Successful project delivery requires an adequate level of control and documentation to describe the plans in place, provide information and report on the outcomes.
Successful project delivery requires an adequate level of control and documentation to describe the plans in place, provide information and report on the outcomes.
The ACU Project Management Model specifies documentation which every project is expected to develop. When it benefits the project and provides a higher degree of control over it, additional templates can also be used to complement the information, as best suits each project and stakeholders. Where needed, templates can be amended to provide a higher degree of information about or control over a project.
Where a standard template or tool is available, the document name links to the respective file. If additional templates are required, please contact any of the fulltime Project Managers in Corporate Services for assistance.
The following key documents are produces during the project lifecycle. Refer to the Templates section below for a more detailed view based on the project category.
| Phase | Key documents |
|---|---|
| Initiate | Proposal for Business Change, Project financial model, project assessment.Project Business Case (selected projects). Project Gating Checklist. |
| Plan | Project Initiation Document (PID), Project schedule.Additional plans or material, as needed. |
| Implement | Project Status Report (PSR). Project Change Request and other documents, as needed. |
| Close | Post-Implementation Review Report (PIR) or End-project communications (for simple projects). Other documents, as needed. |
| Benefits realisation | Benefit Realisation Report, Business Change Report. |
The table below lists the mandatory documents for each project category and whether they are mandatory (M) or recommended (R) in that project category. Links to templates are provided when each is required for the first time.
Please note: The Properties & Facilities Directorate may use their own templates due to the nature of development projects. The IT Directorate has additional templates for details used in projects involving technology.
| Document | Purpose | Simple | Medium | Complex |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACU Project Governance - Terms of Reference | Describes the roles and responsibilities of the Project Board or Steering Committee, and outlines the Terms of Reference (ToR) | M | M | |
| Benefit Map | Outlines and visualises what the change will include and the benefit of it. | R | M | M |
| Benefit Realisation Plan | List the benefits and identify the measures, current level (baseline), future target values, actions required, and actual results achieved. | R | M | |
| Benefit Realisation Report | Report on the success of benefits realisation. | R | M | |
| Business Change Plan | Outline the business change and identify who is impacted and how, and how the project will approach the impacts to staff and students (what action, by whom, when, how). | R | M | |
| Business Change Report | Report on the success of business change. | R | M | |
| Communications Plan | Define how the project communicates with its stakeholders and other parties. | R | M | |
| End-project communications | Communication that is shared to the stakeholders at the closure of the project to note the end of it. [No specific template provided.] | M | ||
| Post-Implementation Review Report (PIR) | Review the project at completion to ensure that the project has met its objectives and the outputs meet the requirements of users and stakeholders. The success of output benefits is reported here. | R | M | M |
| Project Business Case | Detail the justification for the need or opportunity to proceed into a project. Use to gain approval for the project. A guide for developing a business case is available here. | M | M | |
| Project Change Request | Defines a change or variation after the initial or latest baselined scope, schedule or budget sign-off. | R | M | M |
| Project Controls Workbook | A register for capturing risks, issues, project changes, and lessons, their ratings and actions. Selected complex projects maintain them in a PPM System. | R | M | M |
| Project financial model | Captures the estimated financial benefits and costs of the project. | M | M | M |
| Project Gating Checklist | Provides quality checkpoints to confirm the project is managed and delivered well. The first check is done before a Proposal is submitted. | M | M | M |
| Project Initiation Document (PID) | Presents the key information needed to start a project on a sound basis and to convey that information to the project stakeholders. | M | M | |
| Project schedule | Helps with managing the work and reporting on the progress. The schedule is maintained in a simple workbook for simple projects or in a Microsoft Project scheduling file for other projects. | M | M | M |
| Project Status Report (PSR) | Report for providing regular status updates. Projects outside of the PPM System use this template at a frequency agreed with the Executive Sponsor. | M | M | M |
| Proposal for Business Change | Summarises the need and outlines the improvements sought. Use to gain acceptance and prioritisation of a change. | M | M | M |
| Quality Management Plan | Define how the project will assure the quality of its outputs, i.e. fulfil the quality expectations set to it. Some projects may also have more detailed Test Plans. | M | ||
| Risk Management Plan | Define how the project will identify and manage risks. | M | ||
| Stakeholder matrix | Analyse stakeholders and their interest and impact to the project. This is included in the Communications Plan. | R | R | R |
| Test Report | Define the quality outcomes and test results. Done as specified in the Test Plan. | R | M |
| Document | Purpose | Simple | Medium | Complex |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Requirements Definition (BRD) | A collection of business, functional and technical requirements for the project deliverables. | R | M | M |
| Implementation Plan | Define how the outputs are taken into on-going operational use: operational readiness, Go-Live, handover, and a rollback plan. | R | M | |
| Project Delivery Acceptance Certificate | Confirm that the expectations for the project have been met and the PM has completed the respective delivery. | R | R | M |
In IT projects, you may also come across some of the IT-specific templates.
Agile projects have additional templates to support the agile way of working on business systems.
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