Template: documentation project plan
Reference
A ready-to-copy project plan for scoping a technical documentation project before writing starts - goal, audience, scope, format, and success criteria.
# Documentation project plan: <project name>
## Goal
<Why this project exists. Increase awareness, reduce support tickets,enable self-service onboarding, etc. — be specific enough that youcould measure whether the project achieved it.>
## Audience
<Who reads this. General public, existing customers, internalengineers, etc. If there's more than one audience, list each andwhether they need separate deliverables.>
## Scope
**In scope:**- <Topic, product, or version covered>
**Out of scope:**- <Topic, product, or version explicitly excluded, and why>
**How scope changes are decided:** <who approves a scope change mid-project>
## Format and distribution
| Deliverable | Format | Distribution channel || --- | --- | --- || <e.g. User guide> | <e.g. PDF + HTML> | <e.g. docs site, email attachment> |
## Language(s)
<Which languages, and whether translation happens in parallel withauthoring or after — see [translation](/en/tech-writing-process/translation/).>
## Success criteria
<How you'll know the project worked, measured after publication —support-ticket deflection, page views, reader satisfaction, sales-enablementusage, etc. Tie each criterion to a number you can actually pull.>
## Timeline
| Milestone | Date | Owner || --- | --- | --- || Content gathering complete | | || Draft complete | | || Review complete | | || Published | | |
## Owner
<Who is accountable for this project shipping.>