5 Stages of Project Management

by Caryl Teh

You’ve done it! After working your bottom off to grow your skill set and earn the trust and faith of your teammates, you’ve finally landed the lead on a huge project!You might be feeling excited, nervous, maybe even overwhelmed. But fear not! Below is a general structure to guide the flow of your project which you might find helpful even if you’re an experienced project manager.

1. Initiation

This phase is where the life of a project starts. It is when you should create an overview of the project. A practical first step is to meet the stakeholders or clients to understand the project’s main or core objective at a high level. After the meeting, create a project chart; this will act as a map. Some of the variables you might want to include are:

Business vision and mission
Goals, benefits and scope of the project
Project risks
Broad project deliverables

If you have a choice, you should then discuss with your team if the project is worth pursuing.

3. Execution

This phase is the most straightforward one to understand, but it’s also where all of the elbow grease is being invested. The execution phase is when you and your team are cranking through project tasks and getting the work done.

5. Closure

Let’s say all goes well, and your team has successfully launched the project (woohoo!). Now what? Do you just move on to the next project? Well, not quite. There may be feedback that you just didn’t have time to get to in trying to meet project deadlines. It is very helpful for you and your team to do a final retrospective to wrap things up. This can include:

A K.I.S.S. discussion: K (KEEP), I (IMPROVE), S (START), S (STOP)
A final project report
Filling and storing your project documentation so you can reference it in the future

2. Planning

Now that everyone is on board and clear about the end goal, effective planning is crucial to help you and your team avoid many of the main causes of project failure. For example, poor communication, inaccurate time estimates or inadequate goals. Flesh out your project plan to include:

A work breakdown of each phase + SMART goals
Risks and obstacles
Details of the resources required and strategies for resource-gathering
Financial estimate, including a budget for handling risks and unforeseen expenses
For each task, assign a task owner or contact point person and deadline

Remember that these are just estimates. So you may need to adapt or change plans as you monitor project execution (see below).

4. Monitoring

The monitoring phase happens simultaneously with execution. You don’t want to get so wrapped up in tasks that you lose the forest for the trees. Have a weekly team meeting to revisit the project plan together, and ask:

Are we lacking specific expertise?
Are we meeting deadlines? (Do we need more time?)
Are we on budget? (Do we need more money?)
Are we satisfying the expected end goal? (Have we strayed away from the main vision?)
Has anyone taken on more than they can handle or have any struggles they need help with?
Last but not least, to boost team spirit, make it a habit to recognise and reward your team members who are doing a great job.

No one can transform into a great project manager overnight. It takes time, effort and a lot of willingness to learn and grow. But we hope that this framework will help you make the most of every opportunity you’re given to take the lead on any project. With an open mind, take one step at a time, one project at a time. You can do it! Source:
Trello
Kiss Flow
Stafiz