpose existing knowledge and materials? Are you going to acquire new knowledge, for which you need to secure intellectual property? Do you have to buy new materials?
• Partners: do you need new partners? Are you able to distribute your new product or services with your existing partners?
• Marketing & sales: Is market research and promotion necessary? Do the current marketing tools need to be adjusted to the change? Do you want to use other channels or technology for marketing and sales?

Step 3: Determine the critical moments

Some actions will have a big impact on your company. Mark these actions as critical. They probably also require more preparation. Examples of critical moments are actions that:

• can’t be reversed, for example closing a department or dismissing an employee;
• or entail high risk, such as developing new technology that requires a big investment.

Step 4: schedule the actions

Put the actions on a timeline. Note that some actions are dependent on other actions. Ensure that these can be recognised, for example by giving them the same colour. Steps that have no dependencies can be done parallel to others. Ensure that each action has is someone’s responsibility and has a clear deadline. 

Note: change is a process. Have regular evaluations of your timeline to accommodate for the changes in your company (people leaving, newly acquired knowledge). Are all actions still in the right order, or do you need to revise the planning?

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps [Free Template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning social media strategy of your own. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own social media marketing strategy (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free social media marketing strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps

Step 1. choose goals that align to business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, track them in a social media strategy doc — grab our free template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

For inspiration, take a look at these 19 essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Get to know your competition

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Streams to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.

As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Do a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Benefit Cosmetics’ social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer : “For our makeup tutorials … we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. [X], on the other hand, is designated for customer service.”

Hootsuite’s own social team even designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements and Stories to cover live events or quick social media updates.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite)

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo)

Then there’s Shopify. The ecommerce brand uses Facebook to sell themselves by showcasing customer stories and case studies.

And Lush Cosmetics is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems in an extremely charming and on-brand way.

Source: lushcosmetics on X

Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Set your posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Try It Free

Step 8. Create compelling content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super polished corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

You’ll want to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week and get to know the basics of social media reporting so you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations, and what they’d like to see more of. Then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

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Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

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Unlock Build a Scalable AI Deployment Plan

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• Technology Research
• Strategy & Governance

Build a Scalable AI Deployment Plan

Your implementation and scaling plan is about more than just technology..

• The shift from small-sized AI adoption to complex, broad AI implementations brings new challenges and barriers to your organization:
• Stakeholders are oversold on the expectations of AI and propose aggressive initiatives that are costly, risky, or impractical.
• There is little motivation or tolerance to change existing business operations or enterprise systems to see the full value of AI.
• Teams are ill equipped to meet the demands and complexities of scaled AI implementations.

Critical Insight

Position your AI deployment plan as a collectively owned and managed artifact focused on sharing, enabling, and continuously improving. AI requires various roles, capabilities, and technologies to harmoniously work together to gain the outcomes your stakeholders expect to see. Everyone needs to participate in the planning to ensure all perspectives are accommodated in the solution design and the right support is in place.

Impact and Result

Build a scalable deployment plan for your AI initiatives by following Info-Tech’s guided approach:

• Identify and build an implementation plan, including a roadmap and high-level backlog, for a single high‑priority initiative.
• Identify the gaps in your ability to execute on an AI‑focused plan.
• Identify and prioritize your AI scaling initiatives to support your deployment of AI at scale.
• For an example initiative, break down the cost of implementation and maintenance.

Build a Scalable AI Deployment Plan Research & Tools

1. build a scalable ai deployment plan deck – a step-by-step document that walks you through how to properly align on a plan to scale ai initiatives enterprise-wide..

This document outlines how to build an AI deployment plan, identify gaps in your ability to execute, and prioritize the right initiatives to support your overall scaling goals.

2. AI Deployment Plan Report Template – Finalize a report for your leadership on what your AI implementation and scaling plan can look like.

This report covers the following areas:

• AI Initiative Implementation Plan
• AI Maturity and Capability Assessment
• AI Practices Improvement Plan

3. AI Execution Capability Assessment Tool – A structured tool to help you understand the current view of your ability to execute on AI initiatives.

This tool will help you analyze your organization's foundational AI capabilities and identify the areas that most need attention.

Workshop: Build a Scalable AI Deployment Plan

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Build an Actionable Implementation Plan

The purpose.

Align on an implementation plan for one of your AI initiatives.

Key Benefits Achieved

An actionable implementation plan for an AI initiative.

Conduct a retrospective.

Discuss the future role of AI.

Select your initiative.

Build your use case models.

Design your AI-enabled process.

Assess your system and data flow.

• High-level AI solution design

Build your AI initiative backlog and roadmap.

• AI initiative backlog and roadmap

Create your AI initiative one-pager.

• AI initiative one-pager

Module 2: Assess the Gaps in Your AI Execution Capabilities

Align on the challenges your organization will face in implementing your AI initiatives.

A prioritized view of what is (and isn’t) important when it comes to implementing your given AI initiatives.

Assess your AI maturity.

