(upbeat music)
- There are a lot of ways to run a project
but to run one successfully
you have to consider all aspects of the project from scope
and budget, to the tasks and conversations that take place
after the project is launched and executed.
Traditionally, there are five stages of project management.
These five stages create what is known
as a project life cycle.
In this video, I'll define the project management process
and cover each phase of project management.
The project management process is a series
of phases that represent the evolution
of a product from concept to delivery, maturity
and finally retirement.
It's made up of five essential steps,
initiation and conception, planning, execution, monitoring
and control and closure.
In some ways, these project management steps
show what goes on behind the scenes
before a project might come
to a project manager's attention.
Think of this as a roadmap to help you take a project
from an idea to completion.
And if this process feels too rigid for you, that's okay.
Pick up the fundamentals
understand how these steps are formalized and make decisions
on how the steps can apply to you, your team
or your organization.
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
and to do preliminary research on project feasibility.
What happens here will set the tone
and goals for what's to come.
A project usually arises from a business need
or a goal aimed at solving a problem
or exploring new ways to do business.
For instance, if a company is looking to cut down
the number of customer service calls they receive
they'll research and explore
what's driving the number of calls.
That research will then inform what can be done
to reduce the number of calls.
The best way to understand the challenges and goals is
through a project brief that outlines the purpose
and needs of the project in conjunction
with the business case.
This kind of background is invaluable
to a team when kicking off a project.
It's also a great way to get all involved parties
and stakeholders aligned on what's to come.
While you can proceed without every detail documented,
it's a good idea to be in agreement
on goals and intended outcomes.
The project planning phase is where you'll lay out
every detail of the plan from beginning to end.
The plan you create here will lead your team
through the execution, performance
and closure phases of the project management process.
Let's talk about the things you'll want to consider.
First up, project scope.
It's generally good to start by defining your project scope.
There are several ways to define a scope,
just make sure you have a sense
for how much time you wanna spend
on the overall project.
Projects tend to go off the rails
without some level of constraint or control.
There's no problem with setting guardrails
during the project planning phase
and readjusting later if needed.
When it comes to estimating,
you might want to use a work breakdown structure
to help identify tasks and effort.
A work breakdown structure is a visual layout
that breaks out the scope of a project.
Once you've made your time and effort estimates
you can create a project plan that lays out phases,
tasks, resources, responsibilities,
milestones, and deadlines.
This is a critical step in managing your project.
So take your time and think
through every step with your team.
Because communications can make or break a project
you'll want to think through
and even document how you'll communicate as a team.
Communication plans are particularly valuable
when your team is large,
or if you have stakeholders who work
outside of your organization.
Your communication plan needs to set expectations
for how you'll communicate as a team
and what information they'll receive or provide.
Making sure to include dates, check-ins,
status reports and other meetings.
The last part of project planning
is to make sure you've got a risk management plan in place.
A risk management plan identifies foreseeable risks
and how they can be avoided.
It's the project manager's job to look out for risks
and report them to the team.
The best way to do this is to create a simple list
that defines the risk, details the risk
and why it exists.
Plans for how the risk can be avoided or solved
includes additional notes that might be important
for the team and stakeholders to understand.
Risk management is a conversation you want to keep going
throughout the project.
Keeping a list of risks
on your status report helps keep them top
of mind and allows the team to provide input.
Having these plans in place will make the remaining stages
of your project much easier.
In this project phase the team is often running.
The execution stage is typically the longest
in the project management process
because it's when the actual work gets done.
You'll find teams collaborating, reviewing work,
presenting to stakeholders and revising.
In the previous project planning phase
a project manager does a lot of heavy lifting
but during the execution phase
a project manager guides the team
and stakeholders through a series of milestones.
In this project management step
the manager is typically responsible for budget management,
timeline management, resource planning, change management,
risk management, quality management,
internal deliverable reviews, communications
and facilitation, and meeting management.
Now that's a pretty long list.
So how do project managers handle all of that?
Well, they stick to the plan.
As we mentioned in the previous section
a project brief, scope and plan
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
in tune to what's happening with the team.
This can be done through regular team
check-ins, conversations, status reports,
and timeline review, and budget tracking.
Having a single platform to track your budget,
timeline, resourcing and communications,
certainly makes managing projects easier.
Stage four is all about making sure
the project runs smoothly
and making sure things go according to plan.
As part of the project monitoring phase
you should keep an eye on budgets, timelines, project goals,
quality of deliverables and team performance.
Be sure you fully understand and embrace the project goals.
Use these goals to help make decisions
about design, functionality and any new requests.
Sometimes it's okay to stray a bit
just be sure to keep the lines of communication open
with the stakeholders and bring new ideas
to the table with enough time to rework them as needed.
When it comes to quality,
you need to consult with leadership on company standards.
As a best practice, review all deliverables
before they're sent out or presented for review.
First review them as a team
then individually as the project manager.
Be the person who not only manages process
but also cares about the work.
Your team and stakeholders will love you for it.
As a project manager, you're not typically responsible
for the management of people.
Your role is to look out for the project,
but the success of a project
depends on the team working on it.
If you see someone slacking
or even unintentionally dropping the ball,
it's your job to address it.
Just make sure you find the right avenues to
address the problems and be empathetic
when handling performance issues with team members.
When your project is complete and everyone is happy
with what's been delivered, tested and released.
It's time to wrap up.
In the project closer phase,
the team will complete the steps needed to close tasks,
hand off the project to stakeholders,
finalize any reporting and celebrate the project.
Many organizations move from one project to the next
and don't take time to properly close down a project.
It's a smart move to take a few hours to properly
close, reflect and even celebrate a project.
Here are a few steps you might consider.
Organize a small party over lunch
or after work to get the team and stakeholders together
to acknowledge the hard work done
and the great product produced.
Conduct a retrospective meeting where you discuss
what did and didn't go well,
record the outcomes and share the notes within your company
to improve your next project.
Write a one-page report on the project
with details that might be useful for your organization.
Information to include would be things
like the project name, stated goals
date of initiation, stated deadline
versus actual date of delivery,
project budget versus actual budget,
team members involved, stakeholders involved,
project issues and pain points, project wins
and just some general comments.
Don't move on to the next thing too quickly.
Take the time to reflect on your work
so you can continue to get 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 really well
when it comes to team morale.
As the project manager
the more you can be a cheerleader for your team
the better experience you'll have working with them.
Processes and frameworks are great to have
in your back pocket,
but remember every organization runs differently.
You have to consider the people, institutional history
challenges and existing practices
before you roll something out.
Motivations and empathy are everything
in project management.
So carry on, attack those projects
and do what's right for everyone involved.
And that's it for this video
on the five crucial phases of project management.
I hope you found it helpful.
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Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.