What is an Implementation Plan? (Free Templates)

According to the 2015 CHAOS Report, 71% of projects fail to meet three criteria: on time, on budget, and with satisfactory results – the percentage being even higher for bigger projects. 

This got us wondering why do projects fail, and what can we do in our power to avoid this? Turns out, one of the major reasons a project drifts away from its objectives is poor planning & lack of preparation. 

Lucky for you – in this post, we tell you everything you need to know about successfully turning your project idea into tangible outcomes in the real world using an implementation plan. 

At its core, an implementation plan is a planning tool that answers the who, what, when, how, and why of a project before you move into the execution phase. It is used by project managers to break down the broad, strategic goals of a project into smaller, more manageable chunks of work. In other words, it’s the battle plan that turns your strategy into specific tasks, ensuring the coordination, alignment, and success of your initiatives.

But first, let’s ask ourselves:

What Is Implementation Planning?

Implementation planning is the process of creating step-by-step instructions for taking your project from the point of kickoff to closure. The rationale behind this process is to ensure team members understand all aspects of a project before executing it. By specifying details such as timelines, responsible personnel, and material resources needed for each task, this process helps your team stay organized so you can conquer your project goals on time and within budget. 

Essentials of an Implementation Plan

Implementation plans tend to differ from company to company and manager to manager. That said, we found some common details included in most implementation plans we came across. 

Here’s a checklist of things you need to include in your implementation plan to help you better plan for success:

• Project goals & objectives
• Scope statement 
• List of key deliverables
• Risk analysis & risk mitigation strategies
• Material resources
• Human resources
• Any additional resources and tools 
• Task timelines and key project milestones
• Team roles and responsibilities 
• Success metrics

A 7-step Guide to Creating Your Own Implementation Plan

From weddings to marketing campaigns, every project has a unique purpose & lifecycle. This means implementation strategies or plans that work for, say, a software development project, might not sit so well if your project is about raising funds for a local charity. To customize your planning process to the specific needs & nature of your project, you might want to create your own implementation plan. But to do this, you must follow specific steps and include the right components. 

Here’s a quick & easy step-by-step guide for creating your own implementation plan:

Step 1: Do your research

Research is the building block of project management. As the first step in your planning process, this is when you try to make sense of what kind of resources, personnel, and timelines will be needed for your project. Conduct interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions to build your understanding of what you can do given your time and cost constraints.

Remember, your research process should be informed by what key experts in your field have to say. These may be team members or external stakeholders like industry professionals or subject matter experts who have worked on similar projects in the past.

Step 2: Set your goals

Based on your research in Step 1, you now define your strategic goals and objectives. Your goals may be time-based, performance-based, or outcome-oriented; in either case, this is when you lock in on what you want to achieve by the time your project crosses the finish line. For example, if you are working on a marketing campaign, your goal will be to build your client base for a new product you are launching.

When defining goals, it may be a good idea to ask yourself:

• What do you seek to accomplish here? 
• Who will the project ultimately serve and benefit? 
• When do you want to finish this project? 

To formulate goals, you can always use a standard goal-setting tool like the S.M.A.R.T framework. Feel free to check out our SMART Goals template to create Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals capable of yielding effective action plans that lead to tangible project outcomes.

Step 3: Identify & manage risks

As every project manager knows, not everything in a project goes to plan. From public holidays and weather extremities to budget constraints, loss of personnel, and changes in government policy – the road to successful execution is fraught with setbacks.

Based on lessons learned from past projects, especially those that have failed, you need to brainstorm and research in order to identify any potential risks or hazards that can affect your project’s chances of success. That said, not all risks are equally critical or severe so you might need to prioritize them by allocating risk scores based on variables such as Likelihood and Consequence. For every risk, assign each variable a value from 1 to 5; multiply these values to calculate a final risk score for each risk. You can use our Risk Matrix to do this.

But is it enough to identify and prioritize risks? Well, no. You also need to highlight what measures you have taken or will take in the future to tackle them. One way to do this is to map out your risks using a risk register. Feel free to use our Risk Register template to develop detailed risk management and mitigation strategies for managing project risks.

Step 4: Create a list of tasks

Now, remember what we said earlier about bringing your strategy to life? This is where you finally get to do that by breaking down your project goal and deliverables into actionable steps and lining them up in the order they need to be completed. 

To optimize the execution phase of your project, we advise you to categorize tasks by priority level to help you understand which ones need more immediate effort – or by current status so you know how much work you still have to do.

Step 5: Time your tasks

Once you have a list of tasks strewn together in a logical order, you need to establish a timeline for every task. Remember, milestones serve as metrics—showing you how far you’ve come in your project and how far you still have to go. Whether you’re developing a new perfume, or undertaking a complex construction venture – you need a clear and viable project timeline to meet your overall project targets on time. 

