Over 85% of project managers run multiple projects at the same time. A single project can often feel like a lot to manage, but multiple projects at the same time call for a structured way to manage projects.
What you need is a project management process.
By establishing a structured process for every project, you can ensure both efficiency and effectiveness. You meet more deadlines and achieve more objectives—all while expending fewer resources (and sustaining less headaches).
In this article, we show you the five essential phases of the project management process along with four expert tips to ensure your project’s success.
What is a project management process?
A project management process is a structured, systematic approach to planning, executing, and completing a project. It sets the foundation for project success, helping managers organize, delegate, and oversee various tasks from inception to completion.
Creating and following a predictable project management process has massive benefits for your business, such as:
- Improved efficiency and effectiveness: With a clear roadmap guiding you toward project success, you better understand what needs to be done, by whom, and by when. It streamlines the process, helping you focus your efforts for maximum effect.
- Easier communication: A well-defined process helps you share and facilitate communication between team members and stakeholders. Everyone gets the information they need, exactly when they need it.
- Enhanced resource management: A process makes it easier to plan and allocate your resources efficiently, helping you manage time and budget for specific tasks
- Better quality: Established process leads to clear standards, which leads to better quality. When you plan your project in advance, you establish expectations for all team members involved, helping secure your project’s success.
The truth is, there are more benefits to establishing a project management process than there are tasks on your to-do list. Now let’s see how those tasks fit into the five essential project management phases.
5 Essential phases of the project management process
According to the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) guide created by industry authority Project Management Institute, you can divide any project into five essential phases.Source
1. Project conception and initiation
Your aim in the project conception and initiation phase is to turn an abstract idea into a business plan, complete with meaningful goals and project charters. At the beginning of this project management phase, the project manager meets with stakeholders to prove the value and feasibility of the project.
Typically, this will involve creating and handing in three main documents:
- A business case: Justifies needs, project objectives, and ROI
- A feasibility study: Proving you can complete the project within a reasonable time with reasonable costs
- A project charter: Conveying what results your project will deliver along with key information like constraints ,project timeline, potential budget, and more
After stakeholders or project sponsors approve the project conception and scope, the manager moves on to assemble a team.
2. Project planning
The project planning phase is all about doubling down on the practical details that help you execute, monitor, and complete your project successfully.
In this phase, the project manager identifies:
- Project goals: The specific objectives you seek to achieve with your project. They provide a clear direction and benchmark for success.
- Deliverables: Specific outcomes your project must produce to be considered successful. Deliverables can be tangible such as a new software application or building, or intangible such as increased brand awareness or customer satisfaction.
- A detailed project plan: A comprehensive plan detailing all aspects of project management and execution. It includes your goal, scope, timeline schedule, budget, quality standards, communication plan, and risk management.
All your documents in the project planning phase will stem from your goals. SMART goals set your project up for success and help you expand your objectives into a fully fledged project plan. By SMART, we mean:
- Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish
- Measurable: Measure success with criteria such as key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Attainable: You should be able to achieve your goals with available resources
- Relevant: Aligning with both short-term and long-term business objectives
- Time-bound: Use a clearly defined timeline, including a start and end date
An example of a SMART objective would be:
“Increase the website’s monthly unique visitors from 10,000 to 15,000 by December 31, 2024, by launching a targeted social media advertising campaign.”
💡 Use a combination of project scheduling and collaboration tools to record your plan and communicate with stakeholders. Microsoft Projects lets you create complex schedules while Slack lets you communicate with team members in real time. |
3. Project execution
The project execution phase is when your team members do the work you’ve defined and delegated throughout the project planning phase. However, that doesn’t mean job done for you as a project manager—far from it.
In fact, the project manager’s role becomes even more crucial through delegating tasks, establishing efficient workflows, and maintaining effective collaboration between members and stakeholders.
Communication is one of the most crucial aspects of successful project management—from start to finish. As the project progresses, make sure to keep communication channels open in case team members need support and stakeholders need updating.
4. Project monitoring and controlling
When your team is hard at work achieving your project’s goal, it’s the project manager’s job to monitor progress and take corrective action when necessary. In the simplest terms, the goal for this phase is to ensure the project goes as smoothly as possible while your team follows your project management plan.
During this phase, schedule and conduct periodic reviews with team members while addressing roadblocks if and when they appear. This is where your established project plan from the second phase plays a crucial role. Measure your team’s progress against your established goal, timeline, and quality standards.
You want to know:
- If your project team is consistently meeting deadlines for their delegated tasks
- If your teams’ outputs and deliverables match quality standards
- If your team is staying within budget and resource constraints
- If your team will require project changes like deadline extensions, more resources, or an alternative workflow
Rather than being sequential, the monitoring and controlling phase runs simultaneously with the execution phase. As team members execute tasks, the project manager ensures they’re smoothly moving towards project completion.
5. Project closure
The project closure phase marks the end of your project. In this phase, you wrap up activities, present stakeholders with deliverables, and disband your team. After verifying the project’s completion, stakeholders and project managers will frequently hold reflection meetings. During these meetings, you can assess successes and failures while discussing potential areas for improvement.
