Project management stages: definition and fundamental phases
The stages of project management are a fundamental concept for the organization of companies.
In everyday life, we manage and deal with projects such as: moving, marriage, travel planning.... But we also have to manage projects in the workplace, such as the development and implementation of an accounting software, the organization of a humanitarian mission in Africa or the launch of a new product or service.
Although they refer to different topics, they generally share the same project management steps . In this article, Appvizer focuses on the notion of project management, breaking down the stages of a project.
Project Management Stages
This video simply and clearly defines what project management is. Watch it to understand it all in just two minutes!
Step 1: Planning and monitoring activities
Unless we turn to Chronos, God of time, to be able to plan and carry out our project on schedule, planning is a must!
Step 2: Divide up the project tasks
The first thing to do is to divide the project into several stages. A stage corresponds to an action, i.e. you can assign start and end dates to each stage. Keeping track of the project's life cycle is essential for the good organization of the project. Otherwise, you will have to start all over again if you do not take into account the interrelationship between tasks.
Step 3: Stagger the tasks
Once this action has been taken, you will be able to stagger the tasks and coordinate for each work team. Obviously, in a microenterprise, a team can be synonymous with a person, but the idea remains the same for any type of enterprise. Each specific project activity or task is attributed to each project participant according to his or her specialty.
Step 4: Manage tasks
Thanks to the good organization and planning of the workflow, if the person organizes his activities well, he will always save time. It remains to find the right timeline for the execution of the project. For example, if you are a producer and distributor of dairy products, you cannot start with the manufacture of the packaging (milk bottle) if you have not yet defined the presentation.
By monitoring the project planning or schedule, you will be able to follow the evolution of all past, ongoing and future actions. This makes it easier to manage possible delays in the project.
Step 5: Control your costs
Once all the actions to be performed have been identified, they are planned, attributed and monitored. Before being able to control project costs, it is essential to carry out resource planning.
Example of concrete project management
Going back to the example of moving, you have probably already made a quotation either to rent a truck or to hire a moving service.
In the first case, in addition to the estimate for the truck rental, you will need to provide an estimate for the friends and family members who will come to help you with the move. It is a matter of foreseeing a budget for material and human resources.
In the second case, the estimate already considers the total cost of the moving service. All costs are included, you willonly need the keys to your new home! The role and functions have already been specified in the project and the tasks attributed to each participant.
Step 6: Anticipate costs
Of course, Project Management software does not replace human thinking. You are the one who must make decisions regarding expenses according to previously defined budgets .
However, such software allows you to gain visibility on the budget, manage expenses and avoid financial complications thanks to effective resource planning.
Stage 7: Collaborate and share project progress
Welcome to the magical world of the "Virtual Open-Space", i.e. online solutions. Teams or collaborators all work together on the same platform. All project phases are centralized:
- The work plan,
- the project elements,
- the related comments,
- documentation,
- e-mails,
- instant messaging linked to the project, etc.
Everything is organized so that each collaborator can work autonomously. This action makes each participant responsible for the project, thanks to a shared work plan. In this way, we can self-evaluate ourselves according to the work done, while fulfilling the project's mission.
The integration of all the partners of a common project, in the same solution, favors the exchange of information. For example, with the Fitnet Manager solution, collaborative work encourages the exchange between individuals so that the project goes hand in hand. Mutual help and collaboration is easier, even when working on separate desktops. Each actor participates and contributes to a common mission. Numerous administrative steps and lost documents are now history thanks to the joint collaborative platform.
7 keys to project management
The following infographic summarizes the 7 keys to successful project management.
Final stage: choosing the best project management software
In summary, we can say that to manage a project is to plan, coordinate, manage, control costs and respect the established deadline. There are online tools for project management, both free and paid, adapted to the needs of your small business or SME.
Study carefully the functionalities you need, the sector of activity, the size of your company to choose the solution designed for your activity.
Article updated, initially published in July 2018.
Article translated from Spanish