identify the business plan implementation process

Strategy Implementation: The 6 Step Process

What is Strategy Implementation?

Strategy implementation is the process used to ensure a strategic plan is executed. It involves translating the high-level goals and objectives outlined in a company's strategic plan into specific actions and initiatives that can be carried out by employees at all levels of the organization.

As a whopping 9 out of 10 organizations fail to implement their strategies, you can’t just create a strategic plan and leave it on the shelf—make sure you have a solid strategy implementation process in place to bring it to life.

In our six-step strategy implementation process, you will transform your static, inactive plan into a living, dynamic, and successful strategy implementation. Read our article on factors affecting strategy implementation to develop an even deeper understanding of strategic implementation.

6-Step Strategy Implementation Process

The implementation process should follow a strategic analysis and strategy formulation phase. After you’ve identified your business problem and strategy to tackle it, you should follow these key steps to put your strategy into action:

• Choose your strategy framework
• Build your plan
• Define projects and KPIs
• Establish your strategy rhythm
• Implement strategy reporting
• Link performance to strategy

Here is our 6-step process guide to strategy implementation to ensure your new strategy evolves from a plan to strategic implementation.

Step #1: Choose your strategy framework

Strategy is something that should be embedded in everything an organization does. 

It must be part of the DNA of both the organization and its people. But if you don't make an effort to call it out explicitly, you won't get the focus or traction you need.

Start with a simple framework that establishes a strategy lexicon everyone understands and can get behind. Whenever someone asks, "how are our strategic objectives going?", everyone must be on the same page regarding what it actually means.

For example, at Cascade , we use the following "strategy house" to define the different elements of our strategy:

We walk you through this approach in our How to Write a Strategic Plan Guide , where you’ll also find a free template you can download to jump-start the development of your strategy.

It gives you a clear way to talk about strategy implementation and avoids using unnecessary jargon.

We've deliberately chosen to include only a vision statement rather than the more popular “ vision and mission ” combo because we found that people struggle to understand the difference between those two.

If you need to add more depth to your strategy, consider using a strategic planning framework such as the Balanced Scorecard or McKinsey's Strategic Horizons . 

However, whichever strategic framework you choose, simplicity should remain your top priority. All of the frameworks in our guide pass this test with flying colors!

Step #2: Build your plan and set clear goals 

The next step of our strategy implementation process is where you start creating your roadmap to success.

Now that you've got your framework in place, you're ready to move on to the actual creation of your strategic plan. We've developed a comprehensive guide on how to write a strategic plan , so we won't go into details here.

But assuming you're using a framework similar to the one above, here's how we'd suggest approaching the creation of your implementation plan with your key stakeholders:

1. Bring together your management team: Gather the leaders of your organization (founders, CEO, directors, etc.) to agree on your vision. You might do this in one workshop but have them engaged with it regularly. Have them read this article to keep everyone on the same page. ‍

2. Define values: At the same workshop, write down the values that the organization holds. They’re crucial for your company’s culture, so go through this article to make the process smoother.

3. Align on strategic priorities : Finally (same workshop still), write down 3 or 4 Strategic Focus Areas the team thinks need to be addressed to reach the vision.

4. Co-create objectives with your teams: Take your basic framework back to your team(s) and have them independently input ideas for strategic goals and objectives under each Focus Area. You must involve them in the planning process and give them a voice. This will ensure buy-in and motivation to implement your business strategies.

💡 Tip : You might want to assign one Focus Area to each member of your leadership team and have them lead the charge for getting that Focus Area fleshed out. This is a great way to ensure buy-in to the final product of your strategic plan.

📚 Recommended read: The Right Way To Set Team Goals

5. Make a final check: Once you've fleshed out the strategic objectives, get back together as a group and ask yourself a series of hard questions:

• ‍ If we deliver each of these strategic objectives under a given Focus Area, will we have nailed that Focus Area?
• If we deliver all of our Focus Areas, will we reach our vision?
• Will our values help or hinder us along the way?

📚 Recommended read: How To Effectively Co-create Strategy At Your Organization (Summary and recording of the workshop with Illana Rosen, Director of Innovation and Strategy at Old Navy)

Step #3: Define KPIs and projects

Now it’s time to cover the bottom layer of our strategy house: projects and key performance indicators (KPIs). 

That's part of the strategy implementation process where top management should empower people throughout the organization to come up with their projects and KPIs to measure success. 

Step 3 of our process guide to strategy implementation is to define your KPIs and create effective projects . You need actionable steps (projects) and a way to measure progress toward your strategic objectives (KPIs).

KPIs are one of the oldest management tools around. And for a good reason—they work. They keep you and your team members honest about progress and focused on outcomes.

They need to become your beacons for implementing strategy. Here are a few tips when it comes to coming up with your own:

• Keep them simple: Don't try to come up with complex ratios that only a small group of people understand. Make them simple and relatable to everyone in the organization.
• Choose at least 1 KPI for each of your strategic objectives : In general, it’s best to have 1-3 KPIs per objective. Too many KPIs can lead to confusion and dilute focus. However, the exact number will depend on the complexity of the objective and available resources. If an objective is particularly complex, it may require more KPIs to adequately measure progress.
• Make it easy to measure them quickly: Large organizations have hundreds of metrics, with each unit and function tracking them in their own set of preferred tools and applications. Bring them under one roof so you can get real-time insights. 
• Don't make them all about the $$$: Sure, profit and revenue might be your end-game, but KPIs should be the drivers of those things—measuring the outcomes alone adds little value.

Here’s an example of focus areas, related strategic objectives, and assigned KPIs:

Focus area: Operational Excellence 

Strategic objective: Reduce waste in the manufacturing process by 15% within the next year

• Scrap rate : Measures the percentage of defective products or materials that are discarded during the manufacturing process. 
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) : Measures the overall efficiency of manufacturing equipment. 
• Cycle time : Measures the amount of time it takes to complete one unit of production.

One final point: You need to update the progress of your KPIs at least once per month, or you risk quickly losing focus on them. Spend the time now as part of your strategic planning process to figure out how to access the stats and data you need. 

Projects are the specific initiatives and actions that will help the organization achieve its strategic goals. Here are some steps to create effective projects in the strategy implementation process: 

• Make sure your projects are aligned with your overall business strategy . 
• Prioritize the projects that will have the most significant impact, and define specific project objectives that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
• For each project, you should have a detailed project plan that includes timelines, milestones, and key stakeholders. 
• Assign teams with the right skills and knowledge to execute the project, monitor progress, and adjust as needed.
• Once the project is complete, hold a retrospective meeting. Evaluate the outcomes, identify successes and areas for improvement, and use this information to inform future projects.

📚 Recommended read: Free Implementation Plan Templates And Examples

Step #4: Deal with business-as-usual

Step 4 in our guide to strategy implementation is where you overcome business-as-usual.

The ironic thing about strategy implementation is that everyone acknowledges its importance, but it's often the first thing to be forgotten about when the going gets tough.

People get so caught up in the day-to-day that they don't have time to focus on the big-picture items that will keep the organization moving forward. This rapidly becomes a self-fulfilling cycle and is one of the most common reasons strategies fail .

Here are some tips to help you break the cycle:  

• Meet often to discuss progress: We'd suggest a minimum of quarterly reviews for higher-level objectives, but monthly would be a great place to start until things get bedded in.
• Determine the attendees: You'll need the leadership team at a minimum—but you also need to involve the rest of the organization. The more they engage with the overall strategy, the stronger the ownership they feel.
• Be conscious of time: Specify the end time and always respect it. Allocate the last 10 minutes (or as many as you need) to “next steps”. Reviewing progress without the next steps is meaningless. ‍
• Define the meeting structure beforehand: What metrics will you discuss? For how long? Which reports will be used? More on this in step #5 below.

Step #5: Implement consistent & simple strategy reports

Step 5 of our process guide to strategy implementation focuses on strategy reporting .

Once you've put your strategy into action, it's important to review and adapt it regularly to ensure it's still on track to meet your business goals. This is where strategy reports come in handy. 

Now that your meetings are in place, you'll want to choose a consistent way of reporting the progress of your strategy implementation . The main objectives of this report should be:

Consistency

Set up a regular schedule for reviewing your strategy reports. This could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly—whatever works best for your business. Everyone should know what to expect and what they need to update before the meeting(s).

The progress report should give an at-a-glance view of how the strategy is progressing. Identify the key metrics that are most important to your business, and focus on those when reviewing your reports and dashboards .

Accountability

Ensure that the report includes the names of the owner of each goal (accountability), as well as the names of the people getting things done (recognition).

Conclusions

Your next steps. Your action plan. What will be done to get to desired outcomes? The strategy report needs to include not only an overview of how the strategy looks now but how it's progressing over time. Try to include a comparison period or graphs/charts that show progress over time to ensure momentum is maintained.

Strategy reports will help you look for trends and patterns in your data. Are there areas where you're consistently exceeding expectations? Are there areas where you're consistently falling short? Use this information to make informed decisions about how to adapt your strategy.

And don't forget - adapting your strategy doesn't mean giving up on it entirely. It simply means making adjustments and tweaks to ensure you're staying on track and achieving your goals. Sometimes, a small tweak can make a big difference in your results, so don't be afraid to make changes as you go.

👉 How Cascade can help you: 

You should be able to create, customize, and share strategy reports with your team with ease. Even if you are not a professional business data analyst. That’s where Cascade comes in. 

With a user-friendly interface, you’ll be able to stay organized and focused on your strategic goals.

But you’ll be able to do more than just create progress reports; Cascade helps you do work that matters—accomplishing business outcomes. Imagine how you would use the extra 2 hours if you wouldn’t have to fill out the spreadsheets to analyze and report on progress.

Step #6: Link performance management with strategic management 

Linking performance reviews to strategy, the first five steps of our process guide to strategy implementation are the absolute basics to ensure that you have success implementing and executing your strategy .

But organizations that truly succeed are those who manage to weave strategy implementation into the fabric of their existence. An easy way to get started with this is to create a formal link between strategic management and performance reviews.

Nothing shows people how important strategy is more than when it impacts their reviews and potentially even their reward and remuneration. Here are a few ways to do it: 

• Build a strategic management system that has these performance review links built into its HR processes.

But even if you're doing performance reviews the old-fashioned way, you can still make a point of awarding specific credit to employees who embrace strategy execution in their role and can demonstrate how they've contributed.

• Encourage your managers to talk to people about strategy regularly. Consider creating a 1:1 template that managers can use which highlights how a person's goals contribute to the strategy.
• Expose your strategy to your people. Lack of communication is a common pitfall that prevents successful strategy execution. If you only present your strategy in PowerPoint, people won’t remember it. Help your people align with the plan by having them access it at will.

👉 How Cascade can help: 

You should see at a glance how connected your functional units are to your strategic goals, giving you the context you need to make informed decisions. 

With Cascade, you get a complete view of alignment within your organization and its teams.

You’ll be able to easily evaluate how the performance of each initiative and team contributes to the success of your strategy. This will help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions that drive your business forward.

Key Components To Support Successful Strategy Implementation

A well-written implementation plan is not enough to guarantee successful strategy execution . There are several key components crucial to support effective strategy implementation in an organization. Here’s why you should pay attention to:  

Strategic alignment 

Ensure that the strategy is aligned with the overall vision and mission of the organization, as well as the organization's core values. It’s essential to have clarity and unity across all levels of the organization.

Assign ownership of specific tasks and responsibilities to individuals or teams within the organization, and hold them accountable for achieving their objectives. This will promote ownership, commitment, and a sense of responsibility in your team.

Resource allocation

Ensure that the necessary resources, including financial, human, and technological resources, are allocated appropriately to support the implementation of the strategy. Without the right resources, your strategy is just a piece of paper.

📚 Recommended read: Resource Allocation: How To Do It Effectively (+ Templates)

Performance measurement

You should have a transparent performance measurement system in place to track progress. This way, you can easily identify any areas that are underperforming and take corrective action before it affects your overall objectives. Regularly monitor and report on these metrics to track your progress and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Organizational structure

Design your organizational structure to support the implementation of your strategy. Clearly define roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes to avoid confusion and maximize efficiency.

Effective systems, including processes, procedures, and tools, can help ensure that resources are allocated appropriately and that performance is monitored and evaluated effectively. Use the right systems to simplify your processes and streamline your workflow.

Remember, a well-written implementation plan is just the beginning. To guarantee successful strategy execution, pay attention to these key components. If you’re not sure if you have them covered, try McKinsey’s 7S Model to identify potential implementation constraints. 

Benefits of a well-executed strategy implementation 

Here are some of the key advantages of an effective strategy implementation process:

• Increased revenue: When everyone in the organization is working toward the same objectives, it becomes easier to identify and pursue new growth opportunities.
• Improved operational efficiency: When your team understands their roles and responsibilities and is working toward common goals, they're better able to collaborate and optimize their workflows. This means smoother sailing and less hiccups along the way.
• Better decision-making: With a solid strategy in place, leaders can use it as a guidepost when making important decisions, ensuring they stay aligned with the organization's overall goals and objectives. No more flailing around in the dark!
• Increased employee satisfaction: By involving employees in the strategy development process and regularly communicating progress updates, organizations can foster a sense of ownership and accountability among their teams. Happy employees = happy workplace.
• Enhanced reputation: When a business delivers on promises and consistently exceeds customer expectations, it establishes itself as a leader in its industry and builds a loyal customer base.
• Faster adaptability: By regularly reviewing and updating the strategy, organizations can stay ahead of the curve and be better positioned to pivot in response to new challenges or opportunities. Flexibility is key!

Strategy Implementation Best Practices And Final Tips 

Here are some final tips and best practices to help you implement your strategies like a pro: 

Be decisive and go all in

No action plan is perfect, so don’t get too attached to it. When you spot opportunities or mistakes in your reviewing meetings, act on them decisively. Change is not only natural but necessary to learn and adapt at light speed to the market’s conditions.

Guide decision-making with good strategies

Frame your strategy as choices. The company’s direction must be clear enough that it educates your people’s decisions when they reach crossroads. And they reach crossroads multiple times per day. 

Get rid of static tools

Refining your strategy faces massive friction without a dynamic tool. That means wasting time, losing peace of mind, and ultimately losing money. Cascade removes this friction from all the stages of your strategy refinement, from planning to reporting , and even aligning .

