Whether you’re starting to work on a project plan or need to explain the project in broad terms to your stakeholders, you need a project brief to define all the main points. It’s the best way to inform and communicate the project summary.
Get a head start on your project brief by downloading our free project brief template—all you’ll need to do is fill in the details.
What Is a Project Brief Template?
A project brief outlines the approach and process of a project. It summarizes the main parts of a project, including whatever requirements there are. As the name implies, the document is meant to be brief! This is not the place to dive deep into the finer details.
Instead, the project brief is where the major kinks are worked out. Here, you’ll determine the objectives, goals, scope, major deliverables, milestones, process and resources. By laying this out, you ensure that everyone is on the same page for the more complex project plan.
The project brief can be seen as a summary of your project plan. It will talk about roughly the same elements, only in an abbreviated form. For example, the project plan will go into the budget, the communication plan and much more. The project brief tends to focus solely on the objective, schedule and scope, although it can include the target audience as well.
Why Do You Need a Project Brief Template?
You need to use a project brief to capture the main elements of your project and communicate them to the project team and stakeholders. Through clear communication, your project will run smoothly.
The project brief also lays the groundwork for the larger project plan. By getting the broad strokes down and defining the project from a high-level view, planning is easier because you have a clear sense of the direction it needs to take.
Using our project brief template helps you make sure you don’t overlook any important details as you define the end goal of the project. This template will sketch out details such as the client, project objectives and details. All of which is key to managing a successful project.
The project brief template sketches the broad strokes, but to get the full picture and better communicate the plan to your team and stakeholders, project management software is required. ProjectManager builds your project scope into a schedule. Our Gantt chart does more than populate a project timeline, it automatically calculates your critical path then saves the plan to use as a ruler to measure your actual progress during execution. Create your budget by adding planned resource costs, which can also be compared to actual costs once the project begins. Our tool turns your proposal into a successful project.
Who Uses a Project Brief Template?
The project brief is used by the project manager to inform the project stakeholder and the project team about the main goal of the project. It is prepared by the project manager and then reviewed by those who use it, including suppliers.
The final project brief is approved by the organization’s executives. It’s all part of the initiation phase of a project, but is often referred to throughout the life cycle of the project. In a sense, it’s used by everyone in the project as a compass to make sure they’re all heading in the right direction.
How to Use Our Free Project Brief Template
Just follow these steps and you’ll have this project brief template ready to share with stakeholders and your team in no time.
Project Name and Date
The project name and date that the brief was made are located on the top right-hand side of the document. This identifies what it is and attaches it to one project, which is helpful when your organization is managing a program or portfolio. It also makes it easier to find after the project is completed; you may want to use the brief as historical data for a new, similar project.
Summary, Goals and Objectives
After that comes the meat of the project brief. It begins with the client for the project and then a summary of the project. Then, you input the goals and objectives of the project; in other words, the agreed upon outcomes and how you’re going to get there.
Constraints and Assumptions
Next, there’s a space to outline the constraints and assumptions of the project. These are the things that might limit your progress and other things you’re taking for granted that might end up surprising you. This is followed by the scope of the project, which outlines deliverables.
Target Audience and Responsible Parties
Whether you’re making a product or service, there’s a target audience and they must be defined in the project brief. Here, you can outline who they are and how the project meets a need they have. The next space is where you identify who is responsible for determining that the project is successful and by what criteria they will measure that success.
Budget and Timeline
While not a fully realized budget, there is a place for you to outline the costs associated with executing the project. There is also a timeline or schedule of events that will make up the project. This will show the duration of the project by making an accurate estimation of the time it will take between the start and the finish of the project.
How Project Manager Turns Your Brief Into a Project
ProjectManager is an award-winning project management software that organizes tasks, teams and projects. Once you have your brief approved by stakeholders and understood by the team, you have to execute it. Our cloud-based software helps you better plan, monitor and report on your project.
Once you have broken your final deliverable up into tasks that get you there, manage them on the Gantt chart. The Gantt schedules your work, lets you link dependent tasks to avoid bottlenecks and breaks down the project into phases.
High-level views of the project’s performance and progress are available on the real-time dashboard, which does all the calculations for you and displays cost, project variant, workload and more in easy to read graphs and charts. One-click filterable reports keep stakeholders updated.
Other Templates to Help With Your Project Brief
ProjectManager has dozens of free templates that assist you over the life cycle of your project. Here are a few that can help you get your project brief together.
Project Budget Template
While your project brief will not go into detail about the budget, costs are important to outline. To get a jump on the financial component of your project, use our free project budget template. It outlines the cost of your project and helps you monitor your expenditure.
Project Charter Template
Because you need to define the goals of the project when composing a brief, it can be very helpful to use our free project charter template. The project charter defines the vision of the project, it’s objective, scope and deliverables—all relevant to your project brief.
Statement of Work Template
The free statement of work template is another means to collect all the pertinent information about your project and, in turn, help you develop the project brief. It speaks to the activities, deliverables and the timetable to get all this work done.
