implementation plan in business plan

.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:42px;color:#F5F4F3;}@media (max-width: 1120px){.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:12px;}} AI that works. Coming June 5, Asana redefines work management—again. .css-1ixh9fn{display:inline-block;}@media (max-width: 480px){.css-1ixh9fn{display:block;margin-top:12px;}} .css-1uaoevr-heading-6{font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-1uaoevr-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} .css-ora5nu-heading-6{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;color:#0D0E10;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s;transition:all 0.3s;position:relative;font-size:16px;line-height:28px;padding:0;font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{border-bottom:0;color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover path{fill:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div{border-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div:before{border-left-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active{border-bottom:0;background-color:#EBE8E8;color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active path{fill:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div{border-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div:before{border-left-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} Get early access .css-1k6cidy{width:11px;height:11px;margin-left:8px;}.css-1k6cidy path{fill:currentColor;}

• Product overview
• All features
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana Intelligence
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Marketing strategic planning
• Request tracking
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• View all uses arrow-right icon
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• What's new Learn about the latest and greatest from Asana
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Project planning |
• What is an implementation plan? 6 steps ...

What is an implementation plan? 6 steps to create one

An implementation plan—also known as a strategic plan—outlines the steps your team should take when accomplishing a shared goal or objective. This plan combines strategy, process, and action and will include all parts of the project from scope to budget and beyond. In this guide, we’ll discuss what an implementation plan is and how to create one.

Projects require planning to be successful. Would you build a house without a blueprint? Probably not, because nailing pieces of wood together without a plan could lead to disaster. The same concept is true in the corporate world. An implementation plan functions as the blueprint for any shared objective. Your plan should include everything from the project strategy, to the budget, to the list of people working on the project. 

In this guide, we’ll discuss what an implementation plan is and how to create one. These steps can help you and your team prepare for projects both big and small.

What is the purpose of an implementation plan?

The purpose of an implementation plan is to ensure that your team can answer the who, what, when, how, and why of a project before moving into the execution phase. In simple terms, it's the action plan that turns your strategy into specific tasks.

A good way to know whether your implementation plan is effective is to hand it to someone outside of your team and see if they can understand the project in its entirety. Your implementation plan should leave no questions unanswered.

How to create an implementation plan in 6 steps

If you want your implementation plan to be comprehensive and beneficial to your project team, you’ll need to follow specific steps and include the right components. Use the following steps when creating your plan to reduce the risk of gaps in your strategy.

1. Define goals

The first step in the implementation process is defining your goals . Determine what you hope to accomplish when your project is complete, like whether you hope to win over a new marketing client or revamp your internal content strategy. Starting with your project objectives in mind can help flesh out your project plan. 

Tips to consider:

Ask questions: When defining your goals, you and your team may want to ask questions about your project such as, “What are we trying to achieve with this project? What deliverables do we hope to produce? Who are the stakeholders we plan to share our project deliverables with?”

Brainstorm risk scenarios: Although you’ll perform a more in-depth risk assessment later on in your implementation plan, brainstorming potential risk scenarios early on gives you a more realistic idea of what you’re able to achieve. 

2. Conduct research

Once you have a broad idea of the project goals you want to achieve, you can hone in on these goals by conducting research such as interviews, surveys, focus groups, or observations. Your research should come from key experts in your field. These experts may be team members or external stakeholders. Your research outcomes should include a list of what your project timeline, budget, and personnel may look like.

Collaborate using shared tools: Collaboration is easier when you have the right communication tools in place to do so. Use a team collaboration tool to share your project goals and get feedback from others, regardless of their location. 

3. Map out risks

You brainstormed risk scenarios in step one of your implementation strategy, and in step three, you’ll map out all the potential risks you may face in your project. Risks can include anything from paid time off and holidays to budget constraints and loss of personnel. 

A great way to map out your risks is by using a risk register. This tool will help you prioritize project risks and prepare for them accordingly. You can also conduct a SWOT analysis , which will identify any weaknesses or threats affecting your project. 

Be flexible and proactive: Mapping out risks is more than just a preparation strategy. If you identify preventable risks during this stage of the implementation plan, you can take action to prevent those risks. This may mean adjusting your initial project goals. 

4. Schedule milestones

Scheduling your project milestones is an important step in the planning process because these checkpoints help you track your progress during execution. Milestones serve as metrics—they are a way to measure how far you’ve come in your project and how far you have left to go. 

To visualize project milestones and keep your entire team on track, use a Gantt chart . With a Gantt chart, you can visually lay out your implementation schedule and show how long you think each task will take.

Add wiggle room: Things don’t always go as planned, even if you do everything in your power to a schedule. By adding wiggle room to your schedule, you can ensure your project stays on track instead of keeping tight milestones and failing to meet them.

Clarify dependencies: Dependencies are tasks that rely on the completion of other tasks. Clarifying your dependencies makes it easier to keep the project on track and hit your milestones.

5. Assign responsibilities and tasks

Every action plan must include a list of responsibilities with team members assigned to each one. By assigning responsibilities, you can assess the performance of each team member and monitor progress more closely. Using a RACI chart can be an effective project management tool for clarifying roles and responsibilities. 

Assigning responsibilities is different from assigning individual tasks. One team member may be responsible for overseeing the project review, while you may assign three other team members to handle the delivery and communication of the project to various teams for review. When you assign responsibilities and tasks, be sure to make your expectations clear. 

Communication is key: When you assign roles, responsibilities, or tasks, it’s best to communicate why you’re choosing one team member over another. Instead of letting team members question why they have specific roles, you can use this step in the planning process as an opportunity to highlight team member strengths.

Track responsibilities in a shared tool: Having a shared tool, like project management software, can give team members clarity on who's doing what and by when.

6. Allocate resources

Resource allocation is one of the best ways to reduce risk. If you can plan out what resources you need for your project and ensure those resources will be available, you’ll avoid the risk of running out of resources mid-project. If you notice that you don’t have enough resources in this step of the implementation process, you can adjust your project accordingly before it kicks off. 

Resources may include money, personnel, software, equipment, and other physical or technical materials. Time can also be a resource because the team members you need to complete the project may be working on other projects.

Tips to consider: Ask yourself the following questions when identifying available resources for your project: 

What is the project’s priority level? 

Who is available to work on this project? 

What budget or tools are available? 

What additional resources do we need? 

Who needs to approve the resource allocation plan?

Following these steps as you create your implementation plan will increase the likelihood of hitting your project goals. Having a checklist of the items to include in your implementation plan can also lead to successful implementation. 

What to include in an implementation plan

Knowing how to create your implementation plan is crucial, but you also need to know what to include in your plan. This checklist includes the six most important items you’ll want to consider if you want to move forward with a successful project. 

1. Objectives

You’ll outline your project objectives in step one of the implementation process. Set your goals and decide what metrics your team will use to measure to monitor progress. By clearly identifying your project objectives, you and your team can measure progress and performance as you move forward.

2. Scope statement

You’ll set the scope of your project in step two when conducting research. Your project scope statement should outline the boundaries you’ve set for your project and broadly define what goals, deadlines, and project outcomes you’ll be working toward. Defining your project scope in the implementation plan can help prevent scope creep when you’re farther along in the project.

3. Outline of deliverables

Deliverables are the tangible goals of your project. Outlining the deliverables you hope to create can serve as a resource when managing time frames, delegating tasks, and allocating resources. 

4. Task due dates

Although the project timeline may change as your project progresses, it’s important to clarify your expected due dates during implementation planning. When you estimate task due dates, you can schedule milestones around these due dates and plan for project completion. You will commonly see Gantt charts used for strategic planning and implementation planning. This is because Gantt charts display information in a follows a linear path, similar to a timeline. 

5. Risk assessment

You’ll conduct your risk assessment in step three of the implementation process. Whether you use a   risk register , SWOT analysis , or contingency plan to identify risks , be sure to include these documents in your plan. That way, others involved in the project can look through your findings and potentially help you prevent these risks. 

6. Team member roles and responsibilities

You assigned roles and responsibilities to team members in step five of your plan, and keeping a detailed record of what these are can hold everyone accountable. Whether you use a RACI chart or another tool to clarify team member roles, there should be a place in your plan for everyone to refer to in case questions arise. 

Your implementation plan will likely be unique to the project you're working on, so it may include other components not listed above. However, you can use the six items above as your guide so you know your plan is comprehensive.

Many aspects of project implementation overlap with strategic planning. As a project manager , working on the project implementation plan while you are also working on the strategic plan can help minimize the total time spent on planning.

Another way to save time during the planning process is to house all of your plans in a work management platform. When your project team is ready to start the implementation process, everything is in one convenient place.

Benefits of having an implementation plan

There are many benefits to implementation planning, with the top benefit being an increased chance of project success. Implementing a project plan creates a roadmap for executing your project so you can prevent issues from occurring. 

Other benefits to having an implementation plan include:

Improved communication between team members and key stakeholders

Better organization and management of resources

Increased accountability for everyone involved in the project

More structured project timeline and daily workflow

Easier collaboration between team members

Going straight into the execution phase without an implementation plan may feel like walking on stage to give a speech without knowing what you’re going to say. Preparation is key for top-notch performance. 

Simplify implementation planning

Knowing the steps for implementation planning is the foundation of project management. A well-planned project leads to a successful project.

Related resources

How to use a feasibility study in project management

How to track utilization rate and drive team profitability

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Smooth product launches are simpler than you think

• Contact sales

Start free trial

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.

Get your free

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.

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.

Free Implementation Plan Template

Many of the key components listed above are included in our implementation plan template . Use this Excel file to define your strategy, scope, resource plan, timeline and more. It’s the ideal way to begin your implementation process. Download your template today.

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 kanban board 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.

Deliver your projects on time and under budget

Start planning your projects.

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Digital Transformation
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• AI Essentials for Business
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Business and Climate Change
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing
• Winning with Digital Platforms

A Manager’s Guide to Successful Strategy Implementation

• 16 Jan 2024

To address business challenges and concerns, organizations must constantly monitor, evaluate, and adjust their strategic initiatives . When it’s time to implement a new strategy, it’s typically up to managers to do so.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is Strategy Implementation?

According to the online course Strategy Execution , strategy implementation is the process of turning plans into action to reach business goals and objectives . In other words, it’s the art of getting stuff done.

Your organization’s success rests on your ability to implement decisions and execute processes efficiently, effectively, and consistently. Yet, that’s often easier said than done.

“If you've looked at the news lately, you've probably seen stories of businesses with great strategies that have failed,” says Harvard Business School Professor Robert Simons, who teaches Strategy Execution . “In each, we find a business strategy that was well formulated but poorly executed.”

You can learn a lot from failed strategies , and understanding how to implement a successful one is vital to leading change. Here are steps you can take to effectively roll out your business strategy .

4 Steps in the Strategy Implementation Process

1. handle tension.

Making tough choices isn’t easy, and you need to manage any tension that arises with change.

In strategy implementation, tension often exists between innovating to grow your business and controlling internal processes and procedures.

For example, leaders at ride-hailing company Uber have faced challenges in balancing growth and control. While Uber has transformed the transportation industry, its need to expand has led to several instances of misconduct due to insufficient internal controls .

You can manage tension and find balance by designing and implementing levers of control , which comprise:

• Belief systems : Organizational definitions you communicate and reinforce to provide direction to employees
• Boundary systems : Negatively phrased statements that tell employees what behaviors are forbidden
• Diagnostic control systems : Formal information systems that help monitor organizational outcomes
• Interactive control systems : Formal systems managers use to involve themselves in subordinates' decisions that impact strategic uncertainties

These levers help create opposing forces throughout strategy implementation that continuously balance each other. While half of them (belief systems and interactive control systems) promote innovation and inspiration, the others (boundary systems and diagnostic control systems) establish boundaries and threats of punishment when employees cross the line.

To ensure your strategy execution succeeds , use the power of tension when designing management control systems.

2. Align Job Design to Strategy

No matter how well-formulated your business strategy is, it can’t succeed without your team. To prime employees for success, it’s essential to design jobs with strategy in mind.

Job design is structuring jobs’ components to enhance organizational efficiency. Its common elements include task allocation, job development, and feedback and communication.

“Job design is a critical part of strategy execution,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “If individuals don't have the resources they need and aren’t accountable in the right way, they won’t be able to work to their potential.”

According to Simons, you can use the Job Design Optimization Tool (JDOT) to design or test jobs by analyzing their balance of demands and resources.

The tool prompts you to consider:

• What resources do employees have to get the job done?
• What measure will we use to evaluate their performance?
• Who must they influence to achieve their goals?
• How much support can they expect when reaching out for help?

By answering these questions and ensuring they align with your strategy, employees can directly support your initiatives.

3. Inspire Employee Buy-In

Even if you position employees for success through effective job design, you must still gain their buy-in for strategic goals . According to a Gallup survey , organizations with strong employee engagement experience 10 percent greater customer loyalty and 23 percent higher profitability.

You can garner their support by communicating your organization’s core values —its purpose that impacts what employees should do and how they should act.

According to Strategy Execution , effective core values possess two attributes:

• Inspiration: They make employees proud of where they work.
• Guidance: They ensure employees know whose interests to prioritize when making difficult decisions.

Communicating your organization’s core values doesn’t just help bolster support for strategic initiatives; it also provides employees with a purpose to improve performance and workplace accountability .

Another useful tool is ranking systems.

“Ranking systems—which are quite common in practice—have really good features that managers can use to stimulate performance,” says HBS Professor Susan Gallani in Strategy Execution .

