How to Create the Perfect Project Timeline [Template + Examples]

Making a challenge timeline the place everybody concerned is aware of what they‘re engaged on (and when it’s due) might help chase away challenge creep and nail these necessary deadlines.

It is important for preserving initiatives — and the individuals finishing them — on observe.

As a caretaker, I’ve challenge timelines working invisibly in my thoughts always, and most households could be a sizzling mess with out somebody within the managerial position.

The smoothest method for everybody to succeed regardless of the chaos is to have a hand on the wheel and a watch on the timeline. All of it sounds very TVA, and albeit, that’s how steel it’s to folks.

That can assist you be sure that your subsequent skilled challenge stays on schedule, I will cowl the challenge administration fundamentals of arrange a challenge timeline, the perfect templates to make use of, and a handful of examples to encourage your future scheduling.

And sure — you’ll be able to completely apply these expertise and sources to life admin, too.

Desk of Contents

What’s a challenge timeline?

Merely put, a challenge timeline is a visible show that tracks the completion of assorted steps in a challenge over time.

It’s a meta-view of all duties concerned in an final result, enabling a challenge supervisor to raised direct the people who find themselves answerable for the steps concerned — in addition to report the challenge’s standing to stakeholders.

After assigning duties, it’d be fantastic in the event that they bought achieved on time and with no points, arriving on or earlier than the agreed-upon supply date, proper?

However everyone knows how rapidly a timeline can crumble as larger priorities pop up and deadlines slip previous with out a lot progress.

And I’ve seen first hand that initiatives can fail for a lot of causes up the chain of command as properly, together with an absence of help from management, unexpected funds cuts, or overpromising outcomes.

Lower than excellent outcomes are nonetheless pretty frequent even while you do put money into challenge administration.

Whereas 59% of formally managed initiatives are accomplished on time — which is a superb statistic that expert and intentional challenge managers will be happy with — this nonetheless signifies that 41% don’t.

Why create a challenge timeline?

Time administration is among the high expertise employers search for in candidates up and down the org chart. Missed deadlines and rushed initiatives can set total groups — and generally total firms — delayed.

I don’t wish to be that particular person, and I do know you don’t, both. However there’ll at all times be individuals on groups that want help to stay the touchdown on expectations that have an effect on the bigger challenge.

A well-built challenge timeline is way more than a pleasant visible to reassure the stakeholders, and listed here are just some the explanation why you need to create one. It’s a residing, altering, and practical course of overview that may:

• Carry management and construction to a challenge.
• Define what’s being delivered and by when.
• Share who’s answerable for every activity and set expectations for the scope, high quality, and supply of labor.
• Present how the challenge final result contributes to firm objectives.
• Lower danger by accounting for any adjustments to the challenge scope, funds, deliverables, or deadlines.

In the end, a challenge timeline makes it each simpler and extra environment friendly to handle a challenge — significantly while you select a timeline construction that’s well-fit to the challenge’s scope.

That is the place a challenge timeline template might help you progress ahead.

Mission Timeline Template

The best timeline brings course to a challenge, but is well adaptable when adjustments come up.

With out the correct challenge timeline template, organizing a challenge will be quite a lot of time-consuming handbook work — to not point out the formatting chaos as soon as a number of individuals get their fingers on it. Woof.

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I prefer to create a challenge timeline for any course of that depends on a schedule (nearly every part nowadays), like onboarding staff, dealing with a disaster, or planning social media campaigns.

All you have to know is define the steps of a challenge and the duties required to finish every part. Let’s do it!

Create a Mission Timeline

Crafting the right challenge timeline takes technique, organizational expertise, and a complete lot of collaboration. You want buy-in from supporters and clear directives for everybody concerned.

To get began, I really useful following this step-by-step information to arrange a structured timeline — regardless of your job, business, or administration degree.

1. Write a challenge transient.

A challenge transient communicates how you’ll strategy a challenge. It contains particulars on the objectives, deliverables, timeline, duties, course of, individuals concerned, and sources wanted to take a challenge from begin to end.

Asana outlined the steps to create a easy, but efficient, challenge transient. You should utilize this free challenge plan template to stipulate the challenge’s objectives, roles, and obligations. You may then plan your schedules, deliverables, funds, and extra.

Picture Supply

Professional tip: Whereas this useful resource is a good start line for any planning course of, when you want a extra complete overview that features key messaging and distribution processes, a artistic transient will be the proper match on your challenge.