Leverage data analytics

Use data analytics to inform your strategy implementation decisions. Data analytics can help you to identify trends, opportunities, and potential roadblocks, and to make data-driven decisions that support your strategic goals.

If you are struggling to discover insights because your data and metrics are scattered across multiple business and project management tools, Cascade will make your life easier. 

By integrating your metrics into one centralized source of truth , you'll have access to all performance data in one place. This makes it simple to transform statistical information into actionable insights and compelling narratives with effective data storytelling. 

Cascade’s real-time dashboards are designed to help you monitor key sets of data or metrics in real time, giving you the visibility you need to stay on top of what's important.

And with customizable features, you can tailor your dashboard view to suit your needs, making it easy to share insights with your team and keep everyone aligned.

Follow these tips and best practices, and let Cascade help you bring your strategy implementation game to the next level.

📚 Recommended read: Best Strategy Software: 8 Possible Roads To Strategy Execution (2023)

Implement strategies with Cascade 🚀

Working your way through our 6-step process guide to strategy implementation isn't something you'll be able to do overnight. It will take a good few weeks and probably a few iterations. But don't let that be an excuse not to start.

We can tell you without question that when our customers follow the above process, their strategy implementation plan succeeds far more often than it fails. This is an integral component of effective strategic management and shouldn't be overlooked.

By incorporating Cascade into your strategy implementation process, you can simplify your approach and maximize your chances of success. With Cascade's real-time dashboards, centralized business data, and full visibility into performance, you can stay focused and mitigate risks to ensure long-term success.

So why not take the first step today and incorporate Cascade into your strategic management process?

Experience the power of Cascade for yourself by taking a tour of our platform or booking a 1:1 demo call with one of our in-house strategy experts.

Other Related Strategy Implementation Templates 

• Program Implementation Plan Template 
• IT Implementation Plan Template 
• Project Implementation Plan Template
• Digital Transformation Plan Template 
• Strategic Growth Plan Template 

Strategy Implementation FAQs

What is the difference between strategy implementation and strategy formulation.

Strategy formulation is the process of developing a strategic plan, while strategy implementation is the process of executing that plan by coordinating and communicating with different departments and individuals.

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Strategy Implementation: Process, Models & Example

Strategy implementation is the process where strategies and methods are put into action to fulfill an organization’s objectives, goals, and mission. This step comes after the strategic planning and decision-making process.

What is a Business Strategy? What are examples of business strategy?

Strategy Implementation Models

There are many different models and frameworks that can be used to guide the process of strategy implementation. Here are a few of the most commonly used models:

• Balanced Scorecard:  Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton, this model uses a balanced set of financial and non-financial metrics to measure performance. It considers four perspectives: financial performance, customer knowledge, internal business processes, and learning and growth.
• McKinsey 7S Framework:  This model emphasizes the importance of coordinating seven key organizational elements for successful implementation: structure, strategy, systems, staff, style, skills, and shared values.
• Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model:  Although not a strategy-specific implementation model, John Kotter’s model is widely used in strategic change scenarios. The eight steps include creating a sense of urgency, forming a guiding coalition, creating a vision for change, communicating the vision, removing obstacles, creating short-term wins, building on the change, and anchoring the change in corporate culture.
• OKR (Objectives and Key Results):  This goal-setting framework helps organizations implement the strategy by defining objectives and tracking measurable results.
• OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures):  This model provides a clear and visual structure to help organizations align their strategies with operational actions and expected outcomes.
• PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act):  This iterative four-step management method is used in businesses to control and continuously improve processes and products.
• Strategy Map:  A strategy map is a visual tool designed to communicate a strategic plan and achieve high-level business goals.

The best model for any given organization will depend on the nature of the organization, the specific strategies being implemented, and the context in which they operate.

Strategy Implementation Process

The strategy implementation process is a complex process that involves turning strategic plans into actions and then measuring the effectiveness of those actions in achieving the organization’s goals. Although it can vary based on specific models and business environments, a typical strategy implementation process may include the following steps:

• Developing an Implementation Plan:  The first step in the process is to develop a detailed plan for implementing the strategy. This plan should clearly outline the tasks that need to be accomplished, who is responsible for each task, when each task needs to be completed, and what resources are required.
• Resource Allocation:  Resources need to be efficiently allocated to support the strategy. This could involve financial resources, human resources, materials, or time. It’s also important to ensure that the organization can implement the strategy.
• Organizational Structure Adjustments:  Sometimes, the existing organizational structure may need to be modified or redesigned to support the strategic goals. This could involve changes in roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, etc.
• Strategy Communication:  It’s important to communicate the strategy across the organization. All employees should understand the strategy, their role in it, and how their work contributes to strategic objectives.
• Employee Training and Development:  Employees may need new skills or knowledge to carry out their roles under the new strategy. This might require training, mentoring, or hiring new staff.
• Performance Management:  Set clear performance standards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor progress toward strategic objectives. Regularly review performance and provide feedback.
• Leadership and Management Support:  Leaders and managers should commit to the strategy, set a good example, and motivate their teams.
• Review and Adjust:  Strategy implementation is not a one-time activity. Regularly review progress and make necessary adjustments. This might involve changing aspects of the strategy, altering the implementation plan, or reallocating resources.

Strategy implementation can be challenging, but following a structured process can increase the chances of success. Remember that effective strategy implementation requires a long-term commitment and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

Strategy Implementation Example

Let’s look at an example of a company implementing a new strategy. This example is hypothetical and simplified but gives a basic idea of the process.

Company ABC, a retail business, has decided to implement a new strategy of focusing more on e-commerce sales to adapt to the increasing trend of online shopping. Here’s how they could implement this strategy:

• Develop an Implementation Plan:  ABC creates a detailed plan with objectives such as developing a user-friendly online shopping platform, increasing the online product range, and implementing digital marketing campaigns.
• Resource Allocation:  ABC allocates funds for website development, digital marketing, and e-commerce logistics. They also allocate personnel resources, assigning teams to manage the new online shopping platform, customer service, and digital marketing.
• Organizational Structure Adjustments:  ABC modifies its organizational structure, establishing a new e-commerce department and hiring a Head of E-commerce.
• Strategy Communication:  ABC’s CEO communicates the new strategy to all employees through a town hall meeting. They explain the strategic shift, its reasons, and how it affects different parts of the organization.
• Employee Training and Development:  ABC arranges training programs for its customer service and sales teams to help them adapt to the new e-commerce environment. They also hire new staff with digital marketing and e-commerce experience.
• Performance Management:  ABC sets KPIs related to online sales volume, website traffic, and customer satisfaction rates. They introduce a performance dashboard to track these metrics.
• Leadership and Management Support:  ABC’s management team fully supports the new strategy. They lead by example, show enthusiasm and commitment, and regularly update staff on progress.
• Review and Adjust:  After the first quarter, ABC reviews the results. They see an increase in online sales, but customer feedback indicates some issues with the new online platform. ABC takes this feedback and makes necessary adjustments, enhancing the website’s user interface and fixing technical bugs.

This example demonstrates the importance of planning, resource allocation, organizational adjustments, communication, and ongoing review in the strategy implementation process. It’s also worth noting that even well-planned strategies may need adjustments based on feedback and performance results.

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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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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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From Strategy to Execution: How to Create a Sustainable, Repeatable Implementation Plan

By Kate Eby | December 14, 2017

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In this article, you’ll learn the fundamental elements of a strategic implementation process, and how you can create a comprehensive implementation plan. We’ve also included free, downloadable implementation plan templates to get you started. 

Included on this page, you’ll find the components of an implementation plan , how to write an implementation plan , and tools for successful implementation planning .

What Is an Implementation Strategy?

An implementation strategy is based on a strategic plan , which defines the strategy used to accomplish certain goals or make decisions. Organizations can make strategic plans to guide organizational direction, a particular department’s efforts, or any project or initiative.

Implementation strategy is the process of defining how to bring the strategic plan to life. To execute the objectives outlined in the strategic plan, you must define how you will implement each aspect, from funding and personnel to organization and deliverables. Therefore, without an implementation strategy, it can be difficult to identify how you will achieve each of your stated goals and objectives. 

Ray McKenzie is the Founder and Managing Director of Red Beach Advisors . He breaks down the differences between strategy, implementation, and execution: “Implementation planning is the act of developing a tactical plan to complete a strategic initiative. Strategy is the overarching plan to move the organization, department, or project forward. Implementation is the act of putting the strategy into place utilizing resources within an organization or department. Execution is completing the tasks as part of the implementation plan to complete the strategic initiative through resources of the organized team.”

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What Is the Strategic Implementation Process?

The strategic implementation process refers to the concrete steps that you take to turn your strategic plan into action. The implementation tactics you use and steps you take will depend on the specific undertaking, organization, and goals.

A strategic implementation plan (SIP) is the document that you use to define your implementation strategy. Typically, it outlines the resources, assumptions, short- and long-term outcomes, roles and responsibilities, and budget. (Later on, we’ll show you how to create one.) An SIP is often integrated with an execution plan , but the two are distinct. 

The SIP outlines the activities and decisions necessary to turn the strategic goals into reality, and the execution plan is a schedule of concrete actions and activities to achieve goals and drive success. You can consider your strategy “implemented” once you determine that you have the requisite resources to meet your strategic needs, but you haven’t “executed” until you’ve actually taken action and achieved objectives. You can read more about the differences between strategy, implementation, and execution in this article by the Harvard Business Review . 

The strategic implementation process is often compared to the following activities:

Jennifer Hancock is the author of several books and Founder of Humanist Learning Systems , an organization that provides online personal and professional development training in humanistic business management, along with science-based harassment training. She describes the difference between organizational and implementation planning: “Organizational planning is the structure of the organization: What work needs to be done? How does it relate to the other work that needs to be done? Who is responsible for getting it done? How are the parts of the organization going to work together to accomplish shared objectives? Implementation planning has to do with specific projects and processes. For instance, an organization may have an HR department — that is, organizational planning. Implementation is when the HR department rolls out a new set of benefits or a new health care plan.”

‌ Download Organizational Change Management Plan

• Strategic Management Process: This is the ongoing effort to manage an organization, including both the decisions and actions that flow from the organizational strategy. Continuous strategic management can inform organizational planning by providing a strategy that outlines the organization’s goals. 
• Change Management: Change management is how you prepare and manage organizational planning, from the high-level processes and culture down to individual roles. Effective change management involves strategy and careful monitoring so that you can plan for change rather than react to it. 

Download Change Management Process Template

• Differentiated Planning: This is a reordering method that you can use to identify which resources you need based on the frequency with which you typically use them. Separate the items on your reorder list into three categories: routine, regular, and rare. This will give you a rough idea of the different demand levels for each resource, so you don’t have to spend time considering whether or not to restock. Because identifying and accumulating resources is an important component of implementation planning, it’s useful to understand differentiated planning. 

Why Implementation Is Important

Implementation planning largely determines project success because without it, your strategic goals remain unactionable. Therefore, implementation is the necessary step that transforms your strategic plans into action to achieve your goals. 

There are many examples where implementation planning heightens project success. In fact, the Harvard Business Review reported that companies with an implementation and execution plan saw 70 percent greater returns. 

McKenzie says that implementation planning is critical to project success. “This is the stage which allows the planned strategy to be executed,” he says. “The primary benefits to implementation and implementation planning are the abilities to outline the tasks needed to complete the project, identify the personnel and resources needed, and document the timeline for project completion to ensure you’re meeting the strategic goals.”

Hancock agrees. “If you don’t implement your plan — you don’t get anything done,” she says. “So, implementation is crucial. [Even] if you have the best plan in the world, it’s totally irrelevant if you don’t put the plan into action,” she adds.

Fiona Adler writes about entrepreneurship at DoTheThings.com and is the Founder of Actioned.com , a productivity tool for individuals and teams. With an MBA, multiple business successes, and a family living in a foreign country, she enjoys pushing the envelope to get the most out of life and loves helping others do the same. Adler explains that implementation is often more crucial than the strategy itself. She says, “In my opinion, implementation is far more important than strategic planning. After all, it doesn't matter if you have the best plan in the world. All that really matters is what you end up doing!”

The practice of implementation planning is also important in some of today’s organizational shifts. Most notably, implementation plays a part in the current shift from reactionary to strategic companies — in other words, organizations that plan for change and adaptation rather than react to it. Additionally, implementation supports the movement toward employee-oriented organizations, which it does by valuing communication, encouraging mutually-supported goals, and emphasizing accountability. Implementation planning is necessarily a human (and team) endeavor and making it a part of your daily processes helps ensure collaboration, trust, and transparency among project team members all the way up to C-suite management. 

What Is the Implementation Plan of a Project?

Implementation plans are commonly used for discrete projects, technology deployment within a company, and inventory planning. You can also create an implementation plan for personal use if it will help you organize and take actionable steps toward your goal(s).

A project implementation plan is the plan that you create to successfully move your project plan into action. This document identifies your goals and objectives (both short and long-term), lists the project tasks, defines roles and responsibilities, outlines the budget and necessary resources, and lists any assumptions. A project implementation plan sometimes includes a rough schedule, but teams usually set the hard timeline in the execution plan. 

In the following sections, we’ll delve deeper into each component of an implementation plan and show you how to write your own. 

Components of an Implementation Plan

The following are the key components of and questions that drive a successful implementation plan:

• Define Goals/Objectives: What do you want to accomplish? The scope of these goals will depend on the size of your undertaking.
• Schedule Milestones: While task deadlines and project timelines will be formally set in the execution plan, it’s a good idea to outline your schedule in the implementation phase.
• Allocate Resources: One of the core purposes of an implementation plan is to ensure that you have adequate resources (time, money, and personnel) to successfully execute. So, gather all the data and information you need to determine whether or not you have sufficient resources, and decide how you will procure what’s missing.
• Designate Team Member Responsibilities: Assign roles. This doesn’t necessarily mean you must define who will execute each individual task, but you should create a general team plan with overall roles that each team member will play. 
• Define Metrics for Success: How will you determine whether or not you are successful? What data (whether quantitative or qualitative) will you use to measure your results, and how will you accrue the necessary data?
• Define How You Will Adapt: Make a plan for how you will adapt, if necessary, to changes in your plan. Be sure to consider factors outside your control that could significantly alter the schedule or success of your project, and create emergent strategies ahead of time, so you don’t get derailed down the road — doing so helps build a culture of flexibility, agility, and fast action. 
• Evaluate Success: In addition to defining your metrics for success, decide how often you will evaluate your progress (e.g., quarterly reviews). 

