What Is Project Management? An Introduction

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

Are there any projects out there you’ve wanted to give a try but are so big that you don’t know quite where to start? Maybe earn a degree, restore a car, remodel a kitchen, or start a business? If so, then project management can help you. A project is an undertaking with a clearly defined beginning and end, undertaken to meet specific goals and objectives. A project can be something as massive as going to Mars or as common as moving into your first apartment. Each is a distinct effort with a beginning and an end, not to mention a clear objective.

So then what’s project management?

Project management is the process of leading and orchestrating the efforts of various team members to successfully reach the project’s goals and objectives, on time, and on budget.

There are many ways to approach project management, but most follow these basic five phases:

  1. Initiate
  2. Plan
  3. Execute
  4. Monitor and Control
  5. Close

Exercising good project management discipline does several things:

  • First, it aligns all the moving parts of a project to make sure they’re optimally focused on the right objective.
  • Second, it keeps the ball moving forward by motivating team members, removing obstacles, and managing stakeholder expectations.
  • Third, it keeps the team and key stakeholders laser-focused on the objective, and in so doing, helps keep scope creep at bay.
  • Fourth, it manages valuable project resources such as time, budget, and labor-hours, thereby maximizing the impact of these scarce resources.
  • Fifth and finally, it balances the needs of cost, quality, and time. All projects require some sort of tradeoff in these three areas; good project management does so deliberately and methodically, always keeping the end objective front and center.

Now most the time when we think of project management we think of big workplace projects, but project management can be applied not only at work but in the home, our personal lives, etc. Throughout our discussion I’ll give examples how project management can help us in all these areas.

INITIATE

So with all this in mind, let’s look at the first phase of project management: Initiate. This phase is all about setting the scope for the project. It does this by clearly defining the goal and purpose of the project, as well as scoping the size of the undertaking. Think of it as a bunch of drunk friends in a bar saying someday we need to start a band, or even start a business, all the while one sober friend is furiously pounding away at a laptop, taking notes. We’re talking about the broad strokes of the project, unfettered brainstorming: heavy on big picture; light on the details. There are six steps in the Initiate phase:

Step 1 is to define the need

It’s critical that you have a clear understanding of the need for the project—the problem you’re trying to solve. You can’t arrive at a destination on time and on budget if you don’t know where your destination is in the first place. It sounds obvious, but like most things that are obvious, it’s often underappreciated and forgotten. Needs can be things like:

  • WORK: Our employee attrition rate is increasing, causing our best talent to leave the company.
  • HOME: Our kitchen is falling apart and is no longer serviceable.
  • PERSONAL: I don’t have the skills and experience necessary to get my dream job.

Understanding the need isn’t just important for you as you conceptualize your project; it’s guaranteed that your stakeholders are going to ask some pointed and difficult questions as you go looking for resources and support. The better you can express the need in a way that matters to them, the more likely you’ll be to get the project off the ground.

Step 2 is to determine the project’s objectives

During this step you want to clearly understand what you want to accomplish in during this project. You’ve defined the problem, so now you want to figure out what a solution to this problem looks like. For example:

  • WORK: Employee attrition rate decreases at least 50% within two years among top-tier employees as defined by their mission-critical technical skillsets and performance reviews.
  • HOME: The kitchen is remodeled by the end of the year and includes new, top-of-the-line appliances that meet our needs today and into the future.
  • PERSONAL: In four years I will have earned a degree and gained the skills necessary to get my dream job through school, part-time jobs, and internships.

When defining success, it’s important to make your objective S.M.A.R.T., which is to say:

  • SPECIFIC
  • MEASURABLE
  • ATTAINABLE
  • RELEVANT
  • TIME-BOUND

This will serve as an important guide as competing interests vie for your time and attention, or when scope-creep tries to tempt you away from your core objective.

Step 3 is to determine the resource needs

At this point you have a pretty good idea what you want to do, so then the next question is what resources do you need to pull it off? This can of course include finding, but funding is a means to an end. What do you need this money for? Equipment? Space? Materials? Skills? What about time? Do you have the time to remodel a kitchen or earn a degree? The more thoroughly you understand your resource needs, the less likely it is you’ll be blindsided halfway through the project.

Step 4 is to identify your stakeholders

A stakeholder is anyone with a vested interest in the outcome of our project. If you’re trying to retain top talent, stakeholders would include management, HR, and the employees themselves. If you’re working on a four-year degree then your partner, parents, boss, and friends all have a vested interest in your success or failure and so could be considered stakeholders.

Step 5 is to develop a project charter

A project charter functions as the North Star of the project, documenting everything decided thus far: the need you’re trying to address, the objective, needed resources, and stakeholders. It also maps out the roles and responsibilities of the team members, how they’re going to collaborate, and how the team will manage conflict should it arise.

