Project management is defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet specific project requirements. A project is an endeavor that has a defined start and end date, requires resources such as time, people, and money, and results in new products, services, or changes that meet business needs.

While many people associate projects with large construction work like building bridges and houses, they can also be as simple as creating a content strategy or organizing a company event. Projects can also be more adventurous, such as planning an expedition to the North Pole or creating an app for your own company.

Why project management is important

Having processes for creating, executing, and controlling projects ensures that you complete them on time and achieve successful results.

• Provides a roadmap to success: By having processes for creating, executing, and controlling projects, you can ensure that you reach the finish line on time and achieve successful results;
• Increases productivity and efficiency while reducing costs: The goal is to create excellent goods or services while reducing costs in terms of time and money;
• Improves client satisfaction: Clients will be happy if they receive top-notch products without spending a lot of money or wasting time;
• Improves collaboration: When team members know what needs to be done and have the right tools to share knowledge, completing projects on time becomes easier;
• Identifies and evaluates risks early on Project management practices help you identify and evaluate risks early on, resulting in fewer obstacles in your path;
• Provides a competitive advantage: Using project management to deliver excellent products/services/results is the only surefire way of thriving in the market. Becoming a great project manager can make you a professional every company wants to retain.

To experience these benefits, you need a structured process. We’ll show you exactly what you need to do, every step of the way.

The Crucial Skills and Roles of Project Management

As a project manager, your responsibilities will include:

• Successfully plan and execute projects;
• Manage risks, issues, and changes;
• Communicate with stakeholders (team members, clients, top management, contractors, etc.);
• Manage scope, resources, time, and budget;
• Manage your project team and organize work.

To accomplish this, the following project management skills will be required:

• Communication;
• Organization;
• Leadership;
• Coaching;
• Critical thinking;
• Time management;
• Task management;
• Risk management;
• Quality management;
• Technological proficiency.

The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Project Management Phases

You may be familiar with the concept of “the project life cycle”, which involves managing projects in four phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution, and Closure. Each phase consists of specific activities that need to be accomplished. By following the steps outlined below, you can successfully complete your projects.

Project Initiation

During the project initiation phase, you will gather all the necessary documentation and requirements to effectively plan your project. The following rules are essential for successful project initiation:

• Ask questions if you are unsure;
• Ensure all loose ends are tied up;
• Do not accept vague requirements and criteria;
• Strive for clarity in all aspects of the project.

Develop a Project Scope Statement

Once you have received a project proposal from your client, whether internal or external, it is important to review it thoroughly to understand their requirements, goals, and expectations.

Your project scope statement should include:

Objectives	What will be accomplished with the project and deliverables? You can use the SMART goal-setting method.
Project Justification	What is the client hoping to accomplish with this project? What are their short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals? (E.g. Attract more customers / Implement a legislative change).
Product Description	What should the final product look like? (E.g. An app for 10,000 users, a brand awareness marketing campaign, an improved recruiting process).
Acceptance Criteria	Criteria that will define whether the project was successful or not (E.g. You created an app that can successfully serve up to 10,000 users at a time – Successful. / You created an app that doesn’t have basic features the client requested – Unsuccessful.)
Project Exclusions	The things that the project will not produce. (E.g. The project will not produce a sales campaign.)
Necessary Resources	The resources you will need to complete the project. (E.g. Ten team members, independent contractors, funding, etc.)
Project Constraints	Time, scope, and budget. (E.g. You have three months to complete an app for only 10,000 users, and you can spend $10,000.)
Risk and Change Policies	How will you discuss potential changes during the project? (E.g. Changes are acceptable and subject to additional negotiation, or changes are unacceptable.)
Metrics	Which metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) will you use to monitor project performance, progress, and success?

Develop a Work Breakdown Structure

Once you have established the scope of your project, it is time to organize your work and create a work breakdown structure:

• Start with the overall project goal or end product, and then break down the work into tasks or work packages;
• Ensure that each work package or task lasts between 80 hours and 10 days;
• Include information on the necessary resources required to complete each task;
• Identify important milestones such as the completion of a crucial app feature;
• Focus on deliverables and outcomes rather than actions to help you stay within the project’s scope.

For instance, if you were creating an app, you would likely divide the work into front-end and back-end tasks and then break it down even further. Your WBS is complete when you can no longer break down tasks into smaller ones.

