Project Management

A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore a defined scope and resources. Project management (PM) is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. Project management is aimed at producing an end product that will affect some change for the benefit of the organization that instigated the project.

Investment in effective project management will have a number of benefits, such as:

• Providing a greater likelihood of achieving the desired result.
• Ensuring efficient and best-value use of resources.
• Satisfying the differing needs of the project’s stakeholders.

We use PM when projects are separate from business-as-usual activities and occur when an organization wants to deliver a solution to set requirements within an agreed budget and timeframe. Anyone and everyone manages projects, even if they aren’t formally called a ‘project manager.’ Projects crop up in all industries and businesses.

Project management has methodologies, the most popular of them being: Agile—the most popular in Software Development—Waterfall, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, etc. Choosing the right project management method helps you to have a great project in the end. In a project, you can mix methodologies.

There are five phases of project management, and if the lifecycle provides a high-level view of the project, the phases are the roadmap to accomplishing it.

1. Project initiation. This is the start of the project, and the goal of this phase is to define the project at a broad level. This phase usually begins with a business case. This is when you will research whether the project is feasible and if it should be undertaken.
2. Project planning. This phase is key to successful project management and focuses on developing a roadmap that everyone will follow. This phase typically begins with setting goals.
3. Project execution. This is the phase where deliverables are developed and completed. This often feels like the meat of the project since a lot is happening during this time, like status reports and meetings, development updates, and performance reports.
4. Project performance/Monitoring. This is all about measuring project progression and performance and ensuring that everything happening aligns with the project management plan.
5. Project closure. This phase represents the completed project. Contractors hired to work specifically on the project are terminated at this time. Project management is the backbone of your project.