Ranking systems provide clear measures—like leadership capabilities—for employees to determine their ownership in your business strategy. Gallani says establishing such measures helps eliminate unknowns that create anxiety.

“What the ranking system does—it takes that shock away,” Gallani says in Strategy Execution . “Everybody's compared at the same level, and that's good because it really highlights the individual contribution of different workers and points out who did better and who did worse.”

By implementing ranking systems, achievement-driven employees can be more likely to invest in your business strategy.

Related: How to Get Employee Buy-In to Execute Your Strategic Initiatives

4. Manage Risk

Even if you take these steps when implementing your business strategy, your initiatives can still fail.

“Competing successfully in any industry involves some level of risk,” Simons says in Strategy Execution . “But high-performing businesses with high-pressure cultures are especially vulnerable. As a manager, you need to know how and why these risks arise and how to avoid them.”

Engaging in risk management —the systematic process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating threats or uncertainties that can affect your organization—is crucial to long-term success.

Three types of pressures that make you vulnerable to risk are:

• Information management

Business risks aren’t always obvious, making it critical to identify unexpected events or conditions that could impede your organization’s business strategy .

“I think one of the challenges firms face is the ability to properly identify their risks,” says HBS Professor Eugene Soltes in Strategy Execution .

For example, the automotive industry heavily relies on semiconductors. However, due to an unexpected disruption in manufacturing priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic, companies had to navigate production during a semiconductor shortage .

By understanding your strategy’s vulnerabilities, you can prevent failures because of unanticipated events and protect your organization from challenges like increased market competition, evolving technologies, and shifting customer needs .

Learn How to Oversee Strategy Implementation

Implementing strategy successfully is challenging.

By taking an online strategy course , such as Strategy Execution , you can draw insights from real-world business examples and build the strategy execution skills and knowledge to achieve your organization’s objectives.

Do you want to improve your strategy implementation? Explore Strategy Execution —one of our online strategy courses —and download our free strategy e-book to take the first step toward doing so.

This post was updated and republished on January 16, 2024. It was originally published on February 25, 2020.

About the Author

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Building Your Business
• Becoming an Owner
• Business Plans

How To Implement Your Business Plan Objectives

Breaking down your business goals into actionable steps is key for success

What Is a Business Plan Objective?

Be specific and define clear objectives, break down objectives into tasks.

• Assign Responsibilities/Allocate Resources

Be Mindful of Risks and Create Contingencies

damircudic / Getty Images

A business plan is an important tool to help business owners map their path to success. In addition, business plans may be used when applying for loans or seeking outside investment. But a business plan isn’t worth it if you leave it gathering dust. To make a business plan effective, you have to implement your business plan objectives.

Whether you’re a new business owner or a veteran returning for a refresher, here’s a closer look at common strategies to implement on your business plan objectives.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan objective is a specific goal for your business.
• Making achievable and specific tasks is helpful for successful implementations.
• Track your results and stay prepared to update your business plan if necessary.

A business plan objective is a specific goal you hope to reach with your business. This may be a number of customers, revenue, or profit goal, among others. There are no right or wrong business objectives, in theory, but it’s important to take the time to pick the best goals for your unique business if you’re going through the work to create business plan objectives.

The SMART framework is a popular way to frame goals, and it can be helpful for creating objectives, too. To qualify, an objective must meet these criteria:

• Specific : A general goal like “add more customers” could leave you floundering. Pick a specific number of customers. Every objective should have a clear finish line.
• Measurable : Identify objectives you can measure. For example, you can’t necessarily measure something like “customer loyalty,” but you can measure repeat customers, sales and revenue per customer, and other data points related to loyalty.
• Attainable : You might dream of turning your startup into a $1-million-per-year business. However, that may not be attainable in your first few years. What’s attainable varies widely by the business but in general, you’ll want to find the middle ground between unrealistic and underachieving.
• Relevant : Perhaps part of your business growth strategy involves social media. While it may be fun to see your accounts grow, that may not necessarily be relevant to your revenue and profits. Keep goals focused on what’s most important to achieve, which may not include vanity numbers that are more about ego than results.
• Time-bound : Each objective should have a deadline. If you give yourself unlimited time to get something done, you may never get around to it. With a set due date, you’re giving yourself a little pressure and motivation to hit that goal as planned.

SMART goals are just one method of choosing business plan objectives. You can work to create any objectives you’d like that make the most sense for what you’re trying to achieve.

Even if you don’t follow the SMART goals framework, it’s still wise to be specific and clear when choosing your goals and objectives. Vague and loosely defined goals often set business owners up for failure. Specific and clear business objectives give you and your team, if you have one, a common mission to work toward.

Breaking each objective into smaller tasks can prevent teams from getting overwhelmed and even help you get a clearer picture of what you need to do to prevail. Smaller goals also help you see faster and more frequent successes, which is a good way to stay motivated. An added benefit is an opportunity to foresee any needed resources or roadblocks, such as a need for an outside consultant or a government-issued permit.

Assign Responsibilities and Allocate Resources

Entrepreneurs with “superhero syndrome” think they can do everything themselves and often get burned out in pursuing business goals. Rather than do it all yourself, even if you have the capability, it’s often wise to delegate to others . Employees, freelancers, contractors, and business partners are part of the team. When you can count on others and best utilize their time and skills, you take a wise step to reach your objectives.

Create Milestones and Monitor Progress

Just as it’s a good idea to set smaller goals along the way, it’s also wise to create key milestone moments and monitor progress. You may learn along the way that a certain process can be improved. When a process works well, try to capture and double down on that success. When you stumble or discover inefficiencies, you could have an opportunity.

Monitoring progress helps you know what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adjust goals or methods if necessary.

Not all things go according to plan. If you miss the mark, you could join one of the millions of failed business owners. Stay mindful of risks and if it may be time to pull the plug rather than sink in more money.

Also, you may find successes outside of what you expected. Even the biggest companies pivot to a related product or service when their first idea fizzles. Remember that there’s a lot you can’t control in the business world, so not all business failures should be considered personal failures. Instead, look at them as learning opportunities to draw on in the future.

The Bottom Line

A business plan without clear objectives is at risk of being ineffective. Identify what your objectives are, break them down into small steps, delegate responsibilities, and be comfortable with pivoting when needed and dealing with risk. Taking the proper steps to create realistic objectives isn’t a guarantee that you’ll meet your goals, but it provides the framework to set you up for success.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What goes in the objectives section of a business plan.

There is no set template you must follow for a business plan. Business plans can range from a one-page summary to a lengthy, detailed document. If a business plan includes an objectives section, it should include clear and specific goals that help define success for the business.

What is the difference between a goal and an objective in a business plan?

The terms “goal'' and “objective” can be used interchangeably in a business plan. Some businesses may consider objectives as smaller tasks that help reach goals. Regardless of the terminology, goals and objectives are both good for your business’s long-term success.

Want to read more content like this? Sign up for The Balance’s newsletter for daily insights, analysis, and financial tips, all delivered straight to your inbox every morning!

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “ Setting Goals and Developing Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound Objectives ,” Pages 1-2.

Chris Drucker. “ Virtual Freedom Companion Workbook ,” Page 3.

Chamber of Commerce. “ 10 Hugely Successful Companies That Reinvented Their Business .”

Small Business Administration. “ Write Your Business Plan .”

• Professional Services
• Creative & Design
• See all teams
• Project Management
• Workflow Management
• Task Management
• Resource Management
• See all use cases

Apps & Integrations

• Microsoft Teams
• See all integrations

Explore Wrike

• Book a Demo
• Take a Product Tour
• Start With Templates
• Customer Stories
• ROI Calculator
• Find a Reseller
• Mobile & Desktop Apps
• Cross-Tagging
• Kanban Boards
• Project Resource Planning
• Gantt Charts
• Custom Item Types
• Dynamic Request Forms
• Integrations
• See all features

Learn and connect

• Resource Hub
• Educational Guides

Become Wrike Pro

• Submit A Ticket
• Help Center
• Premium Support
• Community Topics
• Training Courses
• Facilitated Services

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.

Related articles

A Guide To Marketing Workflow Management (With Infographic)

Efficient marketing workflow management can save your teams time, money, and hassle. Manage email marketing, seo, and content workflows with ease.

How To Use a Cumulative Flow Diagram

A cumulative flow diagram is a data visualization tool that shows how your team’s work process is running. Here’s what you need to know to use this diagram.

A Complete Guide To Schedule Management Plans

Create an effective schedule management plan for better, more accurate project delivery. Get it all done with robust project scheduling software.

Get weekly updates in your inbox!

You are now subscribed to wrike news and updates.

Let us know what marketing emails you are interested in by updating your email preferences here .

Sorry, this content is unavailable due to your privacy settings. To view this content, click the “Cookie Preferences” button and accept Advertising Cookies there.

Implementation Plan: What is it & How to Create it? (Steps & Process)

Organizations are successful because of good implementation, not good business plans ~Guy Kawasaki

Planning is necessary to map out what you need to do in order to achieve your goals. However, without the execution of those plans, you won’t get anywhere. The implementation of an idea is how you start your journey towards achieving your goals and eventually reach your destination.

For businesses, an implementation plan plays a crucial role in the development and execution of an idea, project, or methodology. In fact, the  Harvard Business Review reported  that companies with an implementation and execution plan saw 70 percent greater returns than those who don’t have one. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Let’s first quickly understand what is an implementation plan, how do you make one, and how to execute it successfully? Read on…

What is an Implementation Plan? (Definition)

The implementation plan facilitates the execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy by presenting clear implementation steps that need to follow. Thus, an implementation plan is the documented steps you need to take to successfully achieve your implementation pursuits.

Implementation plans are usually made to support the strategic plan created by an organization. Now, what is a strategic plan you ask? Well, a strategic plan is a document defining the strategy by which your team will accomplish certain goals or make decisions. Strategic plans are made to guide a business decision, a new business venture, or an upcoming project or initiative.

Therefore, the goal of the implementation plan is to effectively implement company strategy and lay down the step-by-step process of bringing the project to success.

What are the Benefits of an Implementation Plan?

An implementation plan puts organizational resources to use and develops a tactical plan to execute the strategic initiative. It thus plays a huge role in the success of your overall strategic plan. Even if you have the greatest, iron-clad plan or strategy, it’s totally pointless if you don’t put the plan into action. Here are some of the many benefits of an implementation plan:

1. Provides Clarity

Writing an implementation plan gives you better clarity of thought and improves your own understanding of the project. When you are forced to think things through, you are better able to document as well as communicate the plan to team members, upper management, and get everyone on board.

2. Keeps Everyone on Track

Your implementation plan lays down exactly what tasks need to be done, how to do them, who needs to do them, keeping everyone on board, and removing any sort of confusion or doubts. When everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are, it’s easier to stay on track and keep everyone accountable.

3. Improved Cooperation

Working on projects requires the cooperation and collaboration of many employees. The better the cooperation amongst team members, the better the synergy and the overall execution.

Read more:  How to Create a Strategic Process Improvement Plan?

4. Increased Buy-In

When you have a solid implementation plan that is well researched, documented, and presented, you ensure buy-in from all key stakeholders of your organization. When upper management is on board, it’s easier to get resources allocated to your project and ensure smooth project execution.

6 Key Components of an Implementation Plan

Every implementation plan comprises of some key components that need to be analyzed and thought-through before communicating the plan with your team:

1. Outline Goals/Objectives:  Start with defining the goals and objectives of the implementation plan. What do you want to accomplish? What is the project scope ? Why are these goals important? How do these goals fit into the overall organizational vision and mission?

2. Assign Responsibilities:  Assigning roles and responsibilities provides a clear picture of what needs to be done and by whom. The clearer you define these responsibilities, the easier it will be to keep people accountable.

3. Implementation Schedule:  Schedules help track, communicate, and keep an eye on progress for your project, keeping all stakeholders in the loop with what’s going on.

4. Resource Allocation:  One of the main purposes of an implementation plan is to make sure that your team has access to enough resources in order to execute the plan effectively and without any hiccups. Make sure you know exactly what you need, how much you already have, and how you will procure what’s needed.

5. Define Metrics:  How will you determine project success? Every implementation plan must identify KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to establish how it will measure success and failure. This also allows you to measure progress and celebrate milestones to keep the team excited.

6. Contingency Plan :  Planning for challenges is as important as planning for success. Make a plan for how your team will navigate rough waters in case you go over budget, don’t have enough resources, or are approaching deadlines. This way you won’t get off-track when challenges arise, and you will be able to steer clear of them easily.

Now that you know the key components of an implementation plan, it’s time to put this knowledge to use and learn how to write an implementation plan for yourself…

Read more:  How to Create an Effective Operational Plan for Your Business?

How to Write an Implementation Plan? Follow these Steps and Processes:

Okay Folks, it’s time to get into the ‘how’ of the implementation plan and create a solid document. When creating such a document, you need to be more detailed and thorough, explaining everything clearly to all team members who will be viewing this document.

Make sure you include the following steps in your implementation plan:

Step 1. Introduction

Kickoff your implementation plan with a brief introduction, outlining the vision, mission, and purpose of your project or initiative. You can additionally include how this project ties up with the overall organizational mission and lay down all the assumptions or limitations of your project.

Step 2.  Team Members Involved

In this segment, you can describe the team involved in the implementation of the project. Include the names, roles, and responsibilities of key project stakeholders, and key points of contact.