In the following section, we’ll break down each element of a successful implementation plan to show you how to write one yourself. 

How to Write an Implementation Plan

Implementation plans are split into sections. Each section should be detailed, combining the information from your strategic plan and incorporating the necessary research and data to make your objectives actionable. Here’s how to write each component in an implementation plan:

• Introduction: The introduction of your implementation plan explains the purpose, vision, and mission statement of your project or initiative. You should identify the high-level risk areas, include any assumptions, and describe how you will identify the value stream in your proposed work. 
• Management Overview: In this section, you describe how implementation will be managed. This includes who is managing it, the underlying roles and responsibilities, and key points of contact. You should identify the strategy director, who is the person that develops and steers the strategy (this may or not be the same person who is leading implementation). 
• Major Tasks: This is where you list and describe the specific tasks, actions, and targets in implementation. You should also note the status of any tasks that are already in progress. 
• Implementation Schedule: You do not need to create a detailed, inflexible task schedule in your implementation plan — we’ll talk later on about how to create a schedule in the execution plan. At this stage, it’s appropriate to simply list the task order and predicted phase durations to roughly outline and allot for all the many moving pieces. 
• Security and Privacy: Discuss the privacy features and considerations of the software tools, processes, or information that you may use in implementation. Address security issues and how to handle sensitive information (personal data, medical history, financials, etc.). 
• Implementation Support/Resources List: Describe the various tools, activities, and departments that you require to support successful implementation. These might include hardware or software tools, facilities, and additional external human resources or services.
• Documentation: In this section, you must attach any other documentation that supports your implementation plan. This could include your strategic plan, confirmation of adequate materials and resources, and a history of past successful projects. 
• Monitoring Performance: Define the metrics by which you will measure success. How and when will you review your progress? 
• Acceptance Criteria: How will you define implementation “completion?” This differs from performance monitoring because rather than defining metrics for milestones and appropriate implementation, here, you describe how you will know when you have buy-in from management on your implementation plan. 
• Glossary: Define any key terms used in your implementation plan. 
• References: Indicate where you received your information, or list people who support your plan.
• Project Approval: If you need management’s approval before moving into execution, this section provides space for official signoff. 

To make it easy, you can also use a template to write your implementation plan. This will ensure that you don’t overlook any steps or sections and also provide a professional layout that you can use to deliver to management, clients, or other stakeholders. Download the template for free, and edit the fields to fit the needs of your specific project  — for example, for enterprise resource planning (ERP) . 

‌ Download Project Implementation Plan Template - Word

Software deployment is another common category of initiative that merits an implementation plan. Use the following template to create a software and systems implementation plan. 

‌ Download Software Systems Implementation Plan Template - Word

Implementation Planning Best Practices

Although you should include all the detailed aspects listed above in your implementation plan, simply having all these components will not ensure success. Instead, you should focus on the process of implementation and foster the following behaviors within your team:

• Create a Designated Implementation Team: An implementation team is the team responsible for ensuring successful implementation of a particular initiative. While it’s possible to move through implementation without creating a specific, organized body to oversee the processes, doing so heightens your chances of success. 
• Create a Shared Vision among All Team Members: Establish “why” you are making strategic changes so that team members have both a greater understanding of the root cause and a deeper connection to their work. Ensure individual compliance, so people don’t feel like their voices went unheard. Adler emphasizes, “Involve the people who will actually be implementing the change during the planning phase. Ideally, the idea will even come from them. This inclusion greatly increases the buy-in and commitment that the team has to actually getting the project implemented.”
• Choose a Strong Team Leader: The team leader should coach and educate team members along the way and seek out guidance from past implementation plan leaders to improve upon existing implementation processes within the organization. Adler explains that there can be multiple team leaders with slightly different responsibilities: “Each initiative needs a team. The team includes a ’champion,’ someone who is ultimately responsible for getting the thing done. They should also have a ’management sponsor,’ someone that can help the team get through any blocks they might have,” she says.
• Define Actionable Goals: Stay specific, define current issues, and identify root causes. Methods for defining current problems include brainstorming, surveys, and new member information forms. You can also use the note card method: Ask each team member to answer three questions anonymously ( What is the single biggest issue facing our team?, What will be the most important issue in five years?, What is the best way for our team to be involved in these issues? ), separate the cards into piles with similar answers, and count which answers are the most common within the group. Use the highest ranking similar answers to stimulate discussion of how to proceed. 
• Create an Action-Oriented Plan: Regardless of the size or predicted duration of your goals, create a plan focused on incremental action (rather than on continual planning). Small steps add up, so stay positive and focus on the future. That said, Hancock reiterates that your plan must be realistic: “Make sure your plan is reality-based,” she says. “You need to know what problem you really should be solving so that you don’t end up solving proxy problems (problems you think are your problem but really aren’t — an example of this is praying for rain when your real problem is that you need water on your field). You need to know what is really going to impact your problem so that you don’t pray for rain, which doesn’t affect anything. And, finally, you need to know what you really need to do to get the work done. What resources do you need? Do you have the resources you need? Can you get the resources you need? If not, your plan won’t work” she continues.
• Value Communication: The team leader should not only value others’ input, but also make active participation an expectation. Open, honest communication keeps processes transparent and helps generate new ideas. 
• Continually Monitor Incremental Success: Perform analysis and hold regular progress meetings to analyze your development. Closely monitoring your progress enables you to make adjustments before crisis hits and allows you to adapt before processes or expectations become solidified. Additionally, treating incremental milestones as successes helps foster a culture where employees feel valued for their contributions. Adler explains, “Building a culture where employees expect that projects will be successfully implemented is important. Celebrate successes and reference previous projects frequently.”
• Involve the Correct People at the Correct Times: This includes defining when and why it is appropriate to involve upper management. As McKenzie says, “Include the critical stakeholders that are part of the project. The beginning of planning should only include the decision makers and not every team member that is part of the project. Outline the critical tasks that are needed first. Once the tasks are outlined, dictate the personnel who will be responsible for the tasks. Once you identify the personnel, then bring in the additional resources to find what other tasks are needed to complete the larger tasks. To draft a proper implementation plan, it is imperative to include the critical stakeholders to outline the initiative.”
• Publicize Your Plan: While you don’t necessarily want every stakeholder’s input at all times during implementation planning, you do want to maintain transparency with other teams and management. Make your plan available to higher-ups to keep your team accountable down the line.

Difficulties in Implementation Planning

While implementation planning is critical to successful execution, there are several hurdles:

• Unless you are disciplined about moving into the execution phase, you can get stuck in planning and never get your project off the ground. 
• In any project, you may struggle to gain buy-in from key stakeholders. 
• It can also be difficult to break down every goal into an actionable step. If you keep your goals tangible, you can more easily identify targeted actions that will move you toward them. 
• No matter how well you plan, all projects have a high propensity for failure. Don’t get discouraged, though — dedicated, strategic implementation planning will raise the likelihood of project success. 

Although the above hurdles can be time-consuming and tedious, they are investments that will help you create a culture of trust. Because implementation is an ongoing team effort, you can’t afford to lack buy-in and commitment from any member of your team or direct stakeholders. So, communicate often and honestly, and prioritize teamwork when implementing your strategic plan. 

Still, even though inclusion and teamwork are key to a successful strategy, McKenzie reiterates that implementation planning won’t work if too many people are involved. “Implementation planning often gets derailed due to the input from various people that are not involved in the project,” he says. “There needs to be a clear line between the implementation team who is responsible for the execution and final project completion and the customers, internal or external, who are the recipients of the project. The customers can outline their requirements, but the implementation, tasks, and deliverables should be guided by the implementation team,” he concludes.

Adler explains that another common mistake is taking on too much at once. “It takes a lot of work to get something significantly new implemented,” she notes. “For this reason, the fewer initiatives the business takes on simultaneously, the greater the chances of success. Each initiative will take its team members away from their 'normal' work to some degree, and the business needs to be able to support this. If there are six things the business wants to implement, it is better to take on one or two at a time than to try to tackle all six at once,” she points out.

Tools for Successful Implementation Planning

While the implementation plan itself is a relatively low-tech document, software tools can help you track and manage your progress. From Gantt charts to advancements in information and communication technology, you’ll find popular implementation planning tools and their benefits below.

A Gantt chart is a graphical bar chart that you can use as a project timeline, and many software programs exist that allow you to create these online charts. As you move from implementation to execution, a Gantt chart can help you track individual task progress, see relationships among tasks, and identify critical or at-risk tasks. 

Download Basic Gantt with Dependencies Template 

Excel | Smartsheet

You can use a PERT (program evaluation and review technique) chart to forecast project duration by creating a timeline for individual tasks and identifying dependent tasks. PERT requires you to forecast three separate timetables — the shortest possible, the most likely, and the longest possible — which forces you to stay flexible in your planning, so you can adapt your schedule as factors inevitably change over the course of a project. 

When you have successfully implemented your plan, you’re ready to move to project execution. Execution planning and monitoring is outside the scope of this article, but below you’ll find more helpful templates to move your project toward successful completion. 

Download General Action Plan Template

Download Project Timeline Template

Download Project Charter Template 

Excel | Word | Smartsheet

Advancements in information and communication technology (ICT) have led to the development of cloud-based software that allows for anytime, anywhere access and multiple users. This technological capability is especially helpful for group work, in which multiple team members need to access a certain file simultaneously while also avoiding version control issues. For example, organizations commonly use cloud-based software to create a project management system or performance management system.

Using software to manage your implementation plan can provide the following benefits:

• Drive Accountability: By creating a single record of project progress, you build transparency (both in team members and processes) and reliability. 
• Keep Everyone up to Date: All users can access the most current information, which, in turn, cuts out unnecessary communication or erroneous double-work. 
• Improve Flexibility: Project management software can help you identify bottlenecks and potential problems early on, so you are able to adapt in anticipation. If you are attempting Agile project management, flexibility is crucial. 
• Support Organizational Commitment: Using a software tool often provides the transparency necessary to get executives to support your project. Once they have visibility into processes and progress, they will be more likely to grant the buy-in you need to procure resources and succeed.

When deciding which tool to use, consider the following:

• Buying Tools vs. Developing Software Internally: This will depend on the capabilities and availability of your in-house developers as well as on your budget. Additionally, consider whether or not you have the bandwidth to engage with a vendor and maintain the relationship over time. 
• Open Source vs. Free vs. Subscription: Open source software provides a great opportunity for organizations with limited budgets and development resources to build on top of the existing open platforms. There are also many free programs available (not open source). However, be wary that free options may have limited functionality. For organizations with larger budgets and a greater need for powerful functionality, most paid platforms bill on a subscription basis.
• Usability Requirements: Consider your team’s skill level. While you might be drawn to a tool with fancy functionality, it will be pointless (and perhaps even detract from project success) if it is too difficult for your team to use or learn. 

Ultimately, software tools are a fantastic way not only to elevate the accuracy of tracking project metrics and progress, but also to save time, build flexibility, and stimulate communication among your team. 

Improve Implementation Efforts with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

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.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

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6 Tips for Transitioning from Strategy Formulation to Implementation

• 17 Nov 2022

Strategy formulation is key to a successful business, but it's only effective when implemented correctly. Some professionals are experienced in developing comprehensive business plans, while others are well-versed in execution —more commonly known as "thinkers" versus "doers."

A balanced combination of both is an invaluable asset to any business. If you're struggling to bring your business strategy across the finish line, here are tips for transitioning from strategy formulation to implementation and a deeper understanding of why it's essential to your company's long-term success.

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Formulating a Successful Strategy

Developing an effective strategy requires in-depth knowledge, critical thinking, and careful planning. While several frameworks can help set the foundation, Harvard Business School Online's Business Strategy course uses the value stick.

The value stick is a visual representation of value-based strategy and can help you formulate a business model that factors in pricing, product positioning, and vendor management. Value-based strategy relies on customers' perceived value of the products or services being sold and determines the organization's prices, costs, and supplier strategy.

Some key terms for formulating a value-based strategy include:

• Willingness to pay (WTP): The price customers are willing to pay for a product or service. The margin between a customer's WTP and the actual price is deemed "customer delight," or customers' perceived received value.
• Price: The price the product is sold for. The margin between the price and cost is the firm margin, or the money the business makes.
• Cost: The cost of manufacturing the product.
• Willingness to sell (WTS): The lowest price a supplier is willing to accept for its services. The margin between WTS and cost is called "supplier surplus" or "supplier delight"—the value suppliers believe they're receiving.

This is just one framework for formulating a successful strategy. You can use similar tools, but the best option will always depend on your company's strategic planning needs . To ensure you're on the right path to an effective business strategy, here are six tips for formulating and implementing successfully.

6 Tips For Transitioning from Formulation to Implementation

After formulating a well-developed business strategy, it's time to execute, which is easier said than done. Strategy execution often poses several challenges that can be hard to overcome.

According to the HBS Online course Business Strategy , there are three characteristics of strategy implementation that make the process difficult for many companies:

• Boring: Strategy tends to be exciting; implementation, by comparison, can be rather mundane
• Time-consuming: The best strategies typically require years to implement effectively
• Detail-oriented: Good strategy implementation requires an attention to detail many managers don't have

To prevent these obstacles and ensure a smooth transition from formulation to successful implementation, here's an overview of what you can do to set your business strategy up for success .

1. Set Clear Goals

A simple and effective way to transition from formulation to execution is to set clear strategic goals . Strategic goals are measurable, actionable objectives that align with an organization's purpose and long-term vision. These goals ensure that individuals implementing the strategy have clear guidelines on how to define successful execution.

“When we set goals, we like to imagine a bright future with our business succeeding,” says HBS Professor Robert Simons in Strategy Execution . “But to identify your critical performance variables, you need to engage in an uncomfortable exercise and consider what can cause your strategy to fail.”

Planning in advance and identifying possible weaknesses in your strategy can help you achieve these business goals and objectives without additional roadblocks.

