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Templates

This page contains a list of templates supporting various project management activities. They are distributed under the terms of the MIT license. Feel free to use them as you wish; I appreciate if you mention the source or link to this website.

Some templates make sense only if you can share it and use it together with your team. If this is your case, consider making the template into a Google Doc (or similar service).

Have a look at Tools and Templates in the lifecycle for more information about the role of tools and templates in the lifecycle of a project. If you want, there is also a page with links to other websites distributing templates.

Scope Document

  • Phase: initiating
  • Activity: assess feasibility
Download:
*A template for specifying project scope and feasibility.* The document contains the main information about a project proposal, including project goals, context, viability, risks, constraints, a tentative schedule and a tentative budget.

WBS Dictionary

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: define_schedule
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*Describing the building blocks of your plan* A WBS dictionary allows you to describe the building blocks of your plan. This template is based on the one used for European Research Projects Proposals.

Project Roster

  • Phase: human resource management
  • Activity: acquire_team
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Roles and contacts for all the members of your team. You most likely need only a subset of the fields.

Simple Gantt Table

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: define schedule
Download:
*A table which can be used for high-level Gantt charts*. Useful if you need to highlight only the duration of work packages or activities and do not care too much about dependencies, task allocations, etc. I use them to sketch plans in Feasibility Documents. The document comes with two time granularities, quarter or month. Choose the granularity you prefer, but move to a Gantt charting tool, if you need something more formal and functional.

Yearly Planner

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: define schedule
Download:
*A yearly planner.* Useful if you can print on a sheet >= A2. I find it particularly useful to mark deadlines and other important events of the year. Available as PDF for 2016 or as a "perpetual" LibreOffice spreadsheet (export to XLS screws layout and formulas).

Function Points

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: estimating
Download:
*A spreadsheet to compute the size in Function Points of a system.* The Function Point technique is due to Albrecht. Function points are linked to a system's complexity and can be transformed in a size estimation or used directly to estimate the duration and effort of a project.

Object Points

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: estimating
Download:
*A spreadsheet to compute the size of a system in Object Points.* Object Points are a functional measure similar to Function Points. They can be used as input to the COCOMO technique or transformed directly in effort.

Basic and Intermediate COCOMO

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: estimating
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*A spreadsheet to compute the size of a system in source lines of code, using the COCOMO (Constructive Cost Modeling) basic and intermediate models.* The technique was first proposed by Barry Boehm. Different models exist to accommodate the application of the technique at different stages of the development process.

SCRUM

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: define schedule
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A spreadsheet which can be used to manage SCRUM sprints. Four sheets are available, to mark stories, define sprints, manage burndown, and keep track of actual velocity.

Risk Register

  • Phase: planning
  • Activity: define risks
Download:
A spreadsheet which can be used to manage a risk register. The information to be specified for each risk is a bit verbose, but you simply need to remove the columns you do not intend to use. The spreadsheet can be used both during planning and during monitoring, to mark the status of risks and the actions taken. The Numbers spreadsheet separates menaces and opportunities in two different sheets, while

Issue List

*A spreadsheet to keep a list of issues.* You can use this spreadsheet to keep a list of issues and track their lifecycle, highlighting, for instance, the actions you took, and the person assigned to solve the issue. Adapt the columns to your needs. If your workflow requires different people to access this spreadsheet, you might consider using a web-service such as Google Docs. _Note that this is an area covered by many tools (including task/calendaring applications). If you are looking for a simple solution and require more than pure text, this template could be for you._

Monthly Timesheets

*Individual timesheets by month.* This is mainly meant to be printed and filled manually (or with a mixed solution: data is entered using the spreadsheet and then printed and signed). The file contains sheets covering a full year. (The main advantage of the template being the automatic identification of saturdays and sundays.) The downloadble pdfs contain the monthly timesheets for 2015 and 2016.

Timesheets (Pivot Table version)

  • Phase: monitoring
  • Activity: monitor work
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*Timesheets collected as a list of entries.* Data collection is organized in a list of entries, each one of which specifies date, start time, end time, project, and activity. It can be used as a time-tracking tool. Statistics and a Pivot table allow you to aggregate data in tabular format, with a granularity of your choosing. Different from the monthly timesheet, this is meant to be used in electronic format, possibly aggregating data of different employees. Note that data collection (time tracking) could be more efficient using a time-tracking tool (see the review of command line tracking tools on this website for more information).

Meeting Minutes

*Documenting your meetings* They are a pain to take, but it can become a lot more painful when you do not take (and share) them. So, here you are, with simple templates you can use to record your project decisions.