How to Manage a Project: A Step-by-Step Guide to Leading a Project from Start to Finish
Have you been asked to manage a project and wondering what steps you should follow? Whether you have been handed a project for the first time or you’re employed as a full-time project manager, this article is for you. We’re going to review the entire life cycle of a project, and walk step-by-step through all the tasks and activities you should be considering when managing a project from start to finish.
What is a project?
A project is a set of sequenced tasks and activities that are identified, planned, and implemented to achieve a beneficial change or outcome such as a new product, service, program, process, etc. The future state will be always be different than the current state at the end of the project, and each project is unique and has a defined start and end time frame.
What is project management?
Project management is the process of organizing, planning, and executing projects to achieve specific goals within defined constraints, such as time, budget, and resources. To manage projects, it involves project managers guiding their teams through all the required phases (the life cycle of a project) to deliver something new. This structured project management process takes an initial idea or concept and works it all the way through to implementation. Successful project management brings order to what might otherwise be chaos, and adds value to businesses and industries by implementing critical projects that allow them to operate efficiently and grow.
What is a project life cycle?
Every project has a life cycle that navigates the work required from start to finish. There are five phases of project management that makes up this project management framework, and includes initiation, planning, execution (also known as implementation), monitoring and control, and close out. Each of these project management phases has a set of specific tasks, processes, and deliverables that contribute to the success of a project. Depending on the project management methodology you use, you might move back and forth between phases as needed. However, every project will eventually go through all five phases of the project life cycle.
What is the initiation phase?
Initiation is the first phase of any project where the need for something new or a beneficial change is initially identified and a project is defined. This includes defining the scope of the project at a high-level, and identifying key stakeholders including the client or customer, project manager, project sponsor or champion, steering committee, and project team.
Initiation ensures alignment with strategic goals and sets expectations with stakeholders. This project management phase includes securing the right approvals and resources.
What is the planning phase?
Planning is the second (and often the longest) project management phase of any project. This phase involves defining, organizing, and sequencing the identified tasks and activities to build a sequenced project plan and timeline. This includes planning for any known risks and developing mitigation strategies, working with the project team to organize and plan out each task, communicating to key stakeholders, budgeting and procuring needed project resources and support, and more.
The planning phase creates a project roadmap for the project manager and team members that outlines how the project objectives will be achieved.
What is the execution phase?
Execution is the third project management phase when all the hard work from the detailed planning stage comes to fruition and the work activities are completed for a project (or part of a project). This translates the plan into action and produces expected deliverables by putting everything you planned into place, and communicating to your key stakeholders that the project is being implemented.
What is the monitoring and control phase?
The fourth phase is monitoring and control and this begins immediately after go-live (when the new future state takes effect). This phase includes project oversight to see if any previously identified risks materialize that need to be managed. Necessary changes to the project may be identified during this time like opportunities to improve workflows or add tasks to the original project scope.
Communications may be needed with stakeholders to continue to support them through the changes, and any unexpected issues are identified and worked out. Some projects may transition back to the planning phase to work through the necessary changes before moving back again to execution. This continuous improvement loop is common in many project management methodologies, especially with complex projects that require significant change.
What is the close out phase?
Close out is the last phase of a project that focuses on finalizing all project activities and delivering a final product or result to the customer or client. This phase ensures that project deliverables are completed and accepted, and provides an opportunity to reflect on the project’s successes and opportunities for improvement.
After a project is fully implemented, it will be closed out. This project management phase includes capturing lessons learned, finalizing any last project documentation to ensure there is a historical record of the project, and sunsetting the project team and steering committee. If the change will live on as operations, then the close out may also include fully transitioning the project over to an operational lead for ongoing sustainability.
What is “stage and gate” in project management?
