17 Killer Project

Management Best Practices

for Managers

 
by Sylvia Moses, April 9, 2018

If you're a project manager, developing and adopting project management

best practices is likely one of your top priorities. This article will share a
comprehensive list of best practices for project management every
organization needs.
 
Are you happy with your project performance? Do your projects usually
come in under budget and ahead of schedule?
If you’re like most agencies, your answer will likely be “no”.
Effective project management is often the “secret sauce” of an agency’s
success, more so than sheer creative brilliance.
Being good at managing projects is usually a matter of following project
management best practices. These “best practices” are usually derived from
project management methodologies, international standards, industry
conventions, and the organization’s own guidelines from past projects.
As PMI says, any “way of doing things” within an organization can be
considered a best practice.
Often, these “best practices” will vary from organization to organization.
Some, however, are applicable across organizations and can radically improve
project performance.
I’ll share 17 such best practices below.
 

1. Ensure that all stakeholders understand

the requirements
 
A common factor in failed projects is a lack of uniform understanding of the
project's requirements among stakeholders. If your project team and client
have different estimations of the project's scope, you're going to run into
problems.
To solve this issue, get all stakeholders together in the concept phase. Ask
them the following questions to ensure that they're on the same page about
the project's requirements and scope:

1. What are the project's deliverables?

2. What are the project's goals and realized benefits?

3. What is the expected product/service/result of the project?

4. How do you define "success" for the project and its key
deliverables?
  

5. What defines the validity or completeness of the key deliverables?

6. Are there any risks everyone should be aware of?

7. What are the project budget, time, and performance constraints?

2. Create a risk response team

Things can - and often will - go wrong. A key resource might drop out, a
stakeholder might pull funding, and an important tech component might
break.
Ideally, you would have all these issues accounted for in your project risk
management plan.
Another best practice to mitigate risk is to create a risk response team. This
team should be comprised of experienced members who have wide-ranging
access to plan, monitor, and control risks in the project.
Its most important job, however, is to swing into action in case of
emergencies. The team should have the experience and training necessary to
save projects when mishaps happen.
Essentially, your risk response team should think of worst case scenarios and
develop contingency plans.
For instance, in a creative project, a few key resources dropping out can
derail the project completely. In such a case, the risk response team would be
tasked with finding backup resources, both within the company and outside
it.
Also read:  Why creative projects fail (and what to do differently)?
 

3. Develop and formalize project

management roles
Project management isn't just the project manager's responsibility. If you dig
deep, you'll find that several people within your organization perform some
PM duties, formally and informally.
One of the more popular project management best practices is to identify,
develop, and formalize these roles.
For example, a senior developer regularly assists the project manager in
developing a schedule. While this developer might have experience, he
doesn't have the formal knowledge or executive powers to perform his
project management role adequately. A little bit of training and formalization
of his role can help him become a better project scheduler.
Carefully analyze your past projects and take stock of every person within
the organization who played a role in project management.
Ask yourself: Does this role need to be formalized? If yes, what certifications
and training are necessary to improve performance in this role?
You'll find that getting people to "level up" in their PM responsibilities takes
the burden off the project manager and improves project performance across
the board.
 

4. Develop leadership competencies

alongside technical competencies
Often, organizations focus too heavily on their project managers' technical
competencies (i.e. their formal PM knowledge, certifications, etc.). As a result,
the "softer" side of project management - leadership, empathy, people skills,
etc. - suffers.
Given how heavily project managers interface with clients and internal
stakeholders, it is crucial that you help them develop their leadership
competencies alongside their technical ones.
Leadership capabilities are particularly important when you're dealing with a
complex set of resources - as in an agency setting. You can't always develop
a schedule for creative work and expect it to be 100% perfect every time.
Often, you'll have to use leadership, motivation, and empathy to get creative
talent to do its best.
As Victoria Kumar says in a PMI paper - "leaders innovate; managers
administer".

