How to Plan a Project in 70 Days: A Step-by-Step Timeline

A 70-day or 10-week timeframe is ideal for a small to medium-sized project. It's long enough to produce something substantial but short enough to keep the team focused and motivated. This guide provides a step-by-step timeline to take your project from concept to completion.

The Foundation: The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Before you start, the single most important step is to create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This involves breaking your main project goal into smaller, manageable deliverables. For instance, if your project is "Launch a New Website," your WBS might include Design, Content Creation, Development, and Testing.

This structured approach is crucial for any major undertaking, a topic we explore further in our article, From Idea to Launch: A 70-Day Guide for Entrepreneurs.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The 10-Week Project Timeline

Here is a generic timeline that can be adapted for most projects. The key is to separate planning, execution, and review into distinct phases.

Weeks Phase Key Activities & Deliverables
1-2 Initiation & Planning Define scope, goals, and stakeholders. Create WBS. Develop schedule and budget. Assign resources.
3-8 Execution & Monitoring Execute tasks as per the plan. Hold weekly status meetings. Track progress against milestones. Manage risks and changes.
9 Testing & Refinement User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Bug fixing. Final quality assurance checks.
10 Deployment & Closing Go-live/launch. Handover to client/operations. Conduct a post-mortem review and document lessons learned.

Highlight: The most common point of failure is "scope creep"—letting new features or requests expand the project beyond its original plan. A disciplined change management process during the Execution phase (Weeks 3-8) is essential. Every new request must be evaluated for its impact on the timeline and budget.

For more on structuring your weekly tasks, see our weekly breakdown guide.


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