Managing projects and project management Iteration-The Panagora Blog

Project management is important in every project related industry. It is the overall management of project stages. According to the Project Management Institute, United States of America, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities to meet the requirements of a particular project. A project manager is a professional agent that manages project. The project manager’s role is as important as every other principal in the execution of projects and indispensable to the successful execution of projects.

It is common to see only the obvious phases of project execution as the sole and major phase in project management. However, there are 5 phases of project management which are enunciated below:

Project initiation

This is the commencement of the project. At this stage, the project is defined at a large scope; feasibility is also established with all factors being considered. Research is done at this stage – area of choice, architectural design and other determinants are included in the feasibility report.

Project planning  

In accordance to the popular saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. Planning is the most important aspect before the execution of a project, goals are vetted and set. Planning is cardinal to the successful management of the project; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound goals are set. This identifies costs, quality, available resources and realistic scheduling in the management plan. This phase identifies materials, finance and human resources needed for execution. Furthermore, tasking and assigning accountable responsibility to the project team members is done. Performance metric to gauge the progress of the project at each phase is also established at the project planning phase.

Project execution

This is the most obvious step of any project. This is where mobilized resources are put in motion. This is the evidence of prior planning in the preceding stage of project management. This involves assignment of resources and procurement of material resources. It is the construction phase. Task and resources are managed and the progress of the project is gauged with the established performance measure at the project planning phase.

Project monitoring 

This stage is as important as any other stage. Project monitoring is the measurement of project progression and performance. Monitoring ensures that operation goes in alignment with the project plan. It checks the actualization of project objectives, quality of outputs- services and materials, cost tracking and overall performance of the project. It is advised this be done by an independent agent to provide a neutral view. The independent project monitoring agent checkmates the compliances of the project execution in line with the project plan.

Project closure

This is the completion stage. Operations are inspected, reported and terminated. Procurements are finalized, resources are released and valuable efforts are recognized. This is the corollary of concerted effort of the team members of the project. Project is closed when the requirements planned are met and is then transferred to the project owner.