A stage and gate process in project management refers to looking at the project phases (including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closeout) and being thoughtful about how, why, and when you should transition to the next phase in the life cycle of your project. Think about it as placing a “gate” in between each phase of the project that provides a check point to determine if it makes sense to move on to the next step. This is where you have a “go” or “no-go” decision around whether you’ve achieved everything needed in the current phase to successfully move to the next.
By using “stage and gate” in project management and program management (multiple projects working towards a common goal), this ensures your project teams fully complete each phase before moving to the next. This improves communication, resource utilization, and project outcomes.
What are the steps to successful project management?
There are a variety of steps involved when you manage projects. Whether this is your first project or you have been managing projects for years, the steps you follow within each project phase should always remain the same. You should walk through these steps in sequenced order. Depending on the project management methodology, you may have an iterative process and circle back when needed to an earlier step or phase.
Let’s review all the steps in detail that should take place within each project phase.
What are the steps in project initiation?
It’s important you start on the right foot to help set your project up for success. To initiate your project effectively, consider the following project management steps:
- Identify a Project Need
- Define Your Project Leadership
- Hold a Needs Assessment Meeting
- Draft a Project Charter
- Define Your Key Stakeholders
- Draft Your Project Governance Structure
- Define a Central Location for Project Management Documentation
- Build Feedback into Your Project Charter
- Identify Your Project Kick-Off Meeting Details
- GATE: Project Charter Sign-Off and Approval to Move to Planning
Let’s explore each of these important project management initiation steps in detail below.
Identify a Project Need
The first step is identifying there is a need for a new project. There are countless ways that this might happen. Your leader may have approached you to manage a project, or perhaps your team or department has a formal intake process that identifies new projects across your organization. Regardless of how this occurs, the first step is to identify that there is a need.
Define Your Project Leadership
The next step is to define all the project leadership that will support this newly identified initiative. This includes identifying the project manager, the sponsor or executive sponsor, the owner or champion of the project (this could be your customer or client, or an operational lead that will own the results at the end of the project), and in many cases, a subject matter expert that may act as a co-lead to work collaboratively with the project manager in a dyad structure.
Hold a Needs Assessment Meeting
It’s important to hold a needs assessment meeting with your client/customer and your project leadership to define all the requirements for the new project. These discovery meetings can be all together, or one-on-one with each lead. This includes gaining an understanding of the project goals, objectives, scope, risks, metrics, expectations, and more. Your goal should be to gather as much information upfront about what the project is about, what you’re being asked to deliver, and how you will know if the project is successful.
Read our blog post: CHECKLIST for Scoping a New Project: Key Questions You Should Ask Before Drafting Your Project Charter
Draft Your Project Charter
The project charter is an essential project management document, and no project should start without this important tool. This step includes taking all the critical information from your needs assessment meeting(s) and placing this down on paper. Consider your project charter as your contract between the project manager, the client or customer, and the sponsor or executive sponsor that outlines what will be delivered as a result of the project.
Once a solid draft is in place, this should be circulated to all project stakeholders to validate the content, identify any missing information, and to collect any additional feedback.
Define Your Key Stakeholders
Your project stakeholders are anyone who has an interest or “stake” in the success of the project. This includes individuals or groups who are impacted directly or indirectly by the project’s outcome. When considering who your stakeholders are, project managers should ask themselves the following questions:
- Who is knowledgeable about any aspect of the project and would be a subject matter expert?
- Who has direct responsibility or authority for any decisions that need be made?
- Who has the ability to influence what resources are made available for a project?
- Who is able to plan and execute the identified project tasks and should be a member of the project team?
- Who needs to stay informed on the project’s progress?
- Who will be impacted by the project outcomes directly or indirectly?
Draft Your Project Governance Structure
Project governance is a framework that describes how each key stakeholder aligns with the overall management of a project. A clear governance structure provides clarity around the reporting structure that should include the project team, any sub-project teams, the project manager, the sponsor or executive sponsor, the steering committee, and the customer or client, etc. This provides a visual roadmap that outlines all key project stakeholders and indicates the reporting and communication channels between individuals and teams. This is often represented as a hierarchical map that shows how issues and risks, critical decisions, recommendations, and resource requests are escalated up, and how overall direction and oversight, key decisions made, approvals, risk mitigation, barrier removal, and resource allocations are communicated back down to the project team level.
