100+ Free Project Management Templates – Full Life Cycle

Editorial Team

Project management templates enable one to capture and re-use different structures of existing templates to increase the speed of creating a new project and to normalize the lifecycle process. The project management process is a faster, cost-effective, and more efficient way of managing complex and multi-departmental processes. This is because you have the past templates to help in facilitating the rate at which new projects are done and completed. In addition to that, these templates have been tried and have proved true for getting work done on time and a budget. Some of the reasons why project management templates effectively get things done quickly and on time, include the following.

It saves time

Project management templates help you save time, as you do not need to create a new template every time you have a new project.

Ensures Planning

Project templates force companies to plan for contingencies of the other departments as well.

Reduces Risk

Due to the fact that this project template has been used before, a company has an idea of where risks come from and how to reduce their occurrence.

Improves Customer Confidence

A project management template gives room for answering customer’s questions about the progress of a project.

The above points are some of the reasons why project management templates are important in a company. Here, we are giving free templates below.

1.      Business Case Template

This type of template helps stakeholders understand what you plan to do in the company, how you plan to do it, how the organization will benefit from your plan, and if the idea is possible. A business case template is the right place to start for comprehensive research and presentation of a clear document. The business case template should involve an executive summary, an introduction, identifying the statement to the problem, conducting an analysis, discussing possible options, a recommendation, if any, details of the options you have chosen, and a conclusion. It is important that you follow this format to give stakeholders an easy time going through the template.

Click here to download Business Case Template.

2.      Feasibility Study Report Template

This is a documented output of a feasibility study that summarizes the results of an analysis. The main purpose of a feasibility report is to provide companies with relevant information and analysis on whether or not a company or an individual should pursue a certain course of action. Most companies implement the use of a feasibility study to sway the people entitled to the role of making decisions in one direction. A feasibility study exists in four forms. These forms are the technical, operational, economic, and study feasibility study. These four types of a feasibility study involve different procedures that are used in the company.

Click here to download Feasibility Study Report Template.

3.      Organizational Process Assets Template

These are the policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and used by an organization. In an organization, the most important asset is people’s power. This is because it contributes to market value, profits, and the book of accounts. Organizational process assets include documentation, which acts as the origin of the company. The two main groups of organizational process assets are a) processes and procedures, and b) corporate knowledge base. Under processes and procedures, we have policies, standard templates, and general guidelines. The second category involves lessons learned, risk register, past project files, stakeholders register, and historical information.

Click here to download Organizational Process Assets Template.

4.      Project Proposal Template

A project proposal is a document that is used to convince a sponsor that a certain project needs to be put into practice to help in solving a particular problem or opportunity. It explains in detail how a project will be initiated for the sponsor to easily understand what is involved in the project at an early stage. A project proposal includes information such as your company name and what you do, proficiencies, client’s needs, how you can meet the individual needs of the clients, timeframe, and milestones and how much the project will coast. This is the basic layout of a project proposal.

Click here to download Project Proposal Template.

5.      Requirement Elicitation Checklist Template

Requirement elicitation is the process of conducting research and discovering a system’s requirements from different users, stakeholders, and customers. In other cases, this process is referred to as requirement gathering. Requirement elicitation is an important process in the requirement development process. Success or failure of a process is entirely built upon recognizing relevant stakeholders and analyzing their needs too. Requirement Elicitation Checklist shows you some of the techniques you have incorporated in your research, such as interviews, questionnaires, assumptions and constraints, user cases, workshops, and user stories.

Click here to download Requirement Elicitation Checklist Template.

6.      Scope Statement Template

A scope statement describes the company’s main objectives and should be written before the statement of work. These statements can take any form depending on the organization’s nature and the particular project being implemented. Some of the objectives should include criteria for measuring success for the project. A scope statement should consist of the project charter, owner of the project, stakeholders, sponsors, the problem statement, goals and objectives of the project, requirements, out of scope goals and the estimate of the project. In addition to that, a cope statement should also contain assumptions and risks of the project.

Click here to download Scope Statement Template.

7.      Project Charter Template

A project charter template contains and provides a comprehensive summary of the principle of the project. It is usually a document of agreement between the sponsor of the project, stakeholders, and the whole team.  A project charter template should include the objectives of the project, how the project will be carried out, and who the stakeholders are. Moreover, a project charter template is important in planning a project because it is used throughout the project’s lifecycle. A project charter is initiated by a sponsor or a project initiator. This initiation formally acknowledges that a specific project is in existence.

Click here to download Project Charter Template.

8.      Project Management Plan Template

A management plan is a formal document that gives an in-depth definition of how the project is effected, supervised, and controlled.  The team members’ approach to handling the project and ensuring that they take the appropriate steps to deliver the intended scope is also included in this document. The main purpose of a project management plan is to provide information that can be used by everyone who is involved with the project to help in communicating the right message and describing the procedures that the project at hand will take.

Click here to download Project Management Plan Template.

