Home / What are the Different Stages of Project Management?
Management is a disciplined art of completing the project. Discipline here comes with respect to time and resource utilization. In the same way, project management is required in the industries to deliver a successful product or provide the best service. Proceeding with a project development without proper project management is like putting the cart before bulls. Today every firm requires project management for their business aiming for successful projects. If different stages of project management are properly followed then there are fewer chances for project failure. Today due to emerging technologies project management process is very essential to equip it into the business. The project manager plays a key role in project management from the start to the closure of the project. The main motive of project management is to deliver a quality product or provide service with respect to deadlines and resources within the budget set for the project. Project management phases are the key factors managed by the project manager with the respective teams for the project development process.
Project management has different methodologies like agile, traditional, waterfall, adaptive, critical path, pert, RUP, critical chain, extreme, scrum, six sigma, crystal, and joint application development. The best suitable model is recommended as per the analysis of project by the project manager taking the lead of the project.
a. Initiation-
In this phase, the scope of the whole project is discussed. Requirements are specified and details are shared, explained, and discussed. The feasibility of the project is checked with respect to all aspects. Multiple business cases are studied from past experiences. Expert advice is taken before starting with the actual project. All the data required for the initialization of the project before the planning phase is collected in this Initiation phase.
Points to be worked on in the Initiation phase-
1. Business case- Defines the necessity of the project.
2. Feasibility- Defines the success ratio of the project.
3. Project structure- Define the structure and execution process of the project.
4. Team- To hire, to train, and then utilize skilled resources.
5. Project Office- Location from where the project manager and assist-team work together.
6. Review- To review the initiation process and review progress till completion of the project.
b. Planning-
As the output of data provided from the Initiation phase planning and analysis are done in order to achieve targets. As single plan does not guarantee and so multiple business cases are created by the manager. Meetings are scheduled by the manager with the account team and stakeholders for Cost budgeting. The actual budget is compared with the estimated budget as planned by the manager. The estimated price is tried to be minimized compared to the actual budget set. After the analysis is done for all activities then they are assigned to the particular resource as a task by a project manager. A Project manager assigns the task to the respective team knowing the skills and experience of the members. A Manager also makes sure that he has enough resources for all the activities related to the scope of a project. Uncertain risks are also considered by the project manager and planning is done accordingly.
c. Execution-
Execution is a process where planning are executed as tasks. An activity chart is prepared by the manager which is strictly followed with respect to resources and time. Tasks are been assigned to teams in terms of resources as per discusses in planning phase. Deadlines are followed as discussed in the planning phase. Activities are executed as tasks and taken care of by respective teams under the control of the project manager. Daily team reports are been sent to the project manager by the team. The manager checks the report and maintains its track record. A manager also schedules weekly meetings to share the status of projects with leads of the respective team. If the manager finds that tasks are not getting completed as planned according to activities then necessary steps are taken to solve the concerns. Uncertain changes in project flow are also taken care of by a project manager.
d. Manage and Control-
It is important to monitor the project till final closure. The project manager controls the budget of the project as per set in the planning phase. It is the duty of the manager to deliver quality projects within the deadline set with respect to budget and resources. There are maximum possibilities where uncertain changes can occur so the project activities are required to be monitored and controlled. There are many cases where lots of projects although successful at the initial phase failed after execution due to lack of monitoring and control over the project.
Factors needed to be controlled are-
1. Scope
2. Schedule
3. Cost
4. Quality
5. Communication
6. Uncertain changes
8. Risk
9. Procurements
10. Stakeholder engagements
e. Closure-
If the project delivers a successful product or provides the best service then it is marked as completed. After a quality product is delivered by the project within deadline with respect to resources and set budget then the project is declared as successful. In this phase even if a project is failed or succeeds some learning is taken as a conclusion. A complete project can never be perfect meeting all requirements. If some features are pending in the current project version then future enhancement is added for the next version of the system. Documentation of the project is also maintained by a project manager for reference.
As a result, it concludes that project management for every industry is very essential also understanding the roles of a project manager. The project manager is not only a professional degree holder but also PMP certified manager. As management is the art of getting things done with respect to time and resources it can be learned and skills can be developed through management courses. So Monks Learning Lab is providing the best course of PMP training to develop professionals in all industries under the guidance of experts in those respective firms. Already Monks Learning Labs have given rise to many milestones in this career. It's a knocking opportunity for those who want to be professionals in the upcoming opportunities by industries.
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