In modern project management, there are many discrepancies in the interpretations of the project management deliverables, which are often confused with project deliverables, objectives and milestones. In this article, we’ll review the definition of a project management deliverables and take a look at the key deliverables for each stage of project management.
Definition of Deliverable in Project Management
Deliverables refer to the verifiable products or results required to finish a project or complete one of its stages. To give you a better understanding of the term, let’s review the difference between project deliverables and project management deliverables – the two terms that are often confused.
Project deliverables are results of the project or one of its stages that are typically agreed upon during the project planning stage and documented in a project management plan.
Project management deliverables are plans, logs and documents that follow every project management phase from project initiation to closure and allow to allocate resources, define the course of action, review the risks and take other measures to ensure project success.
Key Deliverables in Project Management
Here are some examples of deliverables for each project management stage.
Kick-Off Meeting
Kick-off meeting is the first meeting between the stakeholders: the project manager, the client, and the team. It takes place after the contracts have been signed and its sides have agreed upon the work, the budget and the timelines. The purpose of the kick-off meeting is to make sure that everyone is on the same page: the stakeholder is aware of the key milestones and what needs to be done to get to them, while the team gets introduced into the project requirements and individual responsibilities.
Project Plan
Project plan is one of the key project management deliverables that ensures all stakeholders share the same vision of the project. Project plan maps out steps and resources necessary for project success, which usually covers scope management, quality management, risk assessment, resource management, stakeholder management, schedule management and change management plans.
Communications Plan
In project management, a communications plan is an outline of how you’re going to communicate the right information to the right project stakeholders. Communications plan defines who should get which notification, the update frequency, the communication channels and who is responsible for each of them.
Meeting Notes
Meeting notes is a tiny but powerful project management delivery that outlines the key points of the meeting. These notes usually contain follow-ups, next action steps, links to the mentioned documents and are sent out shortly after the meeting.
Performance Reports
Performance reports can be built at any project stage to evaluate team productivity, identify bottlenecks, review project costs and more. Typically, project managers use time tracking systems to assign tasks, manage time, calculate costs and review project progress. Performance reports are essential project management deliverables that give insight into the project progress and allow to reach higher productivity.
Reports dashboard in actiTIME – set up real-time data widgets
and add report shortcuts for quick access
How to Use Deliverables in Project Management?
Project management deliverables refer to the plans and documents that regulate the development of the project and ensure smooth communication with stakeholders. There are many types of deliverables and the bigger your project, the more its success relies on them. The good news is that nowadays you can utilize time and project management systems that require you to assign and track the data while providing you with all the analytics and calculations, like actiTIME.
Online timesheet interface in actiTIME where every user can select task parameters
they want to see in their timesheets
Consider starting a free 30-day trial to experience all the benefits of an automated system that gives you an overview of the project and builds project management deliverables in a few clicks.
