By David Okul
March 17, 2020
There is a common misconception that assumes a project manager’s job is reminding people about the deadlines of projects. On the contrary, a manager’s job involves executing the science of the phases in project management. A manager will make sense of the seemingly dozens or hundreds of activities required to complete a project.
Project management rides on the single idea that every project runs through several phases. And that these stages are marked with distinct activities to see through a project from concept to conclusion. The Project Management Institute (PMI) developed the five steps, which are a cornerstone to understanding project management.
All projects, whether big or small, have constraints like time, cost, and resources (triple constraints). When dealing with any project, to avoid getting lost in your jamboree, you must structure your project and define individual processes all through the entire project’s life cycle.
The next section explains the five stages of PM:
- Project Initiation Phase
This stage marks the beginning of a project where an abstract idea is actualized to a meaningful goal. Sponsors and stakeholders determine the viability of the project. They decide whether or not to soldier on with the project to the next stage. But before this, they must establish the need for the project.
The nature of the project determines the kind of feasibility study to undertake. For many projects, business charters or project initiation document marks the conclusion of the initiation stage.
The particulars of a project charter consist of the project goals, existing constraints, appointment of a project manager, timeline to achieve deliverables, associated risks, available resources, and the budget.
After placing the goals into scope, you should proceed to identify stakeholders with their roles, range of influence, and communication requirements.
The charter does not touch on the technical details of the project. It borders on the fringes of the idea as a whole. For example, suppose a luxury boat manufacturer plans to develop an electric boat. The initiation stage will not discuss details such as the design selection, source of power, or the capacity of the boat. Instead, the stakeholders will focus on developing the electric boat within a specified period and a predetermined budget.
- Project Planning
This phase is where project managers earn their coin. They need to come up with solid plans that will guide the team to see through the project to its logical conclusion. A well-drafted project will be inclusive of how resources are to be acquired, the financing of the project, and the procurement of the required materials on each stage.
The project plan will direct the team on ways to achieve quality deliverables, how to cope with risks, and ways to communicate with the stakeholders and suppliers.
In this complex phase, project managers handle all operational requirements, functional requirements, and design limitations. There must be a plan for changes and the risks associated with the changes. To achieve this, they need to develop S.M.A.R.T and C.L.E.A.R objectives as defined below.
Smart goals help to vet individual goals with a fine comb.
- S- Specific. Should answer the questions who, what, where, when, why, and which.
- M- Measurable. Develop metrics that will assess the goals.
- A- Achievable. Identify critical goals and how to attain them
- R- Realistic. Create goals that are attainable within the prevailing conditions
- T- Timely. Have a specified timeframe to achieve the purpose(s) you have set.
Modern organizations and businesses prioritize setting ‘clear’ instead of ‘smart’ goals. Clear goals mean:
- C- Collaborative. Goals should bring employees to work together
- L- Limited. It should have a limited time scope and be manageable.
- E- Emotional. If employees are passionate about the goals, then it is easy to get optimum output.
- A- Appreciable. Be able to break big tasks to small achievable tasks
- R- Refinable. You should be able to keep refining your goals as new situations arise. Have flexible goals that can adjust to changing tides.
- Execution Phase
This stage is also considered the creative phase as a lot of activities take place during this time. The plan takes shape as a concept but later becomes tangible deliverables. This stage will most definitely start with an all-inclusive meeting (Kick-off meeting) so that everyone can have a clear perspective of their role in the project and the time they will be required to deliver.
This phase is also laden with reports as most tasks capture the project’s metrics. Reports include status reports, human resource reports, performance reports, development updates, and meeting updates. Understanding your metrics at this early stage will help you know if you are on course to hit the target objectives or to miss the mark.
The project manager will ensure that processes are implemented to the letter, assign tasks to the strengths of each stakeholder and employee. Allocate resources to relevant peoples.
This phase also reveals the problems that are inbound and will occur. Time management, the morale of the team, and quality management all take precedence at this pivotal point. A project manager should be able to address these issues early before they escalate and hinder the smooth progress of the project.
To get accurate results during this phase, a project manager should establish a way to set up a tracking system that will give timely reports of the project. This system can be a software or can be an employee whose work is to keep track of project progress manually.
Project management software is available in the market, and they help make your work easy by improving the accuracy and efficiency of your team’s efforts.
The execution phase and the monitoring phase may often coincide, but they should be treated as two separate entities as the two operate on two different sets of requirements.
- Project monitoring and control phase
The project manager is the contact person for both hands-on stakeholders and those who do not engage in the day to day running of the project.
As such, a project manager must practice effective communication and measure project progress to ensure timely dispatch of resources and funds. To ensure that everyone involved maintains the course, project managers should establish key performance indicators and critical success factors.
Key performance indicators (KPI) include
- Project objectives. You should be able to use goals as a reference to spot if the budget is intact, and the project schedule is in line with the purposes of the stakeholders.
- Quality deliverables. The deliverables and tasks require accuracy that can be translated both on paper and while executing the project.
- Cost tracking. As a project manager, you are accountable for everything, including the budget. Always track the cost of acquiring resources and work within the allocated budget. This particular tracking can help the project if you can meet all objectives by the completion date set for the project.
- Project performance. Help keep a watchful eye over the project. Tracks all progress and takes account of changes contrary to the project plans. A project manager will, therefore, address issues as soon as they arise.
Unforeseen changes and hurdles can derail a project’s progress if there are no systems in place to track the slightest changes in due course.
A project manager needs to perform quantitative tracking of the team’s effort. This process is essential for future projects, as well.
- Project closure phase
The closure marks the end of a project after the final delivery. The project manager oversees the finalization of the paperwork before terminating the contract. The use of hired external help can be useful, especially since they will be looking from an outsider perspective.
It is common practice for project managers to convene a reflection meeting after the end of a project. This method effectively ensures a continuous environment of growth and will enhance the productivity of your team and individuals in the future.
When a project comes to a close, it does not necessarily translate to success. Even unsuccessful projects must come to a logical ending. Reports at the closure of projects provide useful archives for future managers.
Every project that comes to an end offers invaluable lessons. A project management system is necessary to store completed projects. There are project tools that can give an audit trail so that a company can leverage past projects to current team efforts. You should consider a flexible system that can be optimized and provide new information as you feed it.
Project managers should also come up with a punch list and list things that never got accomplished. Consequently, they can work with selected team members to complete them. After that, project managers should prepare a final budget and a final report.
The budget should account for used or unused resources. Other ongoing projects can utilize unspent budgets.
Finally, the project ends when all project documents and deliverables are handed to the client or stored in a single place within the company records.
Breaking down a project to these phases will uncomplicated even the most complex of projects. The idea is to be systematic and adjust to every situation in all stages.
David Okul is an environmental management professional with over 10 years experience on donor projects, forestry, and community-based natural resources management.