2. Checklist all duties and motion objects.

Each activity concerned in reaching a challenge’s goals wants to enter the challenge timeline. After creating the transient, make a listing of those duties. You can begin with massive duties and break them down into smaller to-dos.

Let‘s say you’re answerable for making a advertising video to launch your organization’s latest product. Your checklist might embrace the next:

• Set up challenge leads from every division.
• Set challenge funds.
• Discover a video manufacturing firm.
• Format the video storyboard.
• Select most important options for video.
• Write video script.
• Seize video content material.
• Add in sound and background music.
• Add animations and graphics.
• Edit video.
• Write announcement copy.
• Craft advertising marketing campaign.
• Create clips for social sharing.
• Get video and advertising property permitted.

As soon as I’ve the foremost milestones down, I then like to interrupt down every activity into smaller items. For instance, selecting a video manufacturing firm can contain:

• Analysis video manufacturing firms.
• Curate a listing of manufacturing firms.
• Get quotes from every manufacturing firm.
• Examine quotes and slim down choices.
• Meet with the chosen firms.
• Select a manufacturing firm.
• Finalize the contract.

3. Join dependencies.

In a challenge, sure duties can‘t be began till one other is full. These duties are referred to as dependencies. For instance, a video can’t be filmed till the storyboard is finalized. And the storyboard cannot be finalized till the video theme is chosen.

Mapping out dependencies helps you solidify the order of every activity and determine who’s answerable for what. Everybody will know what a part of the challenge they’re engaged on, which duties have to be accomplished earlier than their very own, and who to contact for the deliverables they want.

This is a take a look at how dependencies can play out in a challenge timeline.

Picture Supply

Within the instance, you’ll be able to see that hiring a caterer has to occur earlier than finalizing the lunch menu. However different duties, like discovering a DJ and deciding on an occasion theme, can occur on the similar time. So, as you map out every activity, you will should see which steps can overlap and which want to attend for others.

4. Estimate the time it’ll take to finish every activity.

As soon as you determine the sequence of duties, you have to determine how a lot time every will take. With out direct expertise and/or figuring out your group members, this may be the trickiest half, however attempt to not break your brains on it. Simply estimate as carefully as you’ll be able to so that you’re not shedding an excessive amount of time making an attempt to inform the longer term.

A part of this psychological math contains contemplating the opposite initiatives and priorities your group has occurring. A designer could possibly give you a tough draft of video animations in a single week, but when they’re wrapping up one other challenge, they could not be capable to begin on yours for one other two weeks.

Being aware of your group‘s time will make it simpler to place collectively an affordable, dependable timeline. It’ll be simpler to create the challenge roadmap and perceive the challenge’s general time-frame as soon as you set collectively all of those estimations.

5. Create the challenge timeline.

Construct your timeline by organizing your duties from the primary to the ultimate step.

Make any mandatory changes to the duty instances, add milestones, and solidify the deadline. In case your group works with a timeline maker or challenge administration software program, manage the timeline and duties so it is able to share after the challenge kickoff assembly.

Professional tip: It can save you time throughout this step by utilizing one of many challenge timeline templates beneath. It is easy to customise every and keep away from the additional work of making your personal from scratch.

6. Share the timeline with the challenge group.

Whew! Your timeline is full. Subsequent, you get to share it with stakeholders. This contains everybody who’s concerned within the challenge.

You‘ve already listed these individuals in your transient (throughout the 1st step), so it’s time to share your challenge’s path ahead with them.

It is a good suggestion to carry a challenge kickoff assembly for each stakeholders and particular person contributors so everybody begins on the identical web page.

You may talk the challenge objectives, deliverables, roles, and deadlines — with out going into an amazing quantity of element.

From there, you‘ll wish to schedule time with the challenge’s rapid contributors to speak specifics and reply any questions earlier than the work begins.

Need assistance visualizing your entire challenge? I like to recommend together with a timeline graphic just like the one beneath to offer everybody a way of the general time-frame. You may add or take away steps, relying on the complexity of your challenge.

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7. Adapt as you go.

Bear in mind how simply over half of initiatives are completed on time? Roadblocks and setbacks are inevitable in each challenge. So, in case your group runs right into a delay, you will have to grasp the impression and modify the timeline if mandatory.

Whereas it‘s doable to make up for delays with out altering the ultimate deadline, it’s your job because the challenge proprietor to replace stakeholders on the challenge‘s progress.

