Project Management Basics

Before we look at the steps involved, let’s first understand the basics of project management.

What Is Project Management?

Project management is the process by which a project is planned, tracked, controlled, and
reported. Each project has a specific start date and end date. In addition, a project produces a
specific deliverable.

Proven project management processes help move a project towards completion. These
include:

 Planning & scheduling

 Resource management
 Risk management
 Task management & monitoring
 Reporting

Project managers are responsible for planning and executing a project along with the project
team to produce the desired deliverable and meet stakeholder expectations.
Why Project Management Is Important?

According to PMI, organizations that do not value project management report 67 percent
more projects as failed. Also, the same report finds that poor project management results in
an 11 percent wasted investment.

With so much at stake, following proven project management practices should be a no-
brainer. Here are the reasons why project management is important:

 Ensures an alignment between the team and the delivered value.

 Provides leadership and direction to projects.
 Ensures smooth communication between the project team and clients.
 Creates a roadmap for executing projects and meet business goals.
 Improves planning by providing realistic work estimates.
 Ensures that a project stays on schedule.
 Extracts learning from past projects.
 Reduces risks in delivering the project.

Project Management Roles And Responsibilities

A project does not happen in isolation. You need people to execute a project. And, these
people need to play a well-defined role.

Let’s look at the common roles and responsibilities in project management.

 Team members: Team members are skilled persons who are responsible for
executing the project and producing the deliverable.
 Suppliers: Suppliers are often external teams who sub-contract part of a project
where internal resources or skilled team members are not available.
 Project manager: Project managers are responsible for planning, tracking, and
controlling the project. In addition, they also lead the team members, manage
suppliers, and guide the project towards completion.
 Program manager: Program managers are responsible for a set of related projects.
One or more project managers report to a program manager.
 Project sponsor: Project sponsors (or account managers) are senior managers
accountable for the project deliverables. They’re answerable to a client and also the
single point of contact between the team and the clients.
  Project portfolio manager: Portfolio managers manage projects of one or more
clients across the organization.
 Stakeholders: Stakeholders are the people that are directly or indirectly affected by
the project. Their inputs and feedback are sought to define the project’s
deliverables.
 Clients: A project is finally delivered to clients, who, pay for it.

What Are The Four Phases Of Project Management?

Next, we need to understand the four phases that define a project’s life cycle. From start to
finish, every project goes through these four phases:

 Initiation phase: This starting phase is all about understanding the goals, scope,
risks, and priorities of a project.
 Planning phase: In this phase, project activities and required resources are
identified. Also, managers create an estimated timeline required to complete the
project.
 Execution phase: Skilled team members come together to turn the project plan into
deliverables. Managers track project progress.
 Closure phase: Teams hand over deliverables, analyze project performance, and
are finally dissolved.

Project Management Methodologies

How you execute these four project phases is up to you and your team. However, over years,
project management professionals have come up with tried and tested methodologies that
can make life simpler.

Three project management methodologies are popular among teams:

 Waterfall: The Waterfall methodology follows a linear approach to project

management — gather detailed requirements, put a plan together, build a solution,
test, and deliver it. This method works great when the requirements are clear.
 Agile: The Agile project management methodology follows an iterative approach.
Each phase of the project is time-boxed and the complete project features are
delivered iteratively. This method works for projects where you want to see quick
wins and can be built over iterations.
 Lean: Lean project management is an iterative approach that focuses on reducing
waste. The lean methodology tries to reduce three types of wastes: useless
activities, overburdened team members, and unevenly distributed workloads.
How To Manage A Project From Start To Finish?
The project life cycle gives you a high-level overview of the phases a project goes through. In
practice, there’s a lot more in each of these phases.

Initiation Phase

As discussed above, the initiation phase is all about understanding the project. This involves
meetings, discussions, and documentation. However, there’s very little planning that goes into
this phase.

High-level role players including clients, client-side stakeholders, project sponsors, and project
managers are involved in this phase.

Key steps involved in this phase include:

Step# 1: Identify project goals and deliverables.

A project-kickoff meeting starts the project management process. All the high-level role
players in the project attend this meeting.

The objective is to identify the project’s goals and deliverables from the clients’ perspective.