A project governance often shows the key decision makers at the top of the visual structure, and those that perform the project planning and implementing tasks are further down on the visual map.
Define a Central Location for Project Management Documentation
Projects require a number of important documents to support each phase of the project life cycle. It’s important to define a central location online to place all project documentation that is accessible to your project team, and any other essential stakeholders. This could include your organization’s internal file share, Microsoft SharePoint or Teams, or a Google Drive. The goal is to have one central place where documents can be saved and updated for easy access and project monitoring.
Build Feedback into Your Project Charter
By now, additional feedback should have been collected after distributing the draft project charter to your stakeholders. The next step is to finish editing this important project document and ensure there is agreement regarding what’s in and out of scope, the key project outcomes and deliverables, any known dependencies, risks, and key metrics that will be used to measure the success of the project.
Identify Your Project Kick-Off Meeting Details
Now that your scope has been defined and you have a good sense of who should be engaged in this work, the next step is to start organizing your kick-off meeting. This is where you will invite everyone to get on the same page and hear about the project details and next steps. Explore when the meeting will take place, where you hold the kick-off meeting, and if it will be in-person, virtual, or both. During this step you will define who should be present and how you will share the project details (such as handouts, slides, screen sharing, etc.).
GATE: Project Charter Sign-Off and Approval to Move to Planning
Once you have completed the tasks within the initiation phase, it’s important to insert a gate here before moving into the planning phase. This provides the opportunity for all stakeholders to agree on the project charter and what the project is expected to deliver. This document should be signed off by the project manager, sponsor, and members of the project steering committee. Once everyone is in agreement, the project is ready to move into the planning phase.
What are the steps in project planning?
Planning is the second phase of a project where most of the work happens to set your project up for success. This project management phase includes overall project coordination and planning with the project team, escalation to the Steering Committee as needed, and keeping project documents and the file share updated. To effectively plan your project, consider the following steps:
- Hold Your Project Kick-Off Meeting
- Finalize Your Project Teams and Steering Committee Members
- Schedule Ongoing Project Team Meetings
- Define Your Project Tasks and Activities within Scope
- Build Your Project Work Plan and Project Schedule
- Define Project Risks and Mitigation Strategies
- Develop Your Project Communication Plan
- Define Project Costs and Your Project Budget
- Complete Current and Future State Process Mapping
- Define the Project Resources Needed
- Develop a Quality Management Plan
- Define Your Project Education Plan
- Create a Change Management Plan
- Develop a Sustainability Plan
- GATE: Approval to Move to Execution
- OPTIONAL GATE: Operational Owner Sign-Off for Sustainability Plan
Let’s review each of these planning steps together in detail below.
Hold Your Project Kick-Off Meeting
The first step once you’ve moved into the planning phase is to hold the kick-off meeting that you organized during the initiation phase. This is where your project team and other stakeholders come together to discuss the project goals, deliverables, project milestones, and set the tone for communication and collaboration that will take place throughout the project. Next steps will be discussed, and this is the opportunity to set any clear expectations needed with your team members and align everyone around the project.
Read our blog post: The Secrets to A Strong Project Kick-Off Meeting: How to Effectively Launch Your Next Project
Finalize Your Project Teams and Steering Committee Members
Previously, you began identifying the many stakeholders that would be impacted by your project and have thought about who would be appropriate to pull into your project team and steering committee. This is the time to finalize these individuals. This includes selecting people with the right skills and expertise to plan and implement the project tasks for the project team, and placing senior leaders on the steering committee who will provide oversight, guidance, and decision-making for the project. These roles will ensure your project has the proper governance and accountability. As you finalize these groups, make sure you update and finalize your Project Governance Structure that you drafted during initiation.
