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Not sure what essential project documents you may need in order to ensure your projects are successful? Well, tune in, because in this video, I'm going to give you my top five essential project documents that I use all the time that are just going to make your project sing. Before we get into project documentation, I'm going to be sharing with you at the end of this video how to get your hands on something really, well, not really, it is brand new, six basics on how to ensure your projects don't fail, so stay tuned for that. Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is Adriana Girdler and you have landed on the best practical project management channel out there in YouTube world. My personal opinion. So we would be grateful if you would like this video, subscribe so it grows our community. Now on that note, let's get to those five project document essentials. Project Charter. Now, this is the most essential project document that you need to have in all of your projects, particularly at the beginning because it sets the tone for you and your team. Why? Because it has all of the critical information you need to give to your team in order for them to be successful. Like the background justification, the scope template, what's in and out, big milestones, risks, assumptions, rules and responsibility and so much more. In fact, if you're interested, you go to the YouTube search bar, put in Adriana Girdler charter and there is so much more information I have for you specifically on this topic, but it is something that, again, from a project essential, for project documentation, the charter is a must, must, must. Scope Statement. Now, this is a really essential project document because it gives you what it is that you're doing. At the very beginning of the project, when you get your marching orders that you're now the project manager of project ABC, in the ideal world, the senior executives or your project sponsor are supposed to give you the scope statement. They're supposed to say here's what I want you to do and here's how I want you to do it. Here are the ins and outs, and it's supposed to be very robust, but let's be honest, it doesn't really happen. So why is this so essential? Because now you, as a project manager, have to get that information. You're going to need it anyway, because as I said in my first project essential document charter, you have to populate that scope statement and transfer it into the charter because everyone really needs to know and be very clear with what is it that they're doing, what's in and out and any other high level expectations. The Project Plan. Okay, you're probably saying thank goodness, Adriana. You actually said this is an essential document. Absolutely. The project plan is laying out all of the tasks that you need to do in order to achieve the scope statement and the deliverable and everything that you laid out in that charter. So this is your action plan, the project plan, so that everyone really knows what they have to do from start to finish, ultimately to get that deliverable that your project is supposed to be doing. Project plans can exist in many types of documents. We see them all the time in spreadsheets using Excel or Sheets. You can use them in a document like Word or Docs as well as there is project planning software if you prefer that. Again, it's going to be your choice, but you need to ensure that everyone has access to that particular software if you're going to use a project software in order to create your project plan. It's also very interesting too because you really want to ensure that you look over all of everything that you're supposed to be doing from a work breakdown structure perspective. Now, if you go to the YouTube search bar, Adriana Girdler work breakdown structure, I actually have a video on how to create and really create the buckets that you need of action tasks so that you can get all of this detail from start to finish of your project plan. So definitely take a look at that and a very important essential document. In fact, how do you know what you're going to do if you don't have a plan? And now the next thing I would love if you do is hit that Like button, subscribe, because it tells YouTube we're doing a really good job. Now another essential project documentation is the communication plan, and this sometimes can get missed, 'cause I'm going to talk just about the communication plan that you're going to do to your end users who are going to be receiving your deliverable. I'm talking about the project communication plan. This is the plan that you're are going to use as a project manager, as a project lead, as to how are you going to talk to your sponsors, senior executives? How is your team going to communicate other stakeholders? Really, how are you going to assure that everyone is aware of what's going on and that they get the right pieces of information? 'Cause we all know if you don't have a strong communication plan, what happens? People start assuming, they start making up their own ideas as to what's going on in your project, and that is- You actually don't want that. That creates a lot of work. So the key here is to have a communication plan for your project itself and how you're going to educate all the stakeholders, not just for the end user, but for those that are within your project as well. Lessons Learned Document, or as I like to say, AKA, after action review, or here's another acronym, AAR. Okay, so why is this such an essential project document? As your project progresses, whether it's at the beginning, middle or end, you are always going to have things that come up. You're going to have these milestones that you've all been working towards and you've achieved, and you want to do a lessons learned. You want to have an understanding as to what went well, what didn't go well, what do we have to improve upon when we go into the next phase of this project? It's valuable and the beauty of a lessons learned, if you do it properly, is it is going to take away emotional charge because you're looking at the facts. You're not looking at personality or people, per se, but at the deliverable, and it really ensures that everyone understands, hey, here's what we did. Did we like it, did it work, and if so, what are we going to change and what are we going to keep? Very valuable and really helps evolve your project so it just gets better and better. Now that you know what project documents are essential for you and your project, guess what? I have this for you. It's brand new, we're so excited. I'm so excited to be launching this to you and it's free. You can get the link underneath this video. So if your projects are struggling, then this is going to give you six basics to ensure that you're successful. Check it out.