project presentation define

Project Presentation is a formal submission of a project to stakeholders for familiarization, discussion and acceptance. It takes several forms: 1) a page of the project plan to describe the project to the reader, and 2) a meeting to announce the project and state about expected benefits and outcomes to be produced upon successful project completion.

 Regardless of which form is used, a typical project presentation serves the following purposes:

• Providing a planning and organizational tool to the target audience (stakeholders) before the project begins
• Outlining a preferred course of action for implementing the project
• Creating a brief description of the project, including business drivers, strategic goals, tactical objectives, desired deliverables, others.

 Often both forms of project presentation are used in reviewing and accepting projects. Presenting a project to stakeholders means explaining the need for project launch and describing key advantages and benefits expected from project delivery. As a rule, project presentation is developed at the very beginning of the project (during the initiation phase) before this project is approved for startup.

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What Is a Project? Definition, Types & Examples

What is a project, exactly? We talk a lot about specific facets of project management, but it’s sometimes valuable to start at the root and dig into the basics.

To fully understand high-level project management concepts, it’s important to know the simple answers. When you can call on this knowledge, more complicated concepts are easier to master. Whether you’re the project manager or a stakeholder, give your next project definition with these project management tips in mind.

Project Definition

A project is a set of tasks that must be completed within a defined timeline to accomplish a specific set of goals. These tasks are completed by a group of people known as the project team, which is led by a project manager, who oversees the planning , scheduling, tracking and successful completion of projects.

Besides the project team, projects require resources such as labor, materials and equipment. Organizations and individuals manage projects with a wide range of objectives. These can take many forms, from constructing a building to planning an event and even completing a certain duty. Retailers, for example, may pursue projects that improve the way they track order fulfillment. Construction teams complete projects any time they plan and build something—and so on!

Project management software gives you the tools to manage all the parts of a project so it is delivered on time and within budget. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software with features to plan, manage and track your project in real time. Organize tasks on our robust Gantt, link all four types of task dependencies to avoid costly delays and save your project plan by setting a baseline. This allows you to track your actual progress against your planned progress to help you stay on track. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Are the Characteristics of a Project?

There are certain features or characteristics that are unique to projects and differentiate them from the daily operations or other types of activities of an organization. Here are the main characteristics of a project.

1. Any Project Needs a Project Manager and a Project Team

One of the most important characteristics of a project is that it’s a team effort. While the structure of project teams might change from one organization to another, projects usually involve a project manager and a team of individuals with the necessary skills to execute the tasks that are needed.

2. Every Project Needs a Project Plan

Project team members need clear directions from the project manager and other project leaders so that they can execute the work that’s expected from them. These directions come in the form of a project plan. However, a project plan is more than just a set of instructions for the project team. It’s a comprehensive document that describes every aspect of a project, such as the project goals, project schedule and project budget among other important details.

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Project Plan Template

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3. All Projects Go Through the Same Project Lifecycle

The project life cycle refers to the five phases all projects must progress through, from start to finish. The five phases of a project lifecycle serve as the most basic outline that gives a project definition. These five phases are initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure.

4. All Projects Share the Same Project Constraints

All projects no matter their size or complexity are subject to three main constraints: time, scope and cost. This simply means that projects must be completed within a defined timeline, achieve a defined set of tasks and goals and be delivered under a certain budget .

These project constraints are known as the triple constraint or the project management triangle and are one of the most important project features to know about.

5. Every Project Needs Resources

A resource is anything necessary to complete a project, such as for example, labor, raw materials, machinery and equipment. For example, in construction, raw materials such as wood, glass or paint are essential project resources . That said, other resources — like time, labor and equipment — are just as important.

A project manager must be able to identify all of the project resources in order to create a resource plan and manage the resources accordingly. When resources are left unaccounted for, it is easy to mismanage them.

Types of Projects

Projects can take many shapes and forms, which makes classifying them into types a very difficult task that requires different approaches. Here are some of the types of projects grouped by funding source, industry and project management methodology .

Types of Projects By Funding Source

One simple way to categorize projects is to look at their source of capital.

• Private projects: Projects that are financed by businesses or private organizations.
• Public projects: Projects which are funded by Government agencies.
• Mixed projects: Projects that are financed by a public-private partnership.

Types of Projects By Industry

Projects can be executed by large or small organizations from any industry. However, some industries are more project-intensive than others. Here are some of the most common types of projects by industry.

• Construction projects: The main goal of any construction project is to make a building that can be used for different purposes such as infrastructure, residential or commercial use.
• Manufacturing projects: Manufacturing projects consist of manufacturing physical products to generate profits for a company.
• IT projects: Information technology projects consist in establishing an IT framework for the processing of data at a company-wide scale.
• Software development projects: The main goal of a software development project is to create a software product for a client.
• Business projects: The term business project could refer to creating a new business, creating a new business unit for an existing company or simply launching a new business initiative.

Types of Projects By Project Management Methodology

Besides the types of projects mentioned above, projects can also be classified by the project management methodology that’s used to plan, schedule and execute them.

• Waterfall projects: Waterfall is the most traditional project management methodology, where the project plan is defined before the project begins and each major project phase must be completed in sequence.
• Agile projects: Agile projects are planned and executed in short iterations known as sprints , where project teams plan their activities as they execute the project.

Project Examples

Now that we’ve reviewed the main characteristics of a project and the various project types that exist, let’s review some common project examples to better illustrate what a project is.

Construction Project Examples

• Construction infrastructure projects: Building a bridge, a road, a mass transportation system or a water treatment facility.
• Residential construction projects: Building a house, a residential building or an apartment complex.
• Commercial construction projects: Building a shopping mall, a parking lot or a hotel.

Manufacturing Project Examples

• Building a factory from scratch
• Manufacturing products for retail sale
• Manufacturing products for a B2B purchase order
• Improving an existing production line by acquiring new machinery and training employees

Key Project Terms to Know

No matter the project, there are universal project terms that are used regardless of project type, project size or any other factor. Know these seven terms like the back of your hand and you’ll be a step ahead before the project begins:

Project Scope

Project scope is a key aspect of the project planning stage. In many ways, it is the starting point. Determining project scope requires the project manager and their team to set goals and objectives, detail deliverables, create tasks, establish important dates and more. Project scope defines desired outcomes and all specific factors which will affect reaching them.

Project Stakeholder

A stakeholder refers to anyone and everyone involved in a project. A stakeholder can be involved at every stage of the project, or just in a certain way. Stakeholder analysis helps categorize how investors, team members, vendors, contractors and more can affect your project.

Project Deliverables

A deliverable refers to the specific outcome(s) a project creates. Deliverables can be “tangible” or “intangible,” meaning they can be a physical product or something conceptual. Typically, deliverables are the need that inspired the project in the first place. If someone contracts a builder to design and construct an office space, the office is a tangible deliverable.

Project Milestones

Milestones are predetermined achievements that help track project progress. Think of milestones as checkpoints. These checkpoints are decided on before a project begins, so the project manager and team know when they are on track to achieve deliverables. Without milestones, it’s difficult to know if the project is on the road to success or needs to reroute.

Project Dependencies

Project dependencies refer to how resources must be shared and allocated within a project. Many projects will use the same physical materials for different purposes and across different stages. Understanding this dependency is the only way to ensure there is enough resources to go around. Similarly, all projects are broken down into tasks. When one task cannot begin before another is completed, these tasks share a dependency.

What It Means to Work on a Project

Whether it’s the project manager, a team member or any other project stakeholder, they’re a member of the greater project team and their actions directly affect other team members. Like any team, you “win” or “lose” as a unit, so it’s incredibly important to communicate and listen to other team members in order to coordinate efforts and succeed. Most project mishaps and project failures are the direct results of poor communication or lack of collaboration.

Why does this matter as long as the work is getting done? Working on a project is about understanding the project as a whole just as much as it is about doing the work. The only way to see this big picture is by listening to the team and learning from one another.

What Is Project Management?

The process of project management starts with the conception of the project and continues all the way through the project lifecycle. This requires detailed knowledge of company resources and how to assign them in order to complete tasks, duties, events and other projects.

A wide range of industries relies on project management methods and tools to execute projects. A few examples of these industries are construction, IT, engineering, marketing and advertising. Any team working together to reach a shared objective is engaging in some form of project management.

What Does a Project Manager Do?

A project manager is more than just a manager, in the traditional sense. This individual is the leader of the project team and oversees every aspect of the project, from beginning to end. The project manager will typically write the project plan, run team meetings, assign tasks and do quality control tests to ensure everything is running smoothly. A project manager can’t carry the entire project on their back, though. One of their key duties, in fact, is knowing how to entrust various responsibilities to team members.

With the help of their team, project managers will create project schedules and budgets. They will also create project reports throughout the project lifecycle.

As you can see, their responsibilities are widespread, but that doesn’t mean spreading too thin. Ideally, a project manager creates the foundation of the project—like the foundation of a house. They then appoint other individuals to finish out each room.

Project Definition: Best Practices for Project Management

Regardless of the project, the size of the team, or anything else, there are practices that exponentially increase the chances of success. As vital as it is to hit goals and achieve deliverables , it’s just as important to create a positive culture within the project. These five tips may seem simple, but they make a big difference:

Set Regular Team Check-ins

It’s easy to meet with the team “as needed,” but once a project begins it gets harder to find time in everyone’s schedule. Instead, schedule regular meetings before a project even starts. These meetings serve as check-ins where team members can give each other updates, voice concerns, ask questions, make adjustments and do anything else they may need. When these check-ins are already built into the schedule, no one is waiting to meet until there’s a mishap or issue.

Part of what gives a project definition is knowing how to delegate. Whether it’s the project managers or a team member, they’ll more than likely need help with a task at some point. Now, this doesn’t mean just passing along the task to someone else. It means that every team member has equal responsibilities. Instead, the best project managers know how to relinquish some control and delegate to team members.

Know the Team

Everyone on the project management team should be familiar with each other’s strengths, weaknesses and specialties. For example, if a team member needs information from a different department, they should know exactly who to ask. This familiarity cuts down on lost time. It is especially important for a project manager to know their team extremely well.