Select a Project Management Methodology

After comprehending the shape and scope of your project, you can choose a project management methodology to follow that will provide you and your team with the structure needed to successfully complete the project. Some of the most popular project management methodologies today include:

Traditional/Waterfall Project Management

This approach involves completing your project in distinct phases:

• Initiation;
• Planning;
• Design;
• Execution & Testing;
• Monitoring & Completion.

There are limited opportunities for additional iterations once a certain stage has been completed. However, traditional project management is one of the most comprehensive approaches.

This approach is best suited for simple projects where all expectations and goals are clear from the start, and projects where goals and scope are unlikely to change. For instance, if you were working on an internal project to adapt your company’s processes to new legislative changes (such as GDPR implementation), you could choose the Waterfall project management methodology.

Agile Scrum Project Management Methodology

Scrum is a widely used framework for Agile, iterative project management methodology. Initially created for software development, it is still an effective methodology if you’re developing software or frequently need to make changes to your project and products.

Using Agile, you break down the entire project work into smaller work batches. For instance, if you’re developing an app, you would divide the work into features and work on them during sprints.

Sprint Phases	Description
Product Backlog Creation	This phase involves listing all the main product features/deliverables that the client expects from the project.
Sprint Planning	In this phase, you plan all the sprints necessary to complete the stipulated features. You also establish the goals for each sprint.
Create a Sprint Backlog	This phase involves adding all the tasks that will be covered in that particular sprint to your sprint backlog.
Sprint	The sprint phase is where the actual work begins. The sprint shouldn’t last longer than 4 weeks. You’ll hold daily Scrum meetings and add any additional tasks irrelevant to the current sprint to the backlog for future reference.
Sprint Review	After finishing the sprint, you’ll test out the features/deliverables and discuss your performance. You’ll also review the backlog and any additional tasks that might have appeared during the current sprint.
Ship	In this phase, you’ll demonstrate or implement the feature created during the sprint. You’ll compare with acceptance criteria and get feedback from the client.
Plan the Next Sprint	This methodology emphasizes communication. You should get in touch with the client after completing every sprint and modify the project scope statement/project requirements accordingly.

Kanban Project Management Methodology

Kanban is a simple and effective methodology for organizing project work. It is ideal for teams that need to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and cannot work in sprints. It is also suitable for long-term projects and can be used as a task management tool.

Kanban is best suited for teams that need to limit their work in progress and focus on completing tasks. However, for more complex projects, Kanban can be used as a task management method.

Lean Project Management

Lean project management is a methodology that can help you and your team standardize your work for consistent excellence, particularly if you frequently work on similar projects. It’s also effective for projects in industries that struggle with redundant activities, such as banking, legal, and administration.

The Lean methodology involves completing project work in the following phases:

1. Define Customer Value: Identify what the customer expects from the project and why it matters to them;
2. Measure Capability to Meet Customer Needs: Determine if you can deliver the value your customer wants;
3. Analyze Process for Improvement Areas: Analyze your current process to identify areas for improvement that can help deliver value. Identify redundant activities, resources, and obstacles;
4. Improve and Innovate Process to Meet Customer Needs: Improve your process to meet customer needs. Remove redundancies and automate processes where possible;
5. Control Process and Sustain Performance: Implement controls to sustain the improved process and monitor performance.

Lean project management can also be combined with Agile and Kanban methodologies to create a powerful project management process.

The Critical Path Method

The Critical Path Method (CPM) is one of the oldest and most efficient project management methods. It involves the following steps:

1. Define all the tasks required to complete the project;
2. Identify task dependencies, such as Task B can’t be completed until Task A is finished;
3. Connect the tasks with their dependencies in mind;
4. Identify parallel tasks;
5. Estimate the time and resources needed to complete each task;
6. Calculate the duration to find your critical path.

The main benefit of this methodology is more accurate scheduling. If there’s a delay with one task, you can easily understand how it will affect your entire project timeline. CPM is a great fit for project teams facing resource constraints. If you don’t have all the team members available or have limited time to complete the project, CPM can work well. You can also use CPM as a tool in combination with other project management methodologies.

The PMBOK

The Project Life Cycle method involves structuring your projects and processes into four stages:

1. Initiation;
2. Planning;
3. Execution and monitoring;
4. Closing.

While not considered a separate methodology, the PMBOK method comprises these four stages that are natural in the project life cycle. It is frequently used by occasional project managers.