At the end of this step, key goals and deliverables are documented.

Step #2. Uncover project risks, constraints, and priorities.

Once the high-level goals are documented, it’s time to identify all the internal and external
variables that can impact the project’s progress adversely. These include:

 Risks: Factors that negatively impact the project’s goals, schedule, or budget.
 Constraints: Factors that limit the project’s execution, such as, budget, schedule,
or resources.
 Priorities: Factors that impact the order of the project including dependencies
between project activities.

Identifying these threats early can help you manage risks and plan your project better.

Step #3. Establish Project Scope

Now that you know all the factors that can affect your project, you can start breaking down the
goals and deliverables into activities. Based on the identified constraints in step #2, scope
boundaries are set.

Project scope defines what’s included and what’s not included in the project.
It’s critical to document the agreed-upon scope and freeze it mutually with the client before
proceeding further.

Failure to do so results in scope creep. Further, scope creep results in over-delivery, poor
management, and ultimately project failure.

While you can manage scope creep, it’s best not to let your project’s scope increase during
the execution phase.

Step #4. Submit the project proposal

All the information collected in the initiation phase is documented and presented to clients as a
project proposal. In addition, the project proposal also includes a high-level budget and
timeline, based on the project scope.

Unlike a project plan, which includes a detailed schedule, the proposal includes a high-level
schedule.

At the end of the initiation phase, the project sponsor and manager present this proposal to
clients. Here’s an example proposal template.
Planning Phase
Once the client approves the project proposal, the project moves on to the planning phase.

It’s important to note that project planning is not a one-time activity in the project’s life cycle. A
lot of things can change as the project moves forward. Client goals may change, resources
may become unavailable, or estimates may go wrong.

That’s why planning is an ongoing activity that happens throughout the life cycle of a project.
As things change, you may need to revisit and adjust your plans accordingly.

A project manager is the main role player for this phase. The steps involved in this phase are:

Step #5. Create a project roadmap

To create a project roadmap, the high-level project activities identified in the project proposal
are mapped on the timeline. The project roadmap is presented using Gantt charts.

When creating the project roadmap, a project manager needs to consider the risks,
constraints, and priorities documented in the proposal. In addition, project managers also
need to consider resource allocation.

For larger projects, the timeline is divided into phases. At the end of each phase, the project
team delivers some deliverables to the client. The end of a phase marks a milestone.
Milestones are checkpoints to evaluate a project’s progress.

A project manager creates a project roadmap and presents it to the client for approval.
Step #6. Create a detailed project plan

Once the client approves the project roadmap, a project manager creates a task-level project
plan by breaking down roadmap activities.

Tasks are low-level project activities. Team members take up tasks and are responsible for
completing them. That’s why a task must include all the information necessary for a team
member to complete the task.

Execution Phase

Once the initial project and resource plan is in place, the project moves on to the execution
phase.

This is where the actual work happens. Skilled team members work on the planned tasks and
move them from to-do to done.

However, task management is not all that happens in this phase. A project manager also
needs to:
  Revaluate and adjust the project plan based on changes
 Communicate the project’s progress

Step #7. Manage tasks and track project progress

Task management involves managing the task workflow and monitoring task progress.

A task workflow is a sequence of steps where a task moves from planning to completion.
Workflows can be simple as To do → Doing → Done. Or, they can involve complex steps as
in the case of software projects. As a project manager, you’re responsible to ensure that the
team has everything they need to move the task along this workflow.

The second activity a project manager needs to look at is tracking task progress. Delayed
tasks can sometimes derail the entire project.

Step #8. Review and adjust the project plan

The project moves towards closure as tasks get done, milestones are achieved, and
deliverables are delivered to clients. However, often things don’t go as planned. Estimates go
wrong, suppliers miss a deadline, or client priorities change.
That’s why, at least after every milestone, a project manager needs to review the project’s
progress. Review resource availability and priorities. And then, adjust the project plan and
schedule accordingly.

Step #9. Communicate project progress

Project managers spend most of their time on task management and reviewing plans. However, they also need to communicate the project’s
progress with all stakeholders from time to time.

Typically, the project sponsor does this at the end of a phase or on reaching a milestone.