Step 3.  Tasks

This is an important area in your implementation plan as here you need to describe the key tasks and steps involved in the implementation of the strategy. If you have already begun with a task, note down the status and progress of the task in this section.

Step 4.  Implementation Schedule

An implementation schedule outlines project timeframes and milestones. Schedules keep everyone on track with task progress and help to keep everything on time and under budget.

Step 5.  Resource Management

Describe the resources needed (people, time, money, equipment, software, departmental help, etc.) to support successful implementation. Think through this section thoroughly to ensure smooth project implementation, and support fair asset allocation.

Step 6.  Additional Documentation

In this segment, you can attach any other documentation that supports your implementation plan. This could include proof of successful past project executions or a PDF of your strategic plan.

Step 7.  Define Metrics

Without specifying success metrics, you will never know if you are on the right track or are even executing the right strategy. Define the metrics you will use to measure success and how and when will you review your progress.

Step 8.  Project Approval

If you need upper management’s approval before kicking off implementation, add some space for a formal signoff.

Read more:   Change Management Plan: What, Why, and How to Write?

Use a Documentation Tool like Bit to Create a Robust Implementation Plan

The key to successful planning and implementation is…*drumroll*… DOCUMENTATION. This is exactly why all smart project managers use documentation tools like Bit.ai to create a solid, interactive, and visually appealing implementation plan for their team.

What the heck is Bit.ai? Well, it’s an all-in-one document collaboration platform designed for the modern-day workplace. Using Bit, your team can collaborate in real-time and create implementation plans and all other documents – under one single roof!

1. Pre-Built, Beautiful & Fully Responsive Templates: Okay, you’ve created the implementation plan for your team to understand their goals and responsibilities. But, what if the plan itself looks dull and poorly formatted? Your team members won’t understand a thing, and that’s for sure.

You might not have the time to pay attention to the presentation aspect but don’t worry, because Bit does the formatting and designing for you! Bit.ai has over 90 fully responsive and gorgeous templates . Just pick one, insert your content and let Bit handle the rest.

Few documents templates you might be interested in:

• SWOT Analysis Template
• Business Proposal Template
• Business Plan Template
• Competitor Research Template
• Project Proposal Template
• Company Fact Sheet
• Executive Summary Template
• Operational Plan Template
• Pitch Deck Template

2. Rich Embeds:  What if you could embed all your important files – in one single document? We’re talking about those charts, excel sheets, presentations, and the other files that you created while brainstorming the strategies.

Won’t that make your implementation plan so much more comprehensive? And your team won’t have to jump through different files to get information! Luckily, Bit lets you embed over 100 rich media integrations ! That means you can create media-rich and interactive, modern workplace documents!

3. Real-time collaboration : If your team members work on the implementation plan together and take inputs and ideas from one other, it is bound to be perfect! Luckily, Bit.ai helps you with that.

It allows you and your team to collaborate on a Bit document in real-time using @mentions, highlight features, and comments. Every document comes with a separate comment stream!

4. Organized Workspaces & Folders:  An implementation plan isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” thing. You’ve to customize it for every project that your company undertakes. This is exactly why you need to use Bit! On Bit, you can create infinite workspaces around projects, teams, departments, and clients to keep all your work organized.

There’s nothing like Bit.ai out there when it comes to creating documents like implementation plans! With a FREE account for up to five members, there’s no reason why you should not give this super cool platform a try!

Watch the video below to learn more or sign up for a FREE account and start exploring yourself!

What are You Waiting For?!

Without implementation plans, your strategic initiatives will never see the light of the day. Good implementation planning lays the foundation for successful project execution.

It creates a blueprint which your team can follow to successfully execute projects and measure their progress along the way. With tools like Bit, creating such documentation is easier than ever. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for a free account and start creating your implementation plan today!

Further reads:

How to Create a Procurement Management Plan: Step by Step Guide

Business Development Plan: What Is It And How To Create A Perfect One?

Risk Management Plan: What, Why, and How to Write?

Cost Management Plan: What, Why, and How?

How to Create a Product Plan the Right Way?

How to Create a Project Management Communication Plan?

What is a Marketing Plan and How to Create One for Your Business?

What is Product Adoption & How to do it Right?

Top Email Automation Software for Marketers!

Related posts

Enterprise content management: a guide to implementing ecm, document creation: 12 dos and don’ts to keep in mind, project management schedule: what is it & how to create it, why workplace collaboration is more important than ever, student collaboration: what, why and tools, customer service training manual: what is it & how to create it.

About Bit.ai

Bit.ai is the essential next-gen workplace and document collaboration platform. that helps teams share knowledge by connecting any type of digital content. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, anyone can work visually and collaborate in real-time while creating internal notes, team projects, knowledge bases, client-facing content, and more.

The smartest online Google Docs and Word alternative, Bit.ai is used in over 100 countries by professionals everywhere, from IT teams creating internal documentation and knowledge bases, to sales and marketing teams sharing client materials and client portals.

👉👉Click Here to Check out Bit.ai.

Recent Posts

Ai for social media marketing: tools & tactics to boost engagement, a guide to building a client portal for your online course, knowledge management vs document management, 11 must-try ai tools for market research in 2024, 15 employee management software for 2024: a quick guide, document management workflow: what is it & how to create it.

What is an Implementation Plan? [& How to Do Yours Right]

Updated: November 12, 2021

Published: May 10, 2021

Project management doesn't exactly lend itself to freestyling. You can't really wing it and bank on your intuition to successfully guide you as you go. You have to put in a lot of thought, carefully plan, determine relevant metrics, and observe progress on an ongoing basis if you want your project to come to fruition.

And you can't just trust your memory to address all those actions and elements. You need something known as an implementation plan — a document that covers most aspects of your project's blueprint and preferred trajectory. 

Here, we'll explore the concept a bit further, review how you can make one of your own, cover the key components yours should include, and look at an example of one done right.

What is an implementation plan?

An implementation plan is a step-by-step list of tasks — all with specific owners and deadlines — designed to outline and guide a strategic plan for carrying out a project. It keeps a project's timeline, stakeholder responsibilities, team dynamics, and resource allocation clear through the implementation process.

Your implementation plan serves as a backbone for your project and a consistent reference point to ensure that you and your team are on track to deliver what you need to on time. It should be well-structured, carefully sequenced, and readily visible to everyone involved.

Everyone from management to lower-level stakeholders needs a comprehensive picture of what's going on, their specific responsibilities, and what to expect from the rest of their team.

The nature and structure of implementation plans vary from organization to organization and project to project. So there's no standard format for what one should look like. Still, there are some key points to consider and components to cover when creating yours.

How to Create an Implementation Plan

1. pin down your objectives..

The how, what, where , and when of an implementation plan can't be effectively guided without a firm understanding of the why . What's the endgame? What are you hoping to achieve? What do you stand to gain? Who will benefit if it's carried out correctly? How will you know if you succeeded? What metrics will you use to gauge your success?

You need to have a firm grasp on all of those questions before jumping into the rest of this process. Your objective frames the rest of your implementation, dictates how you set goals, and informs how you adapt to new challenges as they emerge.

2. Tap a specific owner for the implementation process.

Your implementation plan is likely going to involve multiple stakeholders, but in most cases, a project can't be carried out efficiently if it's done exclusively by committee. You need to have one primary owner at the helm of the process, keeping everything in check and on track.

This person will be responsible for tasks like assigning responsibilities, keeping tabs on the plan's progress, monitoring lower-level stakeholders, ensuring the execution remains productive, and any other broader actions that keep the broader project moving.

3. Conduct a risk assessment.

You need to have as comprehensive a picture of what might go wrong with your project as possible before you launch into it. That way, you can anticipate any potential hitches and plan how to address them accordingly.

That's why conducting a risk assessment for your implementation plan is so crucial. You need to thoroughly cover your bases to avoid issues like spending outside your budget or missing deadlines.

If you don't know where to start, take a look at similar projects your company or competition might have carried out. See any issues they ran into, and ensure that you have safeguards in place to deal with those problems, should they arise.

4. Set a budget

If your project warrants creating an implementation plan, it's not going to be free. You'll have some funding, but that probably won't come in the form of a blank check. You need to determine an appropriate price range that accounts for what you think the project will cost and what you're comfortable spending to see it through.

You're best off methodically considering how much the individual tasks that compose the plan will cost and applying the findings of your risk assessment to account for other financial issues that might arise. It might also be worth looking into similar projects and using their budgets as a reference point for yours.

5. Allocate individual responsibilities to team members.

Here's one of the key points where your project owner demonstrates why you tapped them for the job. They need to thoughtfully and effectively delegate tasks to the team you've put together. Every task in the plan needs to have someone personally accountable for it.

Team members need to know which pieces of the project they're responsible for, why those pieces are necessary, and why they — specifically — are responsible for them. You also need to clearly establish the results you expect to see from each task. Keep your standards and intentions clear, and you'll get the most out of each stage of the project.

6. Develop a plan schedule.

Once you have the building blocks of your plan squared away, it's time to put a timeline together. Organize your tasks, and set deadlines for when they need to be accomplished and broader milestones that track the project's overall progress.

That said, you should be willing to account for potential hiccups, like scope creep or communication breakdowns. One way or another, you need to put together a tight, well-defined schedule that lends itself to efficiency and positive morale.

Implementation Plan Components

• Relevant Team Members
• Schedule and Milestones
• Resource Allocation
• Key Metrics for Success
• Acceptance Criteria
• Success Evaluation

1. Relevant Team Members

Identifying who's going to be involved in a project is one of the points to consider when putting an implementation plan together. You need to have a clearly defined picture of all the stakeholders who will be assuming any responsibilities throughout the implementation process. If you don't, you can't clearly allocate tasks, keep tabs on progress, and ensure your implementation is as organized and well-oiled as possible.

2. Key Tasks

At its core, an implementation plan is meant to document a series of actions, so you can't exactly have one if you don't know what those actions are. When you put your plan together, you have to outline what steps you intend to take to get from start to finish.

3. Schedule and Milestones

As I mentioned in the last section, you need a firm schedule in place to hold stakeholders accountable, keep your implementation on track, and ensure that everyone involved in your project is on the same page.

4. Resource Allocation

Virtually any task specified in an implementation plan — like any task in any context — requires resources. You need to ensure that every stakeholder involved has access to whatever they need to fulfill the responsibilities you've assigned to them. You don't want to leave any team member high and dry without the means to get their job done.

5. Key Metrics for Success

You'll have a hard time determining whether your implementation plan is successful without defining how your success should be measured. By monitoring specific, relevant metrics throughout your project, you can have a pulse on whether your current strategy is effective or if you might need to shift gears.

6. Acceptance Criteria

How will you know when your project is done? What will tell you when your implementation plan has actually been implemented? You need to define the criteria that let you answer those questions before creating your plan and setting it in motion.

7. Success Evaluation

As a sort of extension of the point above, you need to know how you're going to evaluate whether your plan actually worked — and the extent to which it did. Have certain metrics and benchmarks prepared to tell you whether your project accomplished what it needed to.

Implementation Plan Example

Your implementation plan is going to be unique to your team and the project you're carrying out — and the format you go with will likely reflect that specificity. Here is an example of what one could look like.

Image Source: Service Engineering Lab

Your implementation is going to be exactly that — your implementation plan. It's going to be specific to your needs and project specifications. You might not include every component listed here, or you might include some more. Yours could look like the example we've listed, or it could wind up looking different.

Still, this article provides a solid starting point for you to consider when putting yours together. If there's anything to take away from this piece it's this — have a plan in place for your implementation, document it, and track it as your project progresses. If you take those strides, you'll put yourself in the best possible position to see your project through to the other side smoothly and efficiently.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

What is Scope Creep & How to Navigate It

How Your Revenue Team Can Avoid These 5 Missteps in 2023 and Beyond, According to Sendoso's VP of Revenue Operations

What is Revenue Intelligence? [+5 Problems It Solves]

Why Process Strategy is Key for Sales Ops Success

Why RevOps Is the Answer to Your Compensation Planning Headaches

The Ultimate Guide to Operations Productivity: What It Is and How to Measure It

What is a Chief Revenue Officer? & How to Become One, According to Experts

Operational Objectives: The Core Tasks That Support Strategic Visions

What Is Business Process Management? (& the 7 Best Tools for It)

Why Your B2B Company Should Explore a Revenue Operations Strategy

Plan your business's growth strategy with this free template.

Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs

• go to walkme.com

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.

Like what you are reading?

Sign up for our weekly digest of the latest digital trends and insights delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking the button, you agree to the Terms and Conditions . Click Here to Read WalkMe's Privacy Policy

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thanks for subscribing to WalkMe’s newsletter!

Free Implementation Plan Templates

By Kate Eby | January 16, 2024

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

We gathered seven free implementation plan templates, complete with customizable sample copy. These templates serve as invaluable tools for professionals, ensuring that each step of the implementation process is thoughtfully planned and executed.

Included on this page, you’ll find a  project implementation plan template , a  software implementation plan template that includes a Gantt chart, a  business strategy implementation plan template , and an  implementation plan presentation template for presenting to stakeholders, among others. You’ll also find details on the  elements of an effective implementation plan and helpful instructions for  how to create an implementation plan template .

Excel Simple Implementation Plan Template

Download the Sample Simple Implementation Plan Template for Excel 

Download the Blank Simple Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

Use this simple implementation plan template available with or without sample copy to streamline your implementation-execution process. Easily organize tasks into distinct phases, ensuring clarity and focus. By assigning responsibilities, setting priorities, and monitoring task status with start and end dates, teams can achieve enhanced accountability. By completing this basic template, you can mitigate potential oversights and keep your implementation plan on course. 