Creating a Project Communication Plan

As a project manager, one of your responsibilities is to communicate and engage with stakeholders, including clients, team members, top management, contractors, and vendors. The best way to approach this is by creating a project communication plan, which involves the following steps:

1. Outline the objectives of your project communication plan, such as obtaining stakeholder approval, increasing their engagement, keeping everyone informed of changes and progress, etc;
2. Identify communication requirements and preferences, including who needs which information, and when and where to communicate that information;
3. Create a matrix that contains stakeholder names, role titles, communication frequency, channels, and notes on preferences. For example, you should inform your team members of changes daily, get in touch with clients after reaching a significant milestone, etc;
4. Consider creating a RACI matrix with more details about stakeholder responsibilities, consultations, and engagement.

By creating a project communication plan, you can ensure that all stakeholders are informed and engaged throughout the project, which can lead to better outcomes and a more successful project overall.

Choosing Project Management and Project Tracking Tools

Choosing the right project management and project tracking software is crucial for the success of your project. Here are some benefits of project tracking:

• Real-time information and reporting;
• Problem and risk identification;
• Team motivation.

The best tools incorporate the following features:

• Project management;
• Task management;
• Team management;
• Team collaboration;
• Analytics and reporting;
• Project tracking;
• Adjustable permissions for stakeholder engagement;
• Visual tools and multiple view options (e.g. Gantt charts, calendar view, etc.).

Project management tools help everyone stay informed about project progress and increase transparency across your team. If possible, find one tool that covers all your needs. This way, your entire project will have a central knowledge hub for collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and you won’t have to switch between different tabs.

Make sure the tool offers analytics and reporting, which will allow you to automatically send reports to stakeholders. By choosing the right project management and project tracking tools, you can ensure that your project stays on track and meets its objectives.

Creating a Project Plan and Project Schedule

Creating a project plan and project schedule is essential for ensuring that your project stays on track and meets its objectives. Here are some methods you can use to create a project schedule:

• Critical Path Method: This method is explained in section 4 on project management methodologies;
• Gantt Charts: Add all your tasks to your project management software, add start and finish dates, create links to define task dependencies, set constraints, and assign resources;
• Resource-Oriented Project Scheduling: If you’re tight on resources, set up a diagram in your project management tool that shows the number of resources at your disposal, required tasks to complete the project, and duration of each task.

We recommend creating a critical path and then using your project management software to create visual representations of your project schedule with a Gantt chart. This way, you’ll know how any extensions affect your general project schedule. Additionally, tools increase transparency, allowing every team member to know what they need to do.

By creating a project plan and project schedule, you can ensure that your project stays organized and on track to meet its objectives.

Risk Management

Every project comes with inherent risks, and as a project manager, it’s your responsibility to manage and mitigate those risks. The main three risks you’ll come across are related to time, budget, and performance.

Fortunately, there is a 5-step risk management process you can follow to identify and plan for risks early on:

• Identify potential risks in the project planning phase;
• Create a risk management policy;
• Measure the likelihood and impact of each risk;
• Develop a plan to deal with the risk if the worst happens. You may need to notify stakeholders, accept the risks, or come up with alternative solutions for mitigating them;
• Monitor the risks throughout the project to ensure they are being managed effectively.

By following a risk management process, you can identify and plan for potential risks, minimize their impact, and ensure the success of your project.

Common Risks and Issues During Projects

During a project, there are several common risks and issues that can arise. Here are some ways to address them:

1. Running out of time: Create a project plan and schedule, identify milestones and deliverables, and use project management software to monitor performance and progress;
2. Project scope increase: Work with your team and clients on the project scope statement, include a change policy and a section on constraints. Create a realistic work breakdown structure and chart your critical path. If the project scope increases despite preparation, communicate with your clients to increase the budget or set a different deadline. Consider using Agile methodologies to mitigate risks with projects where estimates can’t be accurately calculated;
3. Team performance: Identify responsibilities early on in the planning stage, assign tasks to their owners, and make the role of every team member as clear as possible. Use a project management tool to increase transparency;
4. Client satisfaction: Acknowledge the needs of your clients in the stage where you’ll create a communication plan. Keep them updated and use project tracking metrics that will make project progress visible;
5. Lack of communication: Integrate team-building activities and practices in your day-to-day routine to encourage communication within the team. If you’re having trouble communicating with other stakeholders, create a thorough communication plan, use project management software for reporting, and implement stakeholder management and engagement practices.