Help your project managers develop their leadership skills and your projects
will prosper.
Also read:  The key competencies of effective project managers and how to
develop them (including leadership skills)
 

5. Adopt better scheduling standards for

technical work
More than half of IT projects fail. One meta-analysis of failed
projects concluded that a vast majority of IT projects fail because of process
mistakes (45%) or people mistakes (43%).
 

 
If you're dealing with technical work, one of the most important things you
can do to improve your success rate is to use better scheduling and
estimations. Technical work has a tendency to "bloat" beyond your original
estimates, leading to budget inflation and delivery delays. It doesn't help that
the people involved in scheduling and estimating - project managers - often
don't have an understanding of the actual technical issues involved.
One way to solve this problem is to use developer-based estimating. This
means giving over the reins to your development team and asking them to
create a schedule. Since these are the people closest to the work, their
estimates are liable to be more accurate.
Other ways to improve scheduling is to use algorithms such as COCOMO II,
historical data for similar projects, and scheduling software such as QSM
SLIM-Estimate, SEER-SEM, etc.
Also read:  5 scheduling hacks to improve meeting management
 

6. Define and evaluate quality standards

throughout the project's lifecycle
A common problem in creative projects is the rather ill-defined idea of
"quality" all deliverables have to adhere to. What might be an excellent result
for one client can be sub-par for another.
As James N. Salapatas notes in a PMI article:
 

 
You should have a clear idea as to what constitutes "quality" throughout the
project's lifecycle. This must be based on standards acceptable to every
stakeholder, especially the people on both sides who have to sign-off on the
final deliverables.
Some ways to do this are:

1. Break the project into multiple stages. Get stakeholders to sign-off

on deliverables at each stage.

2. Establish objective criteria for quality measurement. This can be

hard for creative work, but comparing against industry benchmarks
and the client's past projects works well.

3. Document and share processes with stakeholders on both sides.

Often, showing the path to the end result validates its quality as
well.

4. Establish a baseline for quality that all stakeholders agree to. As long
as the project meets this baseline, it would be considered
"successful".

 
 5. Back claims with data whenever you can. For example, if you want
to show the impact of a new website design, run a quick A/B test to
show how it compares to the previous one.

7. Make your project more transparent

 

 
As one researcher notes, in the context of project management:
"Transparency implies that in the hierarchy of management every employee will
know what he or she needs to. By enabling a transparent project management
system, everyone benefits from those working on the project to those sponsoring
and auditing it."

Essentially, it means making your project data more open. Instead of simply
assigning milestones to an individual, show them how their work ties into the
rest of the project.
This can create a greater sense of responsibility within the team ("I don't
want to hold up my team members' work") and sense of achievement ("I
helped build this crucial component"). Knowing how an individual's work
interfaces with the rest of the team can also enhance teamwork and prevent
projects from being derailed because of a single individual.
Besides milestones and tasks, there are a number of other project activities
that can benefit from greater transparency:

1. Project communication: Enabling transparency in project

communication helps team members see the entire process that
leads to a decision, and not just the decision in itself. Opening up
communication to everyone can also help in decision making by
leveraging the "wisdom of the crowds" model.

2. Project budget and time: Sharing the amount of budget and time

consumed/available can help team members orient themselves
better and evaluate their own priorities. You don't have to share
detailed project budget data; just the part that impacts the team's
work.

3. Project changes: If there is any change in the project's scope,

budget or deadline, keep your team cued in. Explain to them what
exactly changed, why it changed, and how it impacts their work.
This can improve team morale and help them trust you more.

 
8. Emphasize the project's "purpose"
In an earlier article on the collaboration habits of the world's best managers,
we talked about the importance of highlighting the "why" of any project.
This "why" is the purpose of the project, the project team, and their work.
As E&Y's study reveals, purpose-driven organizations boast higher employee
satisfaction, better quality products, and greater customer loyalty.

