33+ Sample Project Fact Sheet

What is a Project Fact Sheet?

A Fact Sheet, sometimes referred to as a fact file, is a one-page document that contains important information on a product, material, services, or any other subject. It condenses the most important facts on a subject into a condensed amount of space. The objective is to present facts and essential points about a subject in a clear, succinct, and understandable manner. A project fact sheet centers around a project that a company wants to introduce to the public, informing them of the relevant information that they should know with regards to the project that is being made. 

Five Phases of a Project

Projects aren’t just made at the moment or an instant, there are multiple life cycles that a project has to go through before it can be presented to the public. According to Future Learn, there are five phases of a project. Keep on reading to know more about the phases before creating your own fact sheet for a project. In knowing the following information, you are well-equipped to present your project in a more well-thought-out manner. Think of it as a project checklist with the first step being vital before going to the further steps.

Initiating: This phase is the first of the process in the conceptualization of the task at hand. The first scope is determined, along with the identification of the stakeholders and gaining the official approval of the client. This phase ensures that initiatives and projects are not only approved by a sponsoring figure but also linked with the organization’s strategic objectives. If this is not done, projects that have been launched may be carried out haphazardly with the lack of a clear purpose or target. See to it that you have a Project Checklist which can help you keep track of details.Planning: Because it educates stakeholders on where and how to carry out the project, the planning phase is the most essential component of the project activity cycle. The project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are determined, and the project timeline is produced during the planning stage. A Timesheet may come in handy in keeping tabs on the development of your project. The project team will use the plans developed during this phase to manage time, money, quality, modifications, risk, and other concerns. Executing: This is also known as the implementation phase of the project life cycle, and it is when the plan developed in the preceding phase is put into action. The objective of the project’s execution phase is to accomplish the project’s desired outcomes. This is usually the most time-consuming phase of the project life cycle since it involves the greatest resources. The execution team uses all of the schedules, records, and templates that were developed and expected throughout the previous stages during the project execution. Unexpected events and situations will certainly happen, and the project manager and team will be forced to deal with them as they arise.Monitoring and Control: This phase monitors all of the actions and metrics required to ensure that the agreed-upon and the authorized project is completed within scope, on Schedule, and on budget, with the least amount of risk possible. When major discrepancies between actual and planned performance exist, this phase entails taking corrective measures to achieve the intended output.Closing: This is the project life cycle’s final phase. The project is formally closed at this point, and a report on the overall success of the finished project is delivered to the project client. Passing over deliverables to the client, handing over paperwork to the associates, canceling supplier contracts, releasing employees and equipment, and notifying stakeholders of the project’s conclusion are all part of the closing phase. This phase is mostly tying up loose ends and making sure no detail is overlooked upon handing back the necessary documents to the client.

How to Write a Project Fact Sheet

If you have reached this part, then it may mean you already have a project in mind and are more than ready to write a project fact sheet. This guide will help you in writing each step and know which detail is appropriate for the contents of your project fact sheet. It is merely one page after all, and you might have the urge to say so many things for readers and the public to be well-aware of your project. Don’t let that urge get to you because you should only state relevant information. Check out the samples of a project fact sheet that are available in this article. 

Step 1: Add Header Information

A header is crucial because it is the first thing that readers see when viewing your fact sheet. The more eye-catching it is, the more they are prone to reading the entire document. Make sure to add a header that can hook the public to pick up your fact sheet or to even admire it enough to recommend it to others. It can be your company’s logo, name, or even a catchy slogan. 

Step 2: Company Details

The next step entails you give a brief description of your company. Begin your fact sheet with the name of your company and a brief explanation of its vision and mission. Add some basic information about your business, such as the locations of your offices, the total number of workers, the year it was founded, the sector it operates in, and so on. Also feel free to include any other relevant information about your product, service, or business.

Step 3: Project Objective

You may state your project objective in a creative manner such as the use of bullets or in phrases. Be straight to the point and make sure to get your point to the reader. They should be able to understand what it is your project intends to do and see how connected it is to your company’s vision and mission. 

Step 4: Elaborate on your Project

In this step, you are able to explain more on the details you have mentioned above that you see fit to be expounded more. These can be interesting details that you think the readers are interested to know more about or this part can also showcase the Budget that went into your project. Even adding in a project background can pique the interest of the public.

Step 5: Additional Information

If the achievements of the company are relevant to mention in connection to your project, then you may include a section for them. Alternatively, if assumptions and risks of the project need to be addressed, then you can also do so. This step may only be relevant for projects with the additional and necessary information that should be included. See Company Profile if you would want to add information about your company employees in your project fact sheet.

What are the Six Project Constraints?

