Congratulations! You have just been assigned to a new project. Clearly, your client or boss is giving you this opportunity as a vote of confidence in your skills. And while you are enthusiastic, this may be your first time being responsible for an entire project and it could be quite daunting.
While you are thinking of getting started, it is possible that a number of questions run through your mind such as:
- How do I get started?
- How do I develop a high-performing project team?
- Who can I ask for assistance in this process?
This post is tailored to persons new to managing a project, group, or team initiative for a unique objective for an organization. Whether you are planning an event or leading a new product development, the tools and techniques of project management exist to improve your chances of success.
But first, you need to understand these five (5) important stages of the project management process are:
- Initiation: starting off the project.
- Planning: creating the plan together with project team for the project scope of work.
- Execution: managing the implementation of the project work.
- Monitoring and controlling: all the work you do during project execution to enable you make corrections early and avoid damaging end results.
- Closing: completing and handing over all the project outputs or deliverables to client, in addition to, archiving final lessons learned, adjourning the team, and closing contracts with all external parties.
Please be aware that these five (5) steps are critical and identical for every project to ensure delivery success in terms of on-time delivery, budget management and achievement of the overall defined project objective(s).