When a project member knows these things, they can make decisions that play to their team members’ strengths, not around their weaknesses. Knowing the team is a huge aspect of creating a positive culture within a project, as it celebrates everyone’s abilities.

Celebrate Milestones

Speaking of positive culture, never underestimate the power of taking a moment to mark meeting a milestone . Reaching one means the team has made significant progress and the project is still on track. At the very least, it’s important to announce reaching milestones during team check-ins. This keeps everyone on the same page and improves team efficacy.

Choose Superior PM Tools

Project management is an extremely complex job. Without the proper tools, it’s easy to make mistakes, become disorganized and even fail to complete the project. The best way to protect your project from these missteps is by choosing tools that simplify the entire process.

The best project management software does just that. Using project management software unleashes your team’s and the project’s full potential and takes the end result to new heights. The key is finding an intuitive, user-friendly project management software that makes no compromises in functionality.

How ProjectManager Makes Managing Projects Easy

ProjectManager is an award-winning project management software that makes managing projects easier than ever. Our online software allows the entire team to work on the project while in the field or on the go, and our modern interface combines functionality with user-friendly navigation. This means no more wasted time just trying to familiarize yourself with a new tool and more time perfecting your project definition.

Plan on Gantt Charts

Plan your projects from start to finish with ProjectManager’s powerful Gantt chart feature, which allows you to map out project tasks in phases. You can even create dependencies and set milestones. Plus, you can import Excel files and Microsoft Project files, so switching over to our software is seamless.

Track on Project Dashboards

As the project team moves forward with tasks, project managers can track every status update on our real-time dashboard that you can personalize to show the most important metrics. Every change to a task is tracked and automatically updates the colorful, easy-to-read charts and graphs. Keeping an eye on your project’s progress has never been easier!

Get all these features and more when you use ProjectManager. All of these tools are available in our software to help you plan, track and report on your project in real time. See what it can do for you by taking this free 30-day trial run!

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How to Make a Project Plan Presentation for Clients and Stakeholders

May 13, 2014 by Tim Stumbles

Updated on 14 June 2020

Project presentation is the cornerstone of every successful enterprise and a fundamental skill every project manager should master. Whether it’s part of a stakeholder engagement plan or you’re writing an executive summary to update management on your progress, success is highly dependent on effective communication. Our article aims to showcase a few project evaluation and review techniques that you can employ to break down the barriers of business communication.

Simplify your presentation with high-level project visuals

A presentation for project stakeholders should be a broad, high-level overview to pique their curiosity rather than complex and uninspiring sets of data that only make sense to the speaker. However tempting it might be to rehash and recycle the detailed project charter that you’ve worked so hard on, especially when you’re pressed for time, don’t! Presenting data visually as a  project roadmap  to clients and executives adds context to facilitate understanding and allows you to only go into specifics upon request.

Microsoft Project is most often the  project management  software of choice in the planning phase. Few other project management tools are this well optimized for navigating the complexity of enmeshed tasks, milestones and events, or for creating deep dives. On the other hand, when it comes to generating high-level project visuals, its graphical representations, like the  Gantt chart  example below, are not well suited for a meeting with the project stakeholders.

An exec-level project review should summarize the strategic planning process and showcase its progress in a visually appealing manner. Remember: the challenge consists of making the information easy to digest and ensuring that audiences understand the business implications.

Creating a graphical representation of data

The best option for outlining a project’s plan is to create a workflow diagram that correlates the tasks with the critical milestones, as shown in the Gantt chart example below:

Presenting the project roadmap in this manner helps your stakeholders quickly see the scheduled tasks, as well as their duration, sequences and other task dependencies, all of which define the critical path. Furthermore, connecting the project activities (tasks) with the project events (milestones) offers clients and execs more insight, which translates to better management decisions.

Timeline vs Gantt Chart

Two main techniques are often employed to chart the strategic planning process as a graphic: timelines and Gantt charts. At their core,  project timelines  typically encompass only the events (milestones) whereas Gantt charts tend to show just activities (tasks). However, as we’ve mentioned earlier, the ideal project presentation should feature a blend of both tasks and milestones. For clarity purposes, you can opt for a single unified graph like a  swimlane diagram  that splits up these tasks and milestone according to their specific  project life cycle  phase.

Next, let’s take a comparative look at two frequently used alternatives for visually rendering a project charter, Excel and PowerPoint. We will explain how to make a Gantt chart in Excel using a bar graph, and how to make an Excel timeline using a scatter graph. We will also show you how to quickly make a single, unified Gantt chart + Timeline presentation in .PPTX by using our add-in for PowerPoint,  Office Timeline .

Organizing your project in Excel

Whether or not you’re going to create the Gantt chart in Excel, this application from the Microsoft suite is a great place to start drafting the project schedule. More exactly, you will need to create the  Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)  by breaking down the project into smaller pieces of work – the tasks. Make an Excel project management template that you can reuse, then list each of the tasks on the data table in the correct sequence. The tasks will form the project Gantt chart and their order will determine the project schedule.

Another important piece of the puzzle to integrate in your Excel project management template is the milestone section. Project milestones consist of all major deadlines your plan must achieve, and they form your Excel timeline. We have included a Work Breakdown Structure example below, for clarity purposes.

Note : Keep in mind that this is a high-level presentation aimed at executives and stakeholders, so it should not be overly complex. Consider trimming it down if the project schedule contains more than 20 tasks and 20 milestones, in order to facilitate understanding and keep the audience engaged.

Option 1: Making the Excel graphs

It’s worth noting that Excel is nowhere near as graphics-oriented as PowerPoint. The direct result is that your Excel Gantt charts and timelines will tend to look more like stacked bar graphs and, respectively, scatter charts.

Another drawback is that Excel doesn’t allow you to combine a Gantt chart (tasks) with a timeline (milestones) into a unified project roadmap. Therefore, you will need to create two separate visuals and combine them on one slide or present them individually. In order to do that, you will first need to make a Gantt chart showing the tasks of your project plan and then a timeline with your project milestones. Here’s how:

• Step 1: Create a Gantt chart in Excel with the stacked bar chart function

Once you have your project schedule in Excel you will add the task data into an Excel stacked bar graph and then follow approximately 20+ formatting steps to transform it from a stacked bar chart into an Excel Gantt chart, which will end up looking something like the chart below. For detailed instructions, please check out our guide on  how to make a Gantt chart in Excel .

• Step 2: Create a timeline in Excel using the scatter chart function

To create a timeline in Excel you will need to use a scatter chart. Add your data to the scatter chart then follow approximately 25 steps to format it so it looks like a timeline presentation, as shown below. If that’s easier, check out our easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide and a how-to  video tutorial .

Note : However familiar and accessible this Microsoft application may be, there are certain limitations that make it less than ideal for project presentations, including:

• No method to combine an Excel Gantt chart with a timeline. Executives and stakeholders should be able to view the tasks and milestones in conjunction with each other for better visibility into the critical deadlines and activities.
• Making a project roadmapproject roadmap featuring a timeline or Gantt chart in Excel requires advanced operating skills. Converting Excel’s stacked and scatter charts into Gantt charts and timelines depends on properly following a specific sequence of formatting steps.
• The resulting diagrams are not as visually appealing as a PowerPoint slide and considerably more difficult to share with everyone involved.

Option 2: Create the project roadmap as a native PowerPoint slide

So far, we have shown you how to make a Gantt chart in Excel and mix it with a timeline, in order to provide your stakeholders with a 2-part overview of your project schedule. Next, let’s take a look at the alternative: using a PowerPoint timeline maker with embedded Gantt chart functions to generate a slide with both graphics combined.

PowerPoint is perceived as a superior tool for building project presentations. Since it is a graphical application, it is designed for creating and communicating charts in a visual way. Additionally, since it’s a common tool in enterprises, PowerPoint is familiar to audiences, and slides can be easily shared. There are two main ways to build project slides in PowerPoint using our Office Timeline add-in:

• Create the Work Breakdown Structure template in Excel and import the data

Earlier in the article we have included a Work Breakdown Structure example made in Excel. The first option relies on using the  import feature  from Office Timeline and bring in the data tables with tasks and milestones. To import the project schedule you created in Excel, use the Office Timeline Pro wizard which will link to your project spreadsheet (or .MPP file, if you prefer Microsoft Project). Here’s a quick demo:

There’s another reason to import the data from an Excel spreadsheet and that’s the  sync feature . In short, since the PowerPoint slide is linked to a worksheet, it can be synchronized and updated with the click of a button when the spreadsheet data changes. Check out a brief synopsis of how sync works:

Note : For better visibility, Office Timeline also allows you to import tasks and milestones directly into swimlane templates.

• Use a Gantt chart or timeline template (swimlanes are also supported)

There are definitely advantages to importing the data file from an external application like Excel or Microsoft project. However, that isn’t your only option. Office Timeline comes with an extensive collection of professional templates that can easily adapt to a wide variety of different project types. These  timeline templates  are embedded in the add-in and there is also a free gallery with new ones added regularly, for your convenience.

Simply replace the default data with your own tasks and milestones, and Office Timeline generates the graphic for you.

Note : Customizing a timeline or Gantt chart template with your own data can be done at any time from the user-friendly and highly intuitive interface. Update it easily whenever there are changes in your project schedule, restyle it and share it with your team, all from within PowerPoint. It’s very flexible!

Conclusions

Writing an executive summary or stakeholder engagement plan is all about clarity, and the best way to achieve it is to complement the data with professional, visually appealing graphs. As you’re adding tasks and milestones to your project roadmap, it also becomes easier to trim the fat and focus on the game changers. This way, you’ll obtain an actionable and compelling high-level overview, rather than get tangled in the specifics.

If you regularly find yourself liaising with the management or your stakeholders and dread the thought spending hours creating presentations with the traditional tools in the Microsoft Office suite, then check out Office Timeline. Available as a  free version , this handy project roadmap creation app can save you time and ensure you drive your point home without the drawback of an intimidating learning curve. For the more complex timelines, we recommend giving the  Pro Edition  a try.

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About Tim Stumbles

Tim is Co-Founder & CEO of Office Timeline, a Seattle-based start-up that aims to rid the world of boring, uninspiring meetings.