2. Create a Value Map

A value map is a visual tool that helps organizations determine the needs, pain points, or desires its products or services can solve or fulfill for potential customers. It's a tool that illustrates a business's potential value drivers, the factors that influence customers' willingness to pay for a product or service. Identifying and mapping value drivers can be used to formulate an organization's value proposition and key differentiators.

According to HBS Online's Business Strategy course, there are five steps to creating an effective value map:

• Identify value drivers: Determine 10 purchasing criteria customers use when choosing between your product and competing products.
• Rank value drivers: Rank those 10 criteria from most to least important.
• Rate your company's performance: For each value driver, rate how your company is performing from a score of one (poor) to five (excellent).
• Rate your competitors' performance: Repeat this process for two or three of your main competitors.
• Review your value map: Ask yourself if your findings accurately reflect the market's competitive situation, your company's strengths and weaknesses, and if there are actionable next steps to mend any competitive gaps.

By creating a value map, you can review your business's performance and discover new opportunities to improve your position in the market. A value map can also rank how well your company is attracting and maintaining talent compared to competitors.

3. Strengthen Important Value Drivers

Once you've identified your key value drivers, the next step of execution is to strengthen them. Yet, it's important to focus on strengthening the most important ones rather than all of them.

"If you strive to be exceptional everywhere and spread resources evenly across all your value drivers, you end up being mediocre throughout," says Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, who teaches Business Strategy .

Once you've identified the most important value drivers, strengthening them requires generating creative ideas . Since enhancing value drivers can be a relatively vague task, creativity provides ideas and direction. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, take risks, or even fail. Through experimentation and testing, new ideas can strengthen your value drivers and propel your business forward.

4. Create a Plan For Evolving Your Value Proposition

A value proposition is a short statement explaining the value your company provides and how your product or services differ from competitors. As the business landscape and market shift, so must your value proposition.

Competitors often become imitators or substitutes, which can cannibalize your revenue. To stay on top, your strategy—including your value drivers and value proposition—will have to evolve continually.

5. Delegate Work Effectively

Successful strategy implementation can be an overwhelming, multi-step process. It's important for managers to delegate effectively . By assigning tasks to other team members, leadership can spend more time focusing on bigger picture elements and:

• Engage other team members
• Share core business values
• Encourage strategy buy-in
• Win together and boost team morale

6. Continue to Review Performance

While these tools can be helpful for any strategy implementation, they don’t guarantee success without constant review and oversight. A successful strategic plan that drives value for a business and its customers requires continuous performance reviews and improvements.

One factor of strategy implementation to review is your employees. According to Strategy Execution , it can be beneficial in some cases to use ranking systems when reviewing employee performance to ensure your strategic initiatives receive the support needed to succeed long term.

“Ranking systems have really good features that managers can use to stimulate performance,” says HBS Professor Susanna Gallani in Strategy Execution . For example, employees who are highly motivated by personal achievement often thrive as a result of ranking systems.

It’s also important to continuously review your strategy, even after implementation. To ensure you get the most out of this review process, consider setting up a standardized operating procedure (SOP) for a designated task owner to run regularly to analyze and determine if an update is necessary. This can help you avoid common pitfalls of business strategy failures.

Why Business Strategy Formulation and Execution Are Important

Business strategy is an essential component of long-term growth and success. It offers value to customers, encouragement to key stakeholders, purpose for your company initiatives, and direction to your team. Yet, formulation only gets you so far.

Don't lose momentum during the implementation phase—ensure all your hard work pays off. With the right framework, you can create value for your customers and implement a frictionless strategy to achieve outstanding financial results.

Are you interested in learning about strategy implementation? Explore Business Strategy and Strategy Execution , two of our online strategy courses , to develop your strategic planning and implementation skills. To determine which strategy course is right for you, download our free flowchart .

This post was updated on November 3, 2023. It was originally published on November 17, 2022.

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More Like this

3 pro tips for strategy implementation, what is strategy implementation.

Strategy implementation is the process that turns your strategy plan into real action. Implementing your strategic plan is key to ensuring your organization’s future growth and success. Master the art of bringing your strategy to life like a pro.

Is implementing strategy difficult?

While strategy implementation is a critical follow-up for any new strategy or strategic plan, it poses significant challenges for many organizations. Nine out of 10 companies with strategic plans fail to implement them. Fortune Magazine says nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan. These reasons include:

• 60% of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting
• 75% of organizations don’t link employee incentives to strategy
• 86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy
• 95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand their organization’s strategy.

The root cause of strategic implementation failure often lies in lacking a well-defined, actionable plan that resonates with the organization’s broader goals.

Tip 1: Make Sure Your Have a Complete Plan

This might seem obvious, but the first step is ensuring you have an implementation-ready plan before starting your execution process. A great plan covers what you want to achieve and why you’re setting out in this direction. It’s supported by clear objectives, goals, and actions that articulate who, where, when, and how you’ll achieve your bigger vision of success.

Before moving into a strategy implementation and execution process, make sure your strategic plan checks off the following boxes:

• You have a clear vision of the future.
• Your plan articulates your mission and core values.
• You have a current state analysis that articulates where you are today.
• A clear growth strategy has been defined and is supported by your competitive advantages.
• There’s 4-6 long-term strategic objectives that create the framework for your plan.
• You have annual goals/OKRs to support your long-term objectives.
• You have clear KPIs, measures, and targets.
• You have the right people in the room.
• You have a quarterly action plan.

Ensuring that your strategic plan is actually ready to implement requires getting your teams together, outlining expectations, assigning roles and responsibilities, setting deadlines and KPIs, and finally, providing the resources needed for your teams to do their jobs to bring your strategic plan to life.

Get the Free Guide for Agile Implementation & OKR Cycles

Tip 2: make sure your team is aligned with your plan and direction..

One of the key steps to successful strategy implementation is ensuring your team understands your vision, goals, plan structure, available resources, market conditions, and how they play a pivotal role in the success of your plan.

Once your team is aligned on your goals and objectives and they understand your strategy, it is time to implement your strategic plan.

Download the Free Guide

Tip 3: Recognize the common pitfalls of strategy implementation and avoid them.

Identifying your pitfalls and course-correcting them before they occur is a more beneficial and mature approach to strategic implementation, especially in the beginning stages or if this is your first strategic planning process.

6 Strategic implementation roadblocks and OnStrategy’s best practices to avoid them:

Because you want your plan to succeed, heed the advice here and identify the pitfalls and solutions that are most relevant to your strategy implementation process. Here are the 6 most common pitfalls seen in strategic plans and how you can avoid them as you implement your strategy:

Lack of ownership and accountability.

Lack of ownership is the most common reason a process fails. If members of your team don’t have a stake in the plan, it’ll be business as usual for all but a frustrated few. This lack of ownership also coincides with a lack of accountability where your team is unwilling or unable to take responsibility for the success of the plan.

OnStrategy Approach: We recommend employing cross-functional teams, so everyone is responsible for a piece of the plan. Accountability helps drive change, so each measure, objective, data source, and initiative must have an owner.

Lack of communication and infrequent reporting schedule.

Your plan doesn’t get communicated to employees, and they don’t understand how they connect with the strategy or contribute to its success. Your team also doesn’t find value in frequent reporting, so meetings are regularly pushed back in favor of higher-priority tasks.

OnStrategy Approach: The solution to this pitfall is ensuring that your entire organization and each relevant team are in alignment and clearly understand the strategic plan and their role within it. This means regular, firmly scheduled check-ins to report on progress and address shortcomings. These meetings should be treated just as important as any other.

Treating your planning as a special occasion.

This can hinder your plan’s effectiveness. When strategic planning is viewed as separate from the day-to-day management process or only addressed during annual retreats or special events, the overall impact of your strategy diminishes.

OnStrategy Approach: To counter this, integrate your strategy into the core of your organization’s operations through consistent reporting and ongoing activity (monthly reporting and quarterly refresh). Rather than treating strategy as a periodic project, make it an integral part of everyone’s regular responsibilities and job duties.

The plan is overwhelming.

The goals and actions generated in the strategic planning session are too numerous because the team failed to make tough choices to eliminate non-critical actions. Employees don’t know where to begin.

OnStrategy Approach: We always recommend that organizations focus on 4-6 key initiatives or objectives within their strategic implementation plan. This ensures your team isn’t spread too thin and that you are only focusing on the relevant and impactful initiatives that will drive your success.

The implementation plan isn’t clear.

Implementation isn’t discussed in the strategic planning process. The planning document is seen as an end in itself, but you lack the forethought on how to make it actionable.

OnStrategy Approach: The objective of strategic planning is not just the plan itself but the continual process of working towards it and improving it. You need to set clear, actionable steps to make your strategic plan more than just a sheet of paper—this means setting KPIs, scheduling regular check-ins, assigning teams and goal owners, and implementing strategy via tracking and communication processes so that everyone is on the same page.

Your short-term objectives are undefined.

Another reason why your team may struggle to implement strategy is due to a lack of clear objectives. Sure, the broad strokes of your plan and vision are outlined, but you lack the key components of a complete plan, including annual goals, quarterly action plans, and key performance indicators.

OnStrategy Approach: Make sure you have a complete plan and roadmap for achieving your business goals. Your long-term plan must be supported by short-term goals and objectives with measurable analytics! A purpose-built strategic management tool and dashboard can also help keep our team coordinated and aligned. Again, with the help of a dynamic dashboard, like as the StrategyHub , you can set clear goals with well-defined measurements of success. Setting smaller, specific objectives that you know will contribute to your long-term goals will allow you to see in real-time what is working for your plan and what is not working and allow you to re-calibrate accordingly.

It’s easier to avoid pitfalls when they’re clearly identified and when you’ve outlined a solution to address them. Now that you know what they are, you’re more likely to jump right over them!

• A clearly defined implementation calendar and scheduled reviews. When you roll out your plan, schedule your monthly and quarterly reviews out for the year. It can be helpful to include monthly updates in your current standing meetings, but you should host dedicated quarterly reviews to review performance, refresh your plan, and create a focus for the next quarter.
• Clear expectations for when performance is to be updated and reviewed. Your entire team members need to know what they own and when they are responsible for updating their progress against performance.

9 Steps to Finalize a Strategy Implementation Approach

Implementing your plan includes several steps and can sometimes feel like it needs another plan of its own. But you don’t need to go to that extent. Use the steps below as your base implementation plan. Modify it to make it your own timeline and fit your organization’s culture and structure.

• Finalize your strategic plan after obtaining input from all invested parties.
• Align your budget to annual goals based on your financial assessment.
• Produce the various versions of your plan for each group.
• Establish your scorecard system for tracking and monitoring your plan.
• Establish your performance management and reward system.
• Roll out your plan to the whole organization to implement the strategy.
• Build all department annual plans around the corporate plan.
• Set up monthly strategy meetings with established reporting to monitor your progress.
• Set up annual strategic review dates, including new assessments and a large group meeting for an annual plan review.

Check out OnStrategy’s whiteboard video, explaining our Strategic Implementation Checklist!

Final Thought: Strategy Execution Doesn’t Need to Be Overwhelming!

Setting your strategy implementation approach might seem totally overwhelming after you complete your plan, but it doesn’t need to be. If you need help, we’ve got you covered with our expert strategy consultants and purpose-built strategy implementation tool called the StrategyHub.

We can help you ensure your plan is supported by the organizational culture, implementation approach, and necessary resources to achieve your vision of success.

Covering All Your Bases

As a business owner, executive, or department manager, your job entails making sure you’re set up for a successful implementation. Before you start this process, evaluate your strategic plan and how you may implement it by answering a few questions to keep yourself in check.

Take a moment to honestly answer the following questions:

• How committed are you to implementing the plan to move your company forward?
• How do you plan to communicate the plan throughout the company?
• Are there sufficient people who have a buy-in to drive the plan forward?
• How are you going to motivate your people?
• Have you identified internal processes that are key to driving the plan forward?
• Are you going to commit money, resources, and time to support the plan?
• What are the roadblocks to implementing and supporting the plan?
• How will you take available resources and achieve maximum results with them?

16 Comments

Hi i like to read these article and i got lots of help about strategy plan thanks

the implementation plans can assists an organisation in making its strategic efficiently which bust the organisation performance

Great article , I am an MBA student from kenya and am intending to research on factors that influence the implementaton of strategic plans in kenyan schools . Any idea on the relevant objectives and theories for my theoretical review and framework will be highly appreciated .

The article has been of invaluable use to me.thanks a lot.I would like to get more articles on strategic Management since I have done an Undergraduate degree in Strategic Management.

Good outline. My experience suggests that strategic plan ACHIEVEMENT always boils down to: broad understanding; assignability; actionable tasks; measurable elements; and stretch reasonableness. When plans fail, it’s usually because they’re either too esoteric, vague, unrealistic, or lack broad-based employee buy-in. Shorter-term plans, subsidiary plans, budgets, functional assignments, and job descriptions need to support this broader set of goals and objectives. There needs to be regular, ongoing communication and updates. Lastly, (and this makes professional planners uneasy), it’s not just about an elegant process, it’s about translating that vision into an executable framework from which elegant outcomes are actually achieved.

this is great and I have scooped a lot from it

Thanks a lot.This article has made me understand better

Isn’t this from “Strategic planning for dummies”? anyways thanks

Hi Brian- Our COO, Erica Olsen, wrote the book “Strategic Planning for Dummies” so you will some very similar thoughts here that you would see in the book.

thanks for the article . it has really helped me answer all my questions keep it up.

Thanks but can you assist more on why in most cases the strategic planning is regarded as a meaningless ,trivial and mundane ritual in organisations

I’m very happy reading your article and help much in our project implementaion, hoping that there are still more than this, thanks very much

The article is very useful for information. Thank you.

thanks alot for the outline,really impressed though an advise for strategy formulation in a motor vehicle showroom as a new business venture and also implementation of the same.

This is a very valuable piece. You helped me understand strategic planning and implementation much better. Thanks so much.

Very helpful information, thank you!

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How to Create an Implementation Plan: a Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to create an implementation plan with our step-by-step guide. Get practical insights and tips to guarantee your plan’s successful implementation.

As much as we’d love for it to be true, ideas and visions alone are not enough to bring about transformative change. Whether it’s a groundbreaking business strategy or an ambitious personal goal, success hinges on the ability to execute plans effectively.