For insights on aligning your project steps with overarching goals, view this  collection of free project timeline templates .

Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel

Download the Sample Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

Download the Blank Project Implementation Plan Template for Excel  

This project implementation plan has more features than the simple template. It serves as a comprehensive tool for meticulously planning and visualizing the trajectory of your implementation project. Download a blank version or one with sample data to help you complete the template for your project. By segmenting tasks into phases ( Initiation and Development, etc. ), it provides methodical progression structure. The Gantt chart offers an intuitive visual snapshot of the entire project-implementation timeline. Adopting this template will not only enhance organizational efficiency but also provide a clear roadmap for the project's successful execution.

Software Implementation Plan Template

Download a Sample Software Implementation Plan Template for

Excel | Google Sheets

Download a Blank Software Implementation Plan Template for 

Excel | Google Sheets  

Steer your software deployment with precision using our comprehensive software implementation plan template, complete with an illustrative Gantt chart timeline. This module-by-module template — available with or without sample text — facilitates meticulous planning. Complete the  Work Breakdown Structure  (WBS) column for task-specific numeric identification. Use the  Responsibility Column to allocate individual tasks to specific team members and how long each might take in the  Estimated Duration in Hours column. Add when you expect the task to be complete in the  Target Completion Date  column. A distinct  Burndown  vertical bar chart showcases the volume of tasks accomplished and those pending for each module, providing a clear visual indicator to assess if the team is on track to meet the implementation milestones on schedule.

For more implementation plan resources and solutions, see this  article on how to create a successful implementation plan .

Microsoft Word Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template

Download the Sample Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template for Microsoft Word  

Download the Blank Business Strategy Implementation Plan Template for Microsoft Word    

Harness the power of this business strategy implementation plan template to streamline your project's path from vision to execution. This template — available with or without example text — methodically breaks down your initiative into vital sections. You’ll find an introductory overview, task delineation, and schedule outline to security considerations and performance metrics. With built-in sections for documentation, references, and management approvals, it ensures a comprehensive yet concise representation of your strategy.

Excel New Process Implementation Plan Template

Download the New Process Implementation Plan Template for Excel

Elevate your process rollout with this new process implementation plan template. This all-encompassing template provides an interactive platform, wherein task progression automatically refreshes the Gantt chart as you make updates. It also provides intuitive widgets that spotlight task progression, financial tracking, and upcoming deliverables. Together these features furnish stakeholders and teams with a consolidated view of critical performance indicators.

PowerPoint Implementation Plan Presentation Template

Download the Implementation Plan Presentation Template for PowerPoint  

Use this template to easily present your implementation plan to team members and key stakeholders. This engaging visual tool lets you delineate tasks within an adjustable bar chart, catering to the timeframes essential to your plan. Incorporate pivotal milestone markers for critical accomplishments, and utilize the integrated  Progress Overview section to swiftly evaluate how well your implementation strategy is working.

Check out this article on free implementation plan templates in PowerPoint format for more resources.

Elements of an Effective Implementation Plan

The elements of an effective implementation plan include clear objectives, outlined steps with timelines, and task assignments. It also has continuous monitoring and feedback mechanisms.   

Here's a list of the elements for an effective implementation plan and what they include:   

• Objectives:  Clearly defined goals and outcomes the plan seeks to achieve. This section gives direction to the entire process. 
• Tasks/Actions: Specific steps or tasks required to achieve the objectives. Each action should be clearly articulated and avoid ambiguity. 
• Responsibilities:  Assignments for each task to a person or team to provide accountability and clarity on who does what. 
• Timelines:  Specific deadlines or milestones for each task or action.. 
• Resources:  Identification and allocation of resources (such as finances, manpower, or materials) needed for each task. Completing this section ensures the project doesn't stall due to lack of necessary inputs. 
• Stakeholders: List of individuals or groups who have an interest in the implementation. Keeping stakeholders informed can aid in garnering support and addressing concerns. 
• Risk Management: Identification of potential risks or challenges, along with strategies to mitigate them. Learn more about  risk management planning .
• Communication Plan:  A strategy for how information will be disseminated among team members and stakeholders. This  guide to creating a communication plan can help you get started.  
• Monitoring and Feedback Mechanisms:  Methods to regularly track progress and gather feedback, so you can make necessary adjustments and improvements in real time. 
• Contingency Plan:  Backup strategies or actions to take if primary tasks do not proceed as planned. These details help ensure the plan remains flexible and adaptable. 
• Evaluation Metrics:  Criteria to measure the success or performance of the implementation. Use this data to determine if the plan is meeting the objectives. 
• Documentation:  Maintain records of all actions, decisions, and changes. These documents aid in transparency and future reference, and they ensure that all involved parties are on the same page.

How to Create an Implementation Plan

When creating an implementation plan, first define the objective. Then list all tasks, set dates, assign roles, and track progress. You’ll also need to identify milestones and review and make adjustments as necessary. 

Here are the steps to create an implementation plan:    

• Define the Objective Clearly state what you hope to achieve with this implementation. This could be the launch of a new product, such as the rollout of a new electronic vehicle (EV) charging stations. 
• Perform Stakeholder Analysis Identify all parties involved in the implementation. This includes the project team, end-users, management, and any external stakeholders. 
• Execute a Feasibility Study Thoroughly evaluate the project's potential by analyzing its economic, technical, and operational aspects. This activity involves identifying potential challenges, resource requirements, and risks to ensure that the project is well-founded and worth pursuing. 
• Design and Develop Your Plan Translate your project concept into a detailed plan. This plan will encompass a comprehensive project outline, including specific tasks, responsibilities, timelines, and resource allocation. 
• Establish Timeline and Milestones Estimate how long each task will take and set up a timeline for the entire project. Highlight key milestones on the timeline, so it’s easy to see when the project reaches a notable achievement. 

Use a Plan Template to Create the Implementation Plan Now that you have all the details necessary, use a simple implementation plan template to document it. Using a template can streamline and guide the process of executing your projects, ensuring organized and efficient project management.  

Enter Task Details For each  Action  in the simple implementation plan template’s seven phases, provide a description, and add the  Party Responsible, Priority, Status, Start Date, End Date , and any relevant  Notes to the corresponding fields.   

• Establish a Communication Plan Decide how you will keep everyone informed about the project's progress, changes, or updates. Options could include scheduling regular meetings, sending email updates, or using project management software.
• Deploy Pilot Testing Launch a scaled-down version of your project to a limited audience or in a controlled environment. You'll gather valuable feedback from pilot users, which will inform your adjustments and refinements. 
• Execute Full-Scale Rollout Execute your project on a broader scale, following the finalized project plan and incorporating insights gained from the pilot test.
• Review Performance and Optimize Continuously monitor project performance against established metrics and objectives, and make changes as necessary. 
• Create Documentation Plan Document all aspects of the implementation plan, ensuring you establish a reference point and a record of decisions, justifications, and changes. 
• Review and Evaluate Once the implementation is completed, review the entire process. What went well? What could be improved? This retrospective analysis can inform future implementation plans.

Easily Create and Monitor an Implementation Plan in Real Time with Smartsheet

From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity -- empowering you to get more done. 

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 a better way to streamline workflows and eliminate silos for good.

Project management

Implementation plan: What to include and 5 essential steps

A project plan or project implementation plan is a key strategic document that keeps teams on track throughout a project, indicating how a project is expected to run along with who’s responsible for what. It’s an extremely valuable planning tool — one that can be the difference between project success and project failure.

It’s also a fairly comprehensive document, and if you’ve never built one before, the concept can feel a bit overwhelming.

In this post, we’ll give you a five-step plan for building and implementing a project plan. First, we’ll walk you through what a project implementation plan looks like, why you should create one for every project, and what each plan should include.

• What is a project implementation plan?

A project implementation plan is a document that defines how a project will be executed. Implementation plans outline the project's goals, scope, and purpose, as well as listing the resources (including team members) necessary for a successful project.

Project implementation plans are sometimes called “strategic plans” because they lay out the strategy proposed for a project. But we like the longer name because it conveys more than just strategy: It suggests a process going into action, and it answers the question of how a team will arrive at a goal.

A project implementation plan serves as a critical reference point throughout the project's lifecycle, ensuring everyone is on the same page and everything is on the right track. It's a vital document for guiding decision-making, mitigating risks, and ultimately ensuring the successful completion of the project from start to finish.

The Teamwork.com guide to project management

Get best practices, tips, and methodologies to enhance your project management approach with our free guide.

• Why every project should start with an implementation plan

Why start each project with an implementation plan? Simple: because you want the project to succeed, and you want an objective way to know if it succeeded.

Starting each project with an implementation plan accomplishes quite a bit for most teams and businesses, primarily because it creates a shared sense of vision and understanding and points toward a clearly defined goal.

Most teams realize these four benefits (and plenty more) when they create a thorough and functional project implementation plan:

It creates an actionable roadmap of the scope of work

Projects run the gamut from extremely simple to lengthy and complex. The more complicated and interconnected the project, the greater the chance for confusion.

Whatever the level of complexity, chaos ensues when team members aren’t clear on what to do, when to do it, or why they’re doing it.

A project implementation plan is the antidote to this kind of chaos because it shows all parties what the path forward looks like (the roadmap ) — as well as what is and isn’t on that path (the scope of work).

It makes goals and communication transparent to all stakeholders

When all parties understand the goals of a project, you lessen confusion around those goals. There may still be disagreement on how to best achieve a goal, but there’s no confusion about what the team is aiming to accomplish.

Also, a central, accessible document containing all relevant aspects of a project creates a single source of truth for teams, managers, executives, vendors, customers, and more. When anyone and everyone associated with a project is working from the same playbook, teams and businesses enjoy clearer, more focused, and more transparent communication .

It holds your team members accountable

Around 70% of businesses report having at least one failed project in the last year. We’ve all been part of a project where no one seemed accountable for problems or even total project failure. Of course, no one likes taking the blame and finding a scapegoat isn’t always terribly productive. Still, if you have a team member or business unit that’s consistently failing to deliver, you want to know.

A strong project implementation plan makes clear who’s responsible for what within a project. It gives project managers and team leads a stronger understanding of task accountability, helping to hold team members accountable for their work.

And most of the time, better accountability comes with better results!

It helps your entire team stay on the same page

You’ll never completely eliminate scope creep (something that occurred within more than a third of projects in 2021), nor should you. Parameters for various deliverables or even the entire project can and do change over the course of a project, and sometimes a change in scope is clearly the right decision.

But not all scope creep is good. Especially with longer or more complex projects, it’s common for team members to lose focus on the top-level goals — not to mention the specific steps needed to reach those goals.

This loss of focus is preventable, though, as is the scope creep that grows from it. A project implementation plan keeps the big-picture goals and the steps required to meet them in focus. When a change in scope is warranted, it should be documented within or alongside the implementation plan.

• Essential components of a great implementation plan

Most well-designed implementation plans contain these essential items, though it’s important to note that implementation plans vary widely, just like the projects they’re attached to.

These elements comprise a solid foundation for your next implementation plan. Start with these, but feel free to add additional elements that make sense for your industry or project type.

1) Scope statement

The scope statement outlines the scope of the project — essentially, what work will be performed in the project (and what work would be considered out of scope).

2) Project milestones, goals, and key objectives

Project goals are the high-level outcomes the project aims to achieve. Key objectives are the steps or intermediate outcomes that will occur throughout the project in support of the project goals. Project milestones are the points of measurement along the way, usually significant or tangible in some way.

Examples of milestones across a few industry contexts include wireframe completed, beta launch, copy drafted, or the completion of a phase, segment, or function that’s part of the whole.

3) Detailed resource plan

A project’s resource plan indicates which human resources are involved along with their time or workload commitment. You should also include materials and equipment (typically, only what’s beyond the standard stuff every employee already has) needed for successful project completion.

4) Estimated implementation timeline

A key element of any implementation plan is a concrete timeframe for the project (and its implementation). These dates are rarely perfect at the outset of a project, but they provide a goal to work toward and give stakeholders some context for what they’re signing off on.

Most project teams use project management software for creating project timelines , often in the form of a Gantt chart.

5) Implementation plan milestones

Your implementation plan may benefit from its own set of internal milestones, separate from the broader project milestones. These internal milestones are more useful on highly complex projects with multiple levels of approval and numerous departments supplying information.

Implementation plan milestones could look like these: initial stakeholder information gathered, plan drafted, plan discussed and feedback incorporated, final sign-off by all stakeholders.

6) Implementation plan KPIs & metrics

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) or other metrics reveal how well the team is accomplishing the implementation plan. Establish measurable indicators, state what they are within the plan itself, and then track them over the course of the project.

Here, a quality project management tool is essential if you want to succeed with measurements that span the length of a project.

• 5 easy steps to create your project implementation plan

Now you know what needs to go into your project implementation plan — but how do you actually create one and get the implementation process started?

We know this process can seem daunting at first, and it does take some upfront work. But the process doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. Follow these five easy steps to create an implementation plan that helps keep your project and your team on track. Then, as future projects arise, use these questions as a template of sorts to create a quality implementation and management plan for each one.

Teamwork.com’s project management template is an easy way to start building your plan today.

• 1) Define your goals and milestones

Before you can create a plan for how to get where you want to go, you need to spend some time deciding where you want to go .

