The first stage in project management is the planning phase, where the abstract idea is turned into a meaningful goal. This phase usually begins with a project charter (and a feasibility test, if necessary), which describes the project’s purpose, identifies potential partners, and authorises the budget.
If the primary stakeholder decides to undertake the project, then a project initiation document (PID) will be created documenting the scope of the project, who’ll be managing it, how success will be measured, and related entities.
Next up is the project planning phase. Here, the project manager will identify technical requirements, develop a detailed project schedule, create a communication plan, set up goals and deliverables, and create a risk management roadmap that is to be followed by the team.
During the project execution and implementation phase, the team does the actual work. After the kick-off meeting, the project manager allocates the right resource for the assignment, who’ll utilise state-of-the-art tools and technologies and work in sprints or iterations to deliver quality deliverables. Usually, this phase is the most time-consuming part of the project.
In the project management approach, the fourth step is the project performance and monitoring phase. Here the project manager will use critical success factors (CSF) and key performance indicators (KPI) to determine whether:
- The project is on schedule and on budget.
- Specific things are completed on a priority basis.
- Outstanding issues are adequately addressed.
The last step in project management is the project closing phase. The team delivers the last of its working deliverables and formally closes them. The project manager will hold a retrospective meeting to evaluate the project’s success and failure and create a detailed project closure report documenting things that went as per the plan and areas that need work to be done.