For starters, it might be a good idea to ask yourself which tasks need to be completed before others can start. In project management speak, this is called task dependency. Clarifying your dependencies makes it easier for you to hit your milestones.

Feel free to use our Project Timeline template to map out your tasks in chronological order.

Step 6: Assign tasks to team members

Now assign each task to relevant project personnel who shall act as its primary owner. Doing this makes sure that your team is on the same page as to which human resources are expected to be involved in which tasks.

If you want to assign your tasks to the right team member(s), you need to consider the following factors:

• Experience working on similar tasks in the past
• Individual skill-set
• Availability of human resource
• The workload on individual team members
• Seniority level
• Character traits

Let’s say you are launching a new smartphone. You need marketers and salespersons to work together with technical professionals like UX/UI designers, web developers, and coders. But how do you know who’s responsible for what?

One way to go about this is using a RACI Matrix – one of the most popular ways out there for assigning roles to people or teams working on shared tasks. By identifying four levels of ownership for each task (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed), a RACI matrix helps you improve team coordination, optimize project workflow, and ensure there’s no confusion when it comes to project roles.

Step 7: Allocate resources

Every project planner dreads the idea of running out of resources mid-project. This is why effective budgeting is so important for ensuring that each phase of your project proceeds as planned in the project framework. 

Think about all the material resources you need to complete each task and survey the resources you have at your disposal. Resources may include money, personnel, software, hardware, and other physical or technical materials.

Use our Resource Plan template to make sure the right resources are available when needed throughout a project’s lifecycle.

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7 Benefits of Using an Implementation Plan

No project can deliver on its promises without a foolproof plan of implementation. Using an implementation plan increases your chances of success, bringing you closer to your strategic goals and objectives.

Here are some tried-and-tested ways an implementation plan is good for your project:

• Ensures all team members follow the same guidelines 
• Improves the organization and management of resources
• Increases team accountability by assigning specific tasks to specific team members
• Helps in building trust and confidence between the project team and stakeholders
• Optimizes productivity by keeping track of every task and ensuring alignment between what you plan to develop and what you end up producing
• Boosts team performance by reducing ambiguity and preventing unnecessary lags in progress
• Helps you identify potential risks and lay down mitigation strategies by facilitating collaborative communication

How An Implementation Plan Differs from a Strategic Plan

Is an implementation plan just another name for an action plan or a strategy? In the project and product management world, many terms are used interchangeably. But there is one important distinction between an implementation plan and a strategic plan: while a strategic plan details the high-level justifications & long-term goals of a project, an implementation plan details the step-by-step actions you need to take at a granular level.

Here are some key ways these two project documents differ:

Implementation Plan	Strategic Plan
Takes a task-level view.	Takes a project-level view.
Focus on individual task outputs.	Focus on key project deliverables.
Uses a granular approach.	Uses a broad, high-level approach.
Includes step-by-step instructions to execute a project.	Includes the overall rationale  & justification for the project.

Pro Tips Based on Past Project Lessons

Only a well-planned project can reach its destined goals without stretching its timelines or going into a budget overrun. Based on lessons from past projects, here are a few tips & best practices we’d like to share to help you make the most of implementation plans:

• The best time to create a project implementation plan is during the planning phase of your project. If you do it any earlier, you’ll probably end up wasting time changing and reworking it.
• If you are not sure about any particular aspect of your project, don’t shy away from asking subject matter experts – especially those with experience working on similar projects in the past.
• Incorporate the use of standard tools, frameworks, and software for project management, for example, Gantt charts or RACI Matrices.
• When setting goals for your project, always think about what’s out of scope (i.e., what you’re not going to do) to avoid the possibility of scope creep later on.
• Use clear and concise language to avoid confusion and ensure that your implementation plan is accessible to everyone – from high-up executives to on-the-ground team members.

Our Implementation Plan Templates

At WordLayout, we created a series of implementation plan templates for projects of varying nature, size, and complexity. As pre-designed editable documents, our spreadsheets save you hours of research and design work so you can focus on more productive project pursuits.

From marketing strategies & business plans to resource, budget, and timeline implementation plans, here’s a list of various implementation plan templates we have developed to help you turn your project vision into reality.

To make them easy to use, our templates are available in multiple file formats, including Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel files for easy off-line editing, OpenDocument (ODT or ODS)) for compatibility with various word processors and via Google Docs/Google Sheets for cloud-based sharing, editing, and collaboration.

These templates are fully editable and can be customized to your needs and requirements, making them ideal for projects of any nature, size, and complexity. In case of customizable drop-down menus, we have added a separate configuration sheet where you can add to, delete, or replace the categories we have used with ones better suited to your project, organization, or industry.