 
Focusing on each project's purpose is crucial in an agency setting. It's
common for one employee to work on multiple projects simultaneously
within the agency. If the employee doesn't know how his work contributes to
the project's or the business’ success, it can lead to long-term demotivation
and dissatisfaction.
This rule applies to outside contractors as well. Freelancers often have
limited visibility into the project and the organization’s goals. This forces
them to focus on short-term deliverables, not the long-term impact of their
work.
Solve this problem by focusing on the purpose and impact of the project.
Share results - current or expected - with team members. Tell them how the
project can help the client grow revenues, improve customer satisfaction, etc.
If the project has an environmental component, make it clear to the team as
well.

9. Build a “super team” to take care of

repetitive tasks
In any agency, you’ll likely have a series of tasks that need to be performed
on a regular basis on most projects. Sometimes, the people performing these
tasks can become better at them simply by virtue of doing them repeatedly.
A best practice to maximize the impact of your resources would be to create
a “super team” of experts trained in specific, repetitive tasks. This team
would not be affiliated with any particular project or team. Instead, they
would move from project to project, performing just  the target task.
For example, a marketing agency might need to undertake an SEO audit for
all new clients. Instead of a person within each team handling this task, you
can create a team of SEOs who focus only  on performing audits.
This team would come in at the start of each project, run an SEO audit, and
move on to the next project.
Such specialization can bring in much-needed efficiencies if you work with a
large number of similar clients.
Also read:  How investing in resource management software can help you get the
most out of your employees
 

10. Find the "Goldilocks Zone" for multiple

team membership
It is increasingly common for one employee in an agency to be a part of
multiple teams. Contrary to popular belief, multiple team membership (MTM)
can actually improve individual employee performance - until it doesn't.
Being a part of several teams improves individual performance since the
person gets exposed to different ideas and perspectives.
However, once this improved performance hits its peak, the cognitive load of
task switching and fragmented attention takes a toll. Beyond a point, being a
part of any additional teams has a negative effect.
As one study points out, MTM and performance follows an inverted U-
shaped curve.
 
  
Which is to say, there is a "Goldilocks Zone" of multiple team membership
that is just right for individual and team performance.
Finding this perfect point that balances performance and MTM can be hard.
Following these pointers can help:

 Select people who have demonstrated comfort with task switching for
high MTM situations

 Assign low-level tasks with limited cognitive impact to people who are
a part of multiple teams

 
 Monitor project performance closely and reduce membership to
multiple teams if you see a drop in individual performance

11. Check-in frequently and regularly

In 2015, Deloitte performed a wide-ranging study to evaluate its
performance management system. The study revealed that for a majority of
managers (58%), the existing system was inadequate in improving employee
engagement and performance.
 

 
To combat this, Deloitte completely overhauled its existing performance
management system.
And at the heart of the new system was the weekly check-in.
As one Deloitte leader put it:
 
 
Checking in regularly and frequently is one of the easiest project
management best practices you can adopt, and certainly among the most
impactful.
Regular check-ins create a sense of accountability and shared responsibility
between managers and team members. It tells your people that there is
someone looking over their shoulder and is ready to help them improve,
when necessary.
Check-ins are even more important if you have remote employees. In
a survey of 1,100 remote workers, 46% said that the most successful
managers checked in regularly with them.
The same study revealed that the frequency of check-ins doesn’t matter as
much as the consistency. You can check-in daily, weekly, bi-weekly or
monthly; as long as you do it on schedule every time, you will hold your team
accountable.
12. Consolidate all project-related
information and data
Your project management best practices will often spring from your
organization's experiences and knowledge. Having all project-related data in
a single place can help you leverage this past knowledge to deal with future
issues.
Think of consolidating all project-related information into a centralized
knowledge base. Anyone working in project management related roles should
be able to freely access this information.
Here are a few things that can be a part of the knowledge base:

1. Tools, templates, and project-related software

2. Project schedules and budgets

3. Past project information, especially lessons learned from project

post-mortems

4. A catalog of all organizational project resources

5. A list of all project management best practices

 
 6. Collaboration forums/chat groups

This can be a powerful resource for all current and future project managers.
Keeping it up to date should be a priority for all project roles.
 