Related Content
ProjectManager is also an online hub that publishes hundreds of blogs, tutorial videos and guidebooks on every aspect of project management. It’s a great resource for newcomers and seasoned professionals. Here are just a few of the pieces on the site that are relevant to creating a project brief.
- Project Documentation: 15 Essential Project Documents
- Project Development: Everything You Need to Get Started
- Cost Estimation for Projects: How to Estimate Accurately
ProjectManager is a cloud-based tool that helps you plan, schedule, execute, monitor and report on your project to keep it on track and within budget. Our software gives you the features you need to turn your project brief into a successful project. Join the tens of thousands of teams who are already managing their projects with ProjectManager and take this free 30-day trial today.
FAQs
How do you answer a brief? ›
Your Brief Answer should begin with a simple “Yes” or “No” and should include a succinct, preferably one sentence, fact-based explanation of your reasoning. If you do not feel comfortable answering "Yes" or "No" due to the nature of the facts, you could answer, "Probably" or "Probably not."
How long should a brief write up be? ›To be effective the length of an issue brief should be no more than two pages (front and back of one sheet of paper). That is why they are sometimes referred to as one-pagers.
How do you write a briefing template? ›- Explain the goals and motivations. You should start your brief by writing about the project background and brand. ...
- Highlight specific objectives and challenges. ...
- Describe your target audience. ...
- Examine competitors. ...
- Ask for feedback.
Your project brief should only include your project objectives, timeline and schedule, target audience, and project scope. Think of your project brief as a shorter document that high-level project stakeholders can read and project team members can check back on frequently.
What should a brief include? ›- A short brand statement.
- A brief overview of the campaign's background and objectives.
- Key challenges that the campaign aims to resolve.
- Target audience for the campaign.
- Chief competitors.
- Primary message describing the brand's values and market positioning.
The Brief Answer concisely and precisely applies the rule to the key, determinative facts in summary of the larger application from the Discussion. The Brief Answer avoids a detailed rule application. The Brief Answer is no longer than a moderate length paragraph.
What does brief response mean? ›Answer: A Brief Constructed Response (BCR) is a short paragraph written in response to a reading selection or other content area prompt.
What's the meaning of answer in brief? ›You can say in brief to indicate that you are about to say something in as few words as possible or to give a summary of what you have just said. In brief, take no risks. Synonyms: in short, briefly, in essence, in a word More Synonyms of in brief.
What is an example of a brief? ›A brief is defined as a short written or spoken statement or a statement of the main points of a legal case. An example of brief is a five minute news segment covering a short announcement by the president. An example of brief is a paper that explains why a person is guilty of a crime.
How do you present a brief? ›...
Three Key Steps to Prepare for a Brief Presentation
- Reduce time for completion of task.
- Increase customer satisfaction.
- Reduce need for outside resources.
- Reduce non-value added activities.
Whats a brief summary? ›
A summary is a brief summarization of a larger work that gives the reader a comprehensive understanding. To write a summary, a writer will gather the main ideas of an article, essay, television show, or film they've read or watched and condense the central ideas into a brief overview.
What is a brief template? ›A creative brief template is an essential document or tool in any kind of marketing or advertising campaign. It's a sort of metaphorical map which the people in the creative team follow. It shows where to start and how to follow through with the project at hand.
What does a briefing document look like? ›Usually written in outline format, a briefing paper will seldom exceed two pages in length. Briefing papers provide a summary of an issue, explain a situation that needs correcting, identify any financial implications, and recommend a course of action including arguments for and against the suggested action.
How do you write a one page brief? ›- Your name and contact information.
- Your key message.
- The problem as you see it.
- Background on the issue and, if appropriate, your past involvement in it.
- The rationale for your solution.
- Your recommendations.
Project briefs are useful in a variety of situations. This is one of the most fundamental documents in any large project. It is the prerogative of the project manager to create and present their brief. Anybody taking on a project management role should prioritize their project brief first and foremost.
What is project brief PDF? ›The Project Brief is a key document that outlines the scope, scale and detailed requirements of your proposed project.
What is the purpose of a brief? ›A brief is a written argument submitted to the court. Lawyers often prepare briefs which highlight and clarify certain information or provide legal comparisons in an attempt to persuade the courtroom to rule in favor of that lawyer's client.
How many words is a brief explanation? ›They are most often no more than 200-400 words. Brief summaries contain only the most important information to prepare the reader for what is to come.
How many words should a short answer be? ›In general, short answer questions fit into two categories: those asking for more than a 100 word response; and those asking for fewer than 100 words. These questions, which are seen less often, are attempts to get to know you by asking about your favorite things or about your personality.
How many words should a short answer response be? ›The maximum word count for each short-answer response is 450. We suggest that responses be about 300 words but there is no word minimum required in order to submit.
Why do we need answers? ›
We ask questions in order to learn more information about something, and we answer questions to provide more information. Asking and answering questions is not only a part of how we learn, but it is also a part of our social skills; we ask and answer questions to be polite and build and maintain relationships.