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How to Present a Project effectively

DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ THE ARTICLE? DON’T WORRY, LET ME SEND YOU A COPY

How to present a project effectively? If you’re wondering how to present a project, it means that your “baby” has finally reached that necessary stage of maturity that it needs to be shared with others.

Don’t get me wrong.

Your project could be a structured corporate plan or just a new idea to present to a fund for financing.

That’s right – the project might still be in its early stages , but it might be clear enough in your head to make you want to convince someone to support you.

How to pitch a project is the kind of question you typically ask yourself when you’re at the point where you need your neighbor’s support in order to move forward.

You may need funding from an investor , approval from a stakeholder within your organization, or simply support from people close to you.

More generally, you need others to approve your project.

I bet you’re not in a position where you want to accept failure.

What do you mean, Maurizio?

I mean that this project is so important to you that an unsuccessful presentation would have major implications.

If you were presenting at your company, it could affect your success , if you were presenting to a client, it could put the sale at risk , if your pitch was about a start-up and you didn’t raise the necessary funding … I don’t need to comment further.

In this article I’m going to take a broad stance and help you create the best presentation that will answer your initial question: how to present a project in an effective way?

I won’t focus on a specific type of project. So, if you have an important project to present and the stakes are high, you’re in the right place.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for suggestions regarding a specific kind of project presentation, I’m afraid you’ll have to look elsewhere!

Let’s start!

Table of Contents

Storyline – The starting point for presenting a project

Where did you think we would begin?

First, you need to decide what information to communicate and in what order you want to communicate it.

Thank you, Maurizio!

Trust me, it’s not an obvious choice.

I’m sure, if I asked you where you would start to produce the relevant information of your project you would have your own idea.

However, if I asked you where it would be best to start and what information would be best to exclude in order to present a project, things would get a little more complicated.

Because of the simple fact that when the project is yours, everything seems important to you , and it is not easy to let go of certain pieces of information.

That’s when, in short, you find yourself producing a presentation crammed with content that probably no one will ever read.

Where do we start, then?

From people!

The basis of any good communication is your audience .

Let me ask you a question: what is your goal in presenting this specific project , what do you really want to achieve?

Let’s get into it.

If you want to convince someone to do something they wouldn’t have done without seeing your presentation , then you need to figure out how to change their mind or how to instill, in their mind, a new idea that will lead to a change.

It sounds hard?

Don’t let it scare you, follow me.

The questions you need to ask yourself before you start are:

• What is my audience thinking today (before presenting the project)?
• What would I like them to think tomorrow (after presenting the project)?
• What would I like them to do now that they have this new insight ?

You need to instill a new awareness in your audience’s mind, so that they are ready to act in support of your project .

Maurizio, can you give me an example?

Here it is.

You’re introducing a potential new client to a service or product. If you hadn’t set up the meeting, he probably wouldn’t have bought from you.

Or maybe you’re presenting an internal company innovation project and you want your bosses to approve it, so you will finally have the opportunity to leave your mark within the organization and get noticed.

You might be wondering how to present a project to the European Union, how to present a project to a city council, and so on.

Whatever the case, you want people to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise .

Therefore, in order to succeed you need to understand who you’re talking to, what your goal is, and why they should resist you.

Why might they disagree, not follow you, or even contradict you?

In Lean Presentation Design we call these resistances.

Resistances are anything that crosses your audience’s mind that can potentially hinder your project. Any time your audience has a thought that stands in the way of your goal, you’re facing a resistance.

Do you remember when, a few lines above, you were wondering what information to include in your project presentation?

Well, now you know which ones can’t be missed!

Which ones?

Haven’t you understood yet?

All the necessary information to overcome your audience’s resistances.

If you miss any resistance, you risk not to convince the audience to support your project.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get asked questions.

Have you ever thought about what those questions are?

They are resistances that have not been overcome yet , but that the audience is ready to discuss.

In short, questions are great opportunities for persuasion !

Now that you know what can’t be missed within a project presentation, it’s time to define the order in which you should present your information.

When preparing a project presentation , we usually refer to a very convenient framework : the Lean Presentation Strategy Canvas

Have you ever heard of storytelling ?

No, it doesn’t mean telling stories.

It means using the typical narrative structure of a story and applying it to your communication flow.

Where to start?

From the context !

We can’t assume that your audience is aware of the context. Or maybe it is, but giving a recap can certainly help, and maybe even be appreciated.

You’ll be the judge of how much and what context information is important to your audience to know in order to effectively introduce the next step: the problem.

Every self-respecting story captivates attention through moments of conflict.

Think about it.

When you’re watching a TV show or a movie, what are the moments that grab you to the point where you forget everything else?

They’re the moments of tension , the ones where the main character is in danger and you need to know how it’s going to end.

Until that tension is released, your attention is focused on the screen.

And here comes the solution, the hero survives and pulls it off once again. The solution plays a key role in releasing tension and triggering pleasure in the audience.

It is because of the pleasure associated with the release of tension that you are finally ready to tackle the following problem.

This is how the plot unfolds – alternating continuous cycles of problems/solutions.

Always keep in mind that directly presenting the solution is not effective , unless your audience is fully aware of the problem.

The next step is the Evidence, or credibility, section .

In this section you can use data , reviews in your favor , case studies , references and everything that makes you and your project credible .

If you are presenting a startup to an investor, the fact that you have already founded others and have obtained significant results increases your credibility.

If you are pitching a project to a bank and you can demonstrate that you have already worked in that industry and have a proven track record, you will gain credibility.

If, on the other hand, you are pitching a project to your own company, perhaps you will have data that supports your opinion , and the presentation will revolve around the quality of that data.

Last step – Call to Action.

If you want people to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise, at some point you’ll have to ask them.

Your presentation was the opportunity to get them in a position to accept your Call to Action – now it’s time to close the deal.

If you’re interested in understanding the application strategies of the Lean Presentation Strategy Canvas , then you’ll enjoy my guide:   “Business presentations: the ultimate guide to creating modular and effective slides” .

Be careful though, the Canvas is a model that must be declined according to each specific case.

I use it when I’m designing presentations for others , and the skill lies in your ability to decline it according to the context.

If you are presenting a project within your company – to your superiors, for example – in the Evidence section you won’t include information about who you are and what significant experience you have in the field.

They already know you!

On the other hand, if you are presenting to a new client, you will probably want to fill out the Evidence section with industry references.

The weight of each section of the canvas depends on your audience’s level of awareness.

Did you notice the different persuasion triggers at the bottom of the Canvas?

I won’t address them in this article, but I suggest you consider reading “Business presentations: the ultimate guide to creating modular and effective slides” if you want to learn more.

Manage expectations and introduce the next steps

I told you that the final step in presenting a project is the Call to Action.

Once you have prepared the audience for action, you need to give them that final push that will motivate them to act .

Is that all?

No, there is another fundamental component that involves managing expectations .

What is the step you should follow immediately after your presentation, and what are the ones after that? Usually, in business presentations we talk about the famous next steps.

But how do you present the next steps of a PowerPoint project ?

So far we’ve talked about the importance of communication strategy, now it’s time to bring your project to life and visualize it.

So, how do you design the next steps ?

I usually use PowerPoint timeline templates or Gantt charts .

Creating a timeline with PowerPoint

Timelines are a very effective slide template when presenting a project. They are timeline layouts often used to describe the upcoming steps.

This slide is often called a project roadmap , and is very useful to describe what is to come.

It’s up to your common sense to figure out which steps to include and which not to.

Always remember to include only the bare minimum within each of your presentations.

Less is more, and I’m not just saying that!

Have you ever created a timeline with PowerPoint ?

If you know the right tricks it’s pretty easy, otherwise it can easily become a huge waste of time.

Come on, let’s make one together.

First, draw the timeline.

Did you get a crooked line?

You probably didn’t hold down the SHIFT key while drawing it.

Didn’t you know that?

If you hold down the SHIFT key while drawing a line in PowerPoint, the line will come out perfectly straight , whether horizontally or vertically.

Create your first milestone.

Each milestone represents one of the next steps in the project.

Complete the milestone with a title and text.

Now we’ll mark the next few periods, but I’d like the milestone content to alternate above and below the timeline.

Just do a CTRL + SHIFT to duplicate the block:

And now by holding SHIFT you can vertically drag the contents of the milestone below the timeline.

Proceed with replication for a total of 8 periods.

Be careful, though!

In the end, the milestones must all be well distributed and centered with respect to the timeline.

Maurizio, your request is getting difficult.

Come on, let’s do it together.

Drag the first milestone while holding SHIFT to keep it aligned and CTRL to duplicate it as you move.

Use the pop-up distribution guides to make sure the third milestone is as far away from the second as the first.

Now all you have to do is replicate with CTRL + Y .

If you hadn’t heard of these shortcuts before, I’ll share with you something that will make you dream – my personal selection of PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts .

Sounds hard?

Maybe it’s a bit tricky, but with practice you’ll find that it’s actually easy .

If you have any doubts, come see me at our monthly meeting . Every month, I host a webinar reserved for our community , MLC Webinar Series. Follow me on Linkedin to stay up to date with public events and my upcoming speaking engagements . 

If you don’t have time and would like to start from one of my ready-made timelines you can use my personal collection, available on MLC PowerPoint Add-in .

Just choose the timeline template that’s right for you and with one click you’ll have it in your presentation. My timelines have icons and text already built in, so all you have to do is edit out what you don’t like. 

If you don’t have it, try MLC PowerPoint Add-in for free now.

If you’re interested in PowerPoint timelines, then you’ll certainly be interested in the comprehensive guide I wrote on the topic: Powerpoint Timeline Templates: how to create them best – give it a read!

Creating a Gantt chart with PowerPoint

A good solution to display the set of activities that affect a project is certainly a Gantt chart.

If you don’t know what it is, read my guide before moving on: PowerPoint Gantt Chart in Simple Steps .

Now that you know what a Gantt chart , let’s quickly create one with the support of MLC PowerPoint Add-in .

On PowerPoint, go directly to MLC > Gantt Chart and a small panel will open for quick creation of a Gantt chart that is ready to present a project.

