Free Project Brief Templates

A project brief template is a structured document that details the purpose, goals, audience, team members, and timeframe of your proposed project. Present the project brief to the project board and other stakeholders for approval.

Given that your project has a lot riding on it, a project brief template provides a condensed framework with which you can capture your proposed project’s key elements. By providing a detailed summary, you help ensure that your project not only receives approval from project sponsors and all resources you require, but also that the stakeholders have a clear understanding of project requirements. 

In short, your project brief helps you communicate the reasons for the project, the approaches you will take, and the processes that you will use to manage the project — from start to finish — to ensure successful project execution. 

A project brief template typically includes the following components:  

• Audience: Define your project’s audience. This could be demographic information, or a list of personas that your project will address and attempt to engage. 
• Budget: Provide a breakdown of the project’s expenses and how you will fund the project (e.g., by what funding sources or departments). 
• Goals: Provide details of your project’s goals and the intended outcome(s). Use specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) criteria to adequately and accurately define the goals of the project. 
• Project Name: Enter a project title for your brief that provides a summary of your project’s key elements to your project’s stakeholders. 
• Purpose: State your project’s primary purpose (i.e., how will your project solve a problem and support your company’s mission). 
• Story: State your project’s overall message or theme, including the value of your project’s offerings. 
• Team: List your project’s leader (e.g., project manager), team members, contributors, cross-functional contributors, and other stakeholders who will work on the project. 
• Timeframe: Specify the period of time during which you will execute your project. Include any deadlines for key tasks, milestones, and due dates for project deliverables. 

Additionally, although project brief templates differ, some may include the following sections:  

• Authorized Signatures: Ask the project’s sponsors or project-board members to sign and date the project brief to authorize it, so that you and your team can commence work on your project. 
• Communication Management Plan: List all stakeholders and departments that need project-related information and details as the project progresses. Additionally, note how frequently they will be updated and the method of communication you will use (e.g., a weekly update meeting of the project roadmap). 
• Cost Baseline: Detail the cost baseline of your project, including cost categories and the duration of the project and associated costs. 
• Project Management Approach: Provide details about the project’s scope, key deliverables, WBS, stakeholder analysis, schedule baseline, milestone list, change management plan, and project scope management plan. 
• Quality Baseline: Explain the method you will use to QA the project, including any standards or tolerance-measurement methods, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs). 
• Resource Management Plan: Describe how you will manage resources (e.g., team members, equipment) for the project, so that stakeholders have a clear understanding of required resources and any logistics.  
• Risk Management Plan: Outline how you plan to identify project-related risks, analyze and prioritize them, and mitigate them so that your project stays on track. 
• Schedule Management Plan: Explain how you will develop the project schedule and what tools you will use to record and communicate the project’s schedule (and any changes) to team members and stakeholders.