Project Management Process
Introduction: The management process of planning and controlling the performance or execution of a project is defined as Project Management Process. It constitutes a series of actions which produce the desired result. In general, this process falls into one of two major categories –
- Project Management Process – the goal of the project is describe, defined, organized, and completed
- Product Oriented Process – the product of the project is specified and created, typically defined by the project life cycle.
The Project Management Process is systematized into the following five groups –
- Initiating Process – getting the project approved or sanctioned
- Planning Process – the objectives are defined and refined by selecting the best courses of action to attain the goal that the project was undertaken to address
- Executing Process – managing coordination between the management and other resources to carry out the plan
- Controlling Process – it is imperative to ensure that the objectives of the project are met by regular monitoring and measuring the progress in order to identify discrepancies from the original plan, followed by corrective action to be taken when required
- Closing Process – the project is formally brought to an end, after achieving the desired objectives and goals.
Explanation of the above steps:
Project Initiation: It is the conceptual element of project management, wherein the project is started by performing the basic processes. This initial point is critical since the people involved in the project, namely, those who deliver the project, those who use the project and those who have a stake in the project need to come to a mutual agreement on its initiation. The stakeholder involvement expands the probability of satisfying customer requirements by storing the buy-in and shared ownership of the project by the stakeholders. This process constitutes the following steps –
- Project Selection
- Determination of business needs
- Collection of historical data
- Determination of objectives
- Determination of high level deliverables and estimates
- Product description development
- Identification of the project manager qualifications
- Determination of high level resource requirements
- Procurement of project initiation approval
Project Planning: Considered to be the most important phase, this phase determines the time spent up front in identifying a proper structure for organizing and managing a project, saving hours of confusion and rework during the subsequent execution and control phases of the project. The project activities that would be performed get defined in this phase, besides describing how they will be accomplished and managed. In short, this is the phase wherein the scope, tasks, schedules, cost, risk, quality, and staffing needs are identified and documented.
The Planning phase involves the following steps –
A specific work that needs to be performed is identified the goals are set to define the project
Documented estimates are provided regarding schedule, resources and cost for planning, tracking, and controlling the project.
- Organizational commitments are obtained which are then planned, documented, and agreed upon
- The development and documentation of project alternatives
- Establishment of a platform from which the project may be managed
- In order to achieve the above set conditions, a variety of planning processes may be incorporated, some of which include – cost management, resource management, scope management , schedule management, quality management, procurement management, communications management, risk management and integrated change control management.
Project Execution: The project activities which were planned to be performed in the above step needs to be executed in this phase. The focus of the project manager and his team is now shifted from planning the project to analysing the work that needs to be done, thereby resulting in the completion of the project deliverables and accomplishment of the project goals.
It is imperative that both the project manager and his team considers the following:
- The on-going work activities are to be conducted, coordinated and managed
- Frequent quality assurance activities are to be performed in order to ensure if the project objectives are being achieved
- Risks are to be identified and monitored, followed by triggering events subsequent strategies if required
- Also incorporate facilitating processes such as quality, communication, human resource, change, and procurement
Project Controlling: It is a formal process, wherein Project Control gets defined as a project management function. This involves a comparison between actual performance with planned performance, and when noteworthy differences exist, a corrective action is to be taken in order to produce the desired result. Variances from the planned baseline are identified by reviewing metrics and report status. This is achieved by comparing the actual performance metrics from the execution phase against the baseline metrics assigned during the planning phase. If resulted in a significant variance, the original plan needs to be re-adjusted to facilitate appropriate project planning processes. Performance Reporting and Integrated Change Control constitute the core control processes implemented during this phase.
Project Closing: is the last phase of the life cycle of a project, wherein the project closeout is determined, by assessing whether the project goals have been met and if the project deliverables have been accepted by the client. This phase also summarizes if any lessons must be learnt at the outset.
The following include key factors when a project is to be closed down –
- Contractual agreements with suppliers or providers if any, need to be completed and closed out
- Formal acceptance of the project deliverables by the customer
- Financial matters need to be settled
- A final performance report is to be prepared
- A project review is to be conducted
- Documenting lessons learned
- Project records need to be completed, collected and archived