For simplicity, enter 4 tasks and assign them starting and ending dates.

Now click OK – and your Gantt Chart is ready.

If you then want to modify it, just click on Modify Gantt in the right side panel to return to the diagram processing tab and apply your changes.

If you have one or more important moments to highlight on the project plan, you could insert milestones .

Last but certainly not least, remember that you also have the option of subordinating one activity to another.

That is, you can specify that an activity will start when the previous one ends.

You see how the last task, task 5, only starts when task 4 ends?

This way you can create a sequentiality between activities that are often interdependent in a project.

So, we have seen the use of timeline slides or Gantt charts to describe the next steps and map out a project so that you can effectively manage your audience’s expectations .

How to present a project – Progress Status

You thought you were getting away with the previous paragraph, but in reality, presenting a project is a recurring task .

What do you mean, haven’t I already presented it?

Yes, of course, but every project has progress stages that often need to be presented.

Imagine that your first presentation went well, and you persuaded your audience to support your project .

After a period of time, it will be natural to share the news and report on how things are going.

You may want to tell your investors how you closed the quarter. Or to one of your bosses if the project is on track in relation to the budget or the previous year.

In short, once you’ve earned the trust of your audience, you need to work on not losing it .

Updating the Gantt chart

The Gantt chart is designed to give you an always up-to-date view of how things are going.

In MLC PowerPoint Add-in , you can reopen the previously created Gantt chart and enter the completion status of each task.

See the little percentage to the right of the task end date?

That indicates the percentage of completion of each task.

This way you have indicated that task 1 is 100% complete, task 2 is 50% complete, and so on. Click ok and boom, your slide is ready!

This way, you can reopen your PowerPoint and always keep it updated with the progress of your project.

Traffic light slides

What does a traffic light have to do with slides in PowerPoint ?

If you’re wondering how to present a project in an effective way , you can’t ignore the use of the traffic light system to track and view your project progress.

In case of project grid

You have set up an internal communication activity that is directed at different business functions. The activity consists of 4 main phases: onboarding, awareness, first test, live and will involve 4 main functions.

Are you already thinking about a table ?

Here is the result I would expect to see:

The 4 functions on the left, the column steps, and for each step some comments with the status inserted in the middle of the comment.

Which status, Maurizio?

Look carefully, and you will see that in every comment there is also the status .

You didn’t see it at all, did you?

This is a slide that I extracted from a project on which my team is working while I write this guide, it is a real case .

A traffic light system could definitely help.

Come on, let’s get to work!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I don’t like working with tables in PowerPoint because they’re awkward objects to manage.

It’s much better to work with shapes .

Turn the table into shapes right away with the Split Tables feature of the MLC PowerPoint Add-in .

First, we need to take care of the content by separating the descriptions from the statuses .

Why should we do this, Maurizio?

This step is essential in order to give the necessary visibility to the statuses which, as we noted earlier, are currently not sufficiently visible.

Remember that no design can ever make a slide effective , if you don’t fully understand its meaning .

As you can see, in this example it’s the understanding of the difference between status and content that allows me to make the first move.

Applying Lean Presentation Design means understanding that “less is more”. So, it’s time to clean up the slide of everything that’s unnecessary.

Usually, the first thing we need to eliminate are borders and fills.

Now, let’s put things in order by organizing the contents on different reading levels and adding our famous traffic lights.

Cleaner, right?

Let’s say it’s something else entirely!

Note that there i s no need to write down the status of each project because the traffic light is already a convention in itself. Anyone, looking at this slide, would be able to understand which projects are completed, in progress or blocked.

How to create and manage a traffic light icon with PowerPoint

The traffic lights I used were not downloaded icons, but rather built by me using PowerPoint for maximum flexibility .

What do you mean for more flexibility, wouldn’t it be better to download a ready-made icon?

No, it’s better to build it yourself so that you can easily switch between lights off and lights on.

Maurizio, what are you talking about?

Don’t worry, I’ll show you.

To build the traffic light I draw a rectangle with rounded edges and then three small circles.

I now center and distribute them using PowerPoint’s Quick Access Toolbar .

I duplicate it by dragging with CTRL and then replicate the dragging with CTRL + Y.

Maurizio, I can’t remember all these shortcuts every time.

So you haven’t downloaded the collection of my favorite PowerPoint shortcuts yet: The Best PowerPoint Shortcuts .

Let’s go back to the duplicating our little traffic lights.

Now simply click on the three circles to create the three different icons.

If you wanted to quickly move a circle from one position to another after placing a traffic light, just use the PowerPoint Swap Shapes feature of the MLC PowerPoint Add-in.

Now color the middle circle, and you are done!

As you can see, creating a traffic light in PowerPoint is a breeze, and it allows you maximum flexibility in status management.

But if you don’t want to create your own icons of traffic lights, you can use the ones my Team created. You just need to have MLC PowerPoint Add-in and you’ll get access to the lean icons in our Graphic Libraries .

In conclusion

Organized project management requires you to be able to present progress and manage your audience’s expectations.

Sometimes you just need a simple timeline , other times you need more complex structures like the famous Gantt chart.

These are recurring slides, very powerful and easy to create on PowerPoint – if you know the right techniques .

A great strategy is to make use of well-known conventions such as traffic light systems to show the progress of each project on the fly.

Do you ever design slides like this for your project management? Is there any layout you’d like me to cover to enrich this article?

Maurizio La Cava

About Maurizio

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How to present a project? Ultimate Guide

Project success belongs to the way you adapt to present it. If you present your project in an effective way that you grab the intention of your client and take him/her to an agreement but if you create blunders and skip important points that you need to discuss while presenting your project .

Importance of properly presented project. 

Presenting a project effectively is crucial for several reasons. It can significantly impact the project's success and your ability to communicate its value to stakeholders. However, here we have some key reasons why you must present your project correctly:

• Proper presentation helps ensure that your audience understands the project's objectives, scope, and goals. It reduces ambiguity and confusion.
• Project presentation will align all stakeholders, ensuring that everyone is on the same page regarding the project's purpose, deliverables, and timelines. This alignment will ultimately lead to project success. 
• An engaging presentation can capture your audience's attention and keep them interested throughout. So, you can expect better feedback, buy-in, and support for the project. 
• Effective project presentations provide the necessary information for decision-makers to make better choices. Whether it's approving project funding, adjusting the scope , or making strategic decisions, clear project presentations are essential for everything. 
• By presenting your project properly, Stakeholders will know who is responsible for what. It will ultimately help to prevent misunderstandings and finger-pointing. 
• Presenting the project can also help identify potential risks and issues early on. Stakeholders may raise concerns or offer insights that can help you address problems before they become major roadblocks.
• Project presentation helps in resource allocation . It allows stakeholders to see the project's resource requirements, helping them allocate personnel, budget, and other resources accordingly.

In short, presenting a project correctly is not just about creating a visually appealing slide. It is also about conveying information and aligning stakeholders. You must ensure that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the purpose, progress, and potential challenges of the project. Therefore, effective project presentation is a skill that you must learn. 

A complete guide on how to present a project?

Do not panic, and be confident about the content and visuals you have prepared to present your project. You should have command of all the information about your project, and you should also know each word you have included in your presentation so that you can explain it deliberately and confidently. You should follow some important steps to present your project:

First of all, know the goals of your project.

You should know the goals of the project you are doing as a project manager or being an owner of the project. First, you should discuss the project and fix its goals by having a warm call-up meeting with your teammates and the owner of the company or the client for whom you are doing the project. It is important when it comes to how to present a project.

Goal setting and owning are most important to make a project successful. It is the winning spot you set to win the race. If you do not do this, it means you do not have directions for where you will go, and all your efforts are useless.

Explain the goal of your project.

After setting the goals, you need to convince the audience by sharing the goals of your project in a way that they could have a better understanding of it. You can explain your project by

• Verbally presentation
• Documentations

If you explain the goals very well, you have done half of the work .

Organize the steps on a paper to present your project

After setting and explaining the goals of your project, you need to convince the audience or your client by explaining the ways to achieve these goals that seem. For that purpose, you should prepare well. You should make a layout of your presentation in which all the steps are organized and explained.

It will provide you with backbone support in presenting the project in an organized and ordered way. This organization will help you remember all key points and give you confidence about what you are saying. You know its meaning.

Prepare a rough sketch of the words you are going to speak

It is just like writing a speech. The delivery of words plays an important role in convincing the audience. If you know how to play the game of words well, you will easily take the audience to your platform. Therefore, before speaking in front of a crowd, keep in mind that you will be judged based on the words you deliver.

So, prepare for speaking and know the meaning of every word you have included. It can prove your strength or your weakness. It all depends on your preparation.

A healthy discussion with your team

When you work with your team, the pressure of work is minimized, and the moral support of your team also encourages you to give your best. While presenting your project, make your team ready to collaborate with you; you can divide the presentation into chunks and share it with your team members asking them to explain that specific part.

Team collaboration encourages success step-wise with the best quality in a short time as the work is divided and you are not burdened. Have trust in your team and get unique ideas by having a healthy discussion with them. Show value to others' ideas by considering and appreciating them.

Prepare your team-mate on standby if there appears to be a need to get their services while presenting the project. They provide you support to answer some critical questions asked by the client if you have pre- planned with your team members . You should keep this in mind when you are talking about how to present a project.

Prepare a presentation on PowerPoint

Another effective way to present the project is to put your ideas on the slides and mention the most important content about them. You can use the images to clarify the concept of your presentation and its purpose, as the images also describe the stories behind them. The images you use for visual description should be very clear and easy to understand.

Several tools in a presentation can help you present your project in the form of image illustration. You can play these slides automatically by setting the time duration. Do practice over these slides after fixing the duration for playing the.

You can present your project not only in the form of words or images but also through videos or graphics. The message you want to convey should not be lengthy or complicated. It should be simple and perfectly visible. Video audio presentation can be of more advantage in this regard.

Create some humor for the audience

If you talk a lot and change slide after slide, this will cause boredom among the audience. Here, you need to engage the audience while conveying your serious message in such a way that it seems entertaining. You can relate the bullet points or images with funny day-to-day activities to create humor, or you can also add some funny pictures or illusions to make fun of during heavy, serious discussions.

