A comprehensive guide to project management in 2021.

With all of the different frameworks, jargon, and acronyms, project management often feels overwhelming.

There’s PMBOK, PRINCE2, RAM, WBS, Gantt charts, Kanban,… the list goes on.

With these acronyms, you’d think you were texting a teenager, not planning the work that drives a business.

But, you can’t afford to let the jargon scare you away. When you boil it down, project management isn’t a complex concept, even if all of the lingo makes it seem that way.

At its core, project management is all about coordinating your resources (team members, tools, locations, money) to complete a project as efficiently and successfully as possible.

Project management is about the project objectives, tools, and techniques you use to guide your team to success in the day-to-day and over the long term.

In this guide, we’ll break down how to use project management to do just that — all in plain English.

What is project management?

Project management is the process of organizing the project plan, project objectives, milestones, and deliverables of a project, as well as managing team members, timelines, and budgets to ensure that successful projects are delivered.

It involves many essential processes, including:

· Assessing project feasibility, or determining whether the project can succeed at an acceptable cost within a suitable time frame.

· Creating a project management plan.

· Identifying key project deliverables (building blocks of the final product, service, or result).

· Breaking the project deliverables down into more manageable tasks and assigning them to teams and staff.

· Keeping the project running smoothly after it starts.

What is project management?

The 5 steps of project management.

Created by the Project Management Institute (PMI), PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge, which breaks down project management into five phases:

It is relatively well-agreed upon in the project management (PM) space that all projects follow this similar flow — this 5-step process that carries each project from start to finish.

· Initiating

· Planning

· Executing

· Monitoring/Controlling

· Closing

Entire books have been written on the above steps, so we’ll just give a high-level overview of each one here:

Initiating: As with any good project (or plan), preparation is vital. The initiation phase is where the project scope is determined and the project foundation is created.

For larger projects, a project charter or “Project Initiation Documentation” (PID) is established. The initiating process includes a high-level overview of the project, a pre-plan if you will. Project phases and overall budgets are also determined during this stage. This is where the project team is created — more on that below.

Note: If this stage is rushed, taken lightly, or skipped altogether, the success of your project is greatly diminished.

Planning “The devil is in the details.” That phrase sums up the planning stage nicely.

It’s important during planning to set key milestone dates as well as a final project completion date. Be very clear and intentional with project timing. Dates and times can undoubtedly change based on unforeseen circumstances, but putting a stake in the ground ensures all team members are aiming towards the same goal.

During this process, it’s important to outline which project management methodology the team will follow. There are many to choose from: agile, Waterfall, PRINCE2, PMBOK, scrum, lean, and kanban (to name a few of the more popular ones).

The planning phase also includes selecting the team members (more below), outlining deliverables, estimating resources, determining associated activities, and setting (and managing) the project scope.

Creating a project scope — the specific limits and boundaries for the project — is essential during the planning stage. Two questions are key:

1. What will get accomplished as part of this project?

2. What will not get accomplished as part of this project?

This is the project scope — without a project scope, things either fizzle or spiral out of control.” Be sure to spend significant time on that second question as it’s not just the opposite of the first. Knowing what will not be part of a project is important to avoid “scope creep.”

Executing: At this point, it’s all about getting (stuff) done. Execution. Doing. Where the rubber meets the road. During execution, the team ensures the pre-determined deliverables are, well, delivered!

Monitoring/Controlling: Where are we at any given point in the project vs. where we should be … according to the project plan. A regular, consistent, systematic project “check-in” is critical to ensure project success. A key component in the monitor/control step is having proper project documentation and tracking. This can be accomplished through Kanban boards, Gantt charts, team stand-ups, and many other means.

No matter how it’s done, keeping an eye on progress and step-completion means project teams can quickly identify when a project has derailed and get it back on track quickly and efficiently.

Note: If the scope changes at any time during the project (which is likely will!), it’s important to document the changes. i

Closing: As the verb indicates, the close is the actual end of any given project. The final step, sometimes known as “project delivery.” All activities are wrapped up, and the final product is delivered to the client (an internal team or external stakeholder).

If a contract was in place, this is the time when the contract officially ends as well. If possible — and highly recommended — this stage includes a full review or audit of what went well, what didn’t go as planned, and how future teams and projects could learn from this one.

While there is some variability in the details, these are the agreed-upon five steps of project management.

And while following the process is important, setting up the “perfect” team is essential.

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This article is part 1 of 3 — will publish the second part next week.