• AI maturity assessment and heatmap

Assess your AI execution capabilities.

• Gap analysis for foundational AI execution capabilities

Module 3: Define Your AI Scaling Initiatives

Define the activities that are required to effectively scale your AI initiatives in the future.

• Identify the activities that will help close your AI execution gaps. This will subsequently enable you to roll out your AI initiatives in the future.

Brainstorm solutions to fill your gaps.

Backlog and roadmap your AI execution capability initiatives.

Complete your AI capability one-pager.

• Initiative roadmap for implementing and supporting AI at scale.

Module 4: Develop Your AI Cost Breakdown

Understand the costs involved in scaling your AI initiatives.

A view of the costs required to scale your AI initiatives. This will potentially influence the order and cadence in your AI implementation plan.

List the cost factors of your AI initiative.

List the cost factors involved in improving your execution capability.

(Optional) Complete a detailed cost analysis.

• List of cost factors of an AI initiative and involved in your AI execution capability improvements

Analyst Perspective

Your implementation and scaling plan is about more than just technology.

Aggressively scaling artificial intelligence (AI) with the latest concepts and leading-edge technologies is an attractive ambition for many organizations. However, rolling out AI as quickly and as broadly as possible often comes with costs that outweigh the benefits and may introduce cultural, security, and business operational risks and changes for which the stakeholders have no appetite. The lagging development of a good AI practice can further hamper the future returns of today's investments.

Start small with the intent to learn and scale . The right AI initiative helps you learn the new AI technologies, their measurable impacts, and how they benefit your teams while allowing your team to establish good foundational capabilities and build the necessary relationships and collaborations for you to be successful. These factors will then allow you to explore more sophisticated, complicated, and innovative opportunities to drive new value to your team, department, and organization.

Andrew Kum-Seun Research Director, Application Delivery & Management Info-Tech Research Group

Bhavya Vora Research Analyst, Special Projects Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your challenge.

• AI adoption has gained significant momentum as your business leaders see the positive outcomes in your proofs-of-concept and pilot projects, such as improved operational efficiencies, cost optimizations, and higher output quality.
• Your stakeholders are ready to increase their investments in more AI solutions. They want to scale their initial success to other business and IT functions and technologies.
• An implementation plan is needed to ensure the right projects are defined and prioritized to meet the AI initiative goals and the required execution capabilities are in place to support AI growth.

Common Obstacles

Info-tech's approach.

• Build a scalable deployment plan for your AI initiatives by following Info-Tech's guided approach:
• Repeat the practices in this research for other AI initiatives.

Blueprint Insight Summary

Overarching info-tech insight.

Treat AI like any other enterprise technology. Implementing AI involves understanding more than just how it impacts the users, customers, and bottom line. You need to know how these improvements meet risk and change appetites and tolerances, how AI impacts enterprise data and systems, and how outputs drive both financial and non-financial business priorities.

Mature your practice as you scale your AI technologies. Good skills, resources, and governance and management practices are critical for the successful scaling of AI tools and technologies. AI is not a set-it-and-forget-it asset; it needs to be delivered with quality in mind and continuously monitored, reviewed, and maintained.

Implement AI with the future in mind. AI motivates the implementation, modernization, and enhancement of key tools and technologies to maximize the return on those investments. The resulting technology governance and management practices act as building blocks in your organization. We must expect that more AI and other enabling technologies will be implemented using earlier investments.

View AI costs as organic. AI is designed to continuously consume information and resources so that it can grow and improve over time. It has a lot of moving parts (e.g. AI model, data integrations), each of which requires specific care and feeding, complicating set up and management.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Diy toolkit.

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Info-tech's methodology to build a scalable ai deployment plan.

Note : The goal of this research is to complete a scalable deployment plan for one AI initiative with the intent that the tools, tactics, and techniques be repeated for other initiatives.

Your deliverables

Leverage these supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals.

• AI Deployment Plan Report Template

Finalize a report for your leadership on what your AI implementation and scaling plan can look like.

AI Execution Capability Assessment Tool

Workshop Schedule: Build a Scalable AI Deployment Plan

Note : The goal of this workshop is to complete a scalable deployment plan for one AI initiative with the intent that the tools, tactics, and techniques be repeated for other initiatives.

0.1 What do we want to accomplish?

• Write what you want to accomplish by maturing and scaling your AI capabilities using a practice user story.

• Desired outcome of expanding AI adoption
• Whiteboard/flip charts

Participants

• CIO and direct reports
• AI leaders and teams
• Business representatives related to the AI initiative

Deploy AI at scale

Deploying at scale requires careful consideration of several different elements.

1. AI Solution Design

Deconstructing the AI initiative into granular steps – building use case models, charting system, data, and process flows – simplifies the initiative, lays the groundwork for clarity, and accelerates AI integration across business functions.

2. AI Capabilities

Establishing a frugal AI mindset helps prioritize actionable progress over perfection. Concentrate on leveraging existing strengths and making strategic improvements to gaps to scale AI.