So, before you start building out any other part of a project implementation or action plan, start by devoting time to the what and the where:

What are you trying to accomplish? (Project-level goals)

What needs to happen to reach those goals? (Project objectives)

What are the intermediate steps or milestones that demonstrate progress along the path toward the project’s goals? (Project milestones)

Once you establish goals, objectives, and milestones — and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders and project team members on those goals and milestones — you’re ready to proceed to step two.

• 2) Conduct research by interviewing, surveying, or observing

Research is one key element of a successful implementation plan. In many project contexts, this research looks like interviewing or surveying various stakeholders, subject matter experts, department leaders, and so on — gathering the information necessary to build your implementation strategy.

Sometimes observation is a key strategy as well: Watching what another team (or vendor or external organization) does or has done on a similar project can provide valuable insights.

• 3) Brainstorm and map out potential risks

Every project has inherent potential risks. Some of these can be foreseen, while others seem to come out of nowhere. Take the pandemic as one example of the latter category. Yes, businesses should have business continuity and disaster management policies in place, but few — if any — businesses had a concrete plan of action lined up for a global pandemic.

So, there are risks you can’t plan for and could never predict. But there are plenty of risks that, with a little bit of brainstorming and planning, should be easy to discover. These are the ones you need to target as you perform a risk assessment.

Map out the known risks, along with potential impacts and mitigation strategies for each one. Some risks are entirely avoidable so long as you take appropriate risk management actions. Others may not be completely preventable, but having a plan in place will greatly reduce their impact.

• 4) Assign and delegate essential tasks

Every good implementation plan will include a work plan or action plan that lists out the tasks within the project to a certain level of granularity. These tasks eventually get plugged into a calendar or schedule of some sort, often within project planning software suites like Teamwork.com .

No matter what method or platform you’re using, at this stage, you need to map out or schedule these tasks. As a part of this step, make sure you assign and delegate tasks to specific resources (or, at minimum, specific departments or work groups).

This step is key to successful project execution, as it assigns responsibility and accountability for every task included in the plan, bringing clarity to who’s doing what and when.

• 5) Finalize your plan and allocate resources

Next up is allocating resources. You already assigned tasks to people (or departments) in the previous step, so what do we mean here that’s any different?

Put simply, there’s a difference between putting on paper that “Sam will handle task 35” (assigning tasks) and actually making sure that Sam has the capacity to handle task 35 (allocating resources).

In step 4, all you really did was determine who’s doing what. Now, during resource allocation, you make sure that your assignment plan is achievable. Resource allocation means assigning tasks to resources that are actually available. In other words, you need to make sure task 35 doesn’t land on Sam’s desk the same day as 10 other tasks.

Last, once everything else about your plan has been crafted, vetted, and approved, it’s time to finalize the plan. Usually, this involves sending out the completed plan for a final round of approvals.

Once approved, the project implementation plan becomes a single source of truth for the team and other stakeholders. So make sure to store the plan in a central, accessible location. ( Teamwork.com is a great place for this , if you ask us!)

• Create an effective project plan with Teamwork.com

Creating a project implementation plan requires careful planning and attention to innumerable details, but the results are worth the investment. Increase your project success rate, productivity, morale, and more by keeping teams focused on the right shared outcomes.

We’ve hinted at this a few times already, but project implementation planning (along with all the other documents and documentation you need to prepare to get a project off the ground) is infinitely easier when you use the right tools.

Teamwork.com is a powerful all-in-one platform for client work — including complete operations control and project management — that gives you a central location to store project data, robust yet flexible templates, and visibility into current and past project data. Teamwork.com can cut down on the detail work and keep your information organized in a digestible, more user-friendly way, ultimately empowering you and your teams to achieve better work for your clients, be more profitable, and stay on track.

See more of what Teamwork.com can do for your business now — get started now for free, view our comprehensive pricing plans , or book a demo today.

The only all-in-one platform for client work

Trusted by 20,000 businesses and 6,000 agencies, Teamwork.com lets you easily manage, track, and customize multiple complex projects. Get started with a free 30-day trial.

Try Teamwork.com for free

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Teamwork.com: The all-in-one platform for client work

Learn how Teamwork.com helps you drive business efficiency, grow profits, and scale confidently.

Ben is a Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Teamwork.com. Having held content roles at agencies and SaaS companies for the past 8 years, Ben loves writing about the latest tech trends and work hacks in the agency space.

What does a finance project manager do?

Product project management: How to ensure your agency delivers for early-stage founders

Standardizing your product management workflow for superior project outcomes

How product leads leverage the sprint cycle to meet client deadlines

What is professional services automation? Here’s what to know

Project management for financial services: A comprehensive guide

Get started

• Project management
• CRM and Sales
• Work management
• Product development life cycle
• Comparisons
• Construction management
• monday.com updates

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.

Get started with monday.com

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.

Send this article to someone who’d like it.

What is an IT Implementation Plan & Why Does Your Business Need One?

Introduction.

You’ve got a new project to sink your teeth into — implementing a new software , as part of your company’s digital transformation initiative.

With your entire team, and the company’s revenue lying on your shoulders; a situation like this can be daunting. 

So, what do you do?

The first order of business is to acknowledge that new software comes with a host of problems.

From technical glitches to employee training on technology , there’s a lot you need to take into account while planning implementation. But this isn’t enough. You need to be organized while doing it. 

That’s where an IT implementation plan comes in. 

It helps you make a smooth and seamless transition from age-old legacy solutions to new systems that boost operational efficiency and ROI. 

If you’re wondering how to go about creating an IT implementation plan, we’re going to break it down for you in this article. 

What is an IT implementation plan?

The goal behind creating an implementation plan is to execute a project in a quick and seamless manner.

Without the fuss. In essence, you can call it a project management document that helps with implementation of new systems, solutions and procedures in any organization. 

IT implementation plans are non-negotiable, mainly because they help simplify the mammoth task of introducing a new software into business operations.

Generally, these plans involve breaking down the project into small chunks to make them more manageable.

This is followed by defining timelines and allocating teams and resources required for successful execution.

Start your IT implementation by outlining how to execute the project at hand. Identify all the steps involved; from training to deployment.

You can follow this up by communicating the idea to your team, so everyone is on the same page. 

Apart from execution planning, these documents are also responsible for mapping out the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved.

This is why they are instrumental in ensuring successful deployment of any technology. 

Although many confuse implementation plans with strategic plans, the concepts are not interchangeable.

A strategic plan describes the strategy to achieve an objective. On the flip side, an implementation plan breaks the strategy down into smaller, achievable tasks. 

Whether you’re creating or adopting a new software, implementation plans should be your go-to strategy.

Without it, there are much higher chances of bottlenecks, technical errors, missed deadlines and overblown budgets. 

Benefits of an IT implementation plan

Executing a task without proper planning is like trying to run a marathon with a blindfold on.

You’re going to lose your way, which means reaching the end point is practically impossible.

Without a plan to guide you, rest assured you’re bound to hit roadblock with no idea on how to handle them.

These could include resource or budget constraints, technical issues or miscommunication.

An implementation plan gives you a tiny peek into these problems right from the get-go.

Here are a few other reasons why you shouldn’t forgo creating an IT implementation plan.

A clear scope of work

Noting down your ideas for your implementation strategy on paper or even as a digital note will give you a lot more clarity on which direction you should take.

This gives you a better understanding of your objectives and the steps needed to achieve them. 

Developing a cohesive vision for your IT implementation can help you communicate with your teams and senior management better.

They will be able to learn more about your vision, helping them open up to the project and its implications.

It also educates everyone involved on their roles and what’s expected from them. 

When people are aware of the part they have to play in the project, they’ll be able to work with a focused approach, ultimately leading to higher levels of efficiency and business productivity.

And to top it all off, they won’t have to waste time and energy on searching for information, as every single detail will be reflected in the plan you present. 

Transparency for all stakeholders

Transparency builds trust among co-workers. It’s a given. And having an implementation strategy helps achieve the transparency needed to create a team that works collaboratively.

Considering trust building is the key point to remember here, your goal should be to gain stakeholder trust through any means possible.

This is where an IT implementation plan helps. With it, everyone involved in the daily functioning of the company will learn and understand your plan.

Along with the benefits and risks associated with it, of course. This in turn, will boost their productivity and give them a morale boost.

More accountability

An important key to building an implementation plan is to ensure accountability.

If there's no accountability, your team will not report their progress or feel accountable for the work they do.

This leads to longer timelines and poor quality. 

When there’s an implementation plan in place, there’s a clear document stating what parts of the projects are assigned to whom, and with what timelines.

This keeps all team members accountable for the work they’ve been assigned to.

In cases where work is not done on time, you can give out a warning or send an e-mail to follow up on the required tasks. 

Easy collaboration 

When you have all the details jotted down in your implementation plan, you will be able to communicate your idea with your team in a more efficient way.

This makes it easier for them to collaborate on the project, understanding what their roles are and the level of cooperation needed to get work done.

Having an implementation plan will let your team members know how their work will influence the work of their team members. 

To achieve success, collaboration is the key. When interdepartmental teams collaborate, they can achieve objectives faster and more easily.

Implementation plans are instrumental in making this happen. 

Steps to creating an IT implementation plan

The success of any project lies in its planning and execution. A project must be completed on the deadline set by you at the beginning of the project, so make sure it’s an achievable one.

Next thing to think about is budgeting and allocation of resources. By all probability, you’ll get a fixed budget without much wiggle room.

Take this into account while planning your resources. 

Finishing your project before the deadline and within the allocated budget is the hallmark to IT implementation success.

This is because delaying a project or overspending can lead to severe losses.

IT implementation plans can prevent all this from happening, turning the process into a smooth and seamless one that everyone can enjoy.

Wondering how to create a plan of your own? Let’s show you how. 

Identify goals & objectives

The first step while creating your implementation plan is to set an objective.

Think about what you want to achieve with this project. In other words, what’s the outcome you hope to achieve?

Having a clear objective in mind will help you flesh out your strategy and execution plan. Ask yourself questions like:

• What do you want to achieve with this project?
• Who is your target audience?
• What deliverables do you want to produce with this?

Don’t forget to get buy-in from stakeholders and team members. Getting their opinions and ideas will make them feel more involved in the process and give them the morale boost needed to make them work harder.

In the process, you’ll also get better at prioritizing your project and sticking to set timelines.

At the very beginning of your project, make it a point to assess risk.

Doing this in the early stages will help you truly understand what you’re against in the market.

Double down on resources

After you have set goals and objectives, you must plan the resources you will require.

These may include money, personnel, software, equipment or other technical materials.

Allocating resources is an important part of developing an implementation plan. 

The first thing to do is to map out a plan and list down the tasks needed to achieve the goal.

For this, you can divide your objectives into smaller tasks and see what resources will be required to complete each task.

Assign a team leader for each task and ask them to handpick a team. You should look at the skills you require for a project while assigning a team leader.

Share your objectives with them so they can pick a team that’s most suited to their values and caliber.

Assign roles and responsibilities to each of them.

Once you’ve hired resources, it’s time to train them.

The best way to do so would be to keep all the information on a platform which anybody can access.

For example, you can use a platform like Scribe to create and store in-depth tutorials on how to perform a particular task.

Scribe is a step-by-step guide generator that writes your SOPs for you. Just turn on the extension, do your process and watch Scribe work its magic. In seconds, the tool creates written instructions — complete with annotated screenshots.

Here's a Scribe in action.

This will help them learn in a visual way, making it not just faster — but so much easier.

{{banner-sops="/banner-ads"}}

Next step is to figure out what resources you’ll need for the project and how it can be managed within the budget.

After making the teams and outlining your deliverables, figure out the resources and equipment it will require and check if it fits your budget. 

Choose a project management tool

Choosing a project management tool will make your work easier. With so many resources and stakeholders to manage, it can be difficult to do it all by yourself.

A project management tool helps neatly organize everything so you know exactly where to look. Better than rooting through a bunch of old male, isn’t it?

Project management tools are also surprisingly good at helping people manage resources effectively, and tools also help you get metrics and data immediately.

A project management tool has scheduling features, team management tools and more.

Some popular project management tools you can choose are:

Trello is a popular project management software which has built-in tools that can help your team collaborate with each other. It is simple to use. This tool can help your workforce by creating lists and tasks and staying organized. 

Users can collaborate and share files as well as leave comments. This tool is perfect for small teams and individuals working together. The basic plan for Trello is free to use but there are paid plans that provide support for automation and integrations.

Asana is a versatile project management platform that focuses on collaboration. It has a lot of features for productivity and collaboration. There are several task displays that allow custom fields and forms. You are even free to invite as many guests as you want.

Asana can be used for all-sized enterprises. There is a free plan for up to 15 users. They also have a premium package that includes timelines, reports, custom fields, automation rules, and other features. 

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a popular Zoho service that allows organizations to keep track of projects, communicate, monitor bugs, and run reports. It also has a suite of communication tools like real-time chat and forum pages.

Zoho projects come with free basic features for limited users. It also has different paid features like issue tracking, resource tracking, and budgeting.

Project management tools help with project planning. It provides automation to project planning and scheduling. They also help you keep track of your resources and budgets, as well as improve team collaboration. This helps you to organize your work and stick to your deadline.

Choose performance metrics

Choosing proper performance metrics is imperative. They help you track your progress, your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Using data analytics, you should be able to figure out how your software will help your customers and keep monitoring it even after the product is finished.