Keeping clients up to date with project progress helps in the following ways:

 Demonstrates progress to clients and prevents any last stage surprises

 Provides an opportunity for the client to review the deliverables and adjust priorities accordingly

 Acts as an opportunity for the project team to get project feedback from stakeholders and correct the course if necessary

A project manager creates status reports to communicate the project’s progress. This can be a simple email or an elaborate document.

Closure Phase
Finally, after clients are satisfied with the results and sign-off on the deliverables, it is time to close the project.

Step #10. Handoff deliverables, analyze performance and release resources

Activities involved at this stage include:

 Handover of deliverables: The project team hands over the deliverables to clients including documents and manuals.
  Analyze performance: A retrospective analysis of the project’s performance helps the team extract learnings from the project.

 Release resources: The project manager releases team members and other allocated resources back into the resource pool.

The most important responsibility of the project manager here is to analyze the project team’s performance. This is for both — to celebrate the
successful completion of the project, as well as, to extract learnings from it.

Finally, team members document the extracted learnings. This helps avoid or manage challenges in other projects.

Project Management Tools & Templates

According to PWC, 77 percent high performing projects use project management software.

Project management software not only helps in managing projects but also handles communication between the team and
clients. Capterra found that two out of three project teams use project management software to communicate with clients.

What is the best project management tool?

Choosing a project management tool depends on your budget and your team’s needs.

However, reliability, ease of use, and ease of integration are the top criteria that project leaders use to choose a project management tool.

We’ve compiled a list of top project management software tools spanning budgets and features. Shortlist a few that you like and try them out to
find a tool that suits your needs.

Toggl Plan: A Simple Project Management Tool

Toggl Plan is an online project management tool. Unlike other tools, Toggl Plan makes it easy to manage projects across remote teams by
encouraging transparency and accountability.

It comes with:

 Gantt chart timelines for creating project roadmaps and plans.

 Team timelines for managing your team’s workloads.

 Kanban-style boards to manage tasks with customizable task workflows.

 Read-only views for clients and stakeholders.

 Notification emails to keep everyone in the loop.

Pricing-wise, Toggl Plan comes with a free plan for solo users that has all the above features. You can use the free plan
for unlimited projects and up to five team members. Team plans start at $9 per user, per month.
What is a Project?

A project is a series of tasks with a specific objective (or deliverable) to be completed within a set timeline, and

upon completion, a product or service is created. Projects are unique because they end, unlike other business

functions that repeat or continue regularly.

The Five Phases of the Project Life Cycle

Every project goes through the project life cycle, which is made up of five project management stages:

initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and closure.

Phase 1: Project Initiation

This is the starting phase where the project manager must prove that the project has value and is feasible. This

includes creating a business case that justifies the need for the project, and a feasibility study to prove it can

be executed within a reasonable time and cost.

Then a project charter, which is a document that conveys what the project is going to deliver, is created. A

project brief serves a similar purpose. Their main difference is that a project charter is part of the PMBOK

(Project Management Body of Knowledge) framework, while a project brief aligns with the PRINCE2 (Structured

Project Management Methodology) methodology.

This project management stage culminates in a project kickoff meeting, where the team, stakeholders and

other relevant parties are brought together to lay out the project goals, schedule, processes and the chain of

communication.

Phase 2: Project Planning

After the project has been approved, the project moves into the second project management phase: project

planning. The goal of this phase is the creation of the project plan, which will be the guide for the next two

phases. The project plan must include every component associated with the execution of the project, including

the costs, risks, resources and timeline.

Related: Free Project Plan Template for Word

During this phase, the project scope (the work required to complete the project) is defined using a work

breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS breaks the project down into activities, milestones and deliverables,

making it easy for project managers to create schedules and assign tasks to their team members.

Project managers often lay out their project plan using a Gantt chart software, which provides a visual

representation of the entire project. This provides a roadmap for the work until the project reaches its

conclusion.

Phase 3: Project Execution

The third project management phase is project execution, which is when the tasks and milestones outlined in

the plan are tackled to produce the deliverable to the client’s or stakeholder’s satisfaction.

Along the way, the project manager will reallocate resources as needed to keep the team working. In addition,

they will identify and mitigate risks, deal with problems and incorporate any changes.