Implementation plans translate vision into action, turning your aspirations into tangible achievements.

This article covers everything you need to know about implementation plans, from what they should include to how to create one.

What is an implementation plan?

An implementation plan is a strategic roadmap that outlines the steps, resources, and  timeline  required to bring an idea or vision to fruition. It provides a detailed framework for translating goals and objectives into practical actions.

An effective implementation plan goes beyond simply assigning tasks to team members to include various components that collectively help the team execute the plan.

It typically includes specific activities, milestones, and deadlines to keep everyone on track. It also identifies the resources each task needs, including the required people, tools, and materials.

At the end of the day, an implementation plan allows for better coordination and communication among team members, making sure that everyone is working toward the same goal.

Key components of an implementation plan

An implementation plan is made up of several components that are crucial for a project’s success.

Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

‎Goals and objectives

Think about the desired outcomes and objectives for the implementation plan. What do you hope to achieve through the project? Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Clearly defined work goals  help ensure a shared understanding and direction for everyone involved in the project. Without them, your project will be more likely to fail.

Scope and deliverables

Define the implementation plan’s boundaries and scope. What specific deliverables or milestones need to be accomplished? This helps set clear expectations and establish a timeline.

Timeline and milestones

What are the project’s time restraints? Create a detailed timeline that outlines the implementation process’s major phases, activities, and milestones. This  time management strategy  allows for better planning and progress tracking.

Roles and responsibilities

Identify the individuals or teams responsible for carrying out different tasks and activities. Clarify each person’s roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures to ensure accountability and coordination.

Resources and budget

At least  85% of every project  is over budget to some degree due to unforeseen events. To reduce the likelihood of running out of funds, determine the resources your team needs to successfully execute the  plan of action  and allocate a budget. Ensure  your team has the right technological tools  at their disposal.

Risk assessment and mitigation strategies

Identify potential risks and challenges that may arise during implementation. Develop strategies and contingency plans to mitigate those risks and minimize their impact on the project.

Communication plan

Establish a plan for effective communication throughout the implementation process. Define the target audience, key messages, communication channels, and frequency of updates to keep stakeholders informed and engaged.

According to a report on business communication,  72% of business leaders  believe that effective communication increases their team’s productivity.

Training and support

Determine the training needs of the individuals involved in the implementation, and develop a plan to provide the necessary training and support. This ensures everyone has the knowledge and skills to carry out their assigned tasks.

According to the World Economic Forum,  six in ten workers  will require training before 2027, but only half have access to adequate training opportunities today.

Evaluation and monitoring

Define the metrics and evaluation criteria to assess the progress and success of the implementation plan. Regularly monitor and measure the outcomes against the established objectives.

Documentation and reporting

Establish a system for documenting all relevant information, including project plans, progress reports, and any changes made during the implementation. This ensures transparency and provides a record for future reference.

Benefits of creating an implementation plan

Creating an implementation plan can be a difficult process. But when done well, it can bring many benefits for your team and a project’s success. We’ll discuss a few of them below.

‎Ensuring alignment and clarity of goals

A crucial aspect of any implementation plan is clearly defined outcomes and objectives, which give all stakeholders a shared understanding of what needs to be achieved. This alignment minimizes confusion and keeps everyone focused on the same target.

Facilitating effective resource management

An implementation plan gives teams a comprehensive overview of the required resources, including finances, personnel, and materials. This allows for better planning and allocation, ensuring that the right resources are available at the right times.

Project managers can easily identify potential resource gaps or bottlenecks early and take proactive measures to avoid them.

Minimizing risks and addressing potential obstacles

Implementation plans serve as a helpful tool to predict and handle problems while putting a plan into action.

They provide a structured way to identify and evaluate potential risks and challenges so that steps can be taken in advance to reduce their impact. Managers can monitor progress and make the necessary adjustments to ensure the project stays on track.

Enhancing communication and coordination among team members

A well-thought-out implementation plan becomes a structured framework for sharing information and providing progress updates. Roles, responsibilities, and dependencies are clarified, promoting seamless teamwork. This fosters effective communication, improves collaboration, and helps ensure that everyone is on the same page.

‎For example, a team member may not know the plan’s next stage, or a project manager may want to follow up on a task’s progress. Instead of sending emails back and forth, they can both refer to the implementation plan as a source of truth.

Providing a framework for monitoring and evaluation

Implementation plans establish clear metrics and evaluation criteria, serving as benchmarks to assess the success of the plan. This systematic approach helps monitor key milestones and outcomes, empowering teams to make data-driven, informed decisions.

For example, say a non-profit organization develops an implementation plan for a community outreach program. The plan includes specific metrics to monitor the program’s success, such as the number of individuals reached, the impact of educational workshops, and participant feedback.

Regularly tracking these metrics and evaluating the program’s effectiveness means the organization can make informed decisions, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate the program’s value to stakeholders and funders.

7 steps to create an implementation plan

Creating an implementation plan requires seven important steps. Let’s break down each one and use the example of a team developing a mobile app to illustrate the process.

Step 1: Define the objective and desired outcomes

The first step is to clearly define the objective of the mobile app or product launch. For example, the objective could be to develop a user-friendly app that simplifies online shopping, and the desired outcome could be a high user adoption rate and positive customer feedback.

Step 2: Identify the key stakeholders and their roles

Identify the key stakeholders involved in the development and launch process, such as the  product team , designers, developers, marketing team, and customer support. Clarify their roles and responsibilities to ensure effective collaboration and smooth project execution.

Step 3: Break down the objective into actionable tasks and steps

Break down the objective into smaller tasks and steps that need to be accomplished. These tasks could include conducting market research, designing a user interface, developing an app, creating marketing materials, and setting up customer support channels.

Step 4: Allocate resources and create a timeline

Allocate the necessary resources, including the budget, personnel, and technology, to support the project’s development and launch.  Create a detailed timeline  with specific deadlines for each task to help ensure that the development process stays on track.

Step 5: Conduct a risk assessment and develop mitigation strategies

Identify potential risks that may arise during the development and launch phase. These risks could include technical issues, competition, or market changes. Develop strategies to mitigate these risks, such as conducting thorough testing, staying updated on market trends, and establishing backup plans.

Step 6: Monitor progress and make the necessary adjustments

Regularly monitor the progress of the development and launch activities. Keep track of milestones, such as completing design iterations or reaching development checkpoints. If any issues or challenges arise, make necessary adjustments to the plan, such as reallocating resources or adjusting the timeline.

Step 7: Evaluate the outcomes and lessons learned

Once the mobile app or product is launched, evaluate its performance against the defined objectives in your implementation plan. Analyze user feedback, adoption rates, and sales data to measure success. Identify lessons learned from the development and launch process to improve future product releases.

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• Essential Steps to a Successful Strategy Implementation Process

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We keep hearing news stories and anecdotes about this “successful business” or that “entrepreneur who hit the big time with his business idea”. These stories often leave us in a state of wonder and awe, and we find ourselves wanting to know more. More about how the business became a success, more about what inspired a normal working guy (or girl) to think of a novel and brilliant business idea, and more about how someone can start a business, and make her dreams a reality.

We become so fixated on these stories that, all too often, we overlook the other side of that reality: that just as businesses become big and successful, there are also companies – perhaps in greater numbers – that fail.

What many often fail to realize, is that they can also learn from business ideas that tanked and business ventures that never really got off the ground. Better, they can also learn a lot from businesses that were able to get started, and then, somewhere along the way, something went wrong. They were having problems and great difficulty in maintaining their operations, until most of them declared bankruptcy or liquidated.

Businesses fail for a lot of reasons . Some had to close up shop because of economic upheavals that simply did not provide any room for new businesses to try making headway in their operations. Others blame the actions of competitors, and even the business challenges that are inherent in the market. There are also those businesses that blame the lack of resources for the failure.

However, this makes one wonder: if the economy, the competitors, the market and its challenges, and the availability of resources are at fault, how come other businesses were able to survive, and even become hugely successful? At this point, the most logical reason that comes to mind is mismanagement. More often than not, it is about how the business was unable to manage its strategies very well.

Strategic management is considered to be one of the most vital activities of any organization, since it encompasses the organization’s entire scope of strategic decision-making. Through the strategic management process, it allows the organization to formulate sets of decisions, actions and measures – collectively known as strategies – that are subsequently implemented in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

Strategy formulation – where the organization’s mission, objectives, and strategies are defined and set – is the first stage in strategic management. That is where it all begins, which means that, if the organization was unable to complete that stage with very good results, then the company’s strategy management is already a bust from the start. Many organizations fail during the first stage, in the sense that they are unable to come up with strategies that will potentially take the organization where it wants to be.

© Shutterstock.com | Gajus

However, there are also a lot of businesses that are able to formulate excellent and very promising strategies. And yet, the end result is still the organization having problems and even ultimately closing down. What could have gone wrong?

Most probably, it was because of poor implementation of the strategies.

STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

The second stage of strategic management, after strategy formulation, is “strategy implementation” or, what is more familiar to some as “strategy execution”. This is where the real action takes place in the strategic management process, since this is where the tactics in the strategic plan will be transformed into actions or actual performance.

Needless to say, it is the most rigorous and demanding part of the entire strategic management process, and the one that will require the most input of the organization’s resources. However, if done right, it will ensure the achievement of objectives, and the success of the organization.

If strategy formulation tackles the “what” and “why” of the activities of the organization, strategy implementation is all about “how” the activities will be carried out, “who” will perform them, “when” and how often will they be performed, and “where” will the activities be conducted.

And it does not refer only to the installation or application of new strategies. The company may have existing strategies that have always worked well in the past years, and are still expected to yield excellent results in the coming periods. Reinforcing these strategies is also a part of strategy implementation.

The basic activities in strategy implementation involve the following:

• Establishment of annual objectives
• Formulation of policies for execution of strategies
• Allocation of resources
• Actual performance of tasks and activities
• Leading and controlling the performance of activities or tactics in various levels of the organization

Incidentally, businesses may also find that they have to perform further planning even during the implementation stage, especially in the discovery of issues that must be addressed.

Strategy implementation is the stage that demands participation of the entire organization. Formulation of the strategies are mostly in the hands of the strategic management team, with the aid of senior management and key employees. When it comes to implementation, however, it is the workforce that will execute the strategic plan, with top or senior management taking the lead.

FACTORS THAT SUPPORT STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

Effective execution of strategies is supported by five key components or factors. All five must be present in order for the organization to be able to carry out the strategies as planned.

There are two questions that must be answered: “Do you have enough people to implement the strategies?” and “Do you have the right people in the organization to implement the strategies?”

The number of people in your workforce is an issue that is easier to address, because you can hire additional manpower. The tougher part of this is seeing to it that you have the right people, looking into whether they have the skills, knowledge, and competencies required in carrying out the tasks that will implement the strategy.

If it appears that the current employees lack the required skills and competencies, they should be made to undergo the necessary trainings, seminars and workshops so that they will be better equipped and ready when it’s time to put the strategic plan into action.

In addition, the commitment of the people is also something that must be secured by management. Since they are the implementers, they have to be fully involved and committed in the achievement of the organization’s objectives.

One of the basic activities in strategy implementation is the allocation of resources. These refer to both financial and non-financial resources that (a) are available to the organization and (b) are lacking but required for strategy implementation.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the amount of funding that will support implementation, covering the costs and expenses that must be incurred in the execution of the strategies. Another important resource is time. Is there more than enough time to see the strategy throughout its implementation?

The organizational structure must be clear-cut, with the lines of authority and responsibility defined and underlined in the hierarchy or “chain of command”. Each member of the organization must know who he is accountable to, and who he is responsible for.

Management should also define the lines of communication throughout the organization. Employees, even those on the lowest tier of the organizational hierarchy, must be able to communicate with their supervisors and top management, and vice versa. Ensuring an open and clear communication network will facilitate the implementation process.

What systems, tools, and capabilities are in place to facilitate the implementation of the strategies? What are the specific functions of these systems? How will these systems aid in the succeeding steps of the strategic management process, after implementation?

This is the organizational culture , or the overall atmosphere within the company, particularly with respect to its members. The organization should make its employees feel important and comfortable in their respective roles by ensuring that they are involved in the strategic management process, and that they have a very important role. A culture of being responsible and accountable for one’s actions, with corresponding incentives and sanctions for good and poor performance, will also create an atmosphere where everyone will feel more motivated to contribute to the implementation of strategies.

These factors are generally in agreement with the key success factors or prerequisites for effective implementation strategy, as identified by McKinsey . These success factors are presented in the McKinsey 7s Framework , a tool made to provide answers for any question regarding organizational design.

The emphasis of the framework is “coordination over structure”, which also supports how strategy implementation is described to involve the entire organization and not just select departments or divisions.

The 7 factors are divided into two groups: the Hard S (strategy, structure and systems) and the Soft S (style, shared values, staff and skills)

The strategy – or the plan of the business to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable growth – must be long-term and clearly defined. It must indicate a direction that leads to the attainment of objectives. When you take the organization’s mission and core values, the strategy should also be in line with them.

The organizational structure must be visible to everyone, and clearly identify how the departments, divisions, units and sections are organized, with the lines of authority and accountability clearly established.

There should be a clear indication and guide on how the main activities or operations of the business are carried out. The processes, procedures, tasks, and flow of work make up the systems of the organization.

This addresses the management or leadership style in force within the organization, from top management to the team leaders and managers in the smaller units. Strategy implementation advocates participative leadership styles, and so this is really more about defining and describing the interactions among the leaders in the organization and, to some extent, how they are perceived by those that they lead or manage.

Organizations will always have to deal with matters regarding staffing. Human resources, after all, is one of the most important assets or resources of an organization. Thus, much attention is given to human resource processes, specifically hiring, recruitment, selection and training.

Employees without skills are worthless resources to the organization. In order to aid the organization on the road towards its goals, the employees must have the skills, competencies and capabilities required in the implementation of strategies. You need to make sure you take care of the human aspects of the strategy implementation process .

S hared Values

This is at the heart of the McKinsey 7s framework, and they refer to the standards, norms and generally accepted attitudes that ultimately spur members of the organization to act or react in a certain manner. Employee behavior will be influenced by these standards and norms, and their shared values will become one of the driving forces of the organization as it moves forward.

