Steps to see a project through from start to finish

1. Project Management Basics

2. Basic Project Lifecycle
Initiation
• Assemble Team
• Define Project Scope
Planning
• Construct Initial Workplan
• Estimate needed Resources, Cost and Risk
• Present Full workplan and budget
Controlling/
Executing
• Monitor, Review and Adjust workplan and Budget
• Collect and Report Progress Information
• Review and adjust Project Scope
Closure
• Issuing Completion Documentation
• Receive and Review Project owner feedback

3. Initiating
 Initiating is where you formulate your “contract” with the client/customer Lack of
agreement about what’s important is the biggest cause for disagreement and scope
creep
 Lack of understanding of the impact of changes is the biggest reason for escalating
costs (in cost, time and quality terms)
 Gives a platform for upfront disagreements and agreements about the aspects o
the project
 Gives a platform for complete understanding of project scope, possible challenges
and risk
 Gives a fair idea of cost, human resources and time requirements

4. Planning: WorkPlan
Planning is the most important aspect of project management, the following steps are guides
to preparing a workplan for a project
 Identify Specific Tasks That Need to Be Done
 Define Who Will Be Responsible for Each Task
 Determine When Each Task Will Take Place
 Define agreed process for making adjustment to task
 Estimate Costs for Each Task
 Labour
 Materials
 Other direct costs (travel, telephone etc.)
 Indirect costs (i.e. overheads – office rental, utilities, administrative costs)
 Create a project workplan document detailing all steps above and
 Description of deliverables expected
 Dependencies and assumptions
 Priority and importance of a task

5. Planning: Budget
Another important part of planning is budgeting, the
following steps are guides to preparing a budget for a
project
 Confirm the Timeframe from the workplan for the
Budget
 List all possible expenses for each task
identified in the workplan, Cost each expense
and Group the Resources Needed
 Include Cost Recovery (i.e costs of those
functions which will be carried on by the
organisation regardless of whether the project
is implemented and are allocated to the project
because the project would not be able to
function properly without them. Examples of
such costs include project administration,
finance services, and office space.)
 Balance Your Budget: income must cover all
expenses and expected profit

6. Execution, Monitoring & Controlling
 Executing process is working the plan(s) and
budget that were created in the planning process
 The execution of the plan may involve as one or
more iterations of planned process
 Monitoring and controlling plan(s) involves
monitoring of work progress and budget spend,
as well as controlling any changes involved in the
Execution process of the project being executed.
 Controlling of changes should follow the agreed
process in the planning stage
 Controlling and Monitoring also involves the
updating and monitoring of any risks and issues
that may result from the project execution
process
 Monitoring and Controlling also involves
collecting information about the executions of
each task and proper reporting and
communication of such progress
 Monitoring and controlling also involves risk
anticipation and management

7. Closing
 Closing is just a matter of acknowledging that everything agreed has been delivered
 Project closing process works to ensuring that all the work is complete, as defined by
the deliverables, the initiation documentation and any resulting change requests.
 It include getting customer sign-off for the deliverables, closing out the budget,
defining any follow on actions and reviewing lessons learned. –
 It involves update company processes and asset due to the execution of the
project

8. In Summary:
Key Takeaway
 Project Objective Must Clearly Defined and Agreed
 Documented Plans Full of Mini Milestones
 Balance Quadrant (Scope, Quality, Cost & Time)
 Scope Management Process
 Closure Document
 The point of Planning is NOT to follow the plan, but to gain a better understanding of
what needs to be done