1. Initiate the project:
- You'll define project goals and deliverables, identify the budget and resources you'll need, the people involved in your project, and any other details that can impact the successful completion of your project.
- You'll document all this information in one place to showcase the project's value, and hopefully get approval to move forward with it.?
- Discuss project goals with the clients to gain a clear understanding of what they are asking for.?
- Gather the stakeholders and project team members to define what needs to be done successfully.
- Identifies the skill sets required, the timeline, and the cost to develop.
- Identifies and documents the value that this project creates for the company.?
- Present all of the information you have put together to your company’s leadership team, who approves your proposal.
2. Make a plan:
- Make a plan for how you will meet the goals of your project.
- ?Your plan needs to include a lot of things. For example, a budget, a breakdown of all the tasks that need to be completed, ways to communicate team roles and responsibilities, a schedule, resources, and what to do in case your project encounters problems or needs to change.
- Having a plan in place ensures that all team members and stakeholders are prepared to complete their tasks.?
- Outlines the important deadlines and tasks for the project to be successful. Create a schedule to account for all resources, materials, and tasks needed to complete the project.?
3. Execute and complete tasks:
- It's important to point out that your project team has the job of completing the project tasks. As a project manager, your role is a little different. While you might be in charge of completing certain tasks in the project, your primary tasks as the project manager are to monitor progress and keep your team motivated. You also remove any obstacles that might come up so that the tasks are executed well and on time.?
- Put your plan in motion by executing the work.
- Monitor your team as they complete project tasks. Your role as the project manager is not to complete the individual tasks but to help break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing their tasks.?
- Communicate schedule and quality expectations.
- Use your communication skills to keep the clients up to date on the project status and gather feedback from them. This keeps the project on schedule and within budget.
4. Close the project
- When all the tasks have been completed, all the resources have been accounted for and the project has crossed the finish line, it's time to close project.?
- One big reason is that your team has a moment to celebrate all of their hard work. Closing the project is also a chance to evaluate how the project went. You can make note of what worked and what didn't so you can plan better for next time.?
- Closing the project is also a great way to connect with anyone outside your team who may have had an interest in the project's goal.?
- Discuss and document the lessons learned from the project. What worked well, and what could work better next time?
- Put together a small lunch gathering for your team to celebrate and recognize their hard work.
Making assumptions that are incorrect can put your company at risk. Instead, taking the time to carefully initiate, plan, execute, and close your project leads to project success and good working relationships with customers.??
Taking the necessary time to get input from all stakeholders and the project team is a key part of formulating an accurate proposal. Ask the customer for more time to consult with stakeholders and the project team to deliver an accurate cost and timeline proposal.
The name or tasks for each phase might change, or maybe a little different depending on the type of project or the organization where you work.?
Initiate the project
During initiation, you'll organize all of the information you have available to you about your project. This way, when you're ready to continue on, you'll be prepared for the next phase when you can create your plan.?
1. Defining project goals
- Make the details of your project clear so that you and your team can successfully complete the project.?
- You'll need to do some research to come up with ideas that will help you meet your goals.
2. Find out what resources are available.?
- Resources can include people, equipment, software programs, vendors, physical space or locations, and more. Anything you need to actually complete the project is considered a resource.?
3. Get project approval
- As a project manager, you'll record all of these details in your project proposal and then get them approved by a decision-maker or group of decision-makers at your company so that you can move ahead with your project plans.
4. In this phase, ask questions to help set the foundation for the project
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What are the client’s or customer’s goals?
- What is the purpose and mission of the project?
- What are the measurable objectives for the team?
- What is the project trying to improve??
- When does this project need to be completed??
- What skills and resources will the project require??
- What will the project cost? What are the benefits?
Make a plan
1. Create a budget
2. Set the project schedule
3. Establish the project team?
4. Determine each person's roles and responsibilities.
5. Planning for risk and change.
- ?An experienced project manager knows that plans always change. This ability to adapt is all about thinking and planning ahead. Scheduling delays, budget changes, technology and software requirements, legal issues, quality control, and access to resources are just some of the more common types of risks and changes that a project manager needs to consider.
6. Establish communication
- You'll communicate all of this information to your team. That way, each member will know which tasks they'll own and what to do if they have questions or if they run into problems. You'll also communicate your plan with others who have an interest in the project's success so that they are aware of your plans and your progress as the project continues to move forward.?
7. In this phase, make a plan to get your project from start to finish.
- Create a detailed project plan. What are the major milestones? What tasks or deliverables make up each milestone???
- Build out the schedule so you can properly manage the resources, budget, materials, and timeline. Here, you will create an itemized budget.
Execute and complete tasks
1. Manage the progress of the project as a whole
- This means you'll oversee your team's efforts and make sure everyone understands what's expected of them, what tasks need to be done, and how and when to complete those tasks.?
2. Communicate
- To help remove any obstacles and to alert the right people if it looks like there might be a delay to the project.
- Communicate with your team, and anyone else involved in your project through meetings, written communications like memos, emails or internal chat tools, and other working documents like task reports.
3. Make adjustments
- Make adjustments to the schedule, budget, and allocation of resources, clearly communicating updates all along the way.
4. In this phase, put all of your hard work from the first two phases into action.?
- Monitor your project team as they complete project tasks.?
- Break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing tasks.?
- Help keep the team aware of schedule and deliverable expectations.
- Address weaknesses in your process or examine places where your team may need additional training to meet the project’s goals.
- Adapt to changes in the project as they arise.
Close the project
1. Check to make sure all tasks have been completed
- Including any work that was added along the way. Be sure any outstanding invoices have been paid, resources are returned and accounted for, and project documentation has been submitted.?
2. Get a confirmation that the final outcome of your project is acceptable to the people you're delivering it to.
- It is crucial to your project's success that the person who asked you to manage the project is satisfied with the end result.
3. Reflect on lessons learned
- Reflect on what went well and maybe what didn't go so well or retrospective. It's a chance to note best practices and learn how to manage your project more effectively next time, even if everything went great.?
- ?The notes from your retrospective are also valuable to the people or organization receiving the end result of the project. That's because they can use that information to inform decisions about their business the next time they consider a project.?
4. Communicate results with stakeholders
- It's time to collect all the project documentation that you created or collected along the way, including all of your plans and reflections, and share the final results of your project with your stakeholders.
5. Celebrate completing the project
- Take some time to celebrate the effort your team invested in the project. Celebrations help people feel good about the work they've done, and think of the work as uplifting and rewarding because it truly is. Some ideas for small celebrations are a company or team-wide email, thanking the team and acknowledging individual efforts. Now for big projects, you may even consider a company party to celebrate the team and the project success.?
6. Formally move on from the project
7. In this phase, close out the project
- Identify that your team has completed all of the requested outcomes.?
- Release your team so they can support other projects within the company.
- Take time with your team to celebrate your successes!
- Pass off all remaining deliverables and get stakeholder approval.
- Document the lessons you and your team learned during the project.
- Reflect on ways to improve in the future.
Each phase of the project life cycle has its own significance and reason for existing. By following the project life cycle, you’re ensuring that you are:
- Capturing the expectations of your customer
- Setting your project up for success with a plan
- Executing project tasks and addressing any issues that arise
- Closing out your project to capture any lessons learned.
?Stakeholders are people who are interested in and affected by the project's completion and success. Depending on the type of project, stakeholders could include a department or organization's management team, clients or customers of your product or service, users of your new tool or process, or even the community at large if you're planning a community town hall meeting.
