{"id":3677,"date":"2018-02-26T11:15:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T16:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/?page_id=3677"},"modified":"2026-03-12T16:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:15:59","slug":"project-plan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/project-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11124\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 243px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11124\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"233\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle-768x770.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle-600x601.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/QI-Project-Life-Cycle.png 970w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Figure 1. This graphic outlines the key stages of a QI project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Project planning defines the goal(s), timeline, tasks, resources and strategy for executing a project. It outlines what needs to be done, when they need to be done, and by whom. Another key aspect of project planning particularly in quality improvement is considering the project life cycle (shown on the right). General QI project cycle phases include understanding and defining your project\u2019s problem; analyzing your process and approach to address the problem; testing your change ideas to drive improvement; implementing your ideas that worked well; and sustaining your change that led to improvement. The IHQI resource center pages are organized based on the five stages.<\/p>\n<h2>Key Steps<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Review your project goal, project scope, resources, and needed roles and responsibilities.<\/li>\n<li>Develop a project schedule outlining specific phases of the project and target dates for completion. A Gantt chart is a common tool to use.<\/li>\n<li>Assign tasks to team members and ensure understanding of expectations and deadlines.<\/li>\n<li>Track your team\u2019s progress and adjust project metrics and deadlines as needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Resources to Get Started<\/h2>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse;width: 97.564%;height: 118px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 23px\">\n<td style=\"width: 7.60678%;height: 10px;text-align: center\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8065\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-1536x1536.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-2048x2048.png 2048w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2022\/01\/Icon-Use-2-600x600.png 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Use<\/strong><\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 93.2057%;height: 10px\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/05\/Gantt_Chart_Template.xlsx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gantt Chart<\/a> \u2013 This tool provides a visual timeline for key tasks in a project.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2024\/10\/Improvement-Project-Charter-Template-Website.docx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IHQI Project Charter<\/a>\u2013 This document is a project charter template that we use here at the Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement (IHQI). This template includes traditional components as well as program specific elements like equity and sustainment.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/463\/2025\/03\/IC-Simple-RACI-Matrix-11452.xlsx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RACI Chart<\/a>\u2013 This tool helps clarify who does what by mapping responsibilities, tasks, or deliverables to specific roles and can be especially useful for cross-functional teams and projects that involve multiple departments. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed and are the categories used to classify each stakeholder.\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>Related QI Concepts<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/communication-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Communication Plan<\/a> \u2013 Effective communication is key when planning a project and will drive the work.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/data-collection-planning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Data Collection Planning<\/a>\u2013 \u00a0Your data collection plan can help track the impact of your improvement work and can also help with your planning process for your project.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/project-charter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Project Charter<\/a> \u2013 The project charter serves as a guiding document that helps set expectations early on and provides a shared reference point for the team when planning out a project.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/project-team-composition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Project Team Composition<\/a> \u2013 A key component of a project plan is considering your team and who is responsible for specific tasks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project planning defines the goal(s), timeline, tasks, resources and strategy for executing a project. It outlines what needs to be done, when they need to be done, and by whom. Another key aspect of project planning particularly in quality improvement is considering the project life cycle (shown on the right). General QI project cycle phases &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/project-plan\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Project Planning\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80925,"featured_media":0,"parent":210,"menu_order":60,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-3677","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Project Planning - Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ihqi\/resources\/project-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Project Planning - Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Project planning defines the goal(s), timeline, tasks, resources and strategy for executing a project. 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