Listed here are the nine most essential project documents.

Project Business Case

This paper explains why the project is necessary. The kick-off paper outlines the purpose of the project and the objectives, goals, and results achieved. The project sponsor is often in charge of putting together the business case, which may include an assessment of the project’s economic viability.  Project business cases are used to

Projects are linked to the strategy and objectives;

• Issues have been thought through in order to identify them;
• Only if the business case is legitimate are they approved;
• Hold the sponsor to account for high probability outcomes;
• Provide an established baseline to monitor progress.

Project Charter

Officially approving and delegating the project’s management duties go hand in hand when you have a charter for the project (Hayes, 2000). Project charters help with communication and stakeholder involvement because they provide structure. The project charter establishes the following based on the business case:

• Work’s scope
• Requirements
• Timetable that’s been proposed
• Budget
• Resources
• Success criteria for the project.

It aids a project manager in gaining an understanding of the project’s goals and constraints. It is also beneficial to have a project strategy for achieving goals and completing deliverables. When it comes to project managers and project teams, this document acts as a map that directs them through the project life cycle. There will be no way to begin the project without this paper.

Matrix of RACI

Roles and duties must be specified regardless of the project’s size. The organization may create and allocate these duties with ease using the RACI Matrix. Reducing confusion, distributing workload, and increasing efficiency are all aided by mapping this out (Khan and Quraishi, 2014). A project’s stakeholders may be described more clearly using the RACI model. With the RACI matrix, everyone knows their duties and who is responsible for completing each task.

Structure of the Workload (WBS)

When it comes to project management, a work breakdown structure is essential since it facilitates resource allocation and limits the project’s scope. By using the WBS, the project may be divided into manageable time segments, like two weeks. The most important task is to complete the deliverables as quickly as possible. Work packages and tasks that must be performed to achieve this objective are further broken down (Jung and Woo, 2004). By keeping an eye on the broad picture, the WBS makes sure that no aspect of the project is forgotten during the first stages of planning and development. As a result, allocating resources becomes a whole lot simpler.

Creating a WBS has many advantages, including the ability to identify and arrange the work needed. It speeds up creating a schedule by dividing up the WBS into parts where effort estimates are assigned. If a branch is not well defined, it may be utilized to detect possible scope concerns.

The Issues and Risks Log

In other words, this is a list of all the dangers and problems the project may encounter. A good practice is to use a consistent issue tracking structure, such as the Issue name or ID, impact and mitigation suggested, and who is responsible for the issue.

An issue log is a valuable tool for keeping track of problems that arise throughout a project. The individual or team in charge of addressing the problem is listed beside each issue.

Project Communications Plan

This strategy helps the project’s stakeholders and team communicate effectively. The plan provides responsibilities to team members, such as the project manager, and establishing communication channels like a weekly report.

Communication strategies for project management describe how critical information will be communicated to stakeholders throughout the project’s life cycle. They are also known as communication plans. Also established are who will get the message, how they will receive it when they receive it, and how often they will receive it.

Management of Change Requests

In project execution, this document keeps track of official additions or changes to the agreed-upon deliverables. A significant challenge in project management is implementing change since project managers must ensure that all stakeholders understand the changes (Mochal and Mochal, 2011). Change requests almost always affect the project’s timeline. Once stakeholders have approved a formal modification, be sure to double-check and update any other project papers.

To improve an organization’s project success rate, it needs a well-documented change request procedure. Change requests may affect the project’s overall scope, budget, required resources, and completion date. However, it will not know the full implications of a change until a defined change request procedure is in place. In order to keep project stakeholders and team members up to date on changes, change request management is critical as well. It is essential to have a change request procedure to ensure that everyone engaged in the project knows exactly what the change entails, why it is taking place, and how it will affect them individually and the project.

Project Schedule

When and how much work is determined by the project timeline. It is the project’s deadline. To monitor late work and missing milestones, start with a predetermined timeline as a baseline. Tools like Bright Work Simple Scheduling for simple scheduling and Microsoft Project for complicated schedules may help to automate this process.

As a result, everyone is aware of their responsibilities, dependencies, and due dates. Draws attention to problems and concerns, such as a shortage of funds. Keep an eye on things and spot problems before they get out of hand.

Lessons Learned Register

Documents like this are critical to an organization’s understanding of a project and ability to enhance it. Despite being provided after the project is completed, the register should be maintained throughout the project. Keeping track of results throughout a project can help develop more robust, more factual conclusions (W.M. Chan and M. Kumaraswamy, 2002). The extent to which this document is formatted and detailed depends on the organization’s project governance and management culture. There should be a consensus on the lessons gained by the whole project team.

A company’s ability to share project team members’ lessons learned helps it avoid repeating the same mistakes repeatedly while also benefiting from the best practices of other organizations. The ability to educate individuals about fresh ideas and efficient working techniques is attainable.

References

Hayes, D., 2000. 1999 International Student Paper Award Winner: Evaluation and Application of a Project Charter Template to Improve the Project Planning Process. Project Management Journal, [online] 31(1), pp.14-23. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/875697280003100104.

Jung, Y. and Woo, S., 2004. Flexible Work Breakdown Structure for Integrated Cost and Schedule Control. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, [online] 130(5), pp.616-625. Available at: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2004)130:5(616).

Khan, P. and Quraishi, K., 2014. Impact of RACI on Delivery and Outcome of Software Development Projects. 2014 Fourth International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies, [online] Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6783449.

Mochal, T. and Mochal, J., 2011. Get Sponsor Approval Before Investigating Large Scope Change Requests. Lessons in Project Management, [online] pp.135-138. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4302-3835-5_33.

W.M. Chan, D. and M. Kumaraswamy, M., 2002. Compressing construction durations: lessons learned from Hong Kong building projects. International Journal of Project Management, [online] 20(1), pp.23-35. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0263786300000326.