A Complete Project Workbook and How to Use It

Before you jump into each individual worksheet, below are some steps to help you understand how the information is broken down and how it is best put into action.

1. Familiarize yourself with each worksheet in this workbook.
2. The bullet list below provides a brief explanation of the function of each worksheet.
3. The “data” tab represents basic data that once entered on this tab will be carried through the rest of the workbook.
4. Each worksheet contains commented cells that provide detail instructions on how to use that sheet.
5. Use these individual worksheets internally or with clients and/or vendors.

Here are the definitions for the worksheets in the Complete Project Workbook.

• Data – Filling out the Data sheet completes the header portion of all remaining sheets in the project workbook.
• Minicharter – The Project Minicharter sheet can be used as a charter for small projects or a summarization of a full charter for larger projects. In this sheet you’ll include the background of the project, the business needs and benefits, objectives, scope of work, deliverables, risks involved, and the success criteria.
• Stoplight Report – The Stoplight Report sheet contains a status report that can be used to keep sponsors, team members, and stakeholders informed of project progress. It identifies
• Budget – The Budget sheet allows you to track original budget, expenditures to date, and any cost variance.
• Cost Benefit Analysis – The Cost/Benefit Analysis sheet allows you to review the proposed project and potential alternatives and make a project selection based on a greater return on investment (ROI).
• Risk Management Matrix – The Risk Management Matrix sheet allows you to identify, qualify, quantify, and prioritize risks (events that might happen; the uncertainty of a project), create mitigation and contingency plans, and assign risks owners.
• Issues – The Issues Log sheet allows you to identify project issues (unplanned events that have happened) and the potential impact they may have. You can also monitor the issues by documenting a course of action and resolution plan.
• Action Items – The Action Items sheet allows you to track and monitor action items assigned to team members. Action items are tasks that must be done but are too insignificant from a time perspective to track in your project schedule.
• Milestones – The Deliverable Milestones sheet allows you to identify major deliverable milestones and the due dates, objectives, assumptions, and constraints relevant to that deliverable milestone.
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – The Work Breakdown Structure sheet includes the activities that must be completed during a project, the effort required, all relevant dates, and the resources assigned to do the work.
• Roster – The Roster sheet provides contact information for all those involved on the project.
• Roles & Responsibilities – The Roles and Responsibilities sheet shows the primary role of team members, any deliverables in which they are involved, and the percentage of time they are expected to work on the project.
• Resource Assignment Matrix – The Resource Assignment Matrix (RAM) sheet shows you what type of resource is responsible for, or somehow involved with, each deliverable. The tasks listed are samples; you should update the RAM with tasks appropriate for your project.
• Resource Commitment Matrix – The Resource Commitment Matrix sheet shows how many effort hours each person on the project has been allocated by month. Effort hours is the number of labor hours required to complete a task.
• Assumptions and Constraints – The Assumptions and Constraints sheet allows you to track project assumptions and constraints.
• Decision Log – The Decision Log sheet allows you to track all major decisions made during the course of the project along with the owner of the decision.
• Communication Plan – The Communication Plan sheet allows you to detail your communication plan: how you are going to communicate, with whom you will be communicating, how often, in what format, etc.
• Stakeholder Analysis – The Stakeholder Analysis sheet allows you to identify stakeholders and their role, impact, influence and needs.
• Expectations – The Expectations sheet allows you to identify and track the expectations of various stakeholders.
• Change Log – The Change Control Log sheet allows you to track all change requests in process or finalized.
• Deliverable Log – The Deliverable Acceptance Log sheet allows you to track the status of deliverable acceptances.
• PERT – The program (or project) evaluation and review technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a statistical tool, used in project management, which was designed to analyze and represent the tasks involved in completing a given project. The PERT Analysis sheet allows you to perform PERT analysis on Work Breakdown Structure  (WBS) tasks.
• Delphi – The Delphi Exercise sheet allows you to develop estimates for Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) tasks through the Delphi technique. The Delphi Technique is well suited as a means and method for consensus-building by using a series of questionnaires to collect data from a panel of selected subjects.
• Timesheet Summary – The Timesheet Totals sheet allows you to track effort hours of your entire team by individual and by month.
• Timesheet – The Timesheet can be used by each team member to submit effort hours by activity, by month.
• Size Estimation – The Initial Project Size Estimate sheet allows you to estimate, at high-levels (40,000 ft. view), the size of a project. This estimate should not be considered final as requirements and technical specifications typically have not been fully developed yet.
• Resource Load – The Resource Loading sheet allows you to identify the work effort required, the duration, and the allowed commitment level of each person assigned to the project.
• Project Quality Metrics – The Project Quality Metrics sheet allows you to identify critical success criteria, related quality metrics, and their priority.