Whether you want to build a site, manage a software project, or build a car, Project Management Process Flow is the same. In any case, you have four steps ahead through this flow:
- Planning
- Preparing
- Implementing
- completing the project
These steps are not entirely independent, but overlap to a large extent.
In short, in any project, you first plan about the budget, when to start and finish the tasks, and things like these. After these initial plans, you will enter the preparation and implementation phase. In these steps, you may find details that change some of the planning.
In this article, SOJECT briefly explains the Project Management Process Flow in steps so that you can properly manage your projects in any profession you work in.
Project Management Process Flow Step one: Planning
When it comes to project planning, people often think that scheduling is the point. However, this is not the case. Scheduling is one of the project management process activities that belong to the preparation phase, not planning.
So what is project planning? Project planning is the phase through which some critical features of the project, which play an essential role in the result, are identified.
These include the following:
- Finding the main problem
- Identifying stakeholders
- Defining goals
- Determining the project scope
- Preparing for exchanges
Finding the main problem
The main problem is not always what the client asked you. For example, in building software, if a customer asks you to create a video conferencing software to communicate with his organization staff, the main problem usually is not a communication issue.
You need more research to find out what is the main problem that led to ordering this software. For example, does the customer need more security than free video conferencing software? Does he need special features that common types of software do not have?
Do you see? The main problems are here, the things you need to find to succeed in the project management process.
If you do not try to find the main issue, you will spend a lot of time, and in the end, what you invest in does not meet the customer’s needs.
Learn more: Video Conferencing Applications and Usage
Identifying stakeholders
What you do should satisfy all stakeholders. That’s why you need to see who is benefiting from the project, determine their needs, and see how you can meet them.
Let’s turn back to the previous example: video conferencing software project management.
Who are the beneficiaries of this project? Those who pay for it, end-users, owners of end software licenses, etc.
You need to design the software to satisfy them all. For example, producing software with extremely high costs will not satisfy the cost provider. On the other hand, the not-so-good user interface will not satisfy the end-users. Considering all of these together will help you plan properly.
Defining goals
To apply the data you gained, you need to turn it into achievable goals. Project goals must be clear, measurable and achievable. In a successful project management process flow, you should avoid setting general goals that you cannot measure. Besides, setting ambitious goals is a guarantee of your failure, not success!
Before starting the preparation and implantation, clearly state the goals to make the expectations clear. Everyone involved in your projects should know what exactly will get achieved through the project.
On the other hand, you need to be prepared to change the goals at this stage if required. Every time you get new information, your goals will probably change.
Determining the project scope
Defining a project scope is a necessary step you have to take before moving on to the next steps of the project management process. Otherwise, you may:
- Ignore a large quantity of what should be done
- Go beyond your means and, as a result, exceed the specified time and cost.
Either way, your project will fail.
There are several ways to determine the scope of a project. One of the best is to use a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). To do this, you have to turn goals into tasks and break each of them into smaller pieces. Keep doing this until you cannot break down the final task into smaller parts.
Using WBS, you can estimate the amount of work, the necessary human resources, and estimate costs and time.
Learn more: How To Create a Project Plan
making a good equation
Quality, Time and Resources create an equation that you can manipulate its result by changing the components.
Quality = Time + Resources
In other words, quality is the result of resources and time. Concerning the dimensions of the project, the fewer resources and time you have, the lower the quality of your work. On the other hand, you have to increase the resources if you do not want to change the quality due to reducing the time; for example, you have to hire more employees or get more of other resources.
In determining the components of this equation, it is necessary to consider all aspects of the project and consider all stakeholders. For example, in video conferencing software production, you should inform sponsors that they should not expect high quality or short-term work after reducing costs.
Collaborating with the people involved in the project at this stage will help you organize a good equation.
Project Management Process Flow Step one: praprating
In the preparation phase, you should arrange to start the project. To do this, you need to form your team, assign tasks, set a work schedule, set a budget, and key in a formal meeting.
Join SOJECt to explore these project management process steps.
Build your team
To create your team, determine members based on the required expertise in your WBS. Be careful not to miss anything.
One way to achieve the required expertise is to outsource some parts of the project. In other words, you do not have to hire full-time employees for all the tasks. You can outsource a few or hire freelancers.
SOJECT is one of the companies active in software development that provides the specialists you require. To get started, feel free to ask us about the expertise you need. We provide them to you at the lowest cost. You can also leave your team-building process to us. We make a complete and specialized team for you to help you achieve the best quality with less cost and time.
Assign tasks.
If you have built your team, you already know everyone’s responsibilities. However, you have to define them clearly for each of the staff. If your team is the same old one and you know the members, there are probably fewer difficulties. But if your team is completely new, you need to talk to each employee to find out their skills and then assign them tasks to key in the project.
Always consider taking some extra time and money to make up for the lack of skills of your employees.
Set a work schedule
If you do not have a time limit, it is best to see how much time you need to perform a high-quality task and complete your schedule accordingly. However, most project managers do not have such facilities. They have to finish things at a pre-arranged time. To do this, they have to change the quality and resources based on deadlines.
At this stage of the project management process, you should specify the deadlines and then see what needs to get tasks done in this limited time.
Hold a meeting to get started.
At this stage, it is necessary to have a formal meeting with all team members. In addition to formalizing your project, this session helps team members stay informed of project details.
Make sure you explain all the details, goals, and schedules to the members. In addition to their duties, each member must be aware of the generalities of the project management process.
After the explanation:
- Ask all members to give their opinions.
- Make sure there is no problem with different stages of the project.
- If any member reports a potential problem, take it seriously, as it may disrupt the project.
Also, pay attention to the warnings of members who have more experience than you.
Specify the budget
In many projects, this step is pre-determined, and the project manager only has to adjust the project cost with it. However, if you have full authority to spend on the project, set the budget at this stage.
To estimate the budget, you need to ask yourself what is required to pay for. To do this, you can take a glance at the WBS.
Staff costs, travel, training, workplace, equipment, utilities, research, etc., are examples of these costs.
Remember, no matter how carefully you investigate, what you do is still good guessing. Projects will usually cost more than you think because there are always some unexpected costs.
However, you can consult an expert consultant to make sure there is no cost left.
To get acquainted with the next steps, we invite you to read the second part of this article.
