Project Management Life Cycle-did you know these critical 5?Phases?
Hariom Singh ??.?. PMP, RMP
Co-Author - GenAI | MBA, PMP, RMP | Senior TPM | Risk & Innovation Leader | Architecting Scalable Data Solutions | Driving Fortune 500 Success | Empowering AI Ethics & Governance for a Smarter Future.
A project is a collaborative set of operations involving research or design that is carefully planned to achieve a particular objective. In simple words, a project produces a product or service that is different from the existing one at the end. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) organizes project phases according to its life cycle, starting with Project Initialization and ending in Project Closure. Traditionally, there are five stages of project management. These five stages create what is known as a project life cycle. This article will define the project management process and cover each project management phase.
Project Initiation
This is arguably the most critical phase of the project management process. The objective is to identify the why behind the project and the project goals — usually the business case — and do preliminary research on project feasibility. What happens here will set the tone and plans for what’s to come. It is essential to understand the needs of the business about the project, and all the measures are taken up to get the best out of it. Any deficiencies should be reported and immediately fixed while initiating a project. Project Initiation documents can be prepared to document these areas. These documents are a series of meticulously connected documents used to plan the project and its order of duration meticulously.
Project Planning
Once the expectations and success criteria are clear, the next project management phase is planning what tasks the team needs to perform to achieve them. In the Project Planning phase, the project team members dive into specific requirements, charges, timelines, and actions.?
The project scope is finalized depending on the resources available and the clients’ priorities. The main idea is to plan all aspects of the project and the available resources to ensure work can be done as decided upon and the project manager can manage the risk involved.?
As with the Initiation stage, a failure to plan appropriately reduces the project’s chances of success. Project planning generally consists of-
Project Execution
In this project phase, the team is off and running! The execution stage is typically the longest in the project management process because it’s when the actual work is done. You’ll find teams collaborating, reviewing work, presenting to stakeholders, and revising. Quality Assurance documentation, meeting minutes, and Work Orders are some of the documents you’ll need during the Execution Phase of the project management life cycle. It’s also likely that you’ll discover new information that will require you to revisit and update your old project management plans. Be vigilant with change requests, and make sure that the necessary adjustments are managed.
In the previous project planning phase, a project manager does much heavy lifting. During project execution, a project manager guides the team — and stakeholders — through a series of milestones.
In this project management step, a project manager is typically responsible for:
That’s a long list! How do project managers handle all of it??
They stick to the plan. As was mentioned in the previous section, a project brief, scope, and schedule serve as their source of truth. Project managers use those documents to make their decisions.
At the same time, a project manager needs to be tuned in to what’s happening with the team. This can be done through regular team check-ins, conversations, status reports, timeline review, and budget tracking.
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Project Monitoring & Control?Phase
The best way to ensure progress and improvement is by tracking and reviewing project performance. As you execute a project, keep track of your change management documents, spending records, QA checklists, and team time tracking. This way, you can measure where efforts and resources go throughout the project life cycle and crosscheck your planning.
Being diligent in recording and measuring project progress puts you in a strategic position. You’ll be able to identify bottlenecks and initiate essential discussions or project management process improvements.
If additional planning, time, or resources are needed, you’ll need to communicate them to relevant project stakeholders before it’s too late. You’ll also have the data and results to back up your requests, so you have a better chance of justifying your requests and maintaining their trust despite circumstances. As part of the project monitoring phase, you should keep an eye on:
Project Closure?Phase
In the last project management phase, all the activities related to its completion are concluded. These may involve the submission of a final deliverable, fulfilling contractual obligations, terminating relevant agreements, and releasing project resources.
During the project closeout, documents you’ll have to turn over may include Project Documentation and other Turnover Documents.
The causes of a project closure can be completion, cancellation, termination, transfer to a new organization, and others. The documentation required to complete Project Closure will differ depending on the situation.
However, regardless of the project life cycle outcome, it would be good for you to conduct a project retrospective. This way, you can process new learnings and improve your following project management scenario. Write a 1-page report on the project with details that might be useful for your organization. Information to include might be:
Don’t just move on to the next thing. Take the time to reflect on your work to continue to be better. And never forget to celebrate. If there’s no budget, that’s fine. A high-five or a nice message to the team works well for team morale. As the project manager, the more you can cheer your team, the better experience you’ll have working with them.
Why are these 5 Project Phases Important?
All projects go through each of the five phases regardless of their size.
The decision to officially divide your project into phases is an excellent way to manage your team’s focus, allocate resources, and align the entire life cycle with clients and stakeholders. While PMBOK recommends assigning project phases according to a project’s life cycle, project teams can follow their system depending on their industry, organizational policies, and other relevant factors. Before you roll something out, you must consider the people, institutional history, challenges, and existing practices.
Motivations and empathy are everything in project management.
So carry on, attack those projects, and do what’s suitable for everyone involved.