Quick 'jingle' to remember 16 foundational parts of a project plan.  See 1 min video...



These 16 terms can be referred to as Knowledge Areas (KAs) of a project.  They can become the headings or sections for a project plan.  First 10 come from PMI (and their PMBOK).  Remaining 6 are from www.nexlevinc.com based on their experience of decades managing projects in IT, construction, environment, government, etc. NexLev has their own Methodology and their PM Manual is approved by PMI and CCA.

Note: This jingle not only includes best practices of PMI but also for ISO 9000 and Six Sigma concepts.

The jingle lists the headings of a great Project Plan Template and includes:
  1. Scope
  2. Time 
  3. Cost
  4. Quality
  5. HR
  6. Communications
  7. Risk
  8. Integration
  9. Procurement
  10. Stakeholders
  11. Safety
  12. Claims
  13. Environment
  14. Financials
  15. Records
  16. Relationships

Learn this jingle by heart so you can have it in your back pocket, access it anytime especially on the spot in the heat of a project change or discussion!!!  This enables confidence that you are covering all the main areas of a project and not forgetting something.  Also when a big change happens, go through the jingle to immediately know, what areas have been impacted by the change or what areas are at greater risk and what areas now need to be prioritized and delved into deeper for analysis.

Ideally, in your Master Project Plan, each Heading is well documented and essentially becomes so large it becomes a Subsidiary Plan (clarity around who and how the knowledge area is being managed and what tools & techniques are being used to manage it throughout the life cycle of the project).

This continues the project team on the way to "increase the probability of success of the project"