Usually, organizations may take a look at each of these key success factors for individual analysis. However, the McKinsey approach takes a wider approach, assessing if they are well-aligned with the other factors or not. All seven prerequisites are interconnected, which means all seven must be present, and they must be effectively aligned with each other , in order to ensure effective strategy implementation, and overall organizational effectiveness.

Here is another interesting lecture from Stanford University on how to align your organization to execute strategy.

WHAT CAUSES FAILURE OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION?

Going back to the earlier discussion on why some businesses failed, even with the best-laid plans and strategies, have you ever wondered what went wrong in the implementation of these strategies?

In a study conducted by Fortune Magazine, it was revealed that nine out of ten organizations are unable to fully, completely and properly implement their strategic plan, often resulting to complete business failure. We’re looking at nine out of ten organizations that just wasted their resources, opportunities, and probably even very good strategies that have been formulated in the first stage of the strategic management process.

The most common reasons why implementation of the strategies are unsuccessful are:

• Lack of effective communication, or lack of communication, in general. It falls upon the shoulders of senior management and the strategic management team to communicate the organizational mission and goals to every member of the workforce, and also make them understand the strategy and each member’s particular role in how it will be carried out.
• Lack of ownership on the part of the “implementers”, the members of the workforce. Since the employees and maybe even the supervisors of the smaller units are unaware of the strategy, or do not understand it, there is very little motivation and sense of empowerment to make them perform well in their respective tasks and functions. There is a lack of ownership, since the employees do not feel that they have a stake in the plan, and this results to poor implementation of the strategy.
• Confusing, convoluted, and generally overwhelming plan. Some people can only assimilate several things at one time. If they are presented with a plan that seems too massive and too ambitious for them, their natural response would involve shutting down and refusing to understand. Thus, it is important that the strategy formulation be carried out properly, and the strategic plan prepared in a user-friendly manner. Also, communication is key. No matter how overwhelming the strategic plan may be, it can still be understood and accepted by the workforce if communicated properly.
• The strategy is disconnected from with crucial aspects of the business such as budgeting and employee compensation and incentives. Executing the strategies involves funding, resource allocation, financial management and other budgeting matters, and if there is no link connecting these activities to the strategies, then there is no way that they will be implemented effectively. This is largely an issue that must be addressed in the strategy formulation stage.
• The strategy is paid little attention by management . All too often, the owners, managers and supervisors become too caught up in the day-to-day operations of the business, they rarely refer to the strategic plan. Before long, they end up adopting a dismissive attitude towards the strategic plan, treating the strategies as something related to the overall management process, but still separate. They devote a token number of hours in a month to go over the plan and discuss strategies, but that’s it. After the discussion, they will put it at the back of their minds, and continue as they were.

In order to ensure the success of the strategy implementation, covering all your bases is important. The best way to go about that is by following the essential steps to executing the strategies.

STEPS IN STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION

To ensure an effective and successful implementation of strategies, it’s a good idea to have a system to go about it. Take a look at the steps to ensure that happens.

Step #1: Evaluation and communication of the Strategic Plan

The strategic plan, which was developed during the Strategy Formulation stage, will be distributed for implementation. However, there is still a need to evaluate the plan, especially with respect to the initiatives, budgets and performance. After all, it is possible that there are still inputs that will crop up during evaluation but were missed during strategy formulation.

There are several sub-steps to be undertaken in this step.

• Align the strategies with the initiatives. First things first, check that the strategies on the plan are following the same path leading to the mission and strategic goals of the organization.
• Align budget to the annual goals and objectives. Financial assessments conducted prior will provide an insight on budgetary issues. You have to evaluate how these budgetary issues will impact the attainment of objectives, and see to it that the budget provides sufficient support for it. In the event that there are budgetary constraints or limitations, they must first be addressed before launching fully into implementation mode.
• Communicate and clarify the goals, objectives and strategies to all members of the organization. Regardless of their position in the organization’s hierarchy, everyone must know and understand the goals and objectives of the organization, and the strategies that will be employed to achieve them.

Step #2: Development of an implementation structure

The next step is to create a vision , or a structure, that will serve as a guide or framework for the implementation of strategies.

• Establish a linking or coordination mechanism between and among the various departments and their respective divisions and units. This is mainly for purposes of facilitating the delegation of authority and responsibility.
• Formulate the work plans and procedures to be followed in the implementation of the tactics in the strategies.
• Determine the key managerial tasks and responsibilities to be performed, and the qualifications required of the person who will perform them.
• Determine the key operational tasks and responsibilities to be performed, and the qualifications required of the person who will perform them.
• Assign the tasks to the appropriate departments of the organization.
• Evaluate the current staffing structure, checking if you have enough manpower, and if they have the necessary competencies to carry out the tasks. This may result to some reorganization or reshuffling of people. In some cases, it may also require additional training for current staff members, or even hiring new employees with the required skills and competencies. This is also where the organization will decide if it will outsource some activities instead.
• Communicate the details to the members of the organization. This may be in the form of models, manuals or guidebooks.

Step #3: Development of implementation-support policies and programs

Some call them “strategy-encouraging policies” while others refer to them as “constant improvement programs”. Nonetheless, these are policies and programs that will be employed in aid of implementation.

• Establish a performance tracking and monitoring system. This will be the basis of evaluating the progress of the implementation of strategies, and monitoring the rate of accomplishment of results, or if they were accomplished at all. Define the indicators for measuring the performance of every employee, of every unit or section, of every division, and of every department.
• Establish a performance management system. Quite possibly, the aspect of performance management that will encourage employee involvement is a recognition and reward structure. When creating the reward structure, make sure that it has a clear and direct link to the accomplishment of results, which will be indicated in the performance tracking and monitoring system.
• Establish an information and feedback system that will gather feedback and results data, to be used for strategy evaluation later on.
• Again, communicate these policies and programs to the members of the organization.

Step #4: Budgeting and allocation of resources

It is now time to equip the implementors with the tools and other capabilities to perform their tasks and functions.

• Allocate the resources to the various departments, depending on the results of financial assessments as to their budgetary requirements.
• Disburse the necessary resources to the departments, and make sure everything is properly and accurately documented.
• Maintain a system of checks and balances to monitor whether the departments are operating within their budgetary limits, or they have gone above and beyond their allocation.

Step #5: Discharge of functions and activities

It is time to operationalize the tactics and put the strategies into action, aided by strategic leadership, utilizing participatory management and leadership styles.

Throughout this step, the organization should also ensure the following:

• Continuous engagement of personnel by providing trainings and reorientations.
• Enforce the applicable control measures in the performance of the tasks.
• Evaluate performance at every level and identify performance gaps, if any, to enable adjusting and corrective actions. It is possible that the corrective actions may entail changes in the policies, programs and structures established and set in earlier steps. That’s all right. Make the changes when necessary.

Basically, the results or accomplishments in Step #5 will be the input in the next step, which is the third stage of Strategic Management: “strategy evaluation”.

Some argue that implementation of strategies is more important than the strategies themselves. But this is not about taking sides or weighing and making comparisons, especially considering how these two are important stages in Strategic Management. Thus, it is safe to say that formulating winning strategies is just half the battle, and the other half is their implementation.

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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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Table of Contents

Importance of strategy implementation, basic features of strategy implementation, process of strategic implementation, prerequisites of strategic implementation, aspects of strategic implementation, 7 key steps in the strategic implementation process, tips for effective strategy implementation, strategy implementation challenges, considering a strategic certification for your career, what is strategic implementation aspects & key steps.

Introducing new goals in your organization is a complicated endeavor. Regardless of how well your team functions, it takes a well-crafted strategy to realign your team and resources to achieve new objectives.

This is where strategy implementation comes into play. 

As a tool used within strategic management , the implementation process focuses on the execution of your strategy by addressing who, when, where, and how targets can be met. 

Here’s how your organization can harness successful strategic implementation within the project management team .

Strategy implementation is crucial because it concerns action rather than just brainstorming ideas. It enables a team to understand that the strategies presented are viable. Strategy implementation serves as a great tool for team development as every member can participate in the process. It relies on thorough communication and the right tools.

The primary features of strategy implementation are as follows: 

Integrated Process

Strategy implementation is a holistic and integrated process. It implies that different activities that constitute strategy implementation are interdependent. For instance, an organization's promotional strategy's activities are interrelated and have to be executed in accordance with each other.

Action Oriented

A strategy should be actionable. It can be made actionable via various management processes, including planning and organizing. The management is not just responsible for formulating a plan but also for converting the plan into action.

Varied Skills

It suggests that strategy implementation concerns wide-ranging skills. Vast knowledge, abilities, positive attitude, and organizational skills are required to implement a strategy. Proficiency in these skills helps in allocating resources, crafting policies, and devising structures.

Wide Involvement

Strategy implementation demands the participation of all the components of a system. It includes the top, middle, and lower level management. The top management has to maintain transparency and clarity while communicating the strategy to be implemented. The middle management must further regulate the norms and ensure no miscommunication happens.

It covers a range of administrative and managerial activities. For instance, to implement a marketing strategy , you must prepare a marketing budget, conduct market research, develop a promotional plan, conduct test marketing, launch the product, and collect customers' feedback.

When approaching a goal or a project , the process of strategic implementation governs how you’ll put your plan into action. Its purpose is to help determine how you’ll source your resources, what policies or programs you’ll put into place, and who will help you execute the strategy. 

The implementation process should follow an environmental scan and SWOT analysis to identify any potential risks inherent to the strategy.

Without strategy formulation and implementation, it can be challenging to achieve goals.

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Before any strategy can be implemented, there are a few prerequisites your organization needs to achieve success. Sourcing these essential items in advance will help you successfully implement a strategy.

As a management team, consider the following:

• Do you have people with the right skills and experience to implement the strategy?
• Do you have the resources you need (such as time and money) to execute the implementation?
• Is your management structure designed for open communication and frequent meetings?
• Are you equipped with the technology needed to achieve your objectives?

Before you proceed to your implementation process, review your strategy, and ensure you’re providing your team with what they need to succeed.

Strategy formulation and implementation work hand in hand, and the following aspects help connect the dots to ensure the execution runs smoothly.

• Establish the right work environment and corporate culture that supports and embraces strategy implementation. By motivating employees and rewarding success, you’ll improve the effectiveness of your strategy.
• Employ a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals to tackle individual supporting projects.
• Improve internal communication to ensure all team members have the support and knowledge they need.
• Develop procedures or policies which help teams better achieve their goals.
• Create a healthy budget and allocate the resources needed to implement the strategy.

Successful strategic implementation involves participation from the entire organization. While the management team may be tasked with overseeing the goal to completion, it’s your team that will be completing the work.

Ensure the right structure and systems are in place to support the workflow through your teams. Employees should be aware of their responsibilities, who they’re accountable to, and the tools available to assist them with their tasks.

There are seven key steps for an organization to achieve success in their strategy formulation and implementation process. 

1. Set Goals

Ensure from the onset that all goals are realistic and attainable within your set timeframe and resource allocation. Determine whether the goals are companywide or department specific. Then identify any key variables or obstacles that may arise and develop contingency plans. 

2. Determine Roles

Communicate your implementation strategy with your team. This will help you establish what responsibilities each department will take on and outline your action plan for colleagues and stakeholders.

3. Assign Work

Assign tasks to your team members. Each individual should understand the overarching goal and how their specific assignment supports it. Deadlines should be clearly communicated to ensure the project stays on task.

4. Execute and Monitor

It’s time to put your strategic plan into action. All team members should have the resources they need to complete the task at hand. Regularly check in with your team to monitor progress and address any roadblocks that may arise.

5. Adjust and Revise

This is often the most important step of the process. As issues or challenges arise, shift your approach, and take corrective action to your process as needed. So long as you share updates with your team and all stakeholders, staying agile throughout strategic implementation will greatly improve your project outcome.

6. Complete the Job

Continue to check in on your team members to ensure the project is on track and that no additional resources are needed to achieve the goal. Update all stakeholders with any important details of the job or delays in your team’s progress. 

7. Review and Reflect

The final step of the process is to conduct a retrospective of the strategy implementation. Reflect on the overall process, and review what went well and what did not. Use these learnings to improve your strategy for future projects.

A team reaches its end goal prior to the deadline while learning more about the project, the company, and its capabilities only with effective strategy implementation. The following tips help in strategy implementation:

Establish Systematic Communication

Various company tools, such as messaging software or project management software, facilitate communication. Making yourself available for discussions by setting up office hours or having open email addresses ensures effective communication of ideas, complaints, and appreciation.

Equip with Right Tools for Job

An idea turns futile when you do not have the proper tools to complete a project. To keep your team moving forward and reach its goal, you must provide the right tools for every job. 

Foster Honesty

You must practice being honest, not just to your team but also to yourself. Honesty in a workplace helps everyone grow and creates a more cohesive team. It facilitates trust among team members. You must look through the challenges of your team with an honest view and give unbiased remarks on the situation. 

Ensure Clarity

The clarity in goals and strategies is a must for strategy implementation. After all, only when all the team members are clear on the expectations, duties, goals, and methods will they be able to increase productivity at work .  

Extend Support

A supportive team utilizes its collective knowledge to address and resolve the problems, and this practice speeds up the project. You must encourage team members' support with effective communication and by modeling what a support figure looks like.

Teams might often face the following challenges during the strategy implementation process:

• Inadequate Support: Often, companies lag in reinforcing a culture of support, leading to independent team members and reduced overall work efficiency.
• Inability to Track Progress: Lack of proper software for project documentation weakens strategy implementation. 
• No Safeguards: The inability to establish safeguards or address potential challenges leads to several problems. Planning for potential issues saves time and frustration. 
• Lack of Communication: Miscommunications are major roadblocks that delay strategy implementation. 
• Lack of Effective Training: Inability to train members and entrusting them with duties leads to various problems.

Simplilearn’s ITIL® 4 Foundation training will give you the expertise to implement the principles and processes in strategic implementation in IT service management. 

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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.

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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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The Business Planning Process: 6 Steps To Creating a New Plan

In this article, we will define and explain the basic business planning process to help your business move in the right direction.

What is Business Planning?

Business planning is the process whereby an organization’s leaders figure out the best roadmap for growth and document their plan for success.

