Turn strategy into action with an implementation plan

What is an implementation plan?

A project implementation plan is an essential component of your project documentation. It’s a detailed document that defines the execution of a project or initiative. Teams use implementation plans to coordinate and manage resources, tasks, and potential risks throughout the project life cycle. Beyond that, it aligns the work with business objectives, timelines, and budgets.

An implementation plan is a thorough set of instructions for a project. It’s more detailed than a project plan and informs team members and stakeholders of the specific actions, tasks, and responsibilities throughout the project life cycle. The implementation plan succeeds best when all project contributors collaborate, from product development to finance and marketing.

Benefits of using an implementation plan

An implementation provides transparency and simplifies communication, allowing you to:

Ensure strategic alignment

Strategic planning is hard work but results in a clear understanding of what you plan to build and why. Still, projects can quickly go off course without an equally clear understanding of how to create them. The implementation plan ensures alignment between what you plan to develop and what you actually produce.

Optimize your resources

With project collaboration, creating an implementation plan optimizes resources across the business. By procuring necessary equipment, identifying gaps in team availability, and briefing the marketing team on product features, an implementation plan allows you to organize work throughout the project life cycle.

Mitigate potential risks

Unforeseen risks can derail your project, but team members often have deep experience in specific areas and can identify potential risks early. The implementation plan includes the risks and mitigation plans to manage them. With these plans in place, teams know what to do when risks become a reality, reducing downtime and keeping the project moving forward.

Engage all stakeholders

When teams collaborate on the entire process, from goal setting and creating a strategic framework to building the implementation plan, it fosters a sense of ownership. Participants remain engaged throughout the process and invested in the outcome.

Ensure project success

Understanding what you are building, how to create it, and what you will do if a risk becomes a reality helps teams execute a successful project. Taking the guesswork out of the project improves efficiency, increases quality, and speeds up time to market.

Steps to create an effective implementation plan

You can create an effective implementation plan by following a few key steps:

Preparation

Gather the project team and key stakeholders to review the strategic plan, then define the project scope, objectives, and success criteria for the specific project. The implementation plan may address only a portion of your overall strategic plan, so it’s important to define how you will measure success for the scope of the work you plan to do.

This is similar to goal setting in that you are identifying the types of goals for the project, such as time-based, performance-based, or outcome-oriented. Many businesses find that the goal-setting theory helps motivate teams and enhances this process.

Planning

During the planning step, break down the project work into manageable tasks and activities. Define each task as precisely as possible to easily measure progress and identify roadblocks earlier.

These tasks are then sequenced based on dependencies and available resources. Define the duration of each task and group them into milestones with clear, measurable endpoints, such as completing third-party integration or handing off a product for user acceptance testing.

When assigning resources, it’s essential to define the roles and responsibilities. For example, a developer may be accountable for the overall completion of one task and serve as a resource on another task. When people understand their role, they can work collaboratively to achieve the goal.

Risk assessment

Identify the potential risks you may encounter. As part of the risk assessment, determine the probability and impact of each risk. The following process can be helpful:

1. Determine the probability of the risk occurring using a high, medium, and low number scale.
2. Assess the potential impact on the project using the same number scale for high, medium, and low.
3. Calculate the risk score by multiplying the probability by the impact 

A risk register can help track risks and document the mitigation plan should the risk become a reality.

Communication strategy

Communicating the project's status throughout the lifecycle is important to keeping everyone engaged and ensuring it stays on track. The implementation plan includes communication channels (meetings, dashboards, and emails), the frequency, and protocols (such as what is communicated and how). With a strategy in place, communication becomes part of the standard process rather than an afterthought.

Monitoring and evaluation

Using the goals you defined in the preparation step, establish the metrics for tracking progress and evaluating project success. Often, the measure of success is tied to the milestones to ensure the project is on track before progressing to the next phase. 

Define the mechanisms for monitoring and reporting on project performance, such as completed integrations or customer feedback during user acceptance testing. To maintain transparency, you can include standard performance measures in the communication strategy.

Contingency planning

Few projects go as flawlessly as planned, but contingency planning can tame potential chaos. Setbacks may result from changes in the project scope, risks that become realized, or equipment failure. Having a clear plan for how you will handle setbacks provides the team with instructions they can work on immediately rather than waiting for review and approval.

Identify triggers and response strategies for activating contingency plans. Contingency planning is a team effort. Draw on the experience and expertise of the project team to recognize potential setbacks and clearly define a planned response.

What’s the difference between an implementation plan and a project plan?

Project plans and implementation plans go hand in hand, but there are a few key differences to know:

• Implementation plans focus on the detailed execution of the project. They provide the tasks, resource assignments, timelines, and milestones the team is working on. The implementation plan is the reference point for all work in its sequential order, highlighting potential risks and mitigation plans. It is ultimately a decision-making document for executing the defined work.
• Project plans provide a comprehensive overview of the entire project from initiation to closure, including the overarching strategy and vision. They also include milestones and phases that align with the implementation plan. The project plan contains higher-level information and is important for communicating the entire project to executives, partners, and customers.

Ensure easy collaboration with an implementation plan in Confluence

Creating an implementation plan with Confluence can improve project success by providing teams with detailed tasks, milestones, resource assignments, and timelines in one centralized workplace. Confluence allows you to invite your peers to collaborate in real-time, where you can leave comments and feedback. Then, when you’re ready, you can easily share your implementation plan with the company. 

Confluence brings everyone together in a collaborative environment to move projects forward. Automate repetitive tasks and create, edit, and summarize content with Atlassian Intelligence to get projects off the ground faster and accelerate progress across all teams. 

Confluence handles the busy work so teams can get down to business, enabling you to easily create, edit, and share implementation plans with your company.

Create an implementation plan in Confluence for free.