Schedule Ongoing Project Team Meetings
It’s important to plan regular meetings with your project team members to manage the project successfully. The cadence should be at least weekly and this frequency will change depending on the type of project, its complexity, the level of urgency, and the project management methodology you are following. These meetings will be used to identify all the project activities, define your project timeline and workplan, track progress, address issues that arise, and keep the momentum going. Project managers should schedule these meetings in advance to set clear expectations around your team’s involvement, and set an agenda for each meeting so that discussions are focused and productive.
Define Your Project Tasks and Activities within Scope
Once your team begins meeting, the first critical step is to identify all the tasks and activities in scope that are required to complete the project. This is often held as a brainstorming session where the subject matter experts bring forward ideas and a variety of tasks needed to ensure project success. These tasks are then organized into a work breakdown structure (WBS) that outlines the categories or “buckets” of work needed and the specific tasks that fall within each category.
Once the work breakdown structure highlights all the required work, the tasks should be prioritized, sequenced, and assigned an owner within the project team. Having the project activities well laid out will allow you to manage any unexpected scope creep during the life of the project.
Build Your Project Work Plan and Project Schedule
Now that you have identified and sequenced all the project activities, you can begin developing your project management workplan. This includes defining how long each activity is estimated to take, any dependencies between these tasks, and the expected start and end dates. Your work plan should also identify the owner or “most responsible person” for each task. The next step is to then start placing these activities into a project schedule based on the dates and duration that were defined. The project schedule maps these tasks over time and can be formatted as a Gantt chart, calendar view, or other visual representation. Both the project management workplan and schedule will ensure resources are allocated correctly, project progress is easily monitored, and milestones are met.
Project management software is often used to place the sequenced tasks and activities into a detailed workplan and project schedule and visualize your project progress. However, simple Microsoft Excel templates can be used effectively for organizations that have not invested in a project management software tool.
Define Project Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Now that you have all your project tasks defined, sequenced, and scheduled, you can start identifying potential risks that could side-track progress and negatively impact your project. Identifying risks early in the project allows you to plan appropriate mitigation strategies and minimize the level of impact they will have. This also allows you to develop any necessary risk avoidance measures to try to reduce the likelihood that these risks will occur in the first place. A risk management plan should be documented and referenced as needed, and risks need to be monitored throughout the project planning phase.
Develop Your Project Communication Plan
A communication plan ensures that all key stakeholders are well-informed and on the same page. Every project should define a comprehensive communication plan that outlines how information will flow between team members, leadership, and other key stakeholders. This should include key messaging, who is responsible for sharing this information, and how communication messages will be distributed. You should consider communication as one of the most critical aspects of project management. Clear and consistent messaging will help ensure the entire project moves forward smoothly and successfully while managing stakeholder expectations. Project managers should always keep the following in mind when developing your project communications: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Define Project Costs and Your Project Budget
Many projects have costs involved that may include human resources, materials, equipment, supplies, and more. You should define your expected costs and build out a budget that aligns with the project goals and stakeholder expectations. This will become your baseline that you can compare against as the project moves forward and allows you to maintain financial oversight and control throughout the life cycle of your project.
Complete Current and Future State Process Mapping
In some cases, your project will have a new or updated process or workflow as an expected project outcome. There may be a need to visually map out the current state, define an ideal new future state that the project team envisions at the end of the project, and then identify the gap between the current and future states. This task involves breaking everything down step-by-step and identifying tasks, responsibilities, documentation, communication, etc. This task will be highly dependent on the specific project needs.
Define the Project Resources Needed
During the planning phase, it’s essential to define any additional project management resources needed to support the project plan. This could include subject matter experts for the project team, operational resources to support ongoing sustainability, and any equipment, supplies, and materials needed to implement the tasks and activities in the project workplan. You should identify what resources are needed to support your project, ensure you gain access to these resources through your steering committee (as needed), and manage these resources throughout the life of your project.