You will indirectly and silently decently engage the audience. If you do so, you will not feel the need to ask or make a request to the people to listen to you. They will do so willingly . It is an art, and if you know how to do it without realizing the audience you are doing this intentionally, you are a successful speaker.

In this way you will easily grab the attention of the client of your audience, they will love to listen and understand you, and even they will wait and expect the next bouncer from your side.

Adopt a confident body language.

It is human nature that we feel hesitant when we address a crowd who is sitting to judge us and ready to argue with us when it is our first time. But slowly, you will learn to deal with such a situation.

No matter if you are a beginner, you do not need to get worried. Just stay confident that you have prepared your presentation and practiced as well, and you can answer every query raised by the audience.

Focus on your body language; avoid doing the things that reveal your nervousness, like pressing your hands and playing with a pen by producing the sound of a tick-tock. It looks so odd and leaves a bad impression on your audience.

Make sure you have presented all the aspects.

Keep a checklist with you on paper or a computer slide and check with it whether you have explained important parts of your project, your client must know about them, or one of them is left by mistake. If it is left, it is okay; make a turn and explain it in a way that it seems you did not explain it before to maintain the surprising effect of your project.

I will say again that practice is the key to making your project presentation successful and completed within the expected or allocated time limit.  It is important when you come up with the question of how to present a project.

Present everything without getting nervous. 

Project presentation can sometimes be a real headache, even for pros. However, when you are presenting your project presentation, you must explain everything you have prepared without getting nervous. 

It would be better to keep these steps in mind to make the most out of this experience:

• You must keep your presentation concise, but don't forget to cover any of the essential points. 
• When you are presenting your presentation, you can take a quick pause to gather your thoughts. Slowing your breathing will certainly calm your nerves. 
• Take notes of what you will cover in your project presentation. It will help us to look more confident in the presentation room. 
• Above all, practicing your project presentation more can also make you feel less nervous. For perfect results, it is always better to practice throughout the time. 

Answer the relevant questions

When you present your project, there will be many questions among the audience that are mostly related to the project type, but some of them will ask such questions just to confuse you or let your morals down. Here, you need to play the mind game; do not let these questions disturb you, but answer them with patience whether you know the answer or not.

If you do not answer, simply tell them you do not know about it but want to know and ask for an explanation in the sense to add up your knowledge. If these questions are shits just to disturb you, they will not be thrown towards you next time.

You must be prepared for your question-answer session during and after your project presentation. It is because your audience may ask you some difficult or tricky questions. Regardless of what you have been asked for, it is always important to take proper time and answer their questions with the information they are looking for. 

Wrap up with a project

After discussing every aspect of the project with the client in detail, answering the queries, and getting suggestions, you need to end the session by wrapping up the project presentation in the form of a summary and giving a short review. In this way, all important parts of the projects will be recalled and finalized.

Common mistakes to avoid in project presentations 

When presenting a project, avoiding common mistakes is essential for ensuring clarity, engagement, and effectiveness. So, here are the common mistakes that you must avoid in your project presentation:

• Lack of Preparation

Inadequate project presentation can affect you in multiple ways. For example, you may stumble over your words during the presentation, lose your thought process while explaining some concepts, or even don’t have your project material ready to present. 

Effective preparation is key to a satisfied audience. Therefore, you should also focus on preparing your project presentation. The process involves researching your topic thoroughly, creating a structured outline, and practicing your presentation multiple times to build confidence and fluency. 

• Information overloading

When it comes to presenting a project, people usually make the mistake of overwhelming their audience with the overload of information. They add excessive data, statistics, and technical details of the project that may be hard to digest for the audience. 

The best practice here is to focus on adding the most important and relevant information only to your project presentation. Additionally, you can also add some statistics to support your key points. The best practice to simplify complex or technical project information is adding visuals in your presentation. 

• Not clearing your project purpose. 

Without clear objectives, your audience may leave the presentation unsure. It is because they don’t get what actions they should take, the scope of the project , or what they will get from the project. 

You should overcome this problem by stating the purpose of your project early on. Moreover, it would be better to outline what you want to achieve with this project and what others will get from it. 

• Poorly designed visuals 

Visuals in your project presentation should complement your spoken words. The visuals in the presentation should not distract your audience from what you are saying. 

Remember that cluttered or confusing slides can lead to disengagement.

You must keep slides simple, with clear headings, bullet points, and visuals that reinforce your message. Use a consistent design template and appropriately designed visuals for improved engagement. 

• Skipping the introduction 

An engaging introduction sets the tone for your presentation. It gives you an opportunity to capture the attention of your audience and increase it consistently.

For this, you have to craft a compelling opening, such as a relevant story, a surprising fact, or a provocative question. These practices will certainly help you to draw your audience in. 

• Not defining the problem statement. 

Failing to clearly define the problem your project addresses can leave your audience wondering why the project is necessary. As a presenter, you must provide a concise and relatable problem statement early on. It should demonstrate the relevance and importance of your project. 

• Poor storytelling 

Stories help make your presentation memorable and relatable. They add a human element to your content. Therefore, it would be better to incorporate relevant anecdotes, case studies, or real-world examples into your project presentation. These will help you to illustrate your points and connect with your audience emotionally.

• Disorganized presentation structure 

A disorganized presentation structure can confuse. Even your audience will find it difficult to follow your thoughts. So, you must create logical sections with clear sections, transitions, and signposts. These will help you to guide your audience through your content seamlessly.

Final thoughts

If you are new to project management and do not know how to present a project to your client or the crowd of the audience, please do not be worried and panic at all. It is not a big deal. You can do it by maintaining your confidence level, organizing the order of steps you are going to discuss, practicing and being tricky about grabbing the attention of the audience.

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Project Management Tutorial

By knowledgehut, 1. what is project management, 2. activity-based costing, 3. agile project management, 4. basic management skills, 5. basic quality tools, 6. benchmarking process, 7. cause and effect diagram, 8. change management process, 9. communication management, 10. communication blocker, 11. communication methods, 12. communication channels, 13. communication model, 14. conflict management, 15. critical path method (cpm), 16. critical chain method, 17. crisis management, 18. decision making process, 19. design of experiment, 20. effective communication skills, 21. effective presentation skills, 22. enterprise resource planning, 23. event chain methodology, 24. extreme project management, 25. gantt chart tool, 26. just-in-time (jit) manufacturing, 27. knowledge management, 28. leads, lags & float, 29. management best practices, 30. management styles, 31. management by objective (mbo), 32. monte carlo analysis, 33. motivation theories, 34. negotiation skills, 35. organization structures, 36. pert estimation technique, 37. prince2 project management methodology, 38. pareto chart tool, 39. powerful leadership skills, 40. process-based management, 41. procurement documents, 42. procurement management, 43. project activity diagram, 44. project charter, 45. project contract types, 46. project cost control, 47. project kick-off meeting, 48. project lessons learnt, 49. project management methodologies, 50. project management office, 51. project management processes, 52. project management tools, 53. project management triangle, 54. project manager goals, 55. project portfolio management, 56. project quality plan, 57. project records management, 58. project risk categories, 59. project risk management, 60. project scope definition, 61. project selection methods, 62. project success criteria, 63. project time management, 64. project management software, 65. project workforce management, 66. quality assurance and quality control, 67. raci chart tool, 68. rewards and recognition, 69. requirements collection, 70. resource levelling, 71. staffing management plan, 72. stakeholder management, 73. statement of work (sow), 74. stress management techniques, 75. structured brainstorming, 76. succession planning, 77. supply chain management, 78. team building program, 79. team motivation, 80. the balanced score card, 81. the halo effect, 82. the make or buy decision, 83. the rule of seven, 84. the virtual team, 85. total productive maintenance, 86. total quality management, 87. traditional project management, 88. work breakdown structure, effective presentation skills.

Presentation is a one-to-many formal verbal communication method. A presentation is the process of presenting an idea or a topic to an audience . It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture , or speech meant to inform, educate, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build good will or to present a new idea or product.

Presentations need to be effective and it must help achieve the expected goal of positively influencing the audience with the new information being presented. Presentations are formal method of communicating your messages in a powerful manner to create the desired impact. There are PMP training , numerous presentation audio visual tools and aids available which can be used to make the presentations more powerful and effective.

One should prepare well for making an effective presentation. For that we need to understand the finer nuances of presentation. 

An approach for making effective presentation

The entire process of effectively delivering a presentation can be divided into following 3 phases: 

  1.  Planning the presentation

• It is very important to do the necessary ground work before even we start designing the presentation. 
• It is important to clearly define the objectives of the presentation. What are the end messages we are looking at conveying to the audience and what results a successful presentation will lead to. 
• We must understand the background of the audience upfront. We also need to clearly understand their expectations from the presentation.
• What are the messages we need to convey to the audience and the priority of the messages
• We also need to be very clear about how the presentation will benefit the audience
• Plan and define the expected take-away for the audience
• Decide the tone of the presentation whether it is informative, inspirational, motivational or educational

2. Preparing the presentation

It is important to prepare an appealing presentation by aggregating the right content in the right format. We can make use of some of the presentation tools to make the presentation visually more impactful.

• Decide the content to be shown in the presentation. Decide additional supporting information that might need to be distributed for consumption by the audience
• Decide the right tools for making the presentation. PowerPoint is one of the most impactful presentation tools widely being used.
• Making use of visual charts and graphs will also enrich the presentation
• Number of slides in the presentation should be limited. 
• There are many thumb rules for making presentation slides. Most important is not to have too much text on the slides. There should be mostly important bullet points on a slide
• Prepare the speech script for each slide to explain each point on the slide
• One of the most popular guidelines for making powerpoint presentation is the 10-20-30 rule, which says there should not be more than 10 slides, not taking more than 20 minutes to present and font size of text not less than 30. 
• There is also a 7-7 rule which states that each slide should not have more than 7 lines of text and each line should not have more than 7 words
• Signpost the presentation by dividing it logically 

3. Delivering the presentation

Delivering the presentation is the most important part of the whole process. This is the real work where you need to establish direct contact with the audience and deliver the presentation to them. This being a live and face-to-face process will involve huge amount of human emotions. It can cause immense anxiety to the presenter. One needs to keep the following points in mind while delivering the presentation.

