As a Project Manager, you have to document your projects quickly and efficiently to ensure success. In this article, we’ll tell you which documents you need to complete to deliver your projects on time.

How to Document your Projects

Here are the essential documents you need to complete…

Initiation
■ Business Case: To justify the financial investment in your project, you need to write a Business Case. It lists the costs and benefits, so everyone knows what the return on investment will be.
■ Feasibility Study: Before you kick-off your project, you need to determine whether your project is feasible, using a Feasibility Study.
■ Project Charter: You then need to document the objectives, scope, team, timeframes and deliverables in a Project Charter.

Planning
■ Project Plan: You need to create a Project Plan listing all of the tasks required to undertake your project from start to finish. Every task must be scheduled, so you know what needs to be done and when.
■ Resource Plan: Next, you need to plan your resources by documenting the money, equipment and materials needed for your project.
■ Quality Plan: You then need to set quality targets, so that the project deliverables meet the expectations of your customer.
■ Risk Plan: All of the risks need to be documented and their likelihood and impact on the project identified.
■ Communication Plan: You need to plan your communications, so that you send the right messages to the right people, at the right time.

Execution
■ Time Management: You need to use Timesheets to track time spent on your project. Then update your Project Plan with your Timesheet data to see whether your project is still within schedule.
■ Cost Management: Track your costs using Expense Forms. Every expense is formally logged and approved, so that you can confirm at any time that you are currently under budget.
■ Change Management: Document each change to the project scope, using Change Forms. You can then control change to ensure your project is always on track.
■ Risk Management: Use Risk Forms to document each risk to the project. You can then manage project risk carefully to ensure that nothing happens that will affect the project schedule or budget.
■ Issue Management: As each issue occurs on the project, you need to investigate its impact on the project and then write it up on an Issue Form. You can then kick off the tasks needed to resolve it quickly.

Closure
■ Project Closure Report: When your project is complete, document all of the actions needed to close the project properly. This includes releasing teams and suppliers, equipment and materials.
■ Post Project Review: And after your project has been closed, you can review its success and document the results for your sponsor. That way, you can show that all of the objectives were met and that the project was delivered on time and within budget.

And there you have it. By completing each of these documents for your project, you can boost your chances of success.

Author – Jason is a project manager with 15 years of experience in the field. He has managed multi-million doller projects from all around the world. Jason is also the owner of a popular web project management software which can be found at projectmanager.com