Phase 4: Project Monitoring and Control

The fourth project management phase, project monitoring and control, takes place concurrently with the

execution phase of the project. It involves monitoring the progress and performance of the project to ensure it

stays on schedule and within budget. Quality control procedures are applied to guarantee quality assurance.

The biggest issues in a project are typically related to three factors—time, cost and scope, which collectively

are referred to as the triple constraint. The main goal of this phase is to set firm controls on the project to

ensure those three factors don’t go off track.

Phase 5: Project Closure

The fifth project management phase is project closure, in which the final deliverables are presented to the

client or stakeholder. Once approved, resources are released, documentation is completed and everything is

signed off on. At this point the project manager and team can conduct a post-mortem to evaluate the lessons

learned from the project.

Depending on the project, the closure phase may include handing over control to a different team, such as an

operations management team. In this case, it is the job of the project manager to ensure such a transition

occurs smoothly.
Project Manager offers a suite of all the tools you need to take your project every step of the way—from

initiation through closure. Upload all your documents into one secure location, and make a comprehensive

project plan that accounts for your budget, resources, workload and more. Then, create a schedule in the

format that works best for you, whether that be a Gantt chart, a Sheet or a kanban board. When you’ve made

your plan and set a baseline, track variances in real time on your customizable project dashboard. Try it free

today.

The Triple Constraint

The triple constraint, also known as the project management triangle, refers to the boundaries of time, scope

and cost that apply to every project. This concept is a cornerstone of project management, and therefore

managers must pay special attention to the schedule, budget and work breakdown structure during the

planning phase. Let’s look at how time, scope and cost are managed with the help of project management

processes.

Time

Project managers must estimate the time required to complete a project. To do so, they use tools such

as PERT charts or the critical path method. This must be done during the initiation and planning phases of the

project life cycle to develop a schedule covering the duration of all the activities. Once the execution phase

begins, the status of the project must be monitored to make changes to the schedule baseline. The project

management process responsible for this constraint is schedule management.

Scope

The scope refers to all the work necessary to complete a project. It must be identified during the planning stage

by using a work breakdown structure. If the scope is not properly defined early in the project, it can expand

during the execution phase due to unplanned activities. This is known as scope creep, and might cause

projects to fail. The scope management process helps keep this constraint in check.

Cost
There are many costs associated with a project. Project managers are responsible for estimating, budgeting

and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget. All of this falls under the

process known as cost management.

The Importance of the Triple Constraint

Clearly, the triple constraint is crucial to any project. And it’s critical to remember that the three points of this

triangle are always influencing one another. If there is a setback in time, then there will have to be an

adjustment in either scope or cost. The same being true for the other points. It’s the duty of the project

manager to always keep these constraints in check.

However, most project managers share common roles and responsibilities. Some of the more traditional duties

of a project manager include the following:

 Scope Management: Defining the work needed to complete the project activities

 Task Management: Planning tasks and defining their deliverables

 Resource Management: Using people, capital, materials and all other resources efficiently

 Team Management: Assembling and leading a team

 Schedule Management: Analyzing the duration of activities to create a project schedule. Once the

execution phase begins, the project status must be monitored to update the schedule baseline

 Quality Management: Establishing a quality policy for the project’s deliverables and implementing quality

assurance and quality control procedures

 Cost Management: Estimating costs and creating a budget

 Stakeholder Management: Satisfying stakeholders expectations and communicating with them

throughout the project life cycle

 Risk management: Identifying, monitoring and minimizing project risk

 Status Reporting: Monitoring and tracking progress and performance by generating reports and other

documentation
PRINCE2 ((Structured Project Management Methodology )) Project Management Techniques

Project assurance

Project assurance provides an independent view of how the project is progressing. In PRINCE2, there are three views of
assurance: business, user and specialist.

Each view reflects the interests of the three project board members.

Business assurance is checking that the project remains viable in costs and benefits. User assurance is checking that the
users' requirements are being met. Specialist or technical assurance ensures the project is delivering a suitable solution.

On some projects, assurance is done by a dedicated project assurance team. Otherwise, individual members of the
project board can do the assurance job.