• Rehearse the presentation with the prepared script very well many times before making the actual presentation
• Start the presentation in a positive and strong note. 
• Maintain direct eye contact with the entire audience and make good use of your body language
• Use lot of real world examples which the audience can relate with. Also share personal experience to drive the practical aspect of the message. This will make the messages more relatable and easily acceptable by the audience
• It is normal for a speaker to feel nervous with a new audience. Hence it is necessary to create the initial connect with them. That will help to reduce the anxiety and help you become more comfortable.
• Use humour as appropriate depending upon the audience. 
• Conclude your presentation with the key messages
• Make provision for some time for question answer session during the concluding part of the presentation

Making presentation is always challenging.  Each presentation is unique as the topics may be different and audience may be different. A good presentation should have a good subject matter, should match with the objective, should best fit the audience, and should be well organized. And it must meet or exceed the expectation of the audience and finally should give something concrete to the audience to take away. 

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

Keep reading

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

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Home Blog Business Guide to Defining, Presenting, and Validating Project Scope

Guide to Defining, Presenting, and Validating Project Scope

Projects that go over budget, take longer than anticipated, or go off the rails with change requests are every project manager’s worst nightmare. That’s why defining, presenting, and validating Project Scope is essential. 

According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2018, some of the leading causes of project failure are; changes in project objectives, inaccurate requirements gathering, inadequate vision or goal for the project, poor communication, and poor change management. Not surprisingly, all these situations are avoidable with a Scope Management Plan. 

Defining scope at the planning stage and validating scope during a project lifecycle are two solutions to the general issue. Still, before starting a project at full speed, you need approval from stakeholders, and that’s where presenting the Project Scope comes in. 

In this guide, we share the essentials of a Project Scope process and give you actionable advice on presenting scope effectively for stakeholder buy-in and approval. Plus, we explain how to turn 200-page documentation of a Scope Analysis into a Project Scope Statement, slide by slide.

Table of Contents

• Who’s in Charge of the Project Scope and Project Scope Management?

Why is Project Scope Management Important in Project Management?

• What are the Key Components of the Project Scope?
• What is a Project Scope Statement?

What is Scope Validation?

• Managing Scope Changes and Avoid Scope Creep

What is Project Scope? 

Project Scope is an agreed-upon combination of activities and considerations necessary to complete a project. Without a clear scope assessment, a project can take forever to finalize, go over budget, or never finish. Scope, as part of the project management triangle — along with cost and time — is a critical and foundational process for projects of any size. 

The concept of something being in and out of Scope is vital to understanding how scope works. When something is in scope, it’s considered and approved as a project deliverable or our assumptions about resources and budget. Things that are out of scope are exclusions to the deliverables list, requests from stakeholders that don’t fit the project’s objective, and any situation that might arise due to a change in available resources or changes beyond control.

The scope needs buy-in and approval from stakeholders before a project can kick off. For approval, the project manager presents the Project Scope Statement outlining the project objectives and boundaries and a work breakdown structure (WBS) highlighting the critical path to completion. How you present the scope is critical to stakeholder buy-in and approval.

After presenting the scope and upon approval, Scope Management starts. We can define Scope Management as the ongoing monitoring and assessment of the scope as the project progresses. 

Who’s in Charge of the Project Scope and Project Scope Management? 

The project manager is in charge of leading the Project Scope Management plan and execution. Project coordinators and schedulers support the Project Manager. During the scope planning stage, stakeholder roles are defined for scope validations and change request management. 

Project Scope Management is an ongoing activity that spans the project lifecycle and should be present at every major stakeholder interaction. Stakeholder involvement in Scope Management and Change Processes leads to more effective projects. Ideally, every involved stakeholder should have some degree of accountability in the Project Scope management.

Of all the things a project manager has on their mind at all times, scope is at the top of the list. Right next to the scope are time and cost. How much is that going to cost? Is it in the budget? Is this requirement in scope? Can it be ready on time? Project Managers regularly ask these questions about a project’s details, and some ask these questions for several projects simultaneously. The constant balance between scope, time, and cost is vital to quality deliverables and meeting project objectives and goals. It’s also essential for the project manager’s productivity and overall efficiency to successfully lead a team to project completion.

Scope’s relationship to Project Management is visualized in the triple constraint graph. This interdependent triangle visualizes how to deliver a quality project that meets stakeholder expectations on time and without critical over-budgeting. If one of the three constraints changes in any way, the other two must be assessed accordingly and need to change as well. There must always be a balance to avoid risks and complications.

Scope in and of itself is a great resource for project management, but it’s not without risks. A hazy and unclear scope will eventually show scope gaps where things aren’t clear on processes or stakeholder roles. An undefined scope can lead to scope creep, where out-of-scope features or requirements are added to the project without documentation and proper assessment. Finally, if not careful, the project can be riddled with gold plating, the practice of adding or adapting features to cover errors or gaps without proper planning and development under the scope umbrella.

Defining Project Scope 

After the scope planning stages that define stakeholders, requirements, and a scope management plan, it’s time to get to the nitty gritty and define your project’s Scope. 

Defining project scope requires a scoping session or meeting with stakeholders with high buy-in. Stakeholders with lower involvement don’t need to be part of the scope management process but do need to be informed of it.

To define a project scope, use the key components as a map to guide you. Every step in the scope definition process aims to bring in and construct the critical components as the project scope foundation.

What are the Key Components of the Project Scope? 

The project scope comprises a set of critical, non-negotiable components. These components will help define, manage, and present the project scope to stakeholders and participants. They are also the foundation for scope change management processes, as every component needs to be assessed when a change request comes in during validation.

1. Identify Project Objectives

Clear objectives are critical at the start of every project. Not only do they direct the workflow during a project, but they also provide measurable input about the project’s success. 

Project objectives are the results a project aims to achieve, while requirements are the concrete executable needs to reach that result. For example, suppose the project objective is to improve the quality of on-the-job training. In that case, the requirements are to build and customize a learning platform, improve the existing courses, and create new learning experiences. 

According to The Project Management Body of Knowledge, Seventh Edition , “requirements are a condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a business need.” The business need is the project objective.

Organize the scoping session and start by defining the objective. Use the SMART goals technique to pinpoint specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound objectives. Don’t continue to the next step in defining Scope until the objectives and how they’re worded are confirmed and approved. 

Avoid vague expressions or unclear terms when writing the objectives and word them as statements. Objective clarity will help decide scope exclusions later. Be detailed with descriptive adjectives about time and capabilities. 

2. Gather Project Requirements

With a clear set of objectives, it’s time to gather your project’s requirements from the stakeholders. 

Requirements are compiled, documented, and managed throughout the project through requirement management upon initiation of the project, through the scope management process, and are a critical metric for scope validation. 

• Business requirements are what the organization as a whole needs from project completion.
• Stakeholder requirements are the needs of all involved parties and project participants.
• Functional requirements are what a deliverable is supposed to do. 
• Non-functional requirements describe how a deliverable should do what it’s supposed to.
• Scheduling requirements are all the ones that have to do with project timing and scope boundaries.
• Quality requirements are the checklists and processes needed for scope validation.

Improper requirements management can take a project off the rails. The list of project requirements directly affects the project deliverables’ positive or negative output. 

According to research presented in Pulse of the Profession , carried out by the Project Management Institute (PMI), “ a lack of clarity makes it nearly impossible to control scope creep. A continuous requirements improvement process helps establish the Scope of work to meet customer expectations. We see from prior research that erroneous requirements are among the top three reasons for project failure.”

Follow these steps to gather project requirements.

• Assign roles: Identify internal and external stakeholders. Build your stakeholder management process for this project and assign roles to the stakeholders. 
• Interview stakeholders: Talk to the project stakeholders to find out what they want to achieve from this project and their goals to help take it to the finish line. Manage stakeholder expectations and be clear that not all their requirements will be included in the project.
• Gather and document: While conversing with stakeholders, document everything and analyze it to deduct the project requirements. Keep all documentation on hand for reference and regular updates. For large-scale documents, stakeholders can use automated document AI software for accuracy and precision.
• List requirements: Asses all the gathered information and special requirements that align with the project’s objectives. Define the individuals required to work on the project and draft a schedule showing how long the requirements will take to complete.
• Get approval: To ensure approval, ensure all requirements are necessary, specific, understandable, accurate, feasible, and testable.

To learn all the details about gathering and compiling requirements, read our guide on requirements gathering in the SlideModel blog.

3. Define project deliverables

Deliverables in project scope are all the tangible and intangible outputs that result from project deliveries. A deliverable list includes product and process deliverables for internal and external use. Create concrete lists of deliverables and label them in one of four categories:

• Internal Process deliverables are outputs like weekly time-tracking reports.
• External process deliverables include outputs like progress reports to stakeholders at the end of each phase. 
• Internal product deliverables include outputs like an initial design draft or an article outline. 
• External product deliverables are an app prototype or final website design.

Project deliverables are outlined in a work breakdown structure and scheduled using a Gantt Chart or another project management tool. To keep the project under control and in Scope, define one deliverable per requirement and arrange it below its relevant phase or control account. Deliverable shipping schedules can be at the end of every phase or through control accounts.

Deliverable shipping is generally timed along with the scope validation process. Creating a deliverables document leads to the validation process plan with a schedule, assigned roles, and a specific definition of what is considered done.

Write a clear and detailed checklist with all the characteristics of a deliverable to be considered as done, validated, and approved. The acceptance criteria must be decided upon together with all stakeholders on board. When these topics aren’t clear, confusion can arise during scope validation, and scope creep sneaks in quickly.

4. Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) 

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a visual, hierarchical deconstruction of project scope. It describes all the work necessary to finish a project, broken down into more minor, trackable activities. The overall function of a work breakdown structure is to define all the tasks related to completing project deliverables on time and within budget. 

Visually, your WBS can be a bulleted list, an organizational chart, a tree diagram , or a Gantt chart. Let’s use a tree chart formation to examine the WBS components and levels in detail. 