Here are some types of performance metrics you can choose:

• Measuring the key performance indicators (KPI) is important for your organization. KPIs can monitor the health of your company and reveal what you need to work on. KPI shows whether or not a company is accomplishing its goals. It can be your revenue, gross margin, location count, personnel count, customer happiness, product quality, or employee productivity.
• Objective and key results (OKRs) is a goal-setting process that teams and individuals use to establish tough, ambitious objectives with quantifiable outcomes. OKRs are used to measure progress, promote alignment, and encourage participation. Goal setting is known to boost participation.
• Management by objectives (MBO) is a process in which the organization's goals are set and communicated to its members by the managers with the idea of achieving each target. Monitoring and evaluating each employee's performance and development are important here.

Never forget to have an implementation plan

An implementation plan is not just a formal document. It is the backbone upon which your entire project stands.

Without a proper plan, your entire project can fall apart, resulting in a massive loss for the company. Always remember: you can’t implement and forget about it. 

It’s important to continuously monitor the deployment process to identify possible threats and guarantee speedy resolution of technical issues.

Analyze how well the implementation is performing, and if the results aren’t satisfactory, you can regroup to discuss the next plan of action. Once implementation is done, you can train employees on how to use the new software by recording and creating guides using Scribe.

Sign up for a free!

Ready to try Scribe?

Related content

• Scribe Gallery
• Help Center
• What's New
• Careers We're Hiring!
• Contact Sales

• Free Project Management Software
• Agile Project Management Software
• Project Management Software for Nonprofits
• Organization Apps to Boost Productivity
• Resource Management Software
• Monday Review
• ClickUp Review
• Monday Pricing
• ClickUp Pricing
• Wrike Pricing
• Asana Pricing
• Smartsheet Pricing
• Teamwork Pricing
• Airtable Pricing
• Scoro Pricing
• Asana vs Monday
• ClickUp vs Monday
• Wrike vs Asana
• Trello vs Asana
• ClickUp vs Asana
• What is Agile Project Management?
• Key Benefits of Agile Methodology
• Most Important Agile Metrics
• Agile Manifesto: Values and Principles
• Agile Project Management Certifications

What is an Implementation Plan & How Do I Create One

The primary purpose of creating a project plan is to execute the project successfully. Successful execution of a project is impossible without an implementation plan.

An organization may get stuck on how to execute its project or may execute it incorrectly without an implementation plan.

Project managers can easily and effectively manage the project process if they follow the steps highlighted in the project implementation plan and get the desired result.

You can avoid failure in the project execution phase and attain project success with a well-detailed implementation plan.

This article will reveal every important detail you need to know to create an effective implementation plan.

Let’s get started.

What is an Implementation Plan in Project Management?

You can define an implementation plan as a project management tool that outlines a step-by-step process to bring a project from start to completion.

In other words, your implementation plan lays down the process or procedure a project manager and the project team must follow to execute a project successfully.

A project implementation plan is a detailed document containing a list of tasks with individual roles and responsibilities . It determines the project goals, timeline, and resources needed to support successful implementation.

There is a difference between a strategic plan and an implementation plan. The simple difference is that strategic plans describe the project manager's implementation strategy while implementation plans convert a strategy into an actual task.

Key Components of an Implementation Plan

1. project goals and objective.

A project needs to have a goal or objective. An object is a key milestone that the project team must complete to achieve the goal. The organization can choose an objective during strategic planning sessions.

2. Success Criteria

Key stakeholders and project leaders have to reach a mutual conclusion on what would be described as the project’s critical success factor ( CSF ) and how to measure success.

3. Scope Statement

The scope statement is a critical component of an implementation plan. It is a brief description of your project scope. Proper project scope management is critical for effective project planning .

4. Resource Plan

A resource plan is one of the key components of an implementation plan. Create a detailed resource plan containing every resource needed for successfully implementing the project.

These resources can be human resources, equipment, and every material required to carry out the project.

5. Risk Analysis

You can effectively use risk assessment tools to identify all the potential project risks you may encounter.

6. Implementation Timeline

To have a successful implementation plan, you will require a clear project timeline . You get a clear overview of individual tasks in your project and project deliverables with a project timeline.

7. Implementation Plan Milestone

If you want to measure progress when executing your project implementation plan, it is vital to identify key milestones which you will use to track project progress. Schedule milestones in your project execution plan around due dates set for project completion.

8. Team Roles and Responsibility

There is a need to assign responsibilities to team members, with everyone knowing what role or responsibility is assigned.

9. Implementation Plan Metrix

Define metrics such as the Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs ) and other key metrics to control the implementation plan's progress effectively.

How to Write a Project Implementation Plan

You must have accurate knowledge to create a solid implementation plan. Here is a detailed outline of how to write a project implementation plan.

1. Research and Discovery

The first step is identifying what you require to create an effective project implementation plan. You will have to conduct research to answer these questions.

• What kind of teams are needed to achieve the strategic goals?
• What is the time duration required to execute the strategic plan?
• What resources are required, and what quantity should be allocated from the budget?

You must conduct a strategic interview with key stakeholders, key partners, customers, and team members to gather the required information.

This strategic interview aims to determine what components and assignments are essential and what factors are of greater importance so you can prioritize. List all the set project goals you wish to achieve and cross-embed the strategic plan with the implementation plan.

Finally, everything must align with the strategic plan for the project implementation plan to work.

2. Identify Assumptions and Risks

Identifying risks and assumptions in your implementation plan is important. Examples of assumptions and risks in your implementation plan include paid time off or holidays, market instability, damaged tools, budget constraints, and losing personnel.

You must consider all these factors before executing the implementation plan.

3. Assign Responsibility

Assigning responsibilities is vital when carrying out each activity in the implementation plan. For a task to be properly assigned, the manager must delegate specific roles and responsibilities to team members.

After assigning tasks, monitor them to ensure that all assigned tasks are carried out effectively.

4. Determine Activities

Finally, you must recognize all the important activities to complete your plan. Here are some questions that can help you decide on important activities to include in your implementation plan.

• What is the organizational structure?
• Who are the project’s key players?
• What are the crucial steps and key milestones you want to accomplish?
• Do you have task dependencies you need to factor in?
• Which activities are essential for completing the project’s strategic initiative?
• What are the stakeholder requirements?
• What are the allocated resources?
• What are all the potential risks involved in the project?

After implementing these questions, your implantation plan is complete and ready for execution.

You may need project approval from the top executives before you can start implementing your plan.

Implementation Plan Example

Implementation plans are widely used across various organizations and have wholesome benefits.

The primary goal of an implementation plan is to implement company strategy effectively and create a workable step-by-step process of bringing the project to completion.

Here is a detailed example of how an implementation plan works.

Benefits of an Implementation Plan

The implementation plan plays a key role in the success of the overall strategic plan. Without the implementation plan, project managers will not be able to execute the project’s implementation strategy, resulting in project completion.

Throughout the project's implementation phase, the project manager, key stakeholders, and the entire team have a clear direction to execute the project easily.

1. Increased Cooperation

If each team member works in isolation or does not work well with other team members, it will affect the project’s result. With an implementation plan in place, you can foster cooperation within the team.

Working with other members is easier when everyone knows what is expected of them and the steps to be followed in the implementation plan with their tasks.

An implementation plan helps to bridge the gap between team members to ensure everyone works in sync with themselves.

Buy-in in project management means getting stakeholders on board with the project mission and vision and involved in the decision-making process.

Suppose you do a thorough job in your research and acquire all the relevant information for successfully implementing the strategic plan. In that case, you can buy in from key project stakeholders and important partners involved in the entire project.

The up-side to this is that you can always get buy-in with a well-structured and detailed implementation plan.

3. Meeting Goals to Ensure Project Success

Communication and clear understanding are key to accomplishing project goals. Setting a goal and getting every team member to understand how to accomplish this goal is possible through the implementation plan.

Ensure you carry along the strategy director and implementation leader when creating communication channels for the implementation plan.

Best Practices for Implementation Planning

Putting these principles to work within your team while executing the implementation plan will guarantee success in executing the project.

1. Create a Designated Implementation Team

A specific team focused on ensuring the productive implementation of a particular plan is essential. Create a specific team burdened with the responsibility of ensuring that the success of an implementation plan increases the chances of success even though it is not compulsory.

2. Create a Shared Vision Among All Team Members

Your team members must clearly understand the implementation plan's purpose. If the vision is clear to them, a deeper connection to the work will be established, which will serve as a motivating factor.

Always encourage team members to express their views on the strategic and implementation plans.

3. Choose a Dependable Team Leader

The team leader has to properly orient and coach the team members on the best ways to carry out their implementation plan tasks.

This individual should seek guidance from past implementation plan leaders and use the information gatherers to improve the implementation process.

In certain cases, you can have more than one team leader (multiple team leaders), and their responsibilities will differ a little from each other.

Within the team, a champion will be mostly responsible for getting things done, and a viable management sponsor who helps the team scale obstacles will be required.

4. Define Actionable Plans

To make remarkable changes in the implementation process, you must stay on course, identify challenges and discover the reasons for these problems.

You can identify these challenges through

• Brainstorming
• New-members information form
• Notecard method

With these techniques, you can easily identify various project management challenges , gain more insights into the project implementation plan and create solutions to the identified challenges.

You can effectively implement the Notecard method in this manner. You need to ask the team members three important questions.

• What is the single biggest challenge facing the team?
• What will be the most relevant issue in the next five years?
• What is the best strategy to tackle these issues?

After the cards have been submitted, the next step is to identify the most similar answers and isolate them to be deliberated.

5. Create an Action-Oriented Plan

Create an action plan focused on incremental action and not just having continuous discussions. Your plan must encourage you to take significant steps that will accumulate in you getting the desired result.

While creating a project implementation plan, ensure it is reality-based. Creating a non-reality-based plan means trying to achieve something you cannot. In other words, your plan should not be trying to solve a proxy problem.

In creating your plan, it is important to identify what you require to impact the identified challenges and make notable changes.

For example

• What organizational resources are required to get the work done?
• How do you allocate resources to the needed areas?
• What are the additional resources required to complete the project?

You will create a detailed plan to impact the identified issues with this knowledge.

6. Value Communication

Constant communication with the team enables you to see the project better, keeps the project transparent, helps generate new ideas and strategic initiatives, and ensures everyone is on the same page.

Regular and honest communication among team members will foster cooperation and enhance productivity. Ensure that the team’s contributions during discussions are perceived as valuables and let them know they are expected to contribute.

You can use team management software to foster better communication among your teams and manage your teams effectively.

7. Monitor Progress and Incremental Success Consistently

Ensure you perform constant evaluations and analyses to ensure you are still on track regarding the implementation process. You can hold progress report meetings to measure and analyze development.

By constantly monitoring progress, you will be able to identify potential risks, make the necessary adjustment before a crisis hits, and allow you to adapt before processes or expectations become solidified.

Celebrating milestones encourages team members and helps them to feel valued and part of something that works. The team will remain motivated and willing to see the process through by celebrating milestones. You can use project tracker software to track your tasks and projects.

8. Involve the Right at the Appropriate Time

This best practice involves discovering the best time to involve upper management. In the project initiation phase , you must include key decision makers and not just any team member.

You should list out critical tasks that you must execute and select the right personnel to carry out these tasks. The next move is allocating resources and determining what tasks you require to complete the larger task.

Having the right people working with you will guarantee the success of the project implementation plans.

9. Publicize Your Plan

Maintaining transparency with team members and management is important to the success of the implementation plan. During implementation planning, it is not advisable to indulge stakeholders' involvement at all times.

Ensure you make your plan available to higher-ups to keep your team accountable down the line.

Implementation Plan FAQs

The most significant difference between an action plan and an implementation plan is that an implementation plan addresses various factors that affect the implementation process, such as risks, resources, and team roles and responsibilities. On the other hand, an action plan is focused on describing work packages and tasks.

The project manager is responsible for creating the implementation plan for a particular project or series of projects.  With the help of stakeholders and certain team members, the project manager can develop a comprehensive implementation plan. 

The implementation process in project management is a series of events in which plans, strategies, and goals are converted into actions to accomplish strategic project objectives and goals.

Useful Project Management Software for Successful Implementation Planning

You do not have to go through the rigorous stress of creating your implementation plan in a spreadsheet or Word document.

Many simple project management software tools help you create your implementation plan with an implementation schedule best suited for your implementation and execution plan.

Here are the project management software tools that will give you your desired results.

• Monday.com is a highly-customizable project management tool that provides users with various tools for creating and tracking your implementation plan, dependencies and budgets, and delegating responsibilities.
• ClickUp is an affordable project management software that offers the most inclusive free-forever plan with extensive functions not limited to successful project implementation planning and execution.
• Wrike is a powerful project planning tool that helps you create and execute your strategic implementation plan.

Every wise project manager knows that having a well-structured implementation plan increases the likelihood of completing the entire project. Taking the implementation planning process as a vital part of the project is very important because a lot depends on this process. With the right software tool, you can easily create an implementation plan suited to your specific project need.

Was This Article Helpful?

Anastasia belyh.

Anastasia has been a professional blogger and researcher since 2014. She loves to perform in-depth software reviews to help software buyers make informed decisions when choosing project management software, CRM tools, website builders, and everything around growing a startup business.

Anastasia worked in management consulting and tech startups, so she has lots of experience in helping professionals choosing the right business software.

Business Makeover

Implementation plan.

Tips for use

You can make the Implementation Plan by yourself, but it is more effective if you do this with a group, such as colleagues who will be impacted by the change. 

Print the template of the Implementation Plan to use in a brainstorm. Use sticky notes to put something in the Implementation Plan. This way you can easily add or move actions if necessary.

