Outsourcing Project Plan
This is a practical guide to building a project plan for an outsourcing project — the integrated document that defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, adapted to the realities of outsourcing a function to an external provider.
What a Project Plan is
A project plan is the integrated document that defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Plan. On an outsourcing project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an Outsourcing project
Outsourcing projects live or die on outsourcing a function to an external provider. A well-built project plan gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how outsourcing projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Scope and deliverables
- Schedule and milestones
- Budget
- Roles and responsibilities
- Risk and communication approach
Outsourcing-specific considerations
Tailor the project plan to the risks that most often derail outsourcing projects:
- Knowledge transfer
- Service-level definition
- People impact
Example
On a real outsourcing project, the project plan would be shaped by outsourcing a function to an external provider. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — knowledge transfer, service-level definition, people impact — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.