13. Track and correct deviations from

project plans
It is inevitable that your team will stray from your originally conceived plans.
They'll miss deadlines, go over-budget, and find risks not covered in your risk
management plan.
One best practice that can improve current and future project performance is
to track all these deviations and correct them as quickly as possible. Gather
reports and hold meetings regularly to identify when things are going off-
target. As long as you are within the baseline originally stated in the project
plan, you are doing well.
Tracking the following metrics can help you in estimating your deviation from
the project plan:

1. Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP): Your planned budget

for the work completed by any given date.

2. Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS): Your planned budget

for the work scheduled by any given date. The difference between
BCWS and BCWP tells you how far you are from your original
deadlines.
  

3. Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP): How much of the budget

you've actually used by any given date. The difference between
ACWP and BCWP gives you the deviation from the project plan.

Keeping a close eye on these metrics can help you take corrective measures
before the project goes off-budget.
 

14. Develop a process to escalate issues

correctly
A common cause of project failure is that important stakeholders and
sponsors aren't alerted to issues until it is too late. Problems that can be
solved by senior people often linger at the bottom of the organization for
fear of rebuke or censure.
You can combat this by creating an issue escalation process for the project.
Start by developing an issue escalation matrix as part of your project
management plan. This matrix should have two key components:

1. A process to identify the intensity or magnitude of an issue

2. Escalation paths for different issue levels

Besides the issue escalation matrix, there are a few other best practices you
can adopt to ensure that issues are resolved correctly:
 1. Create a culture where team members are comfortable escalating
issues to higher management without fear of censure

2. When dealing with outside vendors, wait for their service level
agreements before escalating the issue

3. Escalate only one issue to only one stakeholder at a time. Don't

involve stakeholders who aren't affected by the issue.

4. When escalating issues, identify the intensity of the problem, give

contextual data, and offer suggestions on corrective measures

15. Practice empathy

 
 
The last, but certainly the most important best practice, is to practice
empathy.
Empathize with your clients, your resources, and your end users. Understand
their problems, their needs, and their challenges. No project exists in
isolation; if you're creating something, it will affect real people in some very
real ways.
Practicing empathy will help you understand the true impact of your work
and how you can do it in the best possible way.
Empathy is particularly important in creative agencies. The work you do will
often go out in the world and be seen by thousands, even millions. It will
impact careers and entire companies. Knowing how the project affects end
users, clients, and stakeholders will help you deliver better results.
There is no prescription for practice empathy; you just have to place yourself
in the shoes of other people. Think of everyone involved in the project and
how it affects them. Identify what they truly want to achieve with it. The
client might want more sales, but the senior stakeholder might want to use
the project to jockey for a promotion.
Similarly, a stakeholder on your side might see the project as his "baby". His
motivations to promote it will be very different from the client.
Take cognizance of all these different perspectives when you're planning the
project and you'll see your success rates skyrocket.
 

16. Conduct Regular Client Status Meetings

Checking-in regularly applies not just to team members, but also clients. It's
easy to slip into a pattern of reduced communication when you're dealing
with client who, according to you, is "happy". But unless you check-in
regularly, you might not know if the client is truly satisfied or not.
From a project manager's perspective, frequent client contact can also be
good for your job. When the client is in the loop the whole way through,
feels like you are communicating everything, and feels like you have their
best interests in mind, they are rarely unhappy. They are willing to work with
you, not contact your CEO and complain about you.
To formalize this process, consider conducting regular client status meetings.
Ideally, you need to be held at least once a week to keep everyone engaged
and on the same page. Your client is likely busy, but you want to keep them
engaged and available to you even if they are booked on their real day job.
Assign them a few tasks to manage and ritually conduct weekly project status
calls... you won't be sorry.
 

