Process of Project Management

By Priya Chetty on February 16, 2012

For many years Project Managers learned their trade by experience, typically an Engineer would be promoted to the role of Project Manager and if they succeeded in delivering their first project they would be rewarded with larger more challenging projects (almost until they failed).

The figure below shows the process of project management (Linn, 1985):

Assemble the Team

The team of project planning is assembled, including the correct representation from the clients/customers and sometimes the vendors and subcontractors (Vijay, 1996). The initial responsibilities and roles are defined. The deliverables are the beginning setup for project documentation (Stuckenbruck, 1981).

Define the Objectives of Project

When the project team is in place, the overall purpose of the project is verified and the detailed objectives of the project are developed. The review of phase-exit is conducted to ensure that the project is ready to move into the next phase which is planning. The deliverables here are the review of phase exit checklist and charter of the project (Neal, 1995).

Define the Scope of the Project

The appropriate detail structure of the work breakdown is developed to ensure that the scope of the project is understood and agreed properly by all the stakeholders. This allows the complete project to split into appropriate sub-projects. The deliverables here are the structure of project work (Weidman, 1992).

Constructing a beginning Plan

Once the tasks of correct levels have been identified in the structure of work breakdown they are organized by the project team into diagrams of logical network by judging the durations. This allows the project manager to predict when the activities are complete, identifies the difficult path for the project and assess the feasibility of target dates. The deliverables here are the begin work-plan (Robert, 2003).

Adds the Resources, Risks and Costs

There are certain resources for the project that may be defined as difficult resources. The project manager may commit that the project staff may be faced with too much of work. If so, then the committed usage of resource information can be added to the plan of the project to allow the resource forecasting. The cost is critically necessary and the expenditure can be added to the plan for creating the committed requirements of flow of cash. The risk management can be utilized by the projects to provide a framework to manage the events nicely that occurs beyond the control of the project team (Robert, 2001). The deliverables here are the availability of resource and profiles for commitment, control strategies, risk identification and forecast the flow of cash (Thomas, 1980).

Obtains the Buy-in of Stakeholder

To ensure that the project is implemented smoothly with the support of the involved parties, it is important to review the beginning plans with all the main stakeholders of the project and buy-in solicit from each one. The review of phase-exit is conducted to ensure that the project is ready to move into the next phase, which is control. The deliverables here are the final plan that was approved and review of phase-exit checklist (Baguley, 1999).

Publishing the Plan

Once the plans are agreed they must communicate effectively to all the stakeholders. This can be done in reproduction via electric media, depending on the available resources. In most of the projects the communication plan is developed and the distribution of the plan will follow the guidelines that were laid out in the communication plan. The deliverables here are the publishing the plan to all the stakeholders (Balachandra, 1997).

Collecting the Progress Information

On the regular basis, the project manager will collect the progress information together that was reported by the project team. This allows the compilation of the reports of the progress such as:

The activities that was completed within 2 weeks.
The forecast of activities for the next 2 weeks, with a focus on activities of difficult path.
Fund expenditure forecast vs. Funds expended.
Prioritizing the issues of report (Forrest, 2000).

The metrics can be developed to measure the progress of the project in other ways, such as activity float statistics or earned value. If the project manager reviews the data of the progress and concludes that the project is complete, then the review of phase-exit is finished to confirm that all the objectives have been met before moving into the phrase of final closure. The deliverables here are the set of reports of progress, set of reports of exception, reports for metrics (Hancock, 1996).

Analyzing the Present Status

By analyzing the progress of the information received, the project manager is able to argue the above reports with the information about where problems are likely to occur in the future and which areas of the project are considered. This allows the manager to focus on the difficult and important areas of the project (Carl, 2000). The deliverables here are the evaluation of the project.

Adjusting the Plan and managing the change of the Project

With the support of the project team based on the analysis, the project manager is make the adjustments of the plan to reduce the risk, accommodating the changes of scope or to pay for the activities that have not occur on the schedule. Once this has happened, the plan is published again and the cycle is repeated until the project is finished. The deliverables here are the change in the forms of the request and updates the plan (David, 1983).

Closing the Project

If the objectives of the project have been received, then the project manager is close the project. This involves some financial closure task and archives of the materials of the project. The document of the learned lesson is developed to benefit for the projects in the future and if it is possible the celebration of the project team is held (Marquis, 2000).

References

Linn C, Team Building for Project Managers, 1985.
Stuckenbruck C, the Implementation of Project Management: The Professional’s Handbook, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1981.
Neal W, Managing Software Development Projects: Formula for Success, 1995.
Vijay K, Human Resource Skills for the Project Manager: The Human Aspects of Project Management, 1996.
Weidman, R, Project and Program Risk Management: A Guide to Managing Project Risks and Opportunities, 1992.
Robert K, Effective Project Management, New York: Wiley, 2003.
Robert K, Building Effective Project Teams, 2001.
Thomas J, “R&D Performance as a Function of Internal Communication, Project Management, and the Nature of the Work, 1980.
Baguley, Project Management: Teaching Yourself, NTC Publishing Group, 1999.
Balachandra, R, Factors for Success in R&D Projects and New Product Innovation: A Contextual Framework,1997.
Forrest W, Managing Six Sigma, John Wiley & Sons, 2000.
Hancock T, Risk Methodology (Introducing): The European Project Risk Management Methodology, 1996.
Carl S, Microsoft Project 2000: Step by Step, 2000.
David I, Project Management Handbook, 1983.
Marquis A, Mastering Microsoft Project 2000, 2000.