Community programme pilot Gantt chart template: partners, enrolment, cohorts
An editable Gantt chart for piloting a community service: needs assessment, partner agreements, staff and volunteer training, enrolment, two cohorts with a mid-pilot check, evaluation and the decision to scale.
What the community programme pilot gantt chart template: partners, enrolment, cohorts process is
A pilot of a community service is a test with a purpose: at the end someone has to decide whether to scale it, change it or stop. That makes the order of the work unusual. The start is set by things outside your team, a partner who must sign and participants who must enrol, and the end is set by the cohorts, because the evidence you need only exists after the second group has finished. A timeline shows which of these is slowest and what the rest of the team can do while it runs.
This template has four groups: Needs and partners, Staff and enrolment, Delivery, and Evaluation and decision. It has 22 tasks and four milestones. "Run the needs assessment" (8 working days) is the only starting task, and "Define the pilot model and target group" (4) leads to "Pilot design agreed". That gate is the one late change that costs a lot: the partner agreements, the recruitment, the enrolment forms and the evaluation plan all follow it, so changing the model afterwards means redrafting all four.
The partners decide when you can open the doors. "Draft partner agreements" (4) leads to "Partner review and signature wait" (15), a plain wait that you replace with what your partners tell you, and then "Partner agreements in place". "Open enrolment for cohort 1" (10) and "Prepare venue and materials" (5) both wait for it. The staff side does not: "Recruit staff and volunteers" (10) and "Train staff and volunteers" (4) start straight after "Pilot design agreed" and are ready well before enrolment closes. In these illustrative numbers the people are waiting for the partners, not the other way round, which is the reverse of what teams usually assume.
The cohorts then run in order, and that order decides the end. "Run cohort 1" (15) needs trained staff, the venue, enrolment and "Plan the evaluation and consent forms" (5), so consent is in place before the first session. "Review cohort 1 with partners" (3) leads to "Mid-pilot check done", then "Adjust the programme for cohort 2" (3) and "Open enrolment for cohort 2" (5) before "Run cohort 2" (15). "Collect participant feedback and outcome data" (28) starts 1 working day after cohort 1 starts, with a start-to-start link, and cannot finish until 3 working days after cohort 2 finishes. "Write the evaluation report" (8) and "Present findings to the steering group" (2) lead to "Decision to scale or stop made". All durations are illustrative: replace them with your own pace and with what your partners and participants tell you.
A timeline schedules the work. It does not make a partner agreement valid, a consent form adequate or a funder's conditions met, and it does not replace the rules that apply to your service, so keep those as tasks with owners. If the opening date has been promised to the public, give "Run the needs assessment" a fixed Start and "Open enrolment for cohort 1" a fixed Start on the promised date: the plan starts on the earliest fixed Start, is scheduled forward, and flags the task if the partner wait pushes it later. For related plans, see /templates/training-plan-gantt-chart for the staff training, /templates/research-project-gantt-chart for a longer evaluation and /templates/change-management-gantt if the pilot becomes a rollout. For how waits and phases are drawn, see /guides/gantt-chart-dependencies and /guides/gantt-chart-overlapping-tasks.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Four groups, Needs and partners, Staff and enrolment, Delivery and Evaluation and decision, with 22 tasks and four milestones: "Pilot design agreed", "Partner agreements in place", "Mid-pilot check done" and "Decision to scale or stop made".
- A partner gate: "Partner review and signature wait" sits between "Draft partner agreements" and "Partner agreements in place", and enrolment and the venue both follow that milestone.
- Staff work that runs beside the wait: "Recruit staff and volunteers" and "Train staff and volunteers" start after "Pilot design agreed", not after the partners sign.
- Two cohorts in sequence with a check between them: "Run cohort 1", "Review cohort 1 with partners", "Mid-pilot check done", "Adjust the programme for cohort 2" and "Run cohort 2".
- An evaluation that overlaps delivery: "Collect participant feedback and outcome data" starts 1 working day after cohort 1 and finishes 3 working days after cohort 2, ahead of "Write the evaluation report".
When to use this template
- You are about to pilot a service with one or more partners and need to see whether partner signatures or enrolment decides the first session.
- You want to run a second, adjusted cohort and need the review, the changes and the new enrolment to fit between the two.
- A launch or opening date has been announced and you want to check that the preparation fits before it.
- You report to a steering group or funder and need a plan that ends in a clear decision to scale or stop.