17. Become Politically Savvy

As project managers we need to understand our team and their individual
characteristics as much as possible. Each person is an individual – knowledge
of human nature will go a long way in making a skilled project manager also a
good resource manager. Know how your team works – know their chemistry.
Having a good understanding of human nature will give you insight into how
to manage and motivate your team to accomplish the goals of the project.
A part of this is understanding politics. As much as we may hate the politics
side, we need to be – or become – politically savvy. There are going to be
those times when we have to negotiate, be connected, and pull some strings
in order to get certain things done on the project and for the project.
This usually occurs when you’re trying to obtain a key resource or get a
roadblock handled by someone in your organization. At any rate, it is
important that the project manager be somewhat politically savvy in order to
get key work accomplished.
Network in your organization and gain visibility if you don’t have enough of it
yet. The quiet project manager doesn’t get the things he needs for his
project.
 

Over to You
There are countless other project management best practices. You might
already be using some of them. Others might not benefit your organization at
all. The important part is to track your own best practices, to adopt and test
new ones, and to maintain a knowledge base that lists everything you do to
improve your project management practices.
***
What are some of your organization’s favorite best practices for project
management? Share them with us below!
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About The Author

Sylvia joined the Workamajig marketing team in ‘17 & with her background in
graphic design & business, she’s an awesome addition. At just under 5 feet, Sylvia is
a living testament to the adage that good things come in small packages. You can
reach her by sending an email to [email protected].
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The 5 Project Management Steps To Run

Every Project Perfectly

Ben Mulholland
September 28, 2018
 Business , Business Processes , Processes , SaaS , Small Business , Startups

Project management is the key to sticking to your budget and deadline, whilst
keeping the most important tasks at the forefront of your company. Without it,
you leave the future of your business at the mercy of your teams and
employees (which, in case you weren’t aware, is not a good business model ).

For such an important process, the project management steps are a little
muddy, with sources citing differing numbers of steps, timelines, etc. Then
again, it’s a massive topic with a huge margin for error; how the hell do you
convey these steps when the project could be anything from “get winter
clothes in stock” to “grow to $220,000 monthly recurring revenue ”?
Well, we here at Process Street  hate making things complicated, so we’ve
simplified the project management steps of any and every undertaking to five
easy stages.

 Conception and Initiation

 Definition and Planning

 Launch and Execution

 Performance and Control

 Project Close
If you’re looking to structure your next big push, or you just want to set and
track realistic deadlines, then this is the process for you. Then again, feel free
to skip ahead to any particular step you’re after.

Project Conception and Initiation

The first of our project management steps is to settle on the idea of a project;
to scratch out the concept and agree that it will be taken further than the
drawing board. You’ll have an idea, do a little research to see how it would be
completed, then pitch it to the relevant powers for examination and approval.

This stage will change a lot depending on the idea which is being developed.
For example, if you want to implement a new feature then you’ll need to
consult the head of your development team. On top of the relevant team
heads, you’ll also be consulting with your shareholders in order to keep them
informed of where their money is being spent.

Is it feasible, and is it valuable?

The key with the conception stage is to examine your project for both its
feasibility and value to the organization; an easy project will be useless if it
does not benefit the company, and a useful project will just waste resources if
you aren’t certain that it’s plausible in the first place.

Example

Let’s take an example project to run us through each step, in the form
of creating a new ebook . You don’t want to have to run a 50 step management
checklist along with the rest of your marketing processes , so we’ll keep it
simple.

In the conception and initiation phase, we need to get a rough idea of how long
it will take to make, how much it will cost, and the effect it will have. After that,
the idea will be taken to a decision-making team (in this case the head of
marketing and the CEO) to see if it’s worth pursuing. If the value is worth the
perceived difficulty, it’s time to move onto definition and planning.

