What are the Project Management Process and Phases

David
Peter Martinez updated on 2023-03-23 14:48:53

Understanding the project management cycle and the project management process is essential whether you're working on a small project or a large one. This understanding helps in keeping the project organized and reduces the likeliness of you failing.

Also, you can track the progress from the starting till the end if you implement the project management phases or processes. If you're interested and want to make your project a success, read along.

What is Project Management Processes

Every company out there deals with some project or the other. After all, it's the projects that help companies build capacity, create value, and achieve success. However, not many companies are sure of their success and eventually end up failing.

Do you know why? It's because companies ignore the project management process flow.

However, now, companies have understood the importance of project management processes. Such processes help in creating a centralized approach that works for whatever project that you take up. And this way, you can ensure project success no matter how vast or extensive it is.

What is a project & project lifecycle

You can think of a project management as a set of processes aiming to achieve results, create and deliver a new product or service to the customers or clients. And a project lifecycle is a set of project management steps from the start of the project.

This lifecycle is divided into small phases, which makes the entire project very clear and easy to understand. Generally, the project management phases are defined as: -

  1. Initiation
  2. Planning
  3. Execution
  4. Closure

Let's talk about these phases in detail below.


What are the 4 Project Management Processes and Phases

You can think of the below phases as project management process example for deeper understanding: -

1.Initiation

As the name suggests, it's the initial phase. Here, you need to identify a business problem, need, or opportunity. Then, you need to find ways of solving the problem and communicate the same with your team.

This step basically focuses on setting the objectives. You need to define the goals or objectives and find whether or not it's feasible. 

Project management process steps in the initiation phase

  • Feasibility: It helps in finding the problem you're planning to undertake. It's to check whether you'll be able to deliver a solution or not.
  • Scope identification: It helps in determining how extensive the project is.
  • Deliverables: Here you need to define the results you want to achieve.
  • Project stakeholders: You need to analyze the needs of the people affected by the project, i.e., stakeholders.
  • Statement of work: It contains all the project's objectives, the scope, agreement of the team members, and deliverables.

2.Planning

Once the project is approved, you need to plan out everything. Here you'll break down the project into small understandable chunks of information.

Project management process steps in the planning phase

  • Creating a plan: It focuses on defining the timeline and the tasks to be performed.
  • Workflow Diagrams: Visual representation of the project takes place for better understanding.
  • Budget: A rough estimate of how much is to be spent and what return is expected is defined. 
  • Resources: Here, you need to define the team and make sure that they have the resources.
  • Risks: you need to identify the risks which might hinder the project.
  • Kickoff: You need to bring your team together and share all the requirements and start working. 

3.Execution 

Once you've planned everything, it's time for execution. Here you'll put your plan into action.

Project management process steps in the execution phase

  • Task Creation: You need to assign small tasks to the team.
  • Briefing the team: Here, you have to brief the team and clear doubts, if any.
  • Ensuring communication: It's to provide regular updates to the stakeholders.
  • Tracking progress: It is to track the progress and ensure the quality of the work.
  • Budget Management: Here, you need to monitor the budget and keep track of resources and assets.

4.Closure

This phase comes when you've completed the project. In this phase, you have to release the resources, give the deliverables and determine the success.

Project management process steps in the Closure phase 

  • Project Performance: In this step, you need to check whether or not the project goals were met.  
  • Team Performance: This step is to check the performance of the team members.
  • Documenting the closure: Here, you need to make sure that every aspect of the project is completed.  
  • Reviews/Feedback: Here, you need to analyze the entire projectand note the lessons learned useful for the projects.  
  • Budget Analysis: 

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