Book excerpt: Mastering a Museum Plan offers a methodology for the creation of museum installations, whether they are small exhibits or museum-wide presentations. Houtgraaf and Vitali draw on their own museum planning experience at Naturalis to highlight six key areas on which installation planning should focus: intellectual and narrative content, spatial organization, the roles of team members, the role of the steering committee, a detailed timeline, and a budget. Mastering a Museum Plan provides an optimal structure for successful planning, one that allows a museum to articulate its message, organize its development activity, avoid the need for crisis management, and prevent the loss of human and material resources.