You will also need to create a performance or evaluation report, detailing your project’s success in achieving its original goals and timeline. Finally, collect all your project’s documentation and archive it according to your organization’s policies. These documents will serve as a reference point for future projects and audits.
Now that you know how to see your project off from start to finish, let’s look at some tips to ensure project management success.
4 Tips to streamline your project management process for success
Having a systematic process guides you toward project success. But if you want to go the extra mile to minimize mistakes and ensure stakeholder satisfaction, you still need to implement the right strategies along the way.
Here are four tips to help keep you organized and streamline your project management process.
1. Use the right project management methodology
Every project is unique. What works for one industry or organization won’t necessarily work for yours. While the five essential product management phases are standard and apply to most instances, you might need a project with a specific approach.
Three of the most effective project management methodologies include:
- Waterfall: A linear project management approach where employees must complete each phase before the next begins. Because of its rigidity, the waterfall method is best for projects with well-established requirements.
- Agile: A flexible, iterative approach towards projects that promotes continuous testing. This project management methodology allows for rapid response to change, making it ideal for projects where deliverables need to be constantly updated.
- Kanban method: A visual project management approach that uses a Kanban board to manage tasks at various stages in the workflow. It’s best for projects varying in priority and complexity.
2. Foster clear communication between employees, managers, and stakeholders
Clear communication is one of the most important aspects of successful project management. It ensures that everyone participating in the project clearly understands goals and can respond to urgent changes if necessary.
Some techniques for facilitating effective communication include:
- Regular team meetings: Meet with project team members and stakeholders daily, weekly, or monthly to establish, revisit, and discuss goals, needs, and progress
- Collaborative tools: Tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Asana facilitate smoother communication and offer a space where team members can raise concerns, discuss project details, and ask questions asynchronously
- Conduct communication training: Effective communication is a skill that takes time to develop. By training employees before your project begins, you can ensure efficient project coordination.
3. Assemble a diverse risk response team
Every project comes with risks. Processes might take additional time, key resources may become unavailable, and compliance issues can delay fulfilling your long-term business objectives. That’s why it’s best to foresee potential issues, assess their impact, and mitigate them with a risk response team if they appear.
To put together your team, select team members and stakeholders with diverse skills relevant to the project. For example, a legal professional on your team can help you assess compliance law risks while a financial professional can help you properly mitigate any economic resource constraints.
After assigning roles to each team member, develop a comprehensive risk management plan. Your plan should include a detailed process for identifying and responding to risks, criteria for risk prioritization, communication protocols, and documentation procedures.
Finally, set regular reviews and updates to discuss evolving risks while monitoring your predictions throughout the project lifecycle.
4. Set and monitor milestones throughout your project
Milestones are markers of significant achievement throughout your project’s life cycle. Rather than having one end goal, break up your project into several smaller progress points with deadlines. Then, monitor and check off your milestones as the project progresses. Setting and monitoring milestones does three things:
- It helps you measure progress: Setting and meeting smaller goals throughout your project makes it easier to track progress over longer periods while gauging if your project is progressing on track
- It helps you motivate your team: A milestone can serve as a tangible sense of achievement for team members upon completion, acting as a demonstration of progress and a morale boost
- Helps to inform stakeholders: Milestones show stakeholders exactly how far you’ve progressed with the project, helping them review progress and make informed decisions for the product’s future direction
Improve your project management skills with the help of a corporate trainer
Successfully managing projects from inception to closure requires impeccable time management, communication, and organization skills. Project managers need consistent upskilling to ensure they can juggle multiple schedules, meet stakeholder demands, and ensure project success.
So why not let a certified training provider help?
Perhaps it’s time for some communication upskilling for your team, or maybe they need a complete course on project management. Whichever the case, Comprehensive Learning Solutions can help you train your employees to be exceptional project managers. From analyzing skill gaps to providing custom training programs, CLS has the tools, knowledge, and expertise to ensure your next project goes smoothly and helps you reach your business objectives.
FAQS for the project management process
1. What are the five Ps of project management?
The 5 Ps of project management are:
- Plan: Refers to setting clear and attainable goals and formulating strategies for the whole project before it begins
- Process: the operational and organizational methods you’ll use to set goals, facilitate progress, and complete your project
- People: Including the professionals involved in project development and management such as team members and stakeholders
- Possessions: Includes organizational possessions and assets such as human, intellectual, economic, and marketing capital
- Profit: Managing the project successfully such that it provides long-term profit for your business
2. What is a project life cycle?
A project life cycle describes the phases a project goes through from its start to completion. It’s another word for the project management process and consists of five phases:
- Initiation
- Planning
- Execution
- Monitoring and controlling
- Closure
3. What is project scoping?
Project scoping is the act of clearly defining and documenting a project’s wider objectives, assumptions, and constraints. It’s critical to establish project boundaries so stakeholders, project managers, and team members know what they’re attempting to accomplish.