• Work packages: Groups of tasks that one person or team can do to reach a specific milestone in the project lifecycle
• Milestones: Optional metrics to include in your WBS to measure how tasks and deliverables are shipped. These are evident in Gantt charts, where tasks and work packages can be scheduled collaboratively.

1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) PowerPoint Diagram

Your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) diagrams can be represented in a tree hierarchy format with ease by implementing this PowerPoint template. Created with PowerPoint shapes, this document is fully editable to represent the cost/effort of each node, completion rate, status, and more.

Use This Template

Break apart the objectives and requirements with the work breakout structure to define all the tasks needed to complete the deliverables. An outline document is enough for small projects as a WBS, but any project with more than one objective and requirement needs more. You’ll need a visual structure that all relevant stakeholders can reference during the project lifecycle. A digital WBS in a Gantt or Pert chart will help visualize clear milestones and interdependencies between tasks inside a work package. 

From your Work Breakdown Structure, build out a task plan. Make a task plan for each project phase and define the order and task dependencies. Organize and prioritize tasks with the help of a project management tool and integrate it into a schedule to visualize time requirements for each task. Show clear interdependencies to help define the project’s critical path — the longest sequence of tasks and activities needed to finish the project.

5. Set project boundaries and exclusions / What’s In and Out of Scope? 

To successfully deliver a project, a scope assessment needs clear boundaries and exclusions highlighting what is in and out of Scope. Boundaries are based on the agreed-upon time, cost, and participants available per project phase and in total. Naming boundaries define the time a participant has to work on the project, the budget limit, and soft and hard deadlines. Exclusions are specific actions or outputs that the project will not work on and are the predefined out-of-scope characteristics.

Exclusions and out-of-scope requirements will always pop up during a project life cycle, and it’s the task of the scope management team to define if they stay out of Scope or if there needs to be a change to the overall Scope to include them. Avoiding scope creep is critical when defining what’s in and out of Scope.

An early definition of what is in and out of Scope helps control and manage scope creep before it starts. Along with a rigorous validation and shipping schedule, keeping a clear view of what’s in Scope or not not only helps a project move along more smoothly, it also takes it to completion in the allotted time.

Considering the project objectives, requirements, and deliverables, write a preliminary exclusions list to define the boundaries of where the line between in and out of Scope resides. Select and define which requirements discarded during the scoping session won’t be in this project scope. Do the same with the deliverables that didn’t make it to the deliverables list and add them to the list of out-of-scope deliverables. 

Furthermore, consider the overall budget and time constraints to add clear boundaries to the project scope. Some projects need clearly defined physical and legal boundaries as well. Include this list in the project scope document when dealing with change requests and unvalidated deliverables.

6. Set up validation and scope change management processes

Before wrapping up the project scope statement, you must formulate processes to validate deliverables and manage scope changes. Having processes before you need them saves time down the line. The first process is for scope validation, and the second is for managing scope change.

For both processes, assign roles to stakeholders, participants, or project management assistants who will be in charge of conducting validation and control quality sessions and the ones in charge of receiving and managing change requests. 

Define what constitutes the requirements for a deliverable to be verified before it can be validated, and set up a timeline that potentially matches the project phases. These are some of the tools and techniques you can use for scope validation processes:

• Activities to check the quality and functionality of the deliverables.
• Testing, inspection, demonstration, review, or audit, depending on the nature and complexity of the deliverables.
• Approval checklist

Presenting Project Scope 

After defining the Scope for your project, you must share it with stakeholders to get buy-in and approval, especially from the ones that call the shots about money and time.

To present the project scope, take the — probably quite lengthy — project scope statement and turn it into a 30-minute presentation. Summarize the long text by pinpointing key details that stakeholders need to know and lay them out on presentation slides . 

At the end of this guide, you’ll find a case study where we share how to present the project scope using a real-life example. 

What is a Project Scope Statement? 

A project scope statement is a document that shares the outcome of a scoping session and becomes the foundation of a scope management process. Throughout the pages of a project scope statement, you share all developed key components and other elements supporting your project scope assessment.

When do you present a project scope statement? Before starting any project. You need it to get stakeholder buy-in, support, time, and resources to reach the project objectives. To present a project scope statement, you need a project scope presentation . 

Validating Project Scope 

To know if deliverables are shipping as they should, you must conduct scope validation sessions that assess, verify, and approve the work as it’s being done. Validation isn’t a final step after project completion but rather an ongoing, repeatable process to follow and document.

Scope validation is the process in which deliverables are approved or declined by the customer or the stakeholder. Internal deliverables are validated by team members and managers in charge of approving or denying completion of the deliverable. The client or final user validates external deliverables. 

When should you conduct validation sessions? At regular intervals during the project lifecycle. To keep processes aligned, schedule them according to the project phases. Follow the same process every time, record change requests or unapproved deliverables on time, and put them in the cycles or sprints as time and budget allow.

To validate deliverables, the people in charge of approving or not approving need to see all the relevant documentation about the project plan and the Scope. They must know the project objectives and have on hand the list of requirements plus the checklist that determines when a deliverable is done according to its characteristics. Likewise, they also must know boundaries and exclusions. 

Managing Scope Changes and Avoid Scope Creep  

As a project manager, you know that the only constant is change. No matter how tight your action plans and project scope assessments are, change requests always come in, and you must be prepared. The best way to be effective and cold-headed when facing change is to have a change management process .

Managing scope changes helps keep a strategic alignment, avoid cost overruns, and ensure timely project delivery. Not managing scope changes effectively leads to scope creep, the dreaded project management failure. It’s essential to have executive support in managing Scope and adapting to shifting business priorities. That’s why defining a scope management process that stakeholders agree on early in the project lifecycle is critical.

What is Scope Creep? 

Scope creep is the result of unsteady scope boundaries in a project lifecycle. It manifests as client requirements coming in late in the project, stakeholders pushing back deadlines, change requests not following an identified process, and stakeholder confusion about scope boundaries. 

Ultimately, scope creep hounds on employee morale and changes without foundation or proper planning make people stressed and uneasy. The risk of scope creep is always imminent unless you have processes to assess and manage out-of-scope requirements.

A social media platform for small businesses wants to build a filterable analytics dashboard for its users with a set of basic metrics they analyze for their social behavior. The product team executed their requirements gathering process and built their requirements document. Later, all requirements were prioritized, and the Scope was defined following the process described earlier in this article.

After putting together a lengthy project scope document, the team must present the project scope using a pitch deck in order to get sponsorship, get approval, and kick off the project. 

Let’s look at how the project team prepared their presentation.

NB: The slides used in this case study were designed using our Free Scope Presentation Template .

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first slide introducing stakeholders to the project scope presentation. The objective of an executive summary is to:

• State the purpose of the presentation
• Highlight the key discussion points and most notable facts 
• Relay any significant results, conclusions, or recommendations

Following the summary you can present the agenda.

For our example project, we will follow a templated list of items to discuss a pattern of the industry.

• Project Objective 
• Requirements Groups

Deliverables

• Scope Statement
• Scope validation 
• Scope change processes

To master your executive summary slide, read our complete guide on creating and presenting effective executive summaries .

Project Objective

This section sets the stage for the project scope, so it needs to be as clear as possible.

Use critical thinking techniques to clearly word, explain, and share the project’s goal and objectives. Frame the objective so stakeholders will see the value in the project and accept the Scope as you’ve assessed it.

Going back to our example project, the product team crafted the following paragraph to describe The project objective:

“Provide the users of our social media network access to summarized information of their social media activity (based on predefined KPIs) so they can measure and compare the performance of their content over a set of dimensions.”

This slide doesn’t need more information than the objective itself. Use contrasting colors like white text on a dark background or vice versa. Center-align the text on the slide, giving it a sense of importance. The overall project scope answers this objective, and it’s the North for all activities related to project scope management. 

Requirements

After the requirements gathering and assessment process, the example project has over 50 requirements. In a scope presentation, reviewing each requirement and its details is unreasonable. Still, to transmit what is expected from the project and what will be the scope, the product team presents the groups of requirements using the project process grouping standard (Use Cases, User stories, Functional Requirements Documents, etc.) 

Functional:

• Number of Interactions
• Last 7 days.
• Last 30 days
• Last Quarter
• Hour of the Day
• Type of Interaction
• Type of Content
• Requirement 4 : Users will be presented with the option to download the report in Excel.
• 2 Numerical Indicators
• 2 Bar charts with date evolution over the X axis.
• Filters will be at the top bar of the screen with drop-down lists for filter selection.
• Requirement 6 : Applications will be built in HTML-CSS, Using React.
• Requirement 7 :Data will be extracted from the current Activity DB
• Requirement 8 :Data will be pre-processed for performance.

The list of high-level requirements can be displayed in several slides, specifically for the example the presenter decided to break down each requirement group.

As described earlier in the article, Deliverables are the inputs and outputs for requirements. The requirement is part of a deliverable. In the project scope presentation, external and high-level internal deliverables are the most important deliverables to share. 

Use a slide with a table layout to highlight deliverables per phase or control account. Incorporate labels, colors, or font differences to define which deliverables are internal/external process deliverables or internal/external process deliverables. Share any assigned stakeholder roles and points of contact between teams.

Architecture Deliverables

• Database design Diagram
• Architecture Diagram
• Integration Design Diagram
• Dashboard Mockups

Back End Deliverables

• Database Schema Implementation
• Batch Process To Load Database
• Service for Dimensions Population
• Reach Service
• Interactions Service
• Service to Export Information In Excel

Front End Deliverables

• Filtering Component
• KPI’s Numeric Component
• Overtime Charts
• Dashboard Screen

Work Breakdown Structure

Your complete work breakdown structure likely won’t fit on a presentation slide. Minimize it to include high-level topics and keep the full details in the project scope statement. Incorporate color coding to separate the WBS levels visually. Add labels for the stakeholders in charge of work packages and place notes for validation sessions at phases or milestones. 

For the example under discussion, the project team broke down the work by high-level work area, as they will use a Cascade Model Process.

