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Effective project execution plan (PEP) template
Create a winning project execution plan [+template]
[PEP TEMPLATE] Your project
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Create a winning project execution plan [+template]

A free project execution plan template to track everything from the high-level project status down to individual tasks and activities.
Laila Robinson
This template was built with Coda, the all-in-one doc that brings words, data, and teams together. Play with the template below or copy the doc to save your edits.

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Task
Status
Owner
Milestones
Completion %
Est. Cost
Est. Hours
1
Launch website
In Progress
Alan Chowansky
Milestone A
000
40
$1,500
10
2
Beta test app
Not Started
Felix Marlin
Milestone A
000
45
$2,000
15
3
Give feedback
On Hold
Adam Davis
Milestone A
000
75
$1,000
25
4
Hire support staff
Overdue
Lawrence Fitzgerald
Milestone B
000
25
$500
20
5
Build test plan
Complete
Lola Tseudonym
Milestone B
000
70
$500
10
There are no rows in this table
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KPI
Unit
Status
Monthly actuals
Monthly Target
% to Target
Monthly variance
1
Quarterly sales growth
$
⬆Above target
55,000
50,000
110%
5,000
2
Quarterly sales/new customers
%
⬇ Below target
11
15
73%
-4
3
Quarterly new leads/prospects
#
❓ Unknown
150
250
60%
-100
4
Number of qualified leads
#
⬆Above target
300
175
171%
125
There are no rows in this table
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We’re big fans of helping people get organized and stay organized in project management. It’s not just because we love templates (although we do), but also because a little organization and planning can really help project managers like you crush the projects you’re working on.
Good plans keep you on track, focused on the important details, and push working towards the goal of a successful project, however, that is designed. Included in these documents and plans that you’ve put together should be the ever-important project execution plan.

What is a project execution plan (PEP)?

A project execution plan (PEP) is a management plan document that contains the details for executing, monitoring, and controlling your projects. This document lets you define the objects, scope, KPIs, and resources needed to successfully complete the project, including
risk management plans
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to help mitigate any issues that come up along the way.
The PEP is basically a roadmap for your project that also includes directions, where to stop for gas, and who should be riding shotgun as you move through the project.

What is included in Coda's project execution plan template?

Our project execution plan template includes a space for all the information you’re going to need to capture to run a successful project. This template gives you a way to break out of trying to manage your entire project in Excel and helps you organize your information in a more user-friendly way.
If you’re seeing things that you don’t need for most of the projects that you’re running or if something seems to be missing, it’s okay. You can customize this template to suit the exact way that you work and add (or remove) spaces for the kinds of information that you typically need for your project execution strategy.

Project overview and project scope

Always start your PEP with a project overview (including the project name). You’re doing this because it helps your project team get a quick sense of what’s going to happen over the course of the project and, along with that, what the scope is going to look like. The PEP is kind of a living document, so these may change (and we have a
change management template
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and
change order form template
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to help with that), so be ready to adapt this as necessary. But, for the most part, the general information here will remain constant.

Project objectives and KPIs

Once you’ve covered the overview, move on to project goals and what needs to happen for this project to be considered successful. Define KPIs, the metrics you’re using to measure them, and objectives as clearly as possible to help you and your team move towards those goals. If you need to, you can even attach specific project deliverables to each KPI to increase awareness around what needs to happen.

Project resource allocation

Make sure you define what resources you have available throughout the project. This includes what team members you’ll be working with, what tools you’ll have during the engagement, and anything else relevant. For example, if you’re bringing in subcontractors, like an outside design team to help with the project launch, include them and how they’re able to help during the project.

Communication plan

Communication plans are critical during projects. Not only is it important to make sure that everybody can reach people when they need to, but you’re also letting the team know how often to check-in, what the best method of communication is for each member of the team, and what expectations are around communication.
You should try to take this one step further and include a communication plan for project stakeholders as well. This information can usually be found in the
stakeholder register
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, but the more visible it is, the better.

Project schedule, activities, and milestones

Always include a detailed schedule, a list of expected activities, and key project
milestones
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in your PEP. This helps keep everyone on your team on track (including yourself) by showing them where they should be in the project at any given time. And, it allows you to show your team what the important moments are (the milestones) and when they should be reached.