How can you filter your answers? ›"Answers can be filtered based on all ratings"
Or you can filter by entireness to view only complete responses. When designing your survey, think about how you want to filter your outputs. If you want to look for responses by group, ensure to include a question in the survey that will allow you to filter by that group.
a one-page brief of the intelligence report Verb The captain briefed the crew on the new safety procedures. The President has been briefed by his advisers.
What are the 5 parts of a design brief? ›- Company profile. ...
- Project overview. ...
- Goals and objectives. ...
- Target audience. ...
- Design requirements. ...
- Budget and schedule.
- Try not to make your mind up before you start. ...
- Be honest about what you DO want to see. ...
- Make the brief a conversation. ...
- Prepare the basics. ...
- Involve all the right people. ...
- Don't feel you can't say you don't know. ...
- Trust your designer. ...
- Trust yourself.
It is a clear and concise document that summarizes an issue and identifies key pieces of information like a situation that needs to be addressed and the financial implications. Briefing papers can also offer recommendations on how to address the issues.
How do you start a brief summary? ›A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text's title, author and main point of the text as you see it. A summary is written in your own words. A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
What are the 3 parts of a summary? ›Common Attributes of a Summary
Whether you are writing an essay that is completely a summary, or the summary is one small component of a different style of writing, every summary that you write should include: The name of the author. The title of the work. The main ideas of the work.
- Identify the sections of the text. Find the text's thesis and main ideas. ...
- Distinguish between major and minor details. ...
- Remove minor details and examples. ...
- Pay attention to transition words. ...
- Re-order the ideas as needed. ...
- Reserve your opinions.
Why do you need a creative brief? A creative brief is a document that helps get all of your creative players on the same page. This brief tells the artists, the photographers, the layout, and graphic designers what your project is, what your goals are, and gives general look and feel direction.
Do you need references in a briefing note? ›
Briefing notes never include details, nor do they include references. Your reader relies on you; that is, he or she must trust that there is supporting information for the points covered in the note even though that information is not included.
How do you write an introduction for a briefing paper? ›Begin with the information that is most important. This may mean that you will start with key findings or recommendations. For easy reading, put important points or details into lists rather than paragraphs when possible.
What is included in decision briefings? ›In this case, the briefing should include any assumptions used in analyzing the problem, facts bearing on the problem, a discussion of the alternatives, conclusions and any coordination involved. is seeking a decision, briefer must state that he is seeking a decision.
Who should write the project brief? ›Project briefs are useful in a variety of situations. This is one of the most fundamental documents in any large project. It is the prerogative of the project manager to create and present their brief. Anybody taking on a project management role should prioritize their project brief first and foremost.
What does project brief mean? ›Simply put, a project brief (project proposal or project plan) is a starting point for any project – whether it's to plan an internal website update, organize a full-blown client campaign or outline a school project.
How do you present a brief? ›...
Three Key Steps to Prepare for a Brief Presentation
- Reduce time for completion of task.
- Increase customer satisfaction.
- Reduce need for outside resources.
- Reduce non-value added activities.
A brief is defined as a short written or spoken statement or a statement of the main points of a legal case. An example of brief is a five minute news segment covering a short announcement by the president. An example of brief is a paper that explains why a person is guilty of a crime.
What does a briefing document look like? ›Usually written in outline format, a briefing paper will seldom exceed two pages in length. Briefing papers provide a summary of an issue, explain a situation that needs correcting, identify any financial implications, and recommend a course of action including arguments for and against the suggested action.
Whats a brief summary? ›A summary is a brief summarization of a larger work that gives the reader a comprehensive understanding. To write a summary, a writer will gather the main ideas of an article, essay, television show, or film they've read or watched and condense the central ideas into a brief overview.
What is the difference between a project brief and a project plan? ›While a project plan outlines how a project will get done, a project brief defines the who, what, when, where, and why, setting clear expectations for stakeholders on the front end. Think of it as the “true north” that keeps your project on track.
What is project brief PDF? ›
The Project Brief is a key document that outlines the scope, scale and detailed requirements of your proposed project.
Is a project brief the same as a business case? ›A key difference is that, while a project proposal outlines budgets and return on investment, a business case explains financial requirements in more detail. Some people like to do both, whereas others choose to combine them and present just one highly detailed project proposal instead.
What comes first project brief or business case? ›The project mandate provides the trigger and context at the start of the project. The project brief develops the concept for the scheme and provides an initial assessment of the viability and achievability of the proposal, prior to formally developing the Project Business Case.
How do you write a successful briefing? ›- Understand your topic and subject. One critical mistake is when the person giving the briefing does not have the in-depth knowledge or understanding of the matter or issue. ...
- Develop an outline. ...
- Highlight the key points. ...
- Look beyond the facts.
- Try not to make your mind up before you start. ...
- Be honest about what you DO want to see. ...
- Make the brief a conversation. ...
- Prepare the basics. ...
- Involve all the right people. ...
- Don't feel you can't say you don't know. ...
- Trust your designer. ...
- Trust yourself.
It is a clear and concise document that summarizes an issue and identifies key pieces of information like a situation that needs to be addressed and the financial implications. Briefing papers can also offer recommendations on how to address the issues.