Project Definition and Planning

The second project management step is definition and planning. Once your
project’s been given the go-ahead, it’s time to stamp out the scope, schedule,
and cost of a project. This is usually done by drawing up a project plan, scope
or charter, then calculating a budget, the resources needed, and a schedule.

It’s worth noting that all of these items are subject to change during the
project. Orders could be delayed or problems could arise, so when drawing up
these plans you need to give some leeway and predict the most likely area for
delays. You should also note the flexibility of the teams working on the project,
as if a delay occurs you may need to divert resources in order to hit the
deadline.

Have SMART and CLEAR goals

Two popular methods of creating goals for a project are SMART and CLEAR .
SMART stands for:

 Specific – Setting goals to cover who, what, where, when, which and why

 Measurable – Making sure that you know how to measure the progress to and
success of a goal

 Attainable – Lay out how to achieve your most important goals

 Realistic – Ensure that everyone is willing and able to achieve your goals

 Timely – Making sure that you can a timeline in which you can hit your goals

Meanwhile CLEAR ensures goals are:

 Collaborative – Check that your team is encouraged to work together

 Limited – The scope of your goals should be limited enough to make them
manageable

 Emotional – Your employees should be able to form an emotional connection

to your goals by tapping into their passions.

 Appreciable – Large tasks need to be broken down to make them more

achievable

 Refinable – Goals need to be flexible to adapt and be refined as new

situations arise

Whichever method you choose, the basic principles which need to be set out
are the cost of the project, the quality of the end result, the resources which
are available (or which will be diverted), and a reasonable timeline for each
task to be completed.

Example
Going back to our ebook, the planning and initiation stage would involve
meeting with the marketing team and stamping out a timeframe for each
chapter of the book to be completed. Once the topic has been set and
assessed (for the difficulty of writing), these dates will become more solid.

The person responsible for writing each chapter will be assigned, along with
the task of designing and creating the ebook itself. If there is no in-house
designer, we would discuss our options for outsourcing the task and price it up
accordingly.

Another aspect which would need to be planned would be the launch of the
ebook. For example, if the book is being used as a content upgrade, a landing
page would need to be created with a reasonable flow for a user to subscribe
to the email list.

Risks such as hidden topic depth or difficulty in securing a designer for the
ebook would be assessed, and action plans for the more likely scenarios
drawn up, such as diverting another member of the marketing team to work on
a chapter.

Project Launch and Execution

The project launch and execution phase is next, and this is where things kick
into overdrive. As the title would suggest, this is where work begins on the
project, although one or two tasks must be completed before your team gets
stuck into the meat of the topic.

First, you need to ensure that you have the deliverables of the project set in
stone – you should know what needs to be completed, how it should be done,
who needs to work on it, and when it has to be complete by (with some
flexibility, depending on the risks you’ve identified). Once you’re sure that you
have this collected and approved, the kickoff meeting will take place.

The project kickoff meeting is vital. Here is where you will meet with the teams
involved and distribute the necessary resources, tasks, timeline,
responsibilities, and any other important information related to the project.

Not only do you have to convey all that, but (going back to your CLEAR goals)
you need to make sure that your team understands exactly what the project is
and why they should both care and be enthusiastic about it. Yes, I’m aware of
how corny that sounds.

Assign tasks to the employees that fit them

Put it this way; if you know that John from marketing is a whizz with data and
enjoys that kind of work, consider assigning him a data-crunching task, as your
goal will not only be achieved quicker (from his experience) but to a higher
quality (from his passion for the work). If you were to assign him the task of
researching and writing on a topic which he both knows nothing about and
contains no data backing whatsoever, the end result will both take longer and
be of an inferior quality.
During this midpoint in our project management steps it’s also vital to set up
some sort of tracking and communication system or standard. You need to be
able to quantify the progress of your individual teams at any point in the
project, and also regularly touch base with (at least) the team managers in
order to make sure that everything is running smoothly.