The plan, task by task
Every task in the chart with its length in working days and what it waits for. A dependency is a step number; SS is start-to-start, FF is finish-to-finish, and +n is a lag in working days.
| # | Task | Group | Working days | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Run the needs assessment | Needs and partners | 8 | |
| 2 | Define the pilot model and target group | Needs and partners | 4 | 1 |
| 3 | Pilot design agreed | Needs and partners | Milestone | 2 |
| 4 | Draft partner agreements | Needs and partners | 4 | 3 |
| 5 | Partner review and signature wait | Needs and partners | 15 | 4 |
| 6 | Partner agreements in place | Needs and partners | Milestone | 5 |
| 7 | Recruit staff and volunteers | Staff and enrolment | 10 | 3 |
| 8 | Train staff and volunteers | Staff and enrolment | 4 | 7 |
| 9 | Prepare venue and materials | Delivery | 5 | 6 |
| 10 | Build enrolment and referral forms | Staff and enrolment | 3 | 3 |
| 11 | Open enrolment for cohort 1 | Staff and enrolment | 10 | 6, 10 |
| 12 | Plan the evaluation and consent forms | Evaluation and decision | 5 | 3 |
| 13 | Run cohort 1 | Delivery | 15 | 8, 9, 11, 12 |
| 14 | Review cohort 1 with partners | Delivery | 3 | 13 |
| 15 | Mid-pilot check done | Delivery | Milestone | 14 |
| 16 | Adjust the programme for cohort 2 | Delivery | 3 | 15 |
| 17 | Open enrolment for cohort 2 | Staff and enrolment | 5 | 16 |
| 18 | Run cohort 2 | Delivery | 15 | 17 |
| 19 | Collect participant feedback and outcome data | Evaluation and decision | 28 | 13SS+1, 18FF+3 |
| 20 | Write the evaluation report | Evaluation and decision | 8 | 19 |
| 21 | Present findings to the steering group | Evaluation and decision | 2 | 20 |
| 22 | Decision to scale or stop made | Evaluation and decision | Milestone | 21 |
How it works
Lock the pilot design
Keep "Pilot design agreed" as the gate for the partner agreements, recruitment, enrolment forms and evaluation plan. If the needs assessment is already done, shorten "Run the needs assessment" to a few days.
Replace the partner wait
Set "Partner review and signature wait" from what each partner tells you. It is a plain wait, so a longer one moves "Partner agreements in place" and everything after it.
Size recruitment and enrolment
Set "Recruit staff and volunteers" and "Open enrolment for cohort 1" from your own pace. If enrolment is slower than recruitment, the staff are ready early and the extra days sit in enrolment.
Set the cohorts and the check
Set "Run cohort 1" and "Run cohort 2" from the length of your programme, and give "Review cohort 1 with partners" and "Adjust the programme for cohort 2" the time the changes really need.
Check the evaluation overlap
The 1-day start-to-start link lets data collection begin with cohort 1, and the 3-day finish-to-finish link keeps it open until after cohort 2. Change both if your measures need a longer follow-up.
Add owners, share and export
Put the person responsible for each task in People, share the chart as a link with partners and the steering group, and export a PDF or PNG for the meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Why does recruitment start before the partners have signed?
Because it does not depend on them. "Recruit staff and volunteers" and "Train staff and volunteers" only need "Pilot design agreed", so they run beside "Partner review and signature wait". If a partner supplies some of your staff, make recruitment follow "Partner agreements in place" instead.
My opening date is fixed. Can the chart check it?
Yes. Give "Run the needs assessment" a fixed Start on the day you begin, then give "Open enrolment for cohort 1" a fixed Start on the announced date. The plan starts on the earliest fixed Start and is scheduled forward: if the partner wait cannot be done by then, the task is flagged with a conflict showing the earliest date its dependencies allow.
Does the chart know when a partner will sign?
No. It shows when you plan to send the agreement and how long you plan to wait. When you hear back, change the duration of "Partner review and signature wait" and the dates after it move.
Can I run more than two cohorts?
Yes. Copy the rows from "Adjust the programme for cohort 2" to "Run cohort 2", paste them into the sheet, and make each new cohort depend on the one before. See /guides/gantt-chart-with-owners for putting a person against each task.
Can I use it for a pilot with a single cohort?
Yes. Remove the review, the adjustment and the second enrolment and cohort, and link "Run cohort 1" straight to the evaluation. The partner gate and the evaluation overlap stay the same.