Project Delivery Playbook, Step by Step for 2027

Keep an approved project on track and deal with slippage early, with seven plays covering the kick-off, a backwards plan, a weekly rhythm, honest tracking, recovery, change control and go-live.

Who it's for

Project leads, team leaders and managers who have an approved project and must now deliver it: on time, without surprises and without wearing out the team. The playbook starts where planning ends and stops at handover, and each play works as a single team session or a week of short ones.

What you'll learn

• Agree a one-page Delivery Agreement with a definition of done (a term borrowed from Scrum), trade-off sliders for date, budget, scope and quality, and a clear escalation route
• Plan backwards from a fixed deadline, mark the critical chain and pool hidden task margins into one project buffer, following Eliyahu Goldratt's Critical Chain
• Set up a three-level rhythm of daily huddle, weekly delivery review and monthly sponsor check-in, with red, amber and green defined by the action each one needs
• Track progress by finished, accepted deliverables and a weekly record of forecast dates, with a rule that two slips in a row trigger a root-cause session
• Recover a slipping project in one week: measure the gap, find the root cause, cost every option with Brooks's law in mind and get a decision from the sponsor
• Control change with approval thresholds agreed in advance, an impact assessment within 48 hours and a change log
• Go live on evidence with a go/no-go review, an hour-by-hour cut-over plan, a staffed hypercare period and a signed handover

What's inside

• 44 pages, 7 plays
• Every play sets out its objective, when to use it and when not to, the time, people and materials it needs, numbered steps, a diagram, a ready-to-use template, an illustrative example from a fictional UK organisation and common mistakes to avoid
• One template per play: Delivery Agreement, Backwards Milestone Plan, Weekly Delivery Review Agenda, Milestone Trend Tracker, Recovery Options Table, Change Request and Impact Form, and Go/No-Go Readiness Review
• A closing action plan, Your First Four Weeks of Delivery, with a one-page checklist that sets up Plays 1 to 4 and keeps Plays 5 to 7 ready for when you need them
• PDF in A4 format — read on screen or print
• Instant download after purchase

Contents

1. Kick Off With a Delivery Agreement
2. Plan Backwards From the Deadline
3. Run a Weekly Delivery Rhythm
4. Track Progress With Evidence, Not Optimism
5. Recover a Slipping Project
6. Control Change Without Blocking It
7. Go Live and Hand Over Cleanly

Part of The Business Library

This playbook is one of the 55 ebooks in The Business Library, available together for £109 (worth £1,437 if bought separately: the total of the individual prices of the included titles in our store). It is also included in The Ultimate Business Bundle, which adds 8 checklists and toolkits and 10 workbooks — all 73 products for £147.