The business planning process includes diagnosing the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses, improving its efficiency, working out how it will compete against rival firms in the future, and setting milestones for progress so they can be measured.

The process includes writing a new business plan. What is a business plan? It is a written document that provides an outline and resources needed to achieve success. Whether you are writing your plan from scratch, from a simple business plan template , or working with an experienced business plan consultant or writer, business planning for startups, small businesses, and existing companies is the same.

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The Better Business Planning Process

The business plan process includes 6 steps as follows:

• Do Your Research
• Calculate Your Financial Forecast
• Draft Your Plan
• Revise & Proofread
• Nail the Business Plan Presentation

We’ve provided more detail for each of these key business plan steps below.

1. Do Your Research

Conduct detailed research into the industry, target market, existing customer base,  competitors, and costs of the business begins the process. Consider each new step a new project that requires project planning and execution. You may ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your business goals?
• What is the current state of your business?
• What are the current industry trends?
• What is your competition doing?

There are a variety of resources needed, ranging from databases and articles to direct interviews with other entrepreneurs, potential customers, or industry experts. The information gathered during this process should be documented and organized carefully, including the source as there is a need to cite sources within your business plan.

You may also want to complete a SWOT Analysis for your own business to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and potential risks as this will help you develop your strategies to highlight your competitive advantage.

2. Strategize

Now, you will use the research to determine the best strategy for your business. You may choose to develop new strategies or refine existing strategies that have demonstrated success in the industry. Pulling the best practices of the industry provides a foundation, but then you should expand on the different activities that focus on your competitive advantage.

This step of the planning process may include formulating a vision for the company’s future, which can be done by conducting intensive customer interviews and understanding their motivations for purchasing goods and services of interest. Dig deeper into decisions on an appropriate marketing plan, operational processes to execute your plan, and human resources required for the first five years of the company’s life.

3. Calculate Your Financial Forecast

All of the activities you choose for your strategy come at some cost and, hopefully, lead to some revenues. Sketch out the financial situation by looking at whether you can expect revenues to cover all costs and leave room for profit in the long run.

Begin to insert your financial assumptions and startup costs into a financial model which can produce a first-year cash flow statement for you, giving you the best sense of the cash you will need on hand to fund your early operations.

A full set of financial statements provides the details about the company’s operations and performance, including its expenses and profits by accounting period (quarterly or year-to-date). Financial statements also provide a snapshot of the company’s current financial position, including its assets and liabilities.

This is one of the most valued aspects of any business plan as it provides a straightforward summary of what a company does with its money, or how it grows from initial investment to become profitable.

4. Draft Your Plan

With financials more or less settled and a strategy decided, it is time to draft through the narrative of each component of your business plan . With the background work you have completed, the drafting itself should be a relatively painless process.

If you have trouble writing convincing prose, this is a time to seek the help of an experienced business plan writer who can put together the plan from this point.

5. Revise & Proofread

Revisit the entire plan to look for any ideas or wording that may be confusing, redundant, or irrelevant to the points you are making within the plan. You may want to work with other management team members in your business who are familiar with the company’s operations or marketing plan in order to fine-tune the plan.

Finally, proofread thoroughly for spelling, grammar, and formatting, enlisting the help of others to act as additional sets of eyes. You may begin to experience burnout from working on the plan for so long and have a need to set it aside for a bit to look at it again with fresh eyes.

6. Nail the Business Plan Presentation

The presentation of the business plan should succinctly highlight the key points outlined above and include additional material that would be helpful to potential investors such as financial information, resumes of key employees, or samples of marketing materials. It can also be beneficial to provide a report on past sales or financial performance and what the business has done to bring it back into positive territory.

Business Planning Process Conclusion

Every entrepreneur dreams of the day their business becomes wildly successful.

But what does that really mean? How do you know whether your idea is worth pursuing?

And how do you stay motivated when things are not going as planned? The answers to these questions can be found in your business plan. This document helps entrepreneurs make better decisions and avoid common pitfalls along the way. ​

Business plans are dynamic documents that can be revised and presented to different audiences throughout the course of a company’s life. For example, a business may have one plan for its initial investment proposal, another which focuses more on milestones and objectives for the first several years in existence, and yet one more which is used specifically when raising funds.

Business plans are a critical first step for any company looking to attract investors or receive grant money, as they allow a new organization to better convey its potential and business goals to those able to provide financial resources.

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How to implement a strategic management process

Strategic management is the ongoing process of strategy formulation, evaluation, and improvement in order to gain a competitive advantage. Learn about the five stages of strategic management and how implementing a strategic management process benefits your organization.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. When your team has a clear sense of where you’re going and why, they’re empowered to get their best work done efficiently and effectively. 

But building that level of clarity takes time—and effort. That’s where strategic management comes in. In this article, we’ll take a look at what strategic management is and how your team can benefit from the strategic management process. 

What is strategic management?

Strategic management is the organization and execution of business resources in order to achieve your company goals. This isn’t an individual initiative but rather an ongoing process of strategy formulation, evaluation, and improvement in order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage. 

The strategic management process includes:

Long-term, large-scale goal setting, like BHAGs

SWOT analysis

Strategy evaluation

Internal analysis of your organizational structure

Analysis of your external, competitive environment

Strategic planning

Process implementation plans to achieve your organization’s objectives

Competitive strategy implementation

Strategic management might sound similar to several other critical business elements. Here’s how it stacks up in the business environment. 

Strategic management vs. strategy

At first glance, strategic management and strategy seem like the same thing. The easiest way to differentiate between the two is to think of strategic management as the implementation of your corporate strategy. 

In a business setting, strategy is the process of formulating decisions to hit your organization’s goals. An effective strategy is critical to help your business team understand what your priorities are and where you’re going. But to put the strategy into motion, you need strategic management. Strategic management takes your competitive environment into account and factors in how you’ll execute against your company’s strategy. 

Strategic management vs. strategic planning

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning howyou will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

Strategic management vs operational management

Even though the terms are very different, strategic management is often confused with operational management. Operational management is what your company does. This includes your organization’s value chain—in other words, the processes and practices your organization does on a regular basis in order to deliver a final product, good, or service.

If operational management is the “what,” strategic management is the “why” and “how.” To start, strategic management helps you define why you’re prioritizing different business initiatives and what you’re aiming to achieve in the long term. Then, during the implementation and planning phase, strategic management also defines how you’ll achieve your goals. 

Strategic management example

Strategic management helps companies achieve ambitious goals that require strategic alignment across departments. 

For example, imagine your company is introducing a brand new service line and wants to implement a strategic management process to ensure execution goes smoothly. You’ll first want to evaluate a few things about your current processes and future goals. 

What are the goals of introducing a new service? 

What areas have we struggled with in the past?

What is our budget?

How can we differentiate ourselves in our industry?

By using the strategic management process, you can use the questions above to create a coordinated plan that helps you reach your target goals. Keep reading as we break down the five stages of the strategic management process along with some benefits strategic management can have for your organization. 

5 stages of the strategic management process

The important concepts of strategic management can be viewed in five stages:

1. Identify your goals

The first step in the strategic management process is to evaluate where you’re going, and why. Ideally, you already have some goal materials in place, including: 

Your vision statement

Your mission statement

Your long-term goals and/or BHAGs

Your company’s core competencies

There are additional documents you can consider at this point, including:

Your strategic plan

Your yearly objectives, OKRs , and KPIs

It’s critical to identify your goals and plans in order to understand how you’re going to achieve them. Your goals form the basis of your strategic decisions.

2. Analyze your current situation

Once you’ve compiled a list of where you want to go, it’s helpful to get a bearing on where you are. The second step of strategic management is to take a look inwards at your current processes. If you haven’t already, run a SWOT analysis to get a better understanding of your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Also consider:

What’s currently working? 

What competitive advantages does your company have? 

What isn’t working? 

What, if any, operational issues have you run into? 

What is your current market share, and how does it compare to your goals? 

What are your current business needs, and are they being met? 

What, if anything, could potentially impact your organization’s goals? 

How does the external environment (including public opinion and the competitive environment) impact your business?

How does your internal environment (including your operations, employee retention and satisfaction, and team morale ) impact your business? 

What does your organization need to do to achieve profitability?

3. Form your strategy

If you haven’t already, this is the step where you build your strategic plan to describe exactly where you want to go and how you plan to achieve those goals. Depending on your organization, and whether or not you’re a new business, this is also when you’d use business process management (BPM) to improve processes.

Key questions to ask during this stage include:

What steps do you need to take to reach your goals? 

How will you measure success? 

What are your current processes, and are you able to achieve your goals with them? 

4. Implement your strategy

You’ve identified your strategy—now it’s time to put it into action. The fourth step of the strategic management process takes the longest. This is where you implement your strategic plan and see it come to life. 

This step depends largely on your business strategy. Essentially, you’re deciding which processes you need to evaluate, monitor, and improve—and putting those process improvement plans into action. This includes anything from better resource allocation or implementing business process automation (BPA) to streamline processes, to developing a company-wide project management office (PMO) . 

Remember that implementing your strategy is a long-term process. In addition to your long-term strategic goals , make sure to set short-term goals to guide your strategy implementation and make sure you remain on track.

5. Evaluate your process

Strategic management isn’t a one-and-done thing. Your management strategy and business environment also change as your company matures. Similar to how you should revisit your strategic plan every three to five years, make sure you’re revisiting your overall strategic management plan regularly as well. Take into consideration any new potential threats, relevant success metrics, and developing avenues your business may want to pursue.

Strategic management frameworks

There are a number of frameworks that can help you approach strategic management. Some of the most popular include:

A SWOT analysis guides you in identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for your business strategy. When working through the strategic management process, factor a SWOT analysis into the “Analyze” phase, as it helps establish your baseline and where you can go from there. 

Balanced scorecard

 A balanced scorecard can help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance. By analyzing these aspects separately, you can visualize where your organization has a competitive advantage and where you can make improvements. 

Like a SWOT analysis, this framework can help you during the “Analyze” phase, as it dives into your baseline for each aspect of your business model. 

Value chain analysis

The value chain describes the systems and processes involved in producing new products or services. Analyzing the value chain allows organizations to identify opportunities for improvement within the project life cycle. Some questions that come from value chain analysis include:

Is there an opportunity for cost reduction? 

Can we streamline this process? 

What can we do to make our product or service different from competitors? 

Diving into a value chain analysis will help you pick apart your process and add more specific plans to your strategic management process.  

Why is strategic management important?

Strategic management benefits every level of your organization. While the process takes time, energy, and effort, the upsides are immense and echo throughout the entire organization. With effective strategic management, you’re building:

Clear plans on how you’ll reach organizational goals

At its core, strategic management is a roadmap for achieving company goals. Using the frameworks stated above, strategic management paints a clear picture of an organization’s goals and outlines the path to reach them. 

A team-wide understanding of organizational priorities

The strategic management process ensures that your goals align with what’s best for your organization. By diving into techniques like SWOT analyses and value chain analyses, you’ll discover what opportunities should be at the forefront of your improvement efforts. 

Strategic alignment across the organization

When you establish and communicate your company’s goals and priorities, strategic improvement will trickle down from the leadership level to the whole organization. 

The strategic management process is so effective because it takes strategic initiatives from ideation to execution. By establishing the right goals in the first stage of the process, you’ll find your whole organization aligned with the plan to achieve them.                                                                                             

An ongoing business process

Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the strategic management process is that it creates a system that is ongoing. The end result of the strategic management process should be a new system that you can tweak as your company evolves. 

Reach new heights with strategic management

Strategic management doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need key business units and project stakeholders to buy into your strategic plan. Effective strategic management permeates all levels of your organizational structure and factors in all of your organization’s resources in order to build the best long-term strategy for your business.

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Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template

Identify company goals and objectives, conduct comprehensive market research.

• 1 Competitor analysis
• 2 Target audience analysis
• 3 Industry trends analysis
• 4 SWOT analysis
• 5 Consumer behavior analysis

Perform SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis

Draft potential strategies based on findings.

• 1 Sales and marketing
• 2 Product development
• 3 Operations
• 4 Customer service
• 5 Human resources

Analyze and select optimal strategies

• 1 Executives
• 2 Department heads
• 3 Key employees
• 4 Board of directors
• 5 External consultants

Approval: Strategy selection

• Draft potential strategies based on findings Will be submitted

Develop a detailed implementation plan

• 1 Budget allocation
• 2 Additional staff
• 3 New technology/software
• 4 Training programs
• 5 Marketing materials

Assign roles and responsibilities

• 1 Project manager
• 2 Team leader
• 3 Subject matter expert
• 4 Implementation coordinator
• 5 Data analyst

Determine required resources and budget

Plan for potential obstacles and risks.

• 1 Alternative suppliers
• 2 Backup systems
• 3 Cross-training team members
• 4 Contractual agreements
• 5 Communication protocols

Approval: Budget and Resources Allocation

• Determine required resources and budget Will be submitted

Communicate the strategy implementation plan to all stakeholders

• 2 In-person meetings
• 3 Video conferences
• 4 Project management software
• 5 Internal newsletters

Execute the implementation plan

• 1 Launching new marketing campaign
• 2 Hiring and training new employees
• 3 Implementing new software systems
• 4 Restructuring organizational processes
• 5 Conducting performance assessments

Monitor and evaluate progress regularly

• 1 Revenue growth
• 2 Customer satisfaction rating
• 3 Market share
• 4 Employee productivity
• 5 Website traffic

Conduct regular update meetings

• 3 Project team members
• 4 External consultants
• 5 Board of directors

Make necessary alterations based on progress

Approval: adjustments to implementation.

• Make necessary alterations based on progress Will be submitted

Perform final evaluation and report generation

Implement lessons learned into future strategies.

• 1 Creating a lessons learned repository
• 2 Presenting findings in a team meeting
• 3 Incorporating lessons into company-wide training
• 4 Informing stakeholders through email updates
• 5 Publishing a lessons learned report

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What Is A Project Management Plan And How To Create One

Updated: Jun 12, 2024, 11:45am

Table of Contents

What is a project management plan, 6 parts of a project management plan, before you create a plan, how to create a project management plan in 7 steps, bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).

A project management plan offers a blueprint to stakeholders and end-users surrounding the execution of an upcoming project. While it takes time to put it together, the process is worth it. It helps to reduce risks, create buy-in, gather your team’s expertise, align communication and ensure resource availability. This guide outlines what a project management plan is and its benefits, and then offers an easy step-by-step guide on how to create one.