Budget and project costs

This may be lower on our list, but budgets aren’t a lower importance detail. Providing your team with a detailed
project budget
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helps you keep costs in check and helps you deliver the project without spending too much. Include cost estimates and cost management strategies here as well.

Roles

Make sure you clearly define who’s doing what in your PEP (for this step, we recommend using our
team charter template
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that will help you to clearly outline each team member’s responsibility). This keeps people in their own lane and focused on the tasks they do best. And it eliminates confusion when there are people with the same skills or related skills on your project. It lets them know which aspect of the project they’re supposed to focus on.

👉 Get started with this project execution plan template.
Copy this template
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How to create a project execution plan in Coda

Step 1: Input high-level data about project

On the
[PEP TEMPLATE] Your project
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page, you’ll see all the pertinent sections to fill out for your project execution plan template. The first things you should fill out include the project summary, scope, and other high-level information about the project. As you scroll down through the page, you’ll see some default values in the dropdowns (like in the
Communication Plan
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table). All of these defaults are defined in the
Admin
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. You can completely delete these default values and customize them for your own project and team.

Step 2: Add tasks and milestones to the work breakdown structure

You will add all the important activities, tasks, and costs for your project under the “Work Breakdown Structure” heading on the
[PEP TEMPLATE] Your project
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page. Unlike Excel, the
Tasks
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table has multiple column types to make tracking and monitoring your project easier to do. A slider column lets you and your teammates quickly show the completion % of a task.
You’ll notice the
Milestones
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table is right below the
Tasks
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table. That’s because all the default values in the Milestone column in the
Tasks
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table are defined in the
Milestones
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table. Customize these milestones to fit the needs of your project.

Step 3: View overall project status

The
Timeline view
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gives you a different view of your project. This page is kind of like a dashboard for your project. See the average completion percentage for your milestones as well as your tasks. These charts dynamically change based on what you’ve entered in the
Tasks
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and
Milestones
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tables, respectively. There are many more charts you could add to visualize your project status. These two charts are simply examples of what you can do in this project execution plan template.

Project execution plan template FAQs

What is an execution plan in project management?

An execution plan is a document that defines how your project is going to be run. It includes details about project roles and responsibilities, what the major milestones are, and notes around objectives and KPIs.
The goal is to provide all your project team members with all the important information about what the project lifecycle is going to look like.

What are examples of project execution plans?

It’s always hard to find good examples of project documents, but we’ve managed to dig up good examples. You’ll notice how both examples start with a table of contents to help you find specific pieces of information. The US department of energy has some solid examples
here
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. And, there is another good example
here
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, as well.

What is the difference between a project execution plan and a project charter?

The difference between a project execution plan and a project charter is mostly that the project charter is a shorter document that contains high-level information about the project. The
project charter template
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includes some similar information around details like objectives, scope of work, and team, but it’s not nearly as in-depth as the execution plan.
Along with length, the PEP also dives into what the execution will look like. As an example, the project charter might mention the milestones, but the PEP will tell you when it should happen, how your team will get there, the work breakdown structure (WBS), who’s responsible for making it happen, and what is supposed to happen next.

What are some of the steps in writing a project execution plan?

As you saw in the examples, project execution plans can be pretty daunting documents. They contain a lot of information to help make the project successful. As daunting as it is, though, you can break down the creation process pretty nicely.
Gather information. The first thing you’ll need to do is gather up all the information you need to include in your PEP. You’re probably going to have a lot of it already organized into templates, which is great. You can mine those for the information you need. Your template should walk you through the exact pieces of info you need for each step.
Arrange information. Once you’ve gathered everything you need, organize it into a logical flow for the project. If you’re not new to running projects, you’ll likely already have a good sense of logical order for everything. However, if you are new, look at past projects. They’ll give you a good idea of how things should be organized.
Input information. Now that you’ve got everything figured out, drop it into your template.
Review. Revisit the document at least once during the course of the project to check on how well everything is flowing. And, make sure that you review the document at the end and compare how it went to how it was planned out. You’ll probably find there are areas where you needed more information, areas where you needed less, and points where you didn’t plan things properly and there was some room for improvement.
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Start with:
[PEP TEMPLATE] Your project
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