• Analyse Activity Schema
• Define the Calculation of KPI
• Understand the Scope of the Calculation
• Understand Contexts of Use
• Discuss Users Scenarios
• Analyse devices
• UX Analysis
• ETL from Transactional DB
• 3 Layers Design
• Service Components
• Integration
• Usability and Navigation Definitions
• Design Layout
• Design Visuals
• Design Mockups
• Database Implementation
• Data Access Implementation
• Services Implementation
• Implement Mockups
• Implement Navigation
• Implement Filtering
• Implement Query Calls
• Test Back End
• Test Front End
• Test Integration
• ETL Initial Data
• Deploy ETL Processes
• Deploy Web Package

As you can see in the example bellow, the presenter decided to showcase the WBS in different slides, going layer after layer in the explanation, instead of creating a cluttered diagram in one slide.

Scope Statement – Boundaries and Exclusions 

In our specific example, the scope Statement lists the requirements that will be considered In-Scope and those that will be left aside for future iterations.

In-Scope: Requirements 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7

Out-Scope: Requirements 4, 8

Validation Process

Once the project team defines the scope, it needs to be validated by specific stakeholders. Generally, even this scope presentation is part of the validation process.

The stages of validation of the current Scope are:

• Focus Group
• Prototyping
• Plan Activities
• Create Estimations
• Simulate Resource allocation
• Present Scope to PMO

Scope Change Plan and Management Process

The final slides on the Project Scope Presentation share the planned processes for Scope Change. In this specific example, the Project Team decided to follow this process:

Project Scope holds a high bar for ensuring project success in project management. Attaining complete stakeholder approval of a Scope Management document is essential for every step after project initiation. 

In this guide, we reviewed all the basics of Project Scope and actionable guidance on presenting a Scope Management slide deck to get approval from stakeholders. All the slides you need for a Scope Presentation are available as PowerPoint templates inside the SlideModel template library.

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

Updated august 03, 2018 - dom barnard.

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you'll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations - they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information 40% more accurately than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How knowledgeable the audience already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation's structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation's aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you're credible.

Read our tips on How to Start a Presentation Effectively

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2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience's interest and confidence. It's sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation's purpose - this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, "I will argue that…" or maybe you will "compare", "analyse", "evaluate", "describe" etc.
• Provide a statement of what you're hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, "I'm hoping this will be provide you with..."
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction - some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a sales pitch may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience's attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time - it's important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you're moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself "What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?" refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it's the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal - that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it's nearly the end of your presentation, for example, "As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…"
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation - "In this speech I wanted to compare…"
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to ask any questions they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product to support what you've been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it 's such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this - the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action - something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use - a popular choice is the monomyth - the hero's journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge - they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what's happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you're starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious - they'll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you're presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people's opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it's such a problem - use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents' solutions - explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you're trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you've presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you're fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it's important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it's all relevant. This can be done using speech transitions which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence - there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you're aware of the overview, let's begin with...
• First, let's begin with...
• I will first cover...
• My first point covers...
• To get started, let's look at...

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way...
• Likewise...
• This is similar to...
• Similarly...

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered - "In the first part of this speech we've covered..."
• What the key points were - "Precisely how..."
• How this links in with the overall presentation - "So that's the context..."
• What you're moving on to - "Now I'd like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at..."

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A summary slide with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don't over fill them - your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words - instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable - depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don't rush through slides - give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a 10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides - people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there's no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices. Clean transitioning between speakers is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: "So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody"
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: "Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety."
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: "Elnaz".
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: "Thank you Joe."

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works - by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why - by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn't been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn't use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout - by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and practising your talk beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It's important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

Presentation

A Presentation is a communication of talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team that can be adapted to various speaking situations.

Related Definitions in the Project: The Project Management

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Practical Presentation Outline Examples For Success (+ 8 Must Have Elements)

Jane Ng • 06 Nov 2023 • 6 min read

Looking for Presentation Outline Examples ? Do you want to take your presentations from mediocre to magnificent? The secret weapon in achieving that transformation is a well-crafted presentation outline. A clear and organized outline not only guides you through your content but also ensures your audience stays captivated throughout your talk.

In this blog post, we’re going to share practical presentation outline examples and 8 key elements for constructing your own outlines that will leave a lasting impression.

Table Of Contents 

What is presentation outline, why is presentation outline important, 8 key elements of presentation outline , presentation outline examples, key takeaways , faqs about presentation outline examples.

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A presentation outline is a plan or structure that helps you organize and deliver a presentation or speech. It’s like a map that guides you through your talk. 

• It outlines the main points, ideas, and key elements you intend to cover during your presentation in a logical and organized sequence.
• It ensures that your presentation is clear, logical, and easy for your audience to follow. 

In essence, it’s a tool that helps you stay on track and communicate your message effectively.

A presentation outline is a valuable tool that enhances both the organization and delivery of your presentation. 

• It benefits you as a presenter by reducing stress and improving focus, while also benefiting your audience by making your message more accessible and engaging. 
• If you’re using visual aids like slides, an outline helps you synchronize your content with your visuals, ensuring they support your message effectively.
• If you need to make last-minute changes or adapt your presentation, having an outline makes it easier to identify and adjust specific sections without overhauling the entire presentation.

Whether you’re giving a business presentation, a school lecture, or a public speech, an outline is a key element in ensuring your presentation’s success.

A well-structured presentation outline should include the following key elements:

1/ Title or Topic: 

Begin your outline with a clear and concise title or topic that represents the subject of your presentation.

2/ Introduction:

• Hook or Attention-Grabber: Start with a compelling opening statement or question to engage your audience.
• Purpose or Objective: Clearly state the purpose of your presentation and what you aim to achieve.
• Main Points or Sections : Identify the major topics or sections that you will cover in your presentation. These are the core ideas that support your thesis statement.

3/ Subpoints or Supporting Details: 

Under each main point, list the specific details, examples, statistics, anecdotes, or evidence that support and elaborate on that main point.

4/ Transition Statements: 

Include transition phrases or sentences between each main point and subpoint to guide the flow of your presentation smoothly. Transitions help your audience follow your logic and connect the dots between ideas.

5/ Visual Aids: 

If your presentation includes slides or other visual aids, indicate when and where you plan to use them to enhance your points.

6/ Conclusion:

• Summary: Recap the main points you’ve discussed during your presentation.
• Include any final thoughts, a call to action, or a closing statement that leaves a lasting impression.

7/ Q&A or Discussion: 

If applicable, mention when you’ll open the floor for questions and discussion. Be sure to allocate time for this if it’s part of your presentation.

8/ References or Sources: 

If you’re presenting information that requires citations or sources, include them in your outline. This ensures you give credit where it’s due and can reference them during your presentation if needed.

Here are some additional tips for creating a Presentation Outline

• Time Allocation: Estimate how much time you intend to spend on each section of your presentation. This helps you manage your time effectively during the actual presentation.
• Notes or Reminders: Add any reminders, cues, or notes to yourself that will help you deliver your presentation effectively. These can include tips on delivery, body language, or specific points to emphasize.

Here are a few presentation outline examples for different types of presentations:

Example 1: Sales Pitch Presentation – Presentation Outline Examples

Title: Introducing Our New Product: XYZ Tech Gadgets

Introduction

• Hook: Begin with a relatable customer problem.
• Purpose: Explain the presentation’s goal.
• Thesis: “Today, I’m excited to introduce our innovative XYZ Tech Gadgets designed to simplify your life.”

Main Points

A. Product Features

• Subpoints: Highlight key features and benefits.

B. Target Audience

• Subpoints: Identify potential customers.

C. Pricing and Packages

• Subpoints: Offer options and discounts.

Transition: “I’m glad you’re interested in our product. Let’s talk about the different ways you can purchase it.”

Purchase and Support

• a. Ordering Process
• b. Customer Support
• Recap product highlights and benefits.
• Call to action: “Visit our website or contact our sales team to get your XYZ Tech Gadgets today.”

Q&A Session.

Example 2: The Evolution of Jazz Music – Presentation Outline Examples

Title: The Evolution of Jazz Music

• Hook: Begin with a famous jazz quote or a snippet of iconic jazz music.
• Purpose: Explain the goal of the presentation.
• Thesis: “Today, we’ll take a journey through time to explore the fascinating evolution of jazz music.”

A. Early Origins of Jazz

• Subpoints: African roots, New Orleans as a melting pot.

B. The Jazz Age (1920s)

• Subpoints: Swing music, jazz legends like Louis Armstrong.

C. Bebop and Modern Jazz (1940s-1960s)

• Subpoints: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, experimental jazz.

Transition : “Let’s now turn our attention to the diversity of jazz styles, which is as vast and complex as the history of the music itself.”

Different Styles of Jazz

• a. Cool Jazz
• b. Fusion Jazz
• c. Latin Jazz
• d. Contemporary Jazz

Influence of Jazz on Popular Music

• Subpoints: Jazz’s impact on rock, hip-hop, and other genres.
• Summary of the evolution of jazz music.
• Call to action: “Explore the world of jazz, attend live performances, or even pick up an instrument to contribute to this ever-evolving art form.”

Presentation outlines are indispensable tools that can elevate your presentations from good to great. They provide structure, organization, and clarity, ensuring that your message reaches your audience effectively. No matter if you’re delivering an educational presentation, a convincing sales pitch, or an interesting speech, these presentation outline examples aim to offer you valuable information.

To take your presentations to the next level, leverage AhaSlides. With AhaSlides , you can seamlessly integrate interactive features into your presentation, such as live polls, surveys, quizzes, and audience feedback features. These interactive features not only enhance audience engagement but also provide valuable insights and real-time interaction, making your presentations more dynamic and memorable.

So, let’s explore our template library !

What should a presentation outline include?

Title, Introduction, Key points, subpoints, transitions, visuals, conclusion, Q&A, and time allocation.

What are the 5 parts of a presentation?

Introduction, main points, visuals, conclusion, and Q&A.

How do you outline a project presentation?

Define objectives, list key topics, organize content logically, and allocate time.

Do you need an outline for a presentation?

Yes, an outline helps structure and guide your presentation effectively.

Ref: Indeed | EdrawMind

A writer who wants to create practical and valuable content for the audience

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Project work plan ppt presentation examples

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