Understanding Project Management

To understand Project Management, it is essential that one begins with the definition of a project. In essence, a project is any task that has a designated start, and expected finish and produces a deliverable. Project Management as such is the method or process by which a particular project is planned, controlled, monitored, measured and executed, or to be more concise, managed.

Project Management can also be considered a blanket term, implying the application of several different disciplines to achieve overall control of the project from start to end. Disciplines such as planning, time management, task management, resource management and rick management to name a few are all applied on both macro and micro levels to achieve a properly managed project. The overall task is assigned to a project manager who develops the project management proposal to meet the expectations of all stakeholders. A project team is assembled to ensure all necessary disciplines pertaining to the project are monitored and controlled, usually via a project management software tool. It is through cohesive planning, monitoring and execution that this team is then able to complete the project achieving the desired outcomes. Currently there are a multitude of project management software available for use, all of which facilitate planning, management and collaboration throughout the entire project management life cycle.

Made up of 5 phases, the project management life cycle is a series of 5 phases spread throughout the project from start to finish. The Initiation Phase begins with the drafting of a project charter, which illustrates what the project is, when it will be completed and how. Usually capped off with a kickoff meeting bringing together all project stakeholders to define the project goals and parameters. This leads to the Planning Phase, which entails breaking down the project into manageable tasks and estimating the time required for each, ultimately resulting in the Project Plan, usually best represented on a Gantt Chart, which illustrates the sequence of tasks and their inter-dependency and independency.

Once the project plan road map is complete, the project moves onto the Execution Phase, which as the name suggests, entails executing the plan and monitoring its progress against the set parameters, identifying and mitigating potential risks and failures and streamlining on the go, to ensure the project is on tract for completion within set time and budgetary parameters. Once all project parameters have been achieved, the project enters the Closing Phase, which includes the final sign off from stakeholders, finalizing all paperwork and documentation, handing over of final deliverables and the sharing and archival of best practices and lessons learned for future projects.