Reporting a minor difficulty like a coworker being out sick for a couple of days isn’t at all times mandatory for higher-ups.

But when it is a main roadblock that requires an excessive adjustment to the timeline — like a core contributor leaving the group — you need to talk a brand new timeline to stakeholders.

Change is a part of each course of, so don‘t panic if you need to modify your timeline.

It’s higher to be clear in regards to the scope of labor and timeline than to maintain individuals at nighttime, hoping it’ll work out. The sooner you modify to vary, the extra time you need to pivot — and the better it is going to be to get again on observe.

Mission Timeline Examples

Visualizing a challenge makes it easy to grasp what must occur from begin to end.

Whether or not you want a template for a product launch or marketing campaign assembly, these well-designed challenge timeline templates I’ve gathered as much as present you might be good on your subsequent planning session.

Worker Onboarding Timeline

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This vertical timeline provides a option to plan and observe your new rent’s journey as they ramp up. As you get to know them and discover the place they want help, you may make changes to the timeline to extra precisely chart their progress, put together the sources they’ll want, and many others.

Professional tip: Onboarding is necessary and deserves deep planning. Many professionals get their first actual introduction to an organization by way of the onboarding course of, so that you need it to go easily with all doable helps able to throw within the ring.

You’ll maintain your group complete and happier for longer in the event that they know they’re being led with competency from the very begin.

Product Launch Timeline

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This horizontal product launch timeline might help you see the overlap of processes as time strikes ahead like a river. This provides group members an concept of when their cohort might want to lean in because the challenge strikes alongside.

Finest for: This is a superb communication car for oversight functions. This isn’t getting slowed down with particulars — it’s a roadmap for stakeholders to grasp the general stream, their locations in it, and the way they’ll contribute.

Disaster Response Mission Timeline

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It’s okay to hope for the perfect in any administration position, however it’s typically your job to plan for the worst. One of the simplest ways to deal with an issue is to anticipate it and talk upfront of it, which this disaster response timeline does superbly.

What I like: The essential Regrouping step on the finish. One of the best challenge managers I’ve ever labored with be sure that the final steps embrace studying from the disaster outcomes to enhance the plan for when — not if — it occurs once more.

Historic Timeline

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Historic timelines like these are acquainted from faculty initiatives, however as professionals, they’re glorious to have readily available on your firm for a wide range of causes. You could have firm representatives to coach, guests to impress, or potential buyers who wish to see proof of progress and growth over time.

Finest for: Instructional functions.

Job Mission Timeline

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Job timelines are nice for getting individuals shifting with out having to personally direct them.

Sending these as an e-mail attachment can prevent heaps of communication time, get individuals the place they must be on the proper time, and direct people to what they must be doing when it must be achieved.

Professional tip: Constructing a picture of a timeline is nice for a psychological understanding of the entire time frame, and it units expectations. To truly get individuals the place they must be for every step, I’ve personally discovered that it helps to create and share a calendar with alerts inbuilt.

Assembly Mission Timeline

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I like a great assembly timeline. These talk the who, what, and when your group members must know with the intention to navigate the day and perceive the general goal of the assembly block.

They are often made much more helpful by offering hyperlinks to the bios of the presenters, offering the speaking factors for every assembly upfront, and dispersing the hyperlinks and passwords for any digital assembly areas.

What I like: As a neurospicy introvert that should handle my social vitality, my expertise has taught me that assembly timelines are significantly worthwhile. I wish to know who I’ll be listening to, what sort of vitality to anticipate/could also be anticipated from me, and when to roust myself from gremlin work mode to public social mode.

Gantt Chart Instance

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A Gantt chart takes the timeline challenge examples above and hoists them to the subsequent degree. It takes all of the wild threads of exercise and creates a tapestry of time and duties.

You may seize a substantial amount of granularity in a Gantt chart and talk a ton of data without delay.

You might must work together with your group members on learn it and benefit from the knowledge with out being overwhelmed by it.

Finest for: Mission Managers who need professional-grade instruments to deal with large-scale initiatives.

Use Mission Timelines to Keep on Schedule

In the event you’re not precisely positive what you want but and need as many templates as you may get your fingers on, obtain all of those challenge timelines (and extra) at no cost. With the correct timelines in hand, it is simple to maintain everybody updated and knowledgeable.

Now all you need to do is be sure your initiatives keep on schedule. Better of luck on the market, buddies!

Editor’s word: This submit was initially printed in September 2021 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.