"I love it when a plan comes together." -- Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith, The A-Team

Project plans are tough.  No matter how many times you do them – they are always tough.  I’ve been doing them for years, and yet the path from zero to a "good enough" plan is always a lot of work.  But it's worth it.  It's often what separates the failed projects from the successful ones.  When a project fails, you can usually find clues in the plan (or lack of.)

Regardless of how you get there or how you share the plan, the following are essential elements:

• Problem statement
• Customer / who’s it for
• Vision / strategy
• Goals
• Outcomes
• Deliverables
• Timeline
• Tests for success
• Measures / metrics
• Scenarios / stories
• Resource map
• Risks
• A map of the work (work breakdown structure)

In question form, some simple checks are:

• What are the most important outcomes?
• Do we know what good looks like?
• Who's doing what when?
• What's the minimum we need to accomplish or it's not worth it?

It's worth noting that projects often fail because

• Lack of clarity on the goal
• Lack of understanding the work (work breakdown structure)

Interestingly, I know of some executive reviews that boil down to two cutting questions:

• What's the investment?
• What are the results?

It helps answer the higher question -- “Why are we doing this and does it make business sense?”