For inspiration, have a look at the example of Fleurs Flowers and learn from this application of the Implementation Plan.

Your long-term vision for your company contains many possible innovations. An Implementation Plan is made for one of these innovations at a time. The Implementation Plan helps you to define the concrete actions that are necessary to implement the change, put them on a timeline and have a clear idea who’s accountable. Follow the steps to create an Implementation Plan.

Step 1: Describe the innovation

What is your idea and how will it work in your company? Describe what the innovation consists of, the reason for the innovation, and what you want to achieve for your company.

Step 2: Describe the actions that have to be taken 

To make the changes a reality, you have to take action. Often a change has an impact in several different business units. Determine the business units that are influenced by the change and define the actions that should be taken to make the change. Make sure to mention specific actions, for example: "Organise sales training", "Customise product catalogue" or "Create a Facebook page".

Describe for each business unit which actions should be taken:

• People: Do you need to hire new employees? Is there a knowledge gap that needs filling? Are you going to outsource activities or acquire new skills?
• Processes: does your innovation require a new way of organising processes? Is a new work method needed? Do you have to set up a new department? Is a different management style necessary?
• Technology: Is the technology you’re currently using good enough for your new business? Or do you have to invest in new technology? Do you need new IT systems?
• Knowledge & materials: can you repurpose existing knowledge and materials? Are you going to acquire new knowledge, for which you need to secure intellectual property? Do you have to buy new materials?
• Partners: do you need new partners? Are you able to distribute your new product or services with your existing partners?
• Marketing & sales: Is market research and promotion necessary? Do the current marketing tools need to be adjusted to the change? Do you want to use other channels or technology for marketing and sales?

Step 3: Determine the critical moments

Some actions will have a big impact on your company. Mark these actions as critical. They probably also require more preparation. Examples of critical moments are actions that:

• can’t be reversed, for example closing a department or dismissing an employee;
• or entail high risk, such as developing new technology that requires a big investment.

Step 4: schedule the actions

Put the actions on a timeline. Note that some actions are dependent on other actions. Ensure that these can be recognised, for example by giving them the same colour. Steps that have no dependencies can be done parallel to others. Ensure that each action has is someone’s responsibility and has a clear deadline. 

Note: change is a process. Have regular evaluations of your timeline to accommodate for the changes in your company (people leaving, newly acquired knowledge). Are all actions still in the right order, or do you need to revise the planning?

More From Forbes

The problem behind the problem: the human factor.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

With Daniel Lee, President & Partner of Carpedia International

When workarounds become permanent solutions, your business begins to look like a certain children's song.

Missteps are common in the world of business. We can all remember these very public examples:

• A product or service is launched or discontinued without sufficient demand forecasting (“New Coke” in the 1980s)
• A technology or trend is underestimated (Kodak's digital photography hesitation in the 1990s)
• Expansion into a new market is executed too hastily (Target’s rapid rollout of more than 100 Canadian stores in the early 2010s)
• Labor is cut without fully assessing the impact on customer satisfaction (The US Post Office in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s)
• Large-scale change programs are rolled out without adequate training or prototyping (General Electric's ambitious digital transformation in the late 2010s).

Beyond these high-profile stories, nearly every business has its own list of lessons learned. (Our firm has several – you can find them here .)

Netflix: Marvel Dud Among Movies New On Streaming Service This Week

Houston rockets land third pack in upcoming nba draft, as knicks and rangers captivate new york, the yankees quietly roll along, there’s a hole in the bucket.

“There’s a hole in the bucket.” This is a children’s song that has been around in various forms for more than 200 years.

It tells a simple story of Henry, whose bucket leaks. Liza tells him to fix it. But to do that, he needs straw. To cut the straw, he needs a knife. To use the knife, he needs to sharpen it. But the sharpening stone must be damp, so he needs water. But to fetch water, he needs the bucket, and the bucket has a hole in it.

The moral of the story: Problems are often more complicated than they first appear to be.

So, if we learn this as children, why do we often forget it as business leaders?

Three reasons stand out.

First, business moves fast. The bottom line doesn’t always wait for a complete solution. Second, the closer we are to a problem, the harder it may be for us to see the way out. This “proximity paradox” occurs when workarounds stick around, and stop being seen as workarounds. The third, and arguably the most impactful, reason is that most problems involve people, and people are complicated.

In consulting, it’s our job to find and help fix problems, layer by layer. On paper, solutions might seem relatively simple. Apply management principles, develop performance measurement tools, streamline processes, target the point of constraint, reduce inefficiency, and maximize productivity. These are logical stages of process improvement and organizational alignment.

But if logical equaled simple, all organizations would operate at peak performance. The fact that most achieve roughly 60 to 70% of their maximum productivity for any given process tells us there’s a hole in the bucket. That operational improvement must account for the human factor.

The Human Factor

Years ago, our firm engaged in a process improvement project for an automotive parts manufacturer. One of our consultants observed that the plant had created its own time zone. All the clocks in the plant were set ten minutes ahead of the actual time. No one knew why except a single long-term employee, who eventually recalled that the clocks were changed many years before so that shift workers could finish early to catch a bus that came on the hour.

The bus had not run on the hour for several years, but the practice had continued. This caused a problem at the injection molding machines because in the ten-minute gap, the plastic congealed, leaving the next shift to spend their first fifteen minutes purging the machines.

Management was advised of the molding machine problem and decided to end the early departure practice and implement a “hot change” at the end of the shift so that the machines could keep running.

Three months later, nothing had changed. Not even the clocks.

What seemed like a simple change had a multitude of implications throughout the plant and directly impacted the activities of employees, production schedulers, and frontline managers. Changing the process affected how crews were scheduled and appeared to ask people to work more than they had previously. The planning standards and staging areas needed to be modified to reflect new input and output expectations, and managers now had to be physically on the floor at shift change to make sure the transition ran smoothly. Coordinating this among different shifts and different departments was more complicated than it looked on paper.

We see this scenario play out repeatedly. Few process changes are simple. They often have implications for other parts of the organization, and sometimes those implications are far deeper than leaders realize until the changes are made. And sometimes, the logical solution doesn’t address the underlying problem.

At a hotel resort property, there was a mismatch between when guests dined, and when the stewarding staff were available to clean dishes. A design was configured to stagger shift starts to better align staffing with the demand patterns of the restaurants. But, unique to this location, the stewarding employees lived in a neighboring community and relied on a single bus for transportation. It ran only twice per day, and the bus schedule did not align with the new shifts. This situation highlighted the often-complex balance between cost containment and labor management.

The Not-So-Quick Fix

Complex problems require respect, careful consideration, flexibility, and hands-on solutions. When tackling the layers added or impacted by the human factor, there are no shortcuts to effectiveness. Transformation of any kind within an organization takes time and effort. The following guiding principles offer a good place to start.

1. Create a Results Strategy and an Implementation Plan

The Results Strategy is a working road map and a problem-solving tool that guides the allocation of time and resources. It articulates, in practical terms , how results will be achieved and how the impact will be realized in key indicators and financial statements. It identifies potential issues and complications that need to be considered. The strategy also sets expectations regarding activities, focus, timing, and participation.

Understanding the depths of the changes being implemented is critical to success. The objective is not to make a few method changes and claim victory. Sustainable solutions often require transitioning to a new way of managing the organization.

2. Provide Managers with a Supportive Environment

Managers are the lynchpin to improvement. How they schedule work, communicate expectations, follow up on performance, and problem-solve issues with their staff are vital elements to a successful change initiative. Leaders must make sure their front-line managers are prepared sufficiently in advance of a change program and have the appropriate tools they need. One key area to focus on is the alignment between strategic objectives, day-to-day performance planning, and the measurement systems designed to highlight where there are disconnects.

3. Recognize That Bumps Are Part of the Road

Change affects people differently, and adjustments will not always be smooth. Many people experience what has been termed an “Emotional Cycle of Change,” navigating five distinct stages before successfully adapting. Recognizing this cycle helps people normalize the range of emotions they may experience and can help an organization respond empathetically, provide necessary support, maintain resilience, and move forward effectively.

Leaders need to anticipate challenges and resistance and make sure managers understand why these reactions happen and how to manage them.

4. View the Path to High Performance as Never-Ending

High performance is not an end goal but an ongoing journey. Leaders must nurture a culture of continuous improvement where each level of achievement paves the way to the next.

In addressing the human factor, the not-so-quick fixes teach a valuable lesson in business problem-solving. They underscore the need for an analytical and empathetic approach to operational dilemmas, ensuring that solutions foster not just immediate benefits but sustainable progress—an approach where “fixing the hole in the bucket” considers the bucket’s purpose, design, and the person carrying the water.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Digital twins: The art of the possible in product development and beyond

Industrial companies around the world rely on digital tools to turn ideas into physical products for their customers. These tools have become increasingly more powerful, flexible, and sophisticated since the 1960s and 1970s, when computers first began replacing drawing boards in design offices. Today, product life-cycle management (PLM) has become engineers’ first language: PLM systems help companies to capture, codify, process, and communicate product knowledge across their organizations.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Mickael Brossard , Sebastien Chaigne, Jacomo Corbo, Bernhard Mühlreiter , and Jan Paul Stein, representing views from McKinsey’s Operations Practice.

Yet as engineering tools have become more capable, the demands placed upon them have also increased. Product functions are increasingly delivered through a combination of hardware and software. Sensors and communications capabilities allow products to offer more features and to respond more effectively to changing operating conditions and user requirements. Advanced, adaptable user interfaces have simplified the operation of complex and sophisticated machines.

Evolving business models are also blurring the boundaries between design and use. Customers expect the performance and functionality of products to improve during their life cycle, enabled by over-the-air software updates or the ability to unlock new features as needed. Many products operate as part of an ecosystem of related products and services. Increasingly, customers are not buying products outright, but paying for the capabilities they provide on a per-use or subscription basis.

The birth of the digital twin

These changing requirements have triggered a transformation in digital product representation and the creation of a new tool: the digital twin. Digital twins combine and build upon existing digital engineering tools, incorporating additional data sources, adding advanced simulation and analytics capabilities, and establishing links to live data generated during the product’s manufacture and use. A conventional PLM system uses one digital model to represent each variant of a product. A digital twin, by contrast, may have one model for each individual product, which is continually updated using data collected during the product’s life cycle.

The digital-twin approach can be applied to products, manufacturing processes, or even entire value chains. In this article, we will focus on their application to products, specifically to product design.

Digital twins offer multiple potential benefits for product-based companies and users. They can aid design optimization, reduce costs and time to market, and accelerate the organization’s response to new customer needs. Digital twins can also be a critical enabler of new revenue streams, such as remote maintenance and support offerings and “as a service” business models.

Based on the experience of companies that have already adopted the approach, we estimate that digital-twin technologies can drive a revenue increase of up to 10 percent, accelerate time to market by as much as 50 percent, and improve product quality by up to 25 percent. Digital-twin technology  is becoming a significant industry. Current estimates indicate that the market for digital twins in Europe alone will be around €7 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 30 to 45 percent. 1 Infinium; MarketsandMarkets; MarkNTel Advisors; Meticulous Market Research; Mordor Intelligence; SBIS; Technavio, last accessed April 2020.

Digital twins in practice

Companies in many different industries are already capturing real value by applying digital twins to product development , manufacturing, and through-life support (exhibit).

An automotive OEM, for example, has used the digital-twin approach to create a concept configurator for early phase development . The start of the development process is especially challenging for complex products because the various stakeholder groups, such as sales, engineering, and finance, may have different or even contradictory product requirements. The OEM now balances these trade-offs using a digital concept configurator that allows for simultaneous evaluation of customer requirements, technical concepts, and product costs. When a technical concept within a system or subsystem of the product is changed, the implications for meeting customer requirements or product cost targets become immediately transparent.

Would you like to learn more about our work in Product Digital Twins ?

Using the configurator within cross-functional development teams has helped the OEM to reallocate 5 to 15 percent of a new vehicle’s material costs to the attributes that drive the most customer value. Applying the approach to select customer-facing components has allowed the company to optimize costs and customer value simultaneously, improving the contribution margin of those parts by 5 to 10 percent. As a further benefit, the configurator helped the team reduce the time taken to reach agreement on changes by 20 percent, thus accelerating time to market.

Digital twins are even being used to replicate systems in complex mission scenarios. Using this approach, one aerospace and defense player has cut the time required to develop advanced products by 30 to 40 percent. The digital twin also aids discussion with customers during the development process, helping the company validate and improve its designs.

In the consumer electronics sector, a company is using product digital twins to boost quality and supply chain resilience . It stores detailed information on the content of its products, including the exact source of individual components. In the event of quality issues during production or early failures in the field, the company can trace problems back to specific supplier facilities, then take appropriate action to prevent reoccurrence of the issue. An automotive supplier uses the same approach to trace quality deviations in its production through to the upstream supply chain, and in the process has reduced scrap by 20 percent.

Digital twins are increasingly being used to improve future product generations . An electric-vehicle (EV) manufacturer, for example, uses live data from more than 80 sensors to track energy consumption under different driving regimes and in varying weather conditions. Analysis of that data allows it to upgrade its vehicle control software, with some updates introduced into new vehicles and others delivered over the air to existing customers.

Developers of autonomous-driving systems , meanwhile, are increasingly developing their technology in virtual environments. The training and validation of algorithms in a simulated environment is safer and cheaper than real-world tests. Moreover, the ability to run numerous simulations in parallel has accelerated the testing process by more than 10,000 times. Incorporating sensor data from real-world vehicles into these tests helps companies improve the veracity of their simulations and identify blind spots in the virtual test database.