9.      Communication Management Plan Template

This type of plan organizes and documents the different types of communication and expectations. A communication management plan provides all the necessary stakeholders’ communication requirements for appropriate communication when demanded by the stakeholders. This management plan includes the type of information that is needed to be shared with the stakeholders, respective methods for communication, and the rate at which each stakeholder would like to receive the information. A communication management plan follows five simple steps, which include; listing the communication needs of the project, defining the purpose of the project, choosing the most appropriate communication method, setting a tempo for communication, and identifying the owner and stakeholders. 

Click here to download Communication Management Plan Template.

10.     Cost Management Plan Template

This is an outline that projects how the allocation of resources will be channeled to the project. These include the estimation of the project, the distribution, and the control costs required to complete all the project activities. In other words, the cost management plan entails how the cost of the project will be planned, funded, and controlled. Some of the key components of a cost management plan include a cost variance plan, cost management approach, cost baseline, the budget of the project, cost estimation, cost control, reporting process, and the change-control process. A cost management plan helps businesses to predict future expenses so that they have the chance to budget for future payments.

Click here to download Cost Management Plan Template.

11.     Human Resource Management Plan Template

HRM plan writes out guidelines on how human resources for the management of a project should be defined. In addition to that, the human resource management plan involves various processes, some of which include managing, staffing, controlling, and the provision of appropriate human resources. This template involves multiple steps in the planning process some of which include the following; analyzing some of the organizational objectives, taking inventory of the present human resource, predicting the demand and supply of human resources, estimating the vacancies for manpower, formulating an action plan, monitoring the process, controlling and waiting for feedback.

Click here to download Human Resource Management Plan Template.

12.     Requirements Management Plan Template

This is an important tool in project management. The Requirement management plan is used to establish how the necessary requirements will be collected, analyzed, documented, and managed. Furthermore, there is a requirement management process which involves identifying all the stakeholders, gathering the necessary requirements, analyzing the requirements gathered, documenting the collected requirements, verifying, validating and prioritizing the requirements, communicating through respective channels, tracking the process, controlling any changes that may have occurred and reporting the requirement compliance. The main purpose of the requirement management plan is to document all the necessary information required for the effective management of the project requirements.

Click here to download Requirements Management Plan Template.

13.     Risk Management Plan Template

A risk management plan is a written document that entails the risk management process of an organization. The risk management plan process begins by creating a team of stakeholders across the organization who will review the potential risk to the organization. After all the relevant stakeholders have been involved, then the team can start working on the process of managing the risk. A risk management plan has four main components, which include identifying the risk, measuring and assessing the risk, mitigating the risk, reporting, and monitoring the risk, then governing the risk. Following these management processes results in the successful management of the risk.

Click here to download Risk Management Plan Template.

14.     Procurement Management Plan Template

The procurement management plan basically forms a part of the project management plan. This project management template describes how the items that will be used in the project will be procured and the approach used in managing the dealers of the project. A procurement management plan is important because it provides a list of all the requirements expected to be procured over a stated period. After the list has been offered, the procurement schedule is developed, and the fulfillment of the requirement is accomplished.

Click here to download Procurement Management Plan Template.

15.     Quality Management Plan Template

A quality management plan determines the quality policies and procedures that are relevant to the project. The main aspects of a quality management plan include quality planning, quality assurance,  quality control, and continuous improvement. Quality planning entails the process of determining the quality standards that are necessary and provide guidance to stakeholders on how quality management will be performed. Assurance, on the other hand, provides assurance that the project is continuing as per the agreed plans. Quality control is the continuous assessment, testing, and quality measurement to verify that what the project delivers is the same as the specification. Lastly, continuous improvement is the opportunities that come about and are aimed at improving the management process during the life of the project.

Click here to download Quality Management Plan Template.

16.     Schedule Management Plan Template

Schedule Management Plan is a process that involves establishing policies and procedures and the documentation of planning, organizing, developing, managing, implementing, and controlling a project schedule. Basically, the schedule management plan aims at completing the project at hand on time. Some of the components of this project management template include the following; defining different roles and responsibilities, reports, tools, progress feedback, and project feedback. The main benefit of this process is that it helps in providing guidance and direction on the project schedule will be achieved throughout the project.

Click here to download Schedule Management Plan Template.

17.     Scope Management Plan Template

This project management template involves a detailed description on how the scope of the project will be defined, monitored and controlled. It defines the work that needs to be done, and ensure that only that work and all of it is done on time. A project manager is responsible for ensuring that the scope of the project is met at the required time and within the allocated budget. The team members are now working towards a given course to ensure that they meet the scope of the project. The main benefit of a scope management plan is that it provides guidance and direction on how to manage the targeted scope throughout the project.

Click here to download Scope Management Plan Template.