You may also need to define resources to support the ongoing operations once the project comes to an end. Consider the staffing needed and if any new positions will need to be hired.
Develop a Quality Management Plan
A quality management plan will help you execute your project in a way that meets your stakeholder expectations. This includes defining what key metrics and data will be used to track the success of the project, inserting quality controls to minimize any issues or defects early on, optimizing workflows and processes, and exploring continuous improvement opportunities throughout the project. When building out your quality management plan, consider any dashboards that you need to help you track the project and the data you intend to collect.
Define Your Project Education Plan
You will likely need to educate your stakeholders on the upcoming changes as a result of the project. The new future state may require new workflows, behaviors, knowledge, or skills and an education plan defines who needs to be educated, what information they need to know, and how they will receive this education. This includes scheduling necessary training sessions or workshops, and developing educational materials to make sure everyone is fully prepared for the change.
Create a Change Management Plan
Consider if you need to create a change management plan to support your stakeholders through the transition to the new future state. Project managers often find that people are resistant to the change. Determine if you need to explore developing a plan to help everyone understand why the change is important, gain their buy-in to the changes, and support them through the change with the right amount of influence and engagement.
Develop a Sustainability Plan
If your project will need to live on as ongoing operations once the project comes to an end, it’s important to create a sustainability and hand-off plan. This is all about how to set the new future state up for success once the project resources have completed their requirements and have stepped away from the project after close-out. Creating your sustainability plan early on is key to the project’s ongoing success. This helps you identify what needs to continue as day-to-day operations and what resources are needed to sustain the change. This is about gaining stakeholder buy-in in advance so that the benefits of the project will continue on in the future.
GATE: Approval to Move into Execution
Once your planning tasks and activities have been completed and you’re ready to move into execution, it’s important to consider inserting a gate at this time. This allows everyone to make sure that everything has been planned for before executing the detailed project plan. This gate offers the opportunity for everyone to make a “go” or “no-go” decision about executing the project and going live with the planned changes. This decision point happens between the project manager and the project sponsor and/or steering committee.
OPTIONAL GATE: Operational Owner Sign-Off for Sustainability Plan
A second optional gate is also a consideration if the results of your project need to live on as ongoing operations. This gate includes the approval of the sustainability plan by the operational owner of the changes, and requires sign-off that they have read and agreed to the developed plan that they will eventually own once the project closes.
What are the steps in project execution?
Project execution is the third project management phase and is the time when all your hard work during the planning phase is realized. This is when plans are executed on, and remaining tasks and activities are moved forward. Here are the tasks you should consider during this phase.
- Implement and Track Previously Planned and Remaining Tasks for Go-Live
- Communicate Go-Live and Changes to Your Stakeholders
- Report Status and Progress Updates
Let’s review these key project management steps that make up project execution.
Implement and Track Previously Planned and Remaining Tasks for Go-Live
You already spent your time upfront during the planning phase to organize the details of each go-live task. Now is the time to put those planned tasks into action. Here are a few examples:
- You previously identified that you will need to hire several resources to support the results of the project implementation after go-live. You designed the job descriptions and their roles and responsibilities. Now is the time to begin the hiring process.
- You previously created your education plan. You determined who needs to be educated and created all the materials and presentations to support the education sessions. Now is the time to begin educating the impacted staff on the changes taking place.
- You previously designed your new future state workflow and step-by-step process. Now is the time for this new process to take effect.
During this step in execution, you will make sure that all planned tasks within your project scope are completed by a specific go-live date that you identified in your project workplan and schedule. This is the day set for the defined change or outcome to be realized. Leverage your project workplan and schedule to make sure nothing is missed and all activities are completed within the defined timeframe.
