At the initial stage of planning and management of projects, it definitely seems to be an arduous task involving several steps and tight time schedules. To make things simple in your way, go through the five essential steps in project management which may help divide your efforts and accomplish your goals.
Project Conception and Initiation
The initial phase involves defining the concepts of the project and that marks the starting up of the project. The feasibility and value are the two factors that determine the future of the project. Typically, project managers make use of the following tools to evaluate both:
Business Case Document: An official document which estimates the benefits of businesses in financial terms and justifies the need for the project
Feasibility Study: It is basically an evaluation process to determine whether the project makes sense or not, carried out by careful evaluation of the project’s requirements, goals, and the cost to be incurred.
Project Definition and Planning
Project definition and planning involves defining the objectives, costs, timeframe, and scope of the project. To follow a right sequence of procedures and for the on-time completion of the projects, it becomes necessary to adopt a perfect plan for your project to be a success.
The project plans give your team a clear understanding of the communication benefits, acceptance creation, risk handling and much more. Moreover, it helps your team to identify the obstacles to be encountered while working with the project.
Project Execution
Being the longest phase in project management, project execution phase is the most energy and resource consuming among all the phases of project management. The construction of physical deliverables and their presentation to the customers happens in this phase.
The objective of this very vital phase of project management is to get things according to the project plan defined during the first phase.
Project monitoring and control
This phase ensures whether the timeliness, scope, and budget of the project are proceeding with the minimal risk or not. With the effective comparison of planned performance with the actual performance of the team, it helps team members to make appropriate corrective measures so as to obtain the desired outcome.
The process continues throughout the project, from the beginning to the closure stage and oversees all the necessary tasks related to the project.
Project Closure
This vital phase of project management is when you are all set to deliver your project to your customer. The main things happen in this phase are communication with stakeholders, documentation, and evaluation of the project, the releasing of the resources.The next thing to happen is to move on to the next project, remembering the mistakes and achievements working on the previous one.
Even though the journey of project management seems a bit difficult, you can ease your efforts and effectively manage your projects by breaking it into different phases for the wise utilization of time and resources.