Guides › Template

Project recovery plan template

You have inherited a project that has drifted. Before you re-plan anything, you need one honest picture of where it really is. This template walks you through recovery in five steps you can start today.

1. Establish the truth (days 1–5)

List every deliverable, its owner and its real status, not the reported one.
Compare the current forecast end date with the last approved baseline.
Record budget spent to date against budget approved, line by line.
Write down the top five things nobody wants to say out loud.

2. Diagnose the drift

Classify each slip: scope, resource, dependency, estimate or decision delay.
Find the first date the plan stopped matching reality.
Check whether open risks have already become issues.

3. Reset the baseline

Agree what is in, out and deferred with the sponsor.
Re-plan the critical path using working days only, with bank holidays removed.
Add contingency where the diagnosis shows the plan was optimistic.

4. Agree the recovery with SteerCo

Present the honest position, the options and a recommended path.
Ask for named decisions, with owners and dates.
Set the tolerances that will trigger escalation next time.

5. Run the recovery week by week

Report against the new baseline every week, in the same format.
Track recovery actions in the RAID log, not in email.
Show the trend: is the gap to baseline closing or widening?

Senshin sample plan: a Gantt chart for the seeded cloud migration project with the critical path highlighted — Sample report from Senshin's example projects. Illustrative data, not a real customer.

Keep this live, not in a spreadsheet

Senshin keeps your plan, RAID, budget and reports in one place, so this template stays current without a weekly copy-and-paste. A 14-day trial, with sample projects.

Start your 14-day trial

Frequently asked questions

What is a project recovery plan?

A project recovery plan is a short document that states where a drifting project really is, why it drifted, the new baseline and the actions and decisions needed to deliver against it.

When should I write a recovery plan?

Write one as soon as the forecast moves outside the tolerances agreed with your sponsor, or when you take over a project whose reported status you cannot verify.

How long does a project recovery take?

It depends on the size of the gap. The first step, establishing the truth, should take days rather than weeks so that decisions are made on facts.