Task Management

When it comes to completing a project, it can be overwhelming to tackle it as a whole. That’s why it’s important to break it down into tasks and manage them effectively. Here are some tips for task management:

How to Prioritize Tasks

• Use the “Getting Things Done” method to prioritize tasks by considering whether they should be done, delegated, or dropped entirely;
• Create action items by turning to-do list items into structured activities;
• Use the Eisenhower Matrix to identify the urgency and importance of your tasks.

Old-School Task Management Methods

• To-do lists are still incredibly effective, especially when complemented with project management software that allows for collaboration among team members;
• Whiteboards and sticky notes can be useful for visualizing progress and motivating the team.

Visual and Modern Task Management Methods

• Kanban boards can be an efficient way to organize tasks and prevent multitasking;
• Scrum boards can be used for completing contextually connected tasks at the same time;
• Gantt charts and task management tools offer different ways to visualize tasks and track progress.

Task Tracking

To ensure timely completion of tasks, it’s important to track the following factors:

• Milestones;
• Team member assignation;
• Task status and project progress;
• Task follow-up and dependencies.

Choosing a Task Management Tool

If you have a lot of tasks and dependencies, it’s best to use a spreadsheet or project management software. When choosing a tool, consider ease of use, features, and user adoption. Involve your team in the process and provide guidelines on how to use the tool effectively.

By effectively managing tasks, you can ensure the success of your project and keep your team on track.

Project Management Metrics

To ensure that your project is completed on time and stays on track, it’s important to pay attention to project management metrics. Once you have established SMART goals, use the following metrics to monitor your progress and performance across projects:

• Milestones completed;
• Billable and unbillable hours;
• Return on investment;
• Project cancellation and change rate;
• Customer satisfaction;
• Net promoter score;
• Number of errors and customer complaints;
• On-time completion and planned hours vs actual time spent;
• Number of time and budget changes;
• Resource conflict.

However, even just paying attention to project status and progress in your project management tool can go a long way in improving project success. Additionally, micro metrics such as tasks completed (in general and per team member), time it took to complete tasks, and milestones completed can also be useful.

Your metrics will also depend on the project management methodology you choose. For example, if you opt for Scrum, you might want to track goal success, sprint velocity, and sprint burndown. By monitoring project management metrics, you can ensure that your project is on track and make adjustments as needed to ensure its success.

Effective Project Team Collaboration

As a project manager, you may find yourself managing your team more than you manage risks and constraints. It’s important to improve team collaboration to ensure project success. Here are some tips:

• Offer advice, but avoid micromanaging. Be available to your team members and coach them, but don’t constantly check up on them if they don’t need help;
• Decentralize knowledge sharing. Have a central tool that team members can turn to for information and create a process of knowledge-sharing where the right information goes directly to the right people;
• Clarify roles and responsibilities. Every task should have one clear owner who is responsible for its completion. If the task results and information have to be handed over to another team member after completion, make that clear;
• Encourage honesty and feedback. Hold frequent feedback sessions and create a safe brainstorming space for your team. It’ll boost their creative thinking, ensuring that you handle obstacles smoothly;
• Resolve conflicts. If a conflict arises, don’t ignore it. Instead, talk to the relevant team members and help them resolve the conflict by steering their discussion, not simply closing it;
• Ensure everyone is on the same page. Your team should primarily be on the same page regarding goals and priorities. This is especially important when it comes to cross-functional team collaboration.

While it would be ideal to always work with people who are highly-skilled and highly communicative, no two team members are alike. By implementing these tips, you can improve team collaboration and ensure the success of your project.

Wrapping Up a Project

After completing all the tasks and finishing the product, there are a few other things to take care of:

• Quality assessment: Reference the project initiation documentation to ensure that the end product/service meets the acceptance criteria;
• Wrap up the paperwork: Complete all the necessary paperwork, including billing, release, and general project documentation;
• Conduct a post-mortem meeting: Bring your team together to review your process, identify areas for improvement, and discuss lessons learned. This is especially important if you’ll be working together in the future;
• Celebrate: Don’t forget to celebrate your team’s hard work and success!

By taking care of these final steps, you can ensure that the project is fully completed, documented, and celebrated.

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can successfully complete your project, even if it’s your first time managing one. At the end of the day, project management is all about communication. Communicate effectively with your clients and team members to ensure that you understand their needs and expectations. If necessary, put on your problem-solving hat to get everyone on the same page. Once you understand your clients and team members, the project itself will become much easier to manage. Don’t let the complexities of project management intimidate you – with a clear plan and effective communication, you can achieve success.