Communicate Go-Live and Changes to Your Stakeholders
When executing your project, it’s important to keep your stakeholders engaged throughout the process. During planning, you developed all your communications messaging and materials as part of your communication plan. Now is the time to begin distributing those key messages to your stakeholders that the change is coming, and again when the change has occurred. Make sure your messaging communicates when the change will occur, why the change is needed, and how the change impacts them.
Report Status and Progress Updates
As you move into execution and hit your go-live date, it’s important that you provide regular status updates on the project’s progress to your stakeholders such as your sponsor, steering committee, and team members. This should include what has been accomplished, next steps, and any risks, issues, and decisions that need to be escalated.
What are the steps in project monitoring and control?
The fourth phase begins immediately after your project and the changes go live. This project management phase is all about monitoring the impacts, working out any unexpected challenges, optimizing the changes, and ensuring the quality of the project outcomes meet your stakeholders’ expectations.
Here’s a list of tasks and activities for project managers to consider when monitoring your project after go-live.
- Observe the Impact of Changes, and Responding to Needed Improvements
- Address Issues and Managing Realized Risks
- Manage Change Control for the Project’s Scope, Schedule, or Budget
- Optimize Workflows, Documents, and Materials
- Track Project Outcomes and Quality Control
- GATE: Determine if the Project is Ready for Close Out
Observe the Impact of Changes, and Respond to Needed Improvements
As your project plan is now implemented, it’s important to monitor the impact of the changes and ensure you achieved the desired outcome. If you identify any implemented tasks that didn’t get executed correctly or there are opportunities to make improvements, this is the time to identify these and respond appropriately.
Address Issues and Manage Realized Risks
After execution, you may identify that some risks on your mitigation plan become a reality. These are now considered issues that need to be addressed. There are also times when challenges arise that were not expected or planned for. This is the time to assess what issues, challenges, and barriers have been uncovered and work with your project team members to resolve these. Plan to escalate these up to your sponsor and steering committee for any needed support.
Manage Change Control for the Project’s Scope, Schedule, or Budget
Now that you’ve implemented your project plan, you may uncover the need to add or change what’s in scope. Perhaps something was uncovered during execution that wasn’t considered during the planning phase that is critical to the project’s success. Or a project stakeholder identified that they would like to make a scope change at the last minute. Another example is if some of the project’s budget had to be reallocated. Changes to scope, schedule, or budget should be managed appropriately by understanding and documenting the changes needed, gaining agreement and approval from your customer, client, and/or sponsor, and implementing the requested change.
Optimize Workflows, Documents, and Materials
Now that you’ve executed the project, you may start to get feedback on ways to improve what was implemented. For example, staff may provide input on ways to optimize a workflow that was developed and the project team agrees the improvements should be included. Another example is that any communication or education materials may have been unclear or additional information was identified that would make them more comprehensive. This is the opportunity to make any tweaks and improvements to improve the final project outcomes.
Track Project Outcomes and Quality Control
It’s important to track the performance of the project outcomes and deliverables to ensure they meet the original project objectives outlined during the initiation phase. This includes tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure success. You need to determine if you achieved what you set out to accomplish and report out on your progress. This is also the time to focus on quality control by making sure that deliverables meet any agreed-upon standards and specifications, along with your stakeholders’ expectations. Any issues with quality should be addressed quickly to avoid larger issues down the road.
GATE: Determine if the Project Is Ready for Close Out
Once all project tasks have been successfully completed, all issues have been resolved, and any needed improvements have been made, there is another gate you should add here to determine if the project is ready to move into the close out phase. This happens when all stakeholders agree that the project outcomes have been successfully met. This gate provides one last check to make sure everything is resolved before officially starting the close out process.
What are the steps in project close out?
Once the project is fully implemented, you should consider following these final project management tasks and activities to successfully close out your project:
- Capture Project Lessons Learned
- Measure Project Outcomes
- Finalize Project Documentation
- Close Your Project Teams and Steering Committee
- GATE: Formally Hand Off the Project to the Client or Customer
- OPTIONAL GATE: Transition the Project to Ongoing Operations
Let’s review these final project management tasks you need to consider as you bring your project to a close.