Example

With our ebook, the launch and execution stage would involve figuring out
what each chapter will consist of, assigning various team members (most likely
marketers) to complete said chapters, giving a deadline for each chapter, and
carving out a regular meeting time during which your team’s progress and
problems will be relayed. Everyone should know what they are working on,
why they are working on it, when it should be complete by, and what everyone
else is responsible for.

Project Performance and Control

The performance and control step of project management occurs over the time
from the project’s launch to its completion, and serves as a method to
measure and compare the status of the project compared to the original plan.
This phase can require relatively little effort on the project manager’s part, or
be the most stressful section of the entire undertaking, depending on how
smoothly everything runs.

Using the previously set out meeting times, you need to be regularly talking to
everyone involved with the project (or at least the team managers) and
ensuring that all is running smoothly. This is usually done through the use of
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators); the quantifiable measure of progress I
talked about above.

Use KPIs to track your project’s progress

Although the KPIs you measure will vary drastically depending on the project
you’re undertaking, they will usually consist of two or more of the following four
aspects.Project objectives, which are the measure of if a project is staying on
schedule and on

 Project objectives, which are the measure of if a project is staying on schedule

and on budget, according to stakeholder objectives.
  Quality deliverables, which means looking to see if tasks are being completed
to the right level of quality.

 Effort and cost tracking, meaning that you’re checking to see if you’re staying
on the expected deadline and budget, and perhaps predicting the completion
date based on this.

 Project performance, which is tracking how many problems have occurred and
how quickly they were dealt with.

If all goes well, and the KPIs are lining up without a hitch, the project manager
will pretty much just have to keep checking in with each team periodically. If,
however, a deadline is missed, or a problem arises, you may have to shift or
reassign resources and schedules in order to make the most out of your new
situation.

Example

For our ebook, let’s say that you’ve set out a two-month deadline for the final
product, and you meet twice a week with your marketing team to check on
their progress. If the chapters are getting completed in line with your
expectations, there’s no need to shift around resources (unless your aims
develop or change).

If problems arise, such as a chapter being more complex than originally

thought or team members having to take time off for one reason or another,
you may have to bring in someone who wasn’t already working on the project,
or shift the responsibilities of the current workforce on the project to better suit
the new situation.
Project Close

The final of our project management steps is that of the project’s close. This is
where, for all intents and purposes, the project has been completed and the
outcome has been approved. If all is completed to a satisfactory standard,
then business can either return to usual or move onto the next project.

The first major task of this section is the evaluation of the project. The ultimate
goals / plan of the project need to be compared with the actual outcome and
assessed as to the quality, accuracy, and speed at which it was achieved. For
example, the best outcome would be a project which was completed ahead of
schedule, within or below budget, to a high quality and accuracy, with few
problems. Unfortunately, that truly is a dream scenario.

More likely is the situation whereby you need to assess which problems came
up during the course of the project and how well they were dealt with – this
includes an analysis of how and why everything that took place did so. Was
your team performing so well that they beat your schedule? Were the
problems which arose outside of your control or foresight? Did your team still
manage to complete their work to a satisfactory standard and timeline
considering the difficulties which they faced?

Evaluate and finalize the project

This all needs to coincide with terminating any contractors which were hired to
help on the project, producing a final budget and project report, and collecting
all of the documents associated with the product in a single place for storage /
filing. Think of it as a final status report, along with cleanup after the project is
complete.

Another aspect of this phase (which not all teams take advantage of) is the
congratulations to those involved with the project. Depending on the size and
difficulty of the project, rewarding your team for working hard with (for
example) a small work event or bonus is a great way to encourage them to do
their best on the next project, and to also make them feel appreciated and
form a stronger connection to the company.

Example

Returning to our ebook one final time, the project closing step would be after
the ebook’s public launch. One complete, the immediate benefits would be
tracked (eg, increased conversion rates), any expenses on items such as the
design of the ebook would be totaled, and contracts with freelancers
terminated.
It’s Time to Structure Your Project Management Steps

So, you know what the project management steps are, and you know what you
need to do, but how in God’s name are you going to track everything? Well,
rather than use a combination of every app under the sun, why not just use
one; Process Street.