3. Roadmap and Backlog

Crafting a roadmap and maintaining a prioritized backlog of AI initiatives serve as a strategic compass, guiding phased deployment of AI. Estimate and prioritize the backlog of initiatives, assessing degree of effort and value.

4. AI Budget

Quantify the impact of scaling the initiative by conducting T-shirt sizing estimations to evaluate cost factors against the backdrop of risk and value potential.

Info-Tech Insight

Build an actionable implementation plan, build on your early ai success, notable initial benefits:.

Create high-value and high-quality outputs consistently, and proactively identify and address issues before they occur.

Reduce the time spent by employees on completing manual, repetitive, and error-prone work.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Improve the customer experience with a product or service via reliability, engagement, transparency, etc.

PRODUCT GROWTH

Expand the key products and services to ultimately drive revenue expansion or customer impact.

Can we gain more from AI?

As industries evolve and adopt more tools and technologies, their business operating models become more complex. Task-based and desktop-based AI are often not enough. More sophisticated and scaled AI is needed to simplify and streamline complex operations from end to end and align them with organizational goals.

1.1 Conduct a retrospective on previous AI initiatives

• Start – What should we start doing for future AI initiatives?
• Stop – What should we stop doing in future AI initiatives?
• Continue – What should we continue doing in future AI initiatives?
• Document the results of this exercise in the AI Deployment Plan Report Template.

Download the AI Deployment Plan Report Template

• Experiences from past AI projects and implementations
• Lessons learned from past AI projects and implementations

Why do we want to broadly leverage AI?

The business needs ai to be successful.

"94% of business leaders surveyed agree that AI is critical to success over the next five years" (Deloitte, 2022; N=2,630).

Maintain the momentum from early successes

Lowering costs, discovering valuable insights, and improving collaboration across business functions or organizations were the top three AI outcomes that were achieved to a high degree (Deloitte, 2022, N=2,630).

AI is becoming the way of working

"Seventy-nine percent of all respondents say they've had at least some exposure to [generative] AI, either for work or outside of work, and 22 percent say they are regularly using it in their own work" (N=1,684, McKinsey, 2023).

Peers and competitors are investing in AI

"In fiscal year 2022, U.S. government agencies allocated $1.7 billion to AI R&D, up 13% from the year prior and an increase of 209% from 2018" (Stanford Institute, 2023).

Enterprise AI adoption requires significant top-to-bottom investments

Expanding AI adoptions requires organization-wide investments, such as:

• A unified, open analytics platform that can handle large and complex data, support various data processing and analysis models, and enable fast and reliable deployment and management of AI solutions.
• A flexible, cost-efficient, and scalable data management architecture (e.g. data lakehouse, which combines the best features of data warehouses and data lakes), to provide a single source of truth for data, analytics, and AI.
• Privacy-preserving computing techniques, such as fully homomorphic encryption and differential privacy, to protect sensitive data while allowing computation and collaboration across organizations.
• A practice that has the competencies, influence, and empowerment to address dependencies and conflicts across the organization's functional groups.

1.2 Discuss the future role of AI

• How can AI complement and augment employees and externally facing products and services?
• What are the broad outcomes we want from AI?
• What is the familiarity with and reception of AI across the organization?
• What are your peers and competitors doing with AI?
• What are the policies, restrictions, and regulations that are constraining AI adoption and implementation?
• The organization's perspective on the future role of AI

Define an effective AI deployment plan using your AI strategy

1. ai mission & vision.

Statements that describe the future achievements and promise of AI and articulate what IT does to achieve the vision.

2. AI Principles

Core values, thinking, and boundaries that guide the analysis, perspectives, decisions, and approaches of AI and the target-state design.

3. Strategic Goals and Priorities

Specific corporate financial and non-financial priorities that the organization aims to achieve.

4. AI Objectives and Metrics

Practical, achievable, and measurable expectations of AI initiatives.

See our AI Strategy Presentation Template to get started in building your AI strategy

Establish a repeatable planning process by focusing on one AI initiative

See our AI Strategy Presentation Template to build your backlog of AI initiatives

Gain these key lessons from your first AI initiative:

Verification & Validation

Test the fit of AI capabilities, organizational acceptance, and IT's readiness to support AI.

Foundations

Establish a foundational practice to support future scaling and accommodate continuous learning.

Justification

Rationalize the return on your AI investments and make the case for further AI adoption and innovation.

Prioritize the initiatives that support your business goals

1.3 Select your initiative

• Review your backlog of prioritized AI initiatives. If available, refer to your AI strategy document.
• Feasibility – Do you currently have the capabilities to deliver on this opportunity? Do you have the right partners, resources, or technology?
• Desirability – Is this opportunity a change the stakeholder needs? Does it solve a known pain point?
• Viability – Does this initiative have an impact on the business value drivers of the organization? Is it a profitable and productive opportunity that will support the business model? Will this opportunity require a complex cost structure?
• Backlog of AI initiatives
• AI strategy
• Selection of AI initiative to be the focus of this plan

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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