Capture Project Lessons Learned
This is now the opportunity to reflect on your projects successes and challenges, and capture what worked well, what didn’t work so well, and what could have been done differently. Engage your project team, steering committee, and other stakeholders to help you develop a detailed list of project learnings. Store all your collected lessons learned within your project documentation. As you collect these valuable tips and learnings, always try to explore how these can be applied to your next project.
Measure Project Outcomes
At the beginning of the project, you defined your key metrics and asked your stakeholders what success would look like. This allowed you to define a baseline to measure against once the project was completed. This is now the opportunity to identify if you achieved what you hoped to accomplish. You can measure your project performance by reviewing the metrics and targets you set to reach, and explore if the tangible results are what you expected to see.
Finalize Project Documentation
As you close up your project, this is the time to make sure all project documentation is completed, organized, and located in one central location. As you step away from the project, there may be a need for members of your project team or for yourself to go back and reference these materials. Spend this time to clean up your project documents to ensure a smooth transition to close out.
Close Your Project Teams and Steering Committee
As the project closes out, there is no longer a need to maintain the teams and committees that supported the project work. During close out, this is the opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work and contributions to the success of the project, and then sunset the meetings. This means any remaining meetings on calendars can be removed and no new meetings will be scheduled.
There may be exception to this if your project will need to live on as part of ongoing operations and if there is the need for a team to monitor the ongoing results as part of the sustainability plan. If this is the case, you may want to explore who from operations might take over the lead of this team and transition the mandate of the group to an operational function with more appropriate stakeholders.
GATE: Formally Hand Off the Project to the Client or Customer
Once all close-out tasks and activities are complete, you can inform your client or customer that the project has come to an end. This includes making sure they have access to the final project documentation. It’s good practice to give them a project summary document of what was achieved and gain sign-off that all parties agree the project is successful and officially closed out. This is typically the last and final step for the project manager who will now step away from the completed work.
OPTIONAL GATE: Transition the Project to Ongoing Operations
If your project has an ongoing operational component to the project results, a separate formal hand-off should also take place between the project manager and the operational lead. This new lead will take ownership of the previously signed-off Sustainability Plan and implement this to support the needs of operations.
How do you manage a project for the first time?
The steps outlined above apply whether you’re managing your first project or you’ve managed thousands of projects. Successful project management is about applying a structured approach when taking a project all the way from start to finish. Even if it’s your first time, walk through these steps, and the process will continue to become easier for you. As you gain experience over time, you will eventually perform these naturally. By following each of these steps consistently, you will enable your project’s success.
Are there project management tools and templates available to support managing a project?
When managing any type of project, having access to project management tools and templates allows project managers to support these projects more effectively and efficiently. Project management templates include documents such as project charters, governance structures, workplans, project schedules, and communication plans. Project management tools include enablers such as file shares (such as SharePoint and Google Drive), project management software (like Asana, Jira, and Monday.com), Microsoft Office applications (such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams), communication tools (such as Slack and Zoom), and many more.
Wrap Up
Regardless of the size and complexity of your project, follow these detailed steps to manage the project effectively. The details of each project will always be unique. In fact, no two projects will ever be the same. However, the project management process to move a project from initiation to close out will never change. Make sure you always follow the steps outlined here consistently and you will always set your project up for success.
How do I learn more about managing a project?
We invite you to learn more about managing your projects by joining the PML Tribe here at Project Management Life (PML), familiarizing yourself with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide from Project Management Institute (PMI), or checking out one of the many available great courses on project management.
PML provide various templates to support you in managing your projects. Sign up to join the PML Tribe below to learn more as each of them are released.
Also, check out our blog called What is a Project Manager? A Guide to Everything You Need to Know to learn more about project managers, why they are important, the role that project managers play, salary expectations, career opportunities, and more.
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