Work Plan Template

About the Work Plan Template

What is a work plan?

A work plan is essentially a roadmap for a project. It articulates the steps you must take to achieve the desired goal, sets demonstrable objectives, and establishes measurable deliverables. An effective work plan guides you throughout the project lifecycle, allowing you to realize an outcome by collaborating with your team.

Lean Six Sigma is an approach to streamlining business processes that originated in the manufacturing industry. It aims to reduce waste, improve quality, and increase efficiency and product value. The work plan is a tool that can help you plan projects according to the Lean Six Sigma methodology.

4 components of a work plan

To make a proper work plan, you’ll need each of the following components:

1. Goals

The goals are the ultimate aim of your project: what you want your team to accomplish. This can be something very specific or a broader aim.

2. Strategy

Your strategy is the big picture approach for your project plan that you will implement to achieve your goals. This includes laying out what your resources are, what your constraints are, and how to take advantage of your strengths. 

3. Tactics

Tactics are the smaller decisions, techniques, and action steps that you will employ to achieve your broader strategy. This includes: defining tasks, identifying which people you want on specific tasks, giving instructions on how to complete them, and more.

4. Deliverables

Deliverables are the specific, time-bound results you want to achieve from specific tasks, as defined by your overall strategy. These are how you know you’re on track for achieving your goals. 

How to use the Work Plan Template 

Now that you know all the separate components of a work plan, here’s how you put them all together. Use this Work Plan Template to get started and do the following steps:

1. Meet with stakeholders

Perhaps the most important part of a work plan is ensuring that you have inputs from all the right people and that you’re not missing information. Bring in all the team members, stakeholders and project sponsors, and use the meeting to brainstorm, figure out your timeline, and identify constraints. 

2. Identify goals, strategy, tactics, and deliverables

After you’ve hashed out the process with your project stakeholders, it’s time to identify the goals, strategies, tactics, and deliverables of your plan. This is the meat of the work plan, so the bulk of your time should be put into this. 

3. Create a work map

A work map is an actionable outline drawn from your plan, complete with due dates and an overall timeline for the achievement of your project goals. 

Of course, it’s normal for things to change throughout the course of a project (especially for large projects). Your work plan cannot be all-encompassing – nor should it be. List as many of your goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics as you can and add dates for specific tasks, but don’t worry if you need to make adjustments later. Project management software can be useful in helping you keep track of dates, tasks, and assignments. 

When do you use a work plan?

You can use a work plan at the beginning of a project for strategic planning purposes, to scope the project and continue to update the plan as the project progresses with actual data. Set a cadence of regular meetings so you can go over the plan, ensure you’re staying on track, and adjust as necessary. Work plans are especially helpful if you’re juggling many complex projects, managing multiple stakeholders, or working in tandem with cross-functional partners.