18.     Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Template

Just as the name suggests, a work breakdown structure involves different tasks that a team needs to work on in order to accomplish the set objectives and create the required deliverables. A huge task is completed by first dividing it into small and manageable tasks. This division of work can be done in terms of size, different responsibilities and the duration that the project needs to take to be completed. The main purpose of using a breakdown structure is to reduce the complicated tasks into more manageable tasks. This breakdown is important even for the project manager because he can oversee the task clearly if the tasks are in simpler form than when complex.

Click here to download Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Template.

19.     Functional Requirement Specification Template

These include the operations and activities that a system must be able to execute. A functional requirement specification is a document that contains detailed requirements that a system needs to be developed. The requirement involves different capabilities that a system must possess. There are two types of functional requirement which include the functional and non-functional requirements. A functional requirement specifies what the system should do, whereas no-functional requirement is a requirement that specifies how the system performs a given function. The main function of a functional requirement is that it helps in the development team to understand how a given application will function.

Click here to download Functional Requirement Specification Template.

20.     Requirement Specification Document Template

This is a document that describes what a given software will do and how it is expected to perform when put into practice. In addition to that, a requirement specification document also describes the various functions that a product needs to fulfill all the business and user needs. To write an effective document you need to follow some steps. First, you need to gather all the requirements, analyze the collected requirements, prioritize the documents and then finally conduct a verification.

Click here to download Requirement Specification Document Template.

21.     Software Requirement Specification Template

A software requirement specification is a description of a given software system that needs to be developed. It is a document that is developed to give the exact intentions of the software under development. It shows how given software is working and how it is expected to perform. Developing a god software specification guarantees success of a project. Some of the characteristics of a good software requirement specification include correctness, consistency, completeness, ability to be modified, ability to be traced, verifiability and unambiguousness.

Click here to download Software Requirement Specification Template.

22.     System Design Document Template

A system design document is an essential document that is required in every project. The design document provides a detailed description of the design of a system to allow the development of the software to proceed. It gives an idea of what is to be built and how it is expected to be built. A system design document also defines the architectures, interface, modules and data for the system to accomplish the specified requirements. The main purpose of this document is to supplement the architecture by providing all the relevant information and useful data that is necessary for the implementation of the elements of the system.

Click here to download System Design Document Template.

23.     Test Plan Template

A test plan is a project management document that described the software testing scope and the relevant activities. It is the main point for formally testing any software of product in a given project. The approach, resources and the scheduled test activities are also included in the test document. The main purpose of the test plan is to help in determining the efforts needed to validate the quality of the given application under test. A test plan or test strategy document has various components some of which include roles and responsibilities or different parties, scope and objectives of the project, test deliverables, and communication and status reporting among others.

Click here to download Test Plan Template.

24.    Root Cause Analysis Template

This is a problem solving technique that helps the management in identifying the root cause to a given problem. A root cause analysis can be conducted by defining the problem at hand, collecting all the relevant data in relation to the problem, identifying what is causing the problem, prioritizing the causes, identifying relevant solutions, monitoring and sustaining the problem. A root cause analysis usually takes about two months to be complete. This is when the problem is defined and understood, its possible cause are laid down and appropriate solutions are given.

Click here to download Root Cause Analysis Template.

25.     Lessons Learned Report Template

This is also another important document in project management that provides guidance to other people going through the same project path. This is because an earlier analysis had been done and there are some lessons that the relevant teams learned, and how they can stick to their methodology or do better next time. The other person using this document will have an easy time going through the project.  These reports are aimed at giving out desirable outcomes for businesses in the future.

Click here to download Lessons Learned Report Template.

26.    Project Closure Report Template

This is a financial document that is used to assess the success of a project and it also officially ends a project. The main reason for having a project closure is that is shows all the successes and failures of a project. This is important because an organization can learn from previous setbacks and achieve success in the future. All the success factors can also be used in future projects to guarantee the same. A project should be closed when it has delivered all the set objectives and has followed all the guidelines set in place for goal achievement.

Click here to download Project Closure Report Template.

27.    17 Project Management PowerPoint Templates

Be original and impress your audience at your next presentation by using this clean and professional project management presentation slide templates. 

Click here to download Project Management PowerPoint Templates.

28.      8 Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Organizational Chart

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Organizational Chart for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Organizational Chart.

29.      10 Project Management Infographic Templates – Gantt Chart

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Gantt Chart for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Gantt Chart.

30.      10 Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Dashboard

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Dashboard for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Dashboard.

31.      10 Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Deliverables

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Deliverables for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Deliverables.

32.      10 Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Timeline

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Timeline for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Timeline.

33.      10 Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Life Cycle

Download free Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Life Cycle for your presentations. All templates are customizable, easy-to-edit and free for both personal & commercial use. 

Click here to download Project Management Infographic Templates – Project Life Cycle.

In conclusion, all the above project management templates are essential in ensuring the success of the project and achieving all the set objectives. In addition to that, having an idea of what to expect before starting the project so that you work with what you know. Also it is essential in ensuring that the team tasked with delivering a successful project get all the relevant information and specifications at hand. Therefore, a project management template plays a vital role in the success of a project.