Project management is both an art and a science. It requires a level of emotional intelligence to interact with and achieve results with stakeholders from different domains and seniority levels. Additionally, it requires a level of organization and structure to ensure focus and results. As a result, there is a methodology for successfully planning and executing projects. That methodology is known as the five phases of project management. It was developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Whether you're an expert or a newbie, we at TrueNxus will share everything you need to know or want to know about the five phases of project management in this article.
Below is everything we will cover. Feel free to skip ahead.
- What is project management?
- What is the PMBOK® Guide Concept of the Project Life Cycle?
- What are the 5 phases of project management?
- Phase 1: Project initiation
- Phase 2: Project planning
- Phase 3: Project execution
- Phase 4: Project monitoring and controlling
- Phase 5: Project close
- TrueNxus for Project Management
What is project management?
Projects are time-bound, with a beginning and an end, effort to achieve a set of objectives. They are not your day-to-day operations. Therefore, project management "is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements" (PMI).
What is the PMBOK® Guide Concept of the Project Life Cycle?
To standardize project management best practices, the PMI created, A Guide to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). The PMBOK® Guide provides you a process that you can apply to any number of projects. Additionally, in the PMBOK® Guide you can learn more about the project life cycle.
The project life cycle comprises of the five phases of project management that we'll discuss below. However, it is worth noting that organizations and project teams are likely to modify the five project phases. They may change the phase name, scope, or duration. Nevertheless, according to the PMBOK® Guide, the project life cycle should define the below elements.
- project goals
- project deliverables
- project team
- management and oversight of the project
The project life cycle provides structure and a controlled process that benefits every stakeholder in the project.
What are the 5 phases of project management?
In a practical sense, the five phases of project management make up the project's life, from beginning to end. Every project will treat each phase differently. Additionally, each project may call the stage by a different name, but they experience each step in some form. We will dive deep into each of the five phases in the subsequent sections.
- Phase 1: Project initiation
- Phase 2: Project planning
- Phase 3: Project execution
- Phase 4: Project monitoring and controlling
- Phase 5: Project close
Phase 1: Project initiation
During the first of five phases of the project management lifecycle, project initiation, you’ll formally launch the project. You’ll assemble the executive sponsor and the senior-most stakeholders of the project. Below are some of the standard tools and templates that you’ll want to develop during the project initiation phase.
- Business case: is a formal template that provides economic justification or reason for launching the project. A business case will require the project's requestor to deliver what will be done, why it should be done, and who is required to make the project successful. Additionally, you may need to provide a SWOT Analysis of the project. SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Typically, the business case's creator(s) will need to develop a financial model to justify that the internal rate of return (IRR) explains the cost. While we recommend a business case, you'll find that many organizations skip its' development.
- Feasibility study: is a formal assessment of whether the project is practical. Typically, a feasibility study differs from a business case as it provides a Go/No-Go decision. We don’t believe a feasibility study is required. You’ll actually find that many organizations won't develop one.
- Project charter: is a short document, typically one page, that provides a high-level summary of the project, why it is being undertaken, and the team involved in planning and executing the work. Occasionally, you'll find project charters, also referred to as project definitions or project statements. You’ll want to create a project charter once the project has been given the green light to be launched, irrespective of whether a business case was developed or a feasibility study was undertaken.
When you develop the project charter it is particularly important to outline the project's goals and objectives. While there are several methods to setting goals, below are the two more popular methods.
- SMART goals
- CLEAR goals
1. What is a SMART goal?
SMART goals are one of the most well-known methods for setting objectives. The first known use of the term "SMART goal" occurs in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran. The acronym is most commonly associated with Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives. Each letter in SMART refers to a different criterion for judging objectives. While there is some variation in usage, below are some of the more common standards.
- Specific: Avoid objectives that are open to interpretation and provide a lot of details.
- Measurable: Be able to track and quantify success by applying metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Achievable: Make your goal ambitious but realistic, given available resources.
- Relevant: Ensure alignment with your job responsibilities and the company's vision.
- Timely: Make your goal time-bound and specify when you can achieve the result.
2. What is a CLEAR goal?
CLEAR goals is another well known yet newer method for setting goals. Below are the criteria for setting CLEAR goals.
- Collaborative: Work together with your colleagues to ensure alignment.
- Limited: Make your goal time-bound and specify when you can achieve the result.
- Emotional: Ensure you are passionate about achieving the goal.
- Appreciable: Break down the goal into smaller objectives to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
- Refinable: Make sure you can adjust the objectives and deadlines as priorities change.
Phase 2: Project planning
Once the project has been given the "green light," you’ll kick off the second of five phases of project management, project planning. During project planning, you’ll document the entire roadmap for the project. Below are some of the standard tools and templates that you’ll want to develop during the project planning phase.
- Project plan: is a formal document that outlines all of the tasks, who will do the work, and when the tasks will be delivered. Typically the project plan includes a work breakdown schedule (WBS), which is a way to group bodies of work into more manageable sections. Additionally, the project plan may identify high-level milestones, goals, or deliverables that need to be met.
- Gantt chart: is a bar chart visualization of a project schedule. Each task and sub-task is listed vertically, with dates listed horizontally. Gantt charts are more or less the project plan in a timeline view. They also list out and identify dependencies between tasks.
- Scope statement: is similar to the project charter, but it clearly defines what is in-scope and what is out-of-scope for the project.
- Project budget: is a forecast of the project financials. The project budget outlines how much money is allocated for the project and how it will be used. Typically, you'll want to measure actuals against the plan during the project.
- Communication plan: is a document used to outline the necessary communications required and the audience, the frequency, and the location or medium.