No project is free of errors and mistakes, as human as we are, encountering challenges, is part of any action that is being committed. But in knowing what obstructions can be possibly faced, it is much easier to redirect the project around them or solve them quickly before they would grow into a much bigger issue. According to Work Front, there are six project constraints that any project plan needs to consider.

Quality: It is one of the six constraints of every project and is most affected by a change in the scope, time, and cost. Quality is often depicted inside a triangle along with the scope, time, and cost because a slight change in them already affects quality differently. Changing quality expectations, on the other hand, will almost definitely have an influence on the project’s timeline, scope, and cost.Time: What the clients consider to be a vital measure of a project’s success is time. Your job is to make the most accurate project time estimates attainable, which will need a combination of study and expertise. Regardless of whether you are a new project manager or a much-experienced one, relying on past projects, data research and experiences are key to guide you in tabulating the appropriate schedule for your project. You should also keep in mind that there are possible delays, requests for changes, hazards, and uncertainties that you may come across. Cost: The cost of a project is equally significant to clients. Budget projections must be given in a close to the precise range, much as time restrictions. Consider all costs when calculating your budget: labor, materials, manufacturing, equipment, administration, software, contractors, and so on. Examine historical expenses and budgets for comparable initiatives both inside and outside your company and any modification orders that had an impact on previous project budgets. You will want to stick to your suggested budget as closely as possible while maintaining an open mind regarding modifications that might influence prices. Prepare a Cost Analysis if necessary.Scope: It may be a challenge to define a range of restrictions for certain projects because a project scope is not an estimate but a definite set of deliverables. However, you should keep in mind that clients may have a stake in the scope risk and tolerance ranges. You can also specify which scope deliverables might be omitted or canceled if time or budget becomes too tight. If a few must-have deliverables, for example, consume too much of your money, your clients can inform you which of the other deliverables they will accept to be given less priority in order to meet schedule and financial limitations.Benefits: The estimated benefits of any project during the early phases should be considered, a Project Plan should be clearly laid out. Simply said, the worth of a project must be defined early on and completely agreed upon before the project begins. As a result, your project fact sheet should explain why the project is necessary and what metrics will be used to evaluate its value to the company. A variety of factors might cause the anticipated outcomes of a project to varying unexpectedly. The advantages of a project are never fully separated from other variables. The restrictions you must keep in mind are how the advantages of a particular project compare to losses, changes, damages, or growing expenses.Risks: When preparing for risks, the general thought of danger such as what may go wrong is present. A project manager must be able to predict problems at every stage of the project and plan for them appropriately. Playing out what-if scenarios and devising contingency plans. When using risks as a constraint, you must determine your company’s and client’s risk tolerance zones, which entails defining a reasonable range of responses within suitable boundaries. Your clients will be able to choose how much risk they are prepared to endure in order to accommodate the project’s resources by creating a zone of tolerance.

FAQs

When is a project considered a success?

A project can be considered a success with the accomplishment of a project plan that will remain within schedule and budget. Since calculating the time duration of a project, as well as the necessary funds and resources for a project, could take quite an estimation, the skills and effort given to it are rewarded with a great feat of success.

Why is a project fact sheet important?

Since a fact sheet acts as a unique tool that summarizes the information into one brief and concise document, clients and readers receive a sufficient amount of information from it. They would not need to do additional research to gather data regarding the project but merely reading the one-page document is enough. Through a project fact sheet, the intended audience is much easier to reach and their data absorption is with less hassle. Whether your project entails buildings, architecture, or even construction projects, fact sheets can serve useful in presenting the information.

Can a project fact sheet exceed one page?

Usually, a fact sheet is only one page, which is the front side of the document and quite rarely containing two or more pages. The purpose is that the information presented on the fact sheet is concise and direct to the point. Having more information might make the document too lengthy and it will no longer be considered a fact sheet but an infographic. See our project data sheet examples for a better comparison.

What are the boundaries of a project?

Other than the people that are involved in the project, the resources that come with thinking over the project details, a project has boundaries regarding its scope and schedule. All of which are necessary for detailing the project and the contents of the project fact sheet to relay the most relevant information for the client and also the public. There are available templates for Project Scopes that can provide you additional information with regards to your project, which can also supplement the information on your project fact sheet.

Quite a few of the population will keenly stay updated on your project, and through a project fact sheet, you may be able to attract the attention of the public who were having second thoughts on paying attention to your company’s project. This serves the purpose of a project fact sheet in containing relevant information that is enough to inform long-time clients or potential clients in the near future of what is to be expected of your project. Having one for your project will not only present the details but also showcase your professionalism in the field. So what are you waiting for? The article provides you all the necessary guide in writing your own project fact sheet, all that remains is your specialty in it!