Not only will you be able to track the progress of your project, but you can grab
the template above for free, and then customize it to your needs as much as
you like. Hell, you could even link this template with your project management
app; for example, a task could be automatically created in Trello  when you
complete a particular step.

Not sure how to get your integrations up and running? Check out our  free
business process automation guide .

With the vast array of things that can go wrong with any given project, it’s
about time that something was simplified. Still, what do you think about our
project management steps? How does the management of your projects
usually flow? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

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Ben Mulholland
Ben Mulholland is an Editor at Process Street , and winds down with a casual
article or two on Mulholland Writing . Find him on Twitter here .

10 Comments

Peter Herku
September 29, 2016 at 2:53 am

Ben, thank you for your very interesting post. Some additions from my
experience:
I differentiate between 2 types of projects: 1. Creating something new (like in
your example an e-book); 2. Improvement project where there is a
performance gap. Examples: reduce lead time of lead conversion, improve
customer satisfaction, reduce customer claims and irritations, etc.
In the improvement projects I follow Project Management steps called DMAIC.
This stands for the following project phases: Define (describe the problem and
set the objective), Measure (collect baseline data and check quality of data),
Analyze (brainstorm and select the most important causes of the current
performance vs objective), Improve (counter-measures and actions based on
the most important causes), Control (if performance is significantly improved
compared to baseline, create new working procedures and checklist to make
sure results are sustained).
All of these phases are carried out together with a multi-disciplined team who
knows the most of this problem. To support this way of project management
and execution we developed a software, HerkuLess.com.
Thank you and keep up the good work!.
Reply

Ben Mulholland
October 4, 2016 at 2:54 am

Hey Peter,

Thanks for the tips! That’s certainly a good way to split it up; improvements on
existing projects do indeed require a different mindset (and you’ll usually have
team members who are familiar with and worked on the original).

I may well end up including those steps in either an addition to this article or a

new post down the line. I’ll certainly check out HerkuLess too! 

Thanks again, and we certainly will,

Ben
Reply
 Richa
October 13, 2016 at 7:16 am

Great post!
I would suggest you to add some of the project management tools available
at https://betapage.co/  for the purpose of growing your business effectively.
Reply

Desalegn Tadesse
May 21, 2018 at 10:08 am

i have Question. If the planned time of the project extends beyond the plan
how will you manage it ? i need your comment
Reply

justin Ezeoke
February 20, 2019 at 1:28 am

Thanks Ben for the great post. Your management steps are and their
applicability are highly appreciated.
Reply

Nadine Rochester
July 24, 2019 at 3:08 am
Great advice brought to life with a good example. I also liked the feedback
comments you have received and would be interested to read your responses
to the more recent questions posed.
Reply

Amina
August 28, 2019 at 5:48 am

I am attending a training on project management and needed an insight into it.

This write-up is quite enlightening. I didn’t really understand what project
management was until I went through this insightful write up. The examples
made a greater impact by bringing to ‘life’ how it truly works.
Reply

Taylor Wright
October 30, 2019 at 12:26 pm

I found it interesting how you mentioned that the best outcome of a project is
one that is completed ahead of schedule. My work was looking to find the best
way to approach a new construction project. I will pass along this information
as we continue to learn more about project management.
Reply

Wendy T Alphin
December 4, 2019 at 11:39 am

Great advice brought to life with a good example.

if i am talking about E-Archiving Project “being part of a project team” what
should I tell the interviewer if i am in a job interview ?
I can’t waste their time telling them about project charter or stakeholders and
all these details.
so please let me know what points should I talk about while interview
Reply

Alessio Rigoli
December 9, 2019 at 11:08 pm

Thanks for sharing this advise Ben, found it really useful and especially liked
Trello.