A project management plan is a set of documents that outline the how, when and what-ifs of a project’s execution. It overviews the project’s value proposition, execution steps, resources, communication tools and protocols, risks, stakeholders (and their roles) and the deliverables involved in a project’s completion. Its documents include an executive summary, Gantt and team charts, risk assessment and communication- and resource-management subplans.

What Is a Project Management Plan Used For?

A project management plan serves as a blueprint or roadmap to the ultimate success of your project. It does so by aligning talent, buy-in, manpower, resources, risk management and high-quality communication around your plan. It also ensures everyone knows their responsibilities, which tasks are involved and when deadlines are so the project stays on track for quality on-time completion.

Here is a closer look at project management plan use cases:

• Buy-in . Your plan ensures all stakeholders are on board, so that they’re prepared to be productive.
• Expertise. A plan helps to ensure you have enough people to expertly own the activities needed to complete the project.
• Risk management. Putting together your plan helps you to assess the risks that may come up through the trajectory of project execution and how to prevent or mitigate them.
• Communication and collaboration. Your planning process ensures poor communication does not negatively impact the project’s outcome. It does so by getting everyone on the same page regarding communication tools, schedules, preferences and protocols.
• Milestones. As you plan your project, you ensure your team agrees on the necessary milestones to complete it successfully. Doing so ensures your team is ready to be productive instantly come project initiation and that scope creep does not impact the project negatively.
• Resource management. Through your planning process, you assess the resources needed to complete the project and their availability. Resources may include funds and raw materials, for example. Doing so ensures resource availability and that insufficient resources do not derail or stop the project altogether.

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A project management plan should include an executive summary, timeline or Gantt chart, resource management subplan, risk assessment, communication subplan and team chart. Here is an overview of each of these parts:

• Executive summary. An executive summary provides an overview of the project’s value proposition, the problem it addresses and its resolution, budget breakdown, milestones and deliverables.
• Timeline or Gantt chart. Many project management plans include a Gantt chart that shows both the dates the project begins and ends and all start and end dates for the milestones that lead to the completion of the project. It should also point out any dependent and independent activities.
• Risk assessment. A risk assessment should list all of the potential obstacles that could impact the completion of the project or the quality of its deliverables negatively. It also outlines the triggers that could cause these risks and how the risks can be mitigated or avoided altogether.
• Team chart. The team chart shows all the people who will be involved in completing the project, their roles and their communication preferences.
• Communication subplan. This subplan offers an overview of what tools will be used for communication, the communication assets and schedules that will be used to keep the project progressing and on track, communication protocols stakeholders should follow and team members’ communication preferences.
• Resource management subplan. This subplan should list what resources may be needed to complete the project. Essential resources may include raw materials, digital tools and funding. It should then offer a breakdown of what materials will be needed for each milestone, a way to ensure their availability and ways to track resources throughout project execution.

Before you begin writing your plan, take a few minutes to prepare. Doing so may involve defining what is at stake should the project not go well, identifying the milestones needed for successful completion, selecting key talent to complete your project, selecting and signing up for the tools that will make the plan creation process easy and efficient and defining the end beneficiary of your project. Below is a closer look at each of these preparation steps.

Failure Risk Assessment

Defining what would happen if the project were not completed successfully can guide you later as you motivate your execution team and formulate your plan’s and your project’s value proposition. This perspective tells all stakeholders how important their roles are.

Milestone Identification

One way to ensure you select the proper team members for plan creation and execution is to define the milestones for which they will be responsible. Once you have identified the milestones, you can identify the needed expertise and then the talent that holds that expertise.

Talent Selection

As you write your plan, it is essential to gather expertise from the team members who will execute it. Doing so could mean the success or failure of your project. Identifying these stakeholders now means you can get them involved sooner for higher collective knowledge during the planning process.

Tool selection

When planning your project, you will need to use charts, graphics and reports to record the necessary information. Graphic design tools like Canva and project management software like monday.com or Wrike can help.

Beneficiary or End-user Identification

Nothing can set you up for success in project completion like understanding what the end-user or project beneficiary needs in the final deliverable. Understanding this requires an understanding of that end-user or beneficiary. Take some time to listen to their needs, wants and hopes surrounding your project before beginning to plan a project that will impact and, hopefully, delight them ultimately.

To create a project management plan, first put together a high overview of the basics of your project, including the project’s scope, schedule and budget. Next, build on those basics to write an executive summary. Then, add a project timeline, risk assessment, stakeholder chart, communication plan and resource management plan to your executive summary. Lastly, gather and incorporate stakeholders’ insights to perfect and create buy-in for your plan.

1. Identify Baselines for Your Project

Your project’s baselines should first focus on the project’s scope, then the project’s schedule and, finally, its budget. The result should be a high overview that will inform the rest of your planning process. To complete this step, answer the following questions:

• What is a summary of the project’s deliverables, including the expected features in order of priority?
• What important milestones will help us complete this project?
• What should the project not focus on? (set some scope boundaries)
• When is the project scheduled to begin?
• When should the project be complete?
• How much do we have to spend on this project? If it is a project that needs to be completed for a client, what budget do we have to spend on it while still making a set profit margin?

2. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary should include a definition of your project, your project’s value proposition, including the problem your project addresses and its solution, milestones and their deliverables, scope limits―and the consequences for changing these limits―goals and financial breakdown. Use the answers to the questions posed in step one to put together your executive summary.

As the face of your project before stakeholders, your executive summary should be visually appealing and succinct. Columns and visuals should break it up to make it easy to read quickly. One great tool for creating an attractive and succinct summary is a Canva executive summary template. You can customize a template to match your brand and add your content, then either download your executive summary or share it in link form.

To begin, sign up for Canva for free, then use the search box titled “What will you design?” for “executive summary” and press “enter.” Click the appropriate template for your purposes and brand, then use the tools on the left-hand side of the enlarged template to customize its colors, text and images. Add pages by clicking the plus sign at the top right-hand corner of the template and proceed to add text and customizations to complete your summary.

3. Plot Your Project’s Timeline

The best way to plot your project’s timeline is with a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart is a visual representation of what activities you plan to begin and complete and when. These activities are usually small chunks or milestones of your completed project. They also formulate the scope of your project, helping to reduce scope creep later on. Gantt charts are often the easiest to use to plot your timeline.

It is important to note expected dependencies on your Gantt chart. A dependency happens when one activity on a timeline must be completed before team members can go on to the next one. For example, a prototype needs to be completed before a focus group analysis of the prototype can take place. Thus, these two activities are dependent. Also note independent activities that can be completed even as other activities are underway, thereby saving time.

Pro tip: An easy way to note dependencies and independent activities is via color-coding. Arrows drawn on your Gantt chart can also help to pinpoint dependencies.

While Canva does offer Gantt charts to plot your project’s timeline, there are also platforms that specialize in producing Gantt chart software . Not only can this software help you put together your Gantt chart, but it can then help you stay on track with its timeline and avoid scope creep once your project begins via task descriptions and automations. If paying for such a service isn’t in your project’s budget, you can also create a Gantt chart in Excel or Google Sheets.

Gantt chart from monday.com

4. Define Stakeholder Roles

With your project activities recorded on your timeline, define who will be responsible for each activity. Your plan serves as a guiding star to all stakeholders involved in your project, so it’s best to record responsible parties in an intuitive chart. Create a project team chart to show who will be involved in completing the project and for which activities each is responsible. For collaboration ease, also note who each person is accountable to and their contact information.

Canva offers organizational or team chart templates you can use to customize for the needs of your project. Search “organizational chart” using the search bar in your Canva account. Click the chart that best suits your project and brand needs. Then, use the design menu to upload pictures of your team members, customize colors and replace template text to offer the data your stakeholders need for easy collaboration during the life of your project.

An example of a Canva organizational chart template to be adapted to create a project team chart.

5. Perform a Risk Assessment

Your risk assessment should begin with a list of obstacles that could impact your team’s ability to complete the project on time negatively at all and with the desired quality. It should then create a plan for each risk by addressing what might trigger the risk, steps that lend to risk prevention and how to mitigate a risk should it happen. Finally, it should assign stakeholders to manage risk triggers, prevention and mitigation. Some teams use a SWOT analysis to help identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in this stage.

To dive into each risk, answer the following questions:

• What could happen that would negatively impact the project?
• At what point in the project timeline is this risk most likely to happen?
• How likely is the risk to happen?
• What events or factors would trigger this risk?
• What steps can be taken to reduce the chances of this risk taking place? How can we avoid this trigger or these triggers?
• What would be the expected outcome should the risk happen anyway?
• How could we mitigate a negative outcome should the risk take place?
• Who would be the best person to manage each risk’s triggers, prevention or mitigation?

As you assigned responsible parties for each project activity, you likely selected people who had expertise in the areas in which their assigned activities fall. For example, if you assigned the graphic design of a marketing project to a team member, that person is likely a graphic designer. Their expertise is invaluable in assessing graphic design risks and their prevention and mitigation steps. Lean on your team for this expertise, and then implement their suggestions.

6. Create Key Subplans

Two key subplans you should include in your project management plan are a resource and communications management plan. Your resource sub plan should list what resources are needed to complete your project and their availability. Your communications plan should include how your team will communicate one-on-one and team-wide.

Resource Management Plan

A resource subplan can be completed in project management software. You can create columns for estimated expenses and other needed resources broken down by milestones, such as raw products and talent. Other customizable resource reports are available within the software and automatically kept up to date. Wrike, for example, offers customizable reports where you can track resource availability and export reports to include in your plan.

An example of Wrike’s customizable resource reports

Communications Management Plan

While it may seem inconsequential compared to your risk assessment and resource plan, poor communication is the primary reason most projects experience scope gaps and project failure, according to a PMI study . Poor communication can, therefore, derail all your other planning efforts.

As such, your communications management plan should be detailed and address what, when and how information will be shared during your project. Details should focus on what needs to be communicated and at what intervals during the project execution, stakeholders’ communication preferences, a communication schedule for virtual meetings or phone calls that occur at planned intervals, who will review tasks, to whom task completions should be reported and what platforms or tools should be used for communication purposes.

Pro tip: For best results, look at the communication tools available in your project management software. Alternatively, consider what communication-tool integrations it offers. For example, most project management software offer integrations with Slack. Using available tools within your software will allow ease of collaboration and the communication visibility your team needs to stay on the same page and on track.

7. Gather and Incorporate Feedback From Stakeholders

The team you have chosen to own the activities on your project timeline are uniquely capable of doing so. As such, they are likely to have recommendations you might not think about to make your project more successful. Moreover, if their insights are incorporated into the plan, they are more likely to enthusiastically follow it. So, get your team together and go over the details of your plan. Learn from them and incorporate their insights.

In addition, present your plan to the end-user or client for whom you are executing the project. Make sure they agree to the project scope and its deliverables. Make their preferred changes now so you don’t have to make them later. Discuss what will happen if they change their minds later―extra fees, for example―so that scope creep does not impact your project’s successful execution, on-time completion or quality final deliverable negatively.

Creating a project management plan is the first critical step to ensuring a quality project execution and completion. Without it, you risk project derailment, a blown budget, an unrealized value proposition and a potentially frustrated end-user. With it, you enjoy buy-in, resource availability, budget adherence, a quality and expertly-driven final deliverable and a delighted end-user. We hope this guide sets you on a trajectory to enjoy all of these benefits.

What are the six parts of a project management plan?

At minimum, a project management plan includes an executive summary, timeline or Gantt chart , stakeholder or team chart, risk assessment, communications subplan and resource subplan.

How do I write a project management plan?

To write a project management plan, begin by identifying your project baselines, then write an executive summary, create your timeline and team charts, perform and write a risk assessment and write your communications and resource subplans. Finally, present your plan to all involved stakeholders to gather and incorporate their insights, suggestions and feedback, and then finalize agreement around your plan.

What is the main purpose of a project management plan?

A project management plan lays out the details and steps necessary to reduce confusion, create confidence and prevent obstacles and risks during project execution. It does so by providing a clear outline and value proposition of the project, assigning essential roles, outlining milestones and the final deliverable, identifying and taking steps to prevent risks, ensuring clear communication guidelines and ensuring the availability of essential resources.

What is project management methodology?

A project management methodology is a set of principles, values and processes that determine how a team will complete a project. It dictates factors such as the methods of communication within and outside of the project team—as well as the level of planning, design and documentation—timelines and modes of assessment.

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How to Respond to Shareholder Activism

• Mark DesJardine

Activist shareholders are often seen as villains by managers and boards. Their demands for strategic and organizational shifts—which can feel personal to managers—often challenge the soundness of a company’s strategy. However, leaders who treat activist shareholders solely as a risk or an annoyance are making a mistake. Although they may be aiming to protect their companies, they’re missing out on an opportunity to tap one of the few free resources companies have to bring about value‑creating strategic change and build stronger business models.

To better respond to—and take advantage of—the campaigns of activists, leaders must learn to think the way they do. Most activists tend to follow a predefined process to identify and engage target companies.

This article presents the three main components of the activist playbook—linking performance failures to organizational weaknesses, developing a plan of action, and creating a narrative in support of change—and describes how managers can anticipate and respond to activist campaigns.

Treat it as an opportunity, not a threat.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

Leaders often treat activist shareholders as a key risk factor in running their businesses. In doing so, they miss out on an important opportunity to bring about value-creating strategic change.

The Mindset

To better respond to—and take advantage of—the campaigns of activists, leaders must learn to think the way they do. Most activists tend to follow a predefined process to identify and engage target companies.

The Approach

This article presents the three main components of the activist playbook—linking performance failures to organizational weaknesses, developing a plan of action, and creating a narrative in support of change—and describes how managers can anticipate and respond to activist campaigns.

Activist shareholders are often seen as villains by managers and boards. Their demands for strategic and organizational shifts—which can feel personal to managers—often challenge the soundness of a company’s strategy. In 2023, more than 23% of Russell 3000 companies identified shareholder activism as a key risk factor in their annual reports, up from 21% the previous year.

• MD Mark DesJardine is a CFA Institute chartered financial analyst, a senior fellow at the Wharton School, and an associate professor of business administration at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business.

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