- RACI matrix: is a simple and effective tool used to map out project roles and responsibilities. Within a RACI matrix, you can align stakeholders by documenting who is accountable, who is responsible, who should be consulted, and who should be informed. It is also flexible to map responsibilities to any detail level that makes sense to you and your project team. You can map responsibilities across buckets of work (i.e., workstreams), deliverables, decisions, or even activities.
It is worth noting that the project planning phase never really comes to a complete stop. Project planning is intertwined with project execution. Once project execution commences, things change, and therefore you may need to update the project scope and project plan to reflect new information.
Phase 3: Project execution
During the third of five phases of the project management lifecycle, project execution, the project is fully in-flight with the project teams actively completing tasks and developing deliverables. Project execution is typically what people think of when they think of project management. Below are some of the standard tools and templates that you’ll want to produce during the project initiation phase.
- Project plan and Gantt chart: during project execution the project plan and the Gantt chart will need to be maintained. Priorities change, and therefore the project plan and the Gantt chart will eventually change as well.
- Task dependencies: are a link between two tasks that documents when one task is reliant on another task. A task may not be started or completed before another task being started or completed. It is crucial to identify task dependencies during project execution, but it is also vital to track the progress of the dependent tasks. If a task becomes off track, the task owner with a dependency will need to adjust the course.
- Collaboration: project execution involves an unlimited number of stakeholders. Whether your project is made up of a team of colleagues that you work with day-in and day-out, or the project is made up of an extensive cross-functional team, you need technology to collaborate and track progress TrueNxus can help with cross-functional collaboration. It's your source of truth where you can collaborate as one team and execute projects successfully.
Phase 4: Project monitoring and controlling
During the fourth of five phases of project management, project monitoring and controlling, the project is in execution mode with the project teams actively completing tasks and developing deliverables. Project monitoring and reporting is typically the most challenging part of project management, especially for the project manager. During project monitoring and controlling, many project managers feel as if they are herding cats. While at the same time, the project team members feel as though they are always being bombarded with a status update request. Below are some of the standard tools and templates developed during the project monitoring and controlling phase.
- Project stand-ups: are meetings that involve a set number of project stakeholders where the group discusses what's been accomplished, roadblocks, and what's next. If the stand-up is formal enough, they will use a status report. Project stand-ups can be as short as 5 minutes or as long as you want. However, we recommend that you keep stand-ups short and to the point. The last thing anyone wants is to be on a stand-up, thinking that they are not needed. Don't waste people's time.
- Status reports: is a formal document that provides insight into the current state of the project. Project status reports typically will include a high-level description of where the project stands at a point in time, what's been accomplished, and what's next. They may also provide insight into any issues, risks, or critical decisions made.
- KPIs: is a type of performance measurement. KPIs or key performance indicators measure success. KPIs vary by domain and industry. However, we recommend that they be outlined during the second phase of the project management lifecycle, project planning.
Phase 5: Project close
During the fifth and final phase of the project management lifecycle, project close, the project's execution has been completed. Project close allows the project team to reflect on what went well and what went poorly, allowing everyone to learn and improve the next project. Below are some of the standard tools and templates that you’ll want to develop during the project close phase.
- Project post-mortem: is a formal process where the project team analyzes what was successful and unsuccessful in the project. A project post-mortem allows the project team to learn from the past and improve on the future.
- Lessons learned: are experiences distilled from past activities that should be taken into account in future projects.
TrueNxus for project management
Planning and executing projects is extremely difficult, but TrueNxus can help you. TrueNxus was built with the five phases of project management in mind. You'll be able to perform the following five phases of project management:
- Phase 1: Project initiation
- Phase 2: Project planning
- Phase 3: Project execution
- Phase 4: Project monitoring and controlling
- Phase 5: Project close
TrueNxus will be your single source of truth where you can instill project management best practices. Not to mention, everyone will be aligned with real-time access to where things stand in cross-functional projects.
Below are several features on how TrueNxus can help you align around the five phases of project management.
1. Project charter
Leverage OKR and create a project charter. You can ensure the successful execution of projects by documenting and aligning the project's objectives, benefits, and risks from the very beginning.
2. Personalized views
Every business function specializes in a specific domain and, as such, thinks about project management differently. To ensure the successful execution of cross-functional projects, you need a project management software that provides personalized views. These views need to be in sync as well.
TrueNxus provides you with the following views:
List
A list is a table that allows you to manage your project plan easily. Organize the work into groups such as workstreams or any logical way to categorize tasks.
Timeline
Visualize the project as a Timeline, a Gantt chart like view that lets you understand how the entire project fits together. Make updates to the project plan through an interactive interface.
3. Automated project status reports
We understand that each team member is busy balancing multiple priorities. Therefore, TrueNxus helps successfully execute projects by automatically analyzing the project health in real-time, giving senior leadership and the team the insights they need to make decisions and move the ball forward.
4. My Work
Another essential thing in projects being executed is understanding what you're on the hook for delivering. With TrueNxus, you can view every task and every dependency that is important to you, across every project, in one location, ensuring success.
5. Dependencies
Additionally, we know that you don't want to let your colleagues down or be let down. You can ensure the successful delivery of projects in matrix organizations through collaboration and by documenting task dependencies. By doing so you, you can be accountable when others are reliant on you. You can understand dependent tasks, change implications, and adjust course as needed.
6. Automated notifications
You can also successfully execute projects by using project management software where you get notified when changes occur. With TrueNxus's 20+ out-of-the-box automated notifications, you will have the transparency you need to stay in-the-know.
7. Comments
Lastly, the entire team can ensure projects are successful by collaborating directly in the app. With TrueNxus, you and colleagues, and guests can communicate with one another directly in tasks.
By aligning around the five phases of project management, TrueNxus has everything you and your company need to plan and execute projects successfully.
See for yourself, and sign up for a free trial today (no credit card needed).