The mainstreaming of additive manufacturing

A company in the renewable-energy sector is using a digital twin to automate, accelerate, and improve the engineering of hydroelectric turbines . Using the machine learning system to evaluate the likely performance of the new designs allowed it to rate more than a million different designs in seconds rather than the hours required for conventional computational flow dynamics (CFD) analysis. The winning geometry delivers the maximum theoretical performance, significantly higher than what is achievable by conventional optimization methods. Moreover, by using machine learning, the overall end-to-end design cycle time was cut in half compared with the conventional approach.

Digital twins in three dimensions

Digital twins can take many different forms. Organizations that want to take advantage of digital-twin technologies must select an appropriate form that will enhance its technical and business objectives. The design of a digital twin can vary across three dimensions (exhibit).

The first dimension encompasses the value chain steps that the digital twin will cover. An engineering twin covers value chain steps similar to those covered by conventional PLM systems, ranging from product definition to detailed engineering. A production twin replicates a product throughout the manufacturing process, incorporating data such as the components, materials, and process parameters used, as well as the results of tests and quality checks. A service twin incorporates data collected from the product in use, such as operating modes, performance, diagnostic information, and maintenance history. The most sophisticated digital twins span multiple parts of the value chain, allowing in-service data to optimize manufacturing processes or future design iterations.

The second dimension is the scope of the digital twin. A product may consist of several major systems, multiple subsystems, and hundreds or thousands of hardware and software components. Some digital twins cover only one or several components, for example, those that simulate the flow of liquids through a pipe. Others cover a full product, for example, those that simulate a car’s crash characteristics. Given the limitations of computing power, generally, the narrower the scope of a digital twin, the more precise its virtual replica will be. In contrast, full-product digital twins often need to abstract or simplify certain product behaviors to remain manageable.

The final dimension of a digital twin is its degree of sophistication . The simplest digital twins consist of various sources of data relating to a product, often from sources that have few or no links with one another. The second level of sophistication uses traditional simulation tools to perform analyses of design performance and integrate the various sources through a PLM system or similar platform.

At the third level of sophistication, a digital twin will use predictive or prescriptive analytics, as well as machine learning technology to run automated simulation refinements and yield new insights. This allows design and manufacturing teams to make informed decisions based upon direct results and performances.

At the last level of sophistication, digital twins use predictions of component failure rates or performance variations to react to changing environments and manipulate the real-world counterpart in a closed-loop setup. This approach might be used in a condition monitoring system, for example, where sensor data and simulations are combined to make inferences and predictions about the state and behavior of a specific product, and might allow a machine to compensate for wear or variations in operating conditions by adjusting parameters in real time.

Companies in other sectors are also starting to use digital twins to derive deeper insights into customer behaviors and preferences . For example, white-goods manufacturers can use data from in-service products to identify the most and least used features. That can inform future product development decisions, such as deleting rarely used features or revising the user interface to make the features more accessible.

The adoption of digital twins is currently gaining momentum across industries, as companies aim to reap the benefits of various types of digital twins. Given the many different shapes and forms of digital twins (see sidebar, “Digital twins in three dimensions”), and the different starting points of each organization, a clear strategy is needed to help prioritize where to focus digital-twin development and what steps to take to capture the most value.

How to start and succeed on your digital-twin journey

Embarking on a digital-twin journey can look daunting at first sight, especially since the breadth and depth of use cases can span the entire corporate landscape, including product portfolio choices, business model design, R&D, manufacturing, and through-life support.

This versatility can also be a strength, however, as it allows companies to start small and expand the scope, sophistication, and value-chain coverage of their digital-twin projects over time. The experience of companies that have applied digital twins in their own product operations leads to a few simple rules that can greatly increase your odds of success.

Define your aspirations

Be aware of digital-twin best practices. Do your homework and seek out perspectives on best practices and future trends in digital-twin technology. Assess and prioritize the elements of your vision. Evaluate the potential of digital-twin-related opportunities and prioritize them into an implementation road map.

Be clear about the business case. Quantify the value offered by different digital-twin opportunities and determine the minimum level of model sophistication required to generate that value. Successful projects focus on short development times and rapid ROI.

Test the waters by prototyping select use cases. Run a series of hackathons (possibly supported by digital-twin specialists) to assess your capabilities’ baseline, develop solution prototypes, refine, and adjust the initial concepts. This step calibrates the approach and prevents you from losing time and resources by attempting an impossible plan. It is part of a broader value assurance move aimed at bringing the entire project to a successful conclusion.

Know your strengths

Perform a maturity assessment. Understand your current digital product development capabilities along six main dimensions: development methodologies, PLM governance, data strategy, business processes, system complexity, and collaboration. Understanding the areas where you are most advanced and where you are lagging behind will help prioritize areas of investment for a balanced implementation of a digital twin and its use cases.

Access to appropriate talent and capabilities can make or break a digital-twin initiative. Many organizations need to develop additional expertise in areas such as advanced simulation and modeling or data analytics for user experience design.

Plan a step-by-step, agile implementation

Invest several months in developing a minimum viable product (MVP). Incubate a cross-functional, agile team dedicated to bringing priority use cases to life and building digital capabilities in the process. The MVP is now the must-do approach to maximize value gains from the start rather than waiting until the program is finalized before experiencing the first benefits.

Perform an MVP retrospective to pivot or persevere. Derive lessons from the first MVP phase to confirm your digital-twin aspirations or pivot them based on the findings (for example, the validity of use cases, complexity of implementation, and maturity of the organization). This is the second value assurance move that enables you to further calibrate the implementation plan and revise the scope to avoid generating sunk costs.

Scale up the digital-twin initiative and accelerate ROI. Optimize and standardize implementation based on insights from the MVP phase. Define an (internal or external) recruiting and capability-building strategy. Build an operating model to enable rapid scaling of successful approaches. The most advanced organizations typically consider digital-twin technologies a core strategic capability.

By following these simple best practices, you will be able to reap the benefits of digital twins in a scalable, progressive way. Are you ready?

Mickael Brossard is a partner in McKinsey’s Paris office, where Sebastien Chaigne is an associate partner; Jacomo Corbo is a partner in the London office; Bernhard Mühlreiter is a partner in the Vienna office; and Jan Paul Stein is an associate partner in the Munich office.

The authors wish to thank Roberto Argolini, Elia Berteletti, Kimberly Borden, Akshay Desai, Hannes Erntell, Alessandro Faure Ragani, Anna Herlt, Mark Huntington, Mithun Kamat, Michele Manzo, and Alessandro Mattozzi for their contributions to this article.

Explore a career with us

Related articles.

Full-potential procurement: Lessons amid inflation and volatility

Product sustainability: Back to the drawing board

Việt Nam News

Energy giants plan for national power plan.

HÀ NỘI — The recent approval for Việt Nam’s eighth national power development plan (PDP8) has heated up discussions around business strategies of energy giants in the race to gain advantages in energy transition towards the country’s net-zero goals.

Approved in early April, the plan sets the foundation for the transition of traditional power sources such as coal-fired to cleaner energy.

Renewable energy will make up for 30.9-39.2 per cent in 2030 and 67.5-71.5 per cent in 2050.

Under the PDP8, on-shore wind power will grow at an annual compound rate of 25 per cent in the 2021-30 period and 6 per cent in 2030-50 to account for 14 per cent and 13 per cent of the country’s total power capacity, respectively. Offshore wind power is expected to reach 600MW by 2030 then grow at 15 per cent by 2050 to account for 16 per cent of the total’s power capacity.

LNG-fired power will account for 27 per cent of the total power capacity by 2030 and 15 per cent by 2050. Besides, biomass power is expected to reach 1,088MW and waste-to-energy 1,182MW.

The development of solar power is slowing down after a robust growth in the 2020-21 period, but is expected to make up for 33 per cent of the total power capacity.

Companies are planning investments in renewable energy to capture the opportunities from the transition toward net-zero goals.

Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) plans to focus on wind energy. Its wind power plant in Trà Vinh is operating at 90 per cent of its capacity.

Seeing wind power a spearhead in Việt Nam’s energy transition process, REA will continue to seek cooperation with foreign partners with experiences and financial capacity.

PC1 Group Joint Stock Company will focus on optimising the operation of its existing wind power plants.

Bamboo Capital also put wind power at the centre of its energy business. BCG Energy in charge of managing the energy business of Bamboo Capital, now owns eight onshore wind power projects with a total capacity of 925MW. The company is also hastening the implementation of on-shore and off-shore wind power projects with a total capacity of 550MW, including Đông Thành 1, Đông Thành 2 and Khai Long which are expected to be put into operation within this year.

With solar power, although there is not much room left for development, it still remains attractive and along with wind power, is considered a growth driver for Bamboo Capital.

The documents at the shareholders’ meeting of Bamboo Capital this year pointed out that the first phase of 21MW Krong Pa 2 solar project is completed. The price negotiations for Krong Pa 2 and 114MW Phù Mỹ are set to be completed this year.

BCG Energy is also implementing another 23 rooftop solar power projects with a goal of doubling the total capacity by the end of this year.

Sao Mai Group set the goal of doubling the revenue from renewable energies in 2024 to reach VNĐ1 trillion per year with the focus on developing new solar and wind power projects.

Sao Mai is operating 210-Mwp An Hảo solar plant in Tịnh Biên District, An Giang Province and 50-Mwp Euriplast Long An in Đức Huệ District, Long An Province.

Helio Energy planned to buy a maximum of 60 per cent of stakes of SD Trường Thành Joint Stock Company, developers of Thuận Minh 2 solar power project with a capacity of 50 Mwp in Bình Thuận Province.

REE Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Mai Thanh said that investment in solar power requires careful consideration because of the Government’s intention of offering zero Vietnamese đồng pricing for excessed rooftop solar power.

Thanh said that the company is starting to get into hydrogen, but more consideration is needed.

Bamboo Company is eyeing waste-to-energy with a portfolio of five plants in Củ Chi, Long An, Kiên Giang, Huế and Hà Nam. The company planned to build the first waste-to-energy plan in Củ Chi, HCM City this year which will have a total investment of VNĐ5 trillion to treat 2,000 tonnes of waste per day and generate 40MW.

The plant in Long An will have an investment of VNĐ1.586 trillion to treat 500 tonnes of waste per day, equivalent to a capacity of 10MW.

Lê Xuân Nghĩa, a member of the National Financial and Monetary Advisory Council, pointed out that one of the major challenges to renewable energy development is the infrastructure system and high costs.

Việt Nam needs a comprehensive strategy, which might include the foundation of environment standards, appropriate infrastructure development and policies to encourage investments from both domestic and foreign sources.

According to VnDirect Securities Company, Việt Nam has a large potential for wind and solar power development. However, it is necessary to invest in the transmission and storage systems and speed up the construction of the grid systems in the context that renewable power sources are increasing rapidly. — VNS

VNG becomes the official publisher of Roblox in VN

Long An wins PCI 2023 runner-up position

Desk established in Đồng Nai to support Japanese investors

Self-safeguard growing as a trend shaping future of payments

Corporate bond maturity in 2024 remains high: MoF

Recent hike in domestic airfare in compliance with regulations: aviation authorities

More on this story.

Việt Nam's wood industry strives to match sustainable wood demands

Travel companies remain hungry for visitors

Improving operational model critical to promote co-operatives

SSC fines companies for information disclosure violations

Vietjet opens direct flight between Hà Nội and Hiroshima

Market to trade sideways nearly 1,250 point-level this week: experts

HCM City to host 4th international electronics, smart appliances expo

Work starts on trillion-VND biodegradable materials factory in Hải Phòng

Vietnamese entrepreneur first to receive Cartier Women’s Initiative Award

• Print Advertisement
• Online Advertisement

Tides of Change: Innovating ASEAN’s Blue Economy

Vietnamese paintings show off at int’l art fair in London

Is Vietnamese đồng’s depreciation worth worrying?

Grand ceremony, parade mark 70th anniversary of Điện Biên Phủ Victory

Rooftop solar power trading is a no, for now

New law on industrial parks proposed to lure in high quality investment capital flow

70th anniversary of Điện Biên Phủ Victory honours sacrifices and triumphs

• Điện Biên's historical relic sites flooded with tourists
• Uruguayan, Cuban media spotlight Điện Biên Phủ Victory
• Điện Biên Phủ Victory observed in Russia
• Hà Nội on way to 'Creative City'
• Enlightening Hà Nội’s night economy
• Hà Nội gains positive economic growth and recovery
• Capital city strengthens trade, investment promotion
• Capital City commits to bold 2024 agenda prioritising economic revival, infrastructure advancement
• Hà Nội promotion activities in 2023 showcased trade, innovation, and economic growth
• New routes help tourists discover Hà Nội's destinations
• Ancient village preserves mother-of-pearl craft
• Hoàn Kiếm pedestrian space in Hà Nội to open throughout New Year 2024 holiday

• Đà Nẵng International Fireworks Festival: Ticket sales now open!
• Ba Na Hills to host unprecedented world-class magic and circus shows with renowned artists
• How does Fatzbaby always lead e-commerce market in highly competitive mother & baby products market?

• Journalists work to spread love for Trường Sa
• Six streets in Hà Nội to be named after Trường Sa Archipelago’s islands
• Việt Nam concerned about recent developments in East Sea: Diplomat

• Let's get spicey
• Jelly mooncake
• How virtual learning prepares students for the future that does not yet exist