Finally, step 6 is to develop communications plan

Your stakeholders are going to want to know how things are going, that you’re staying on schedule, and that everything is going according to plan. Remember, they’ve given their blessing to this project. so they deserve to be kept in the loop.

PLAN

With the Initiate phase complete, it’s now time to start phase two: Plan. In this phase you want to develop a detail plan around the project. You’ve got the big picture, things like the overall objective, success criteria, and resource requirements. Now you need to sharpen your pencils and but down clear actionable plans. With that in mind, let’s look at the four steps of the Plan phase:

Step 1 is to define the project scope

You want to define exactly what you are and are not doing. Projects have a way of growing in scope, but allowed to grow unchecked, scope-creep places a strain on resources and puts the primary objective at risk. Opportunities are everywhere, and we are often loath to let them pass us by. Nevertheless, your success in one area will often mean saying “no” then even low-hanging-fruit opportunities come your way. You need to stay focused on your core objective. For instance, while renovating the kitchen you may be tempted to include the downstairs bathroom as well. On the surface this may make sense—you’re tearing everything up after all—but remember you have a schedule and budget to maintain, and adding scope can put the chief objective at risk.

Step 2 is to develop a project schedule

This is where your map out detailed tasks, owners, and delivery dates. Often called a “map day,” you want to determine your key milestones then figure out who needs to wo what by when and with what tools and resources to meet these milestones. The results of these maps days are often put into a Gantt chart which the project manager can then use to measure progress against schedule.

Step 3 is to develop a budget

Once you have a project scope and schedule in place you can then turn to your budget. Both will affect the required funds, and of course the available funds will affect the scope and schedule.

Step 4 is to identify potential risks

It’s an inevitability that things will go wrong. We don’t often like to see this, but it’s true, so the better you identify and mitigate for potential pitfalls, the more likely you are to meet your objectives.

EXECUTE

With the plan in place, it is now time for phase three: Execute. There are only two steps involved in this phase, but everything you’ve done thus far culminates in these two steps:

Step 1 is to conduct a project kickoff meeting

This means reviewing all the decisions made and making sure everyone is prepared to execute to their roles and responsibilities. You’re about to embark on a major undertaking; now’s the time to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before you hit the “GO” button.

Step 2 is to perform the work

That’s right: now’ the time to actually do the work. Whereas the kickoff meeting may take just a few hours, depending on the nature of the project, step two can take years. For this reason, the next phase, Monitor and Control, becomes extremely important.

MONITOR AND CONTROL

In this phase, there aren’t so much a series of steps to follow but rather a series of variable and factors to, well, monitor and control. In rapid fire, they are:

  • Scope: Is the project sticking to the specific and narrow scope defined at the beginning of the project?
  • Schedule: Are you on schedules and hitting all your deadlines? This is where your Gantt chart comes in handy.
  • Budget: Are you staying on budget? Is there anything you need to do to reign in costs or secure more funding?
  • Stakeholders: Are your stakeholders satisfied with how things are going? Is anyone starting to get nervous or threating to pull support?
  • Project Team: How is the team getting along? Are you collaborating well and firing on all cylinders?
  • Risks: Are the risk mitigation plans you put in place working?
  • Escalations: Is there anything the project manager needs to escalate up the organization to head-off any red flags?
  • Goals: Most importantly, are you on track to meeting your goals? Are you on track to achieving your overall objective?

Some of these factors will be measured and adjusted monthly or quarterly, while others can be weekly or even daily. It may sound perfunctory, but it’s only by monitoring and controlling for these key metrics can you hope to be successful. When you have a tiger by the tail, you better believe you’ll want to pay attention to what matters most and make adjustments when needed!

CLOSE

This brings us to the final phase: Close. At this point the project is done, and it’s time to wrap things up. It may sound odd, but there’s still work to be done. There are four steps involved in closing a project:

Step 1 is to ensure that everything has been completed

Take the time to run through the expected project deliverables and make sure they’ve all been complete, that there aren’t any boxes that remain unchecked. A good friend of mine tells the story of how he had graduated with a bachelor’s degree and was a year into his post-graduate law degree when his alma mater came back to him and said “Gee, you’re missing one credit of PhysEd. You need to come back and finish that up before you can continue.” He managed to get it waived, but needless to say the man wasn’t pleased.

Step 2 is to confirm that the project outcomes meet stakeholder expectations

Assess whether the final project deliverables meet all the stakeholder expectations. There’s going to be a reckoning, and when there is you want to make sure you correctly understand where you may not have met all their expectations. This may require nothing more than a brief explanation, or it may involve recommendations for future work.

Step 3 is to report out project success

Depending on the nature of the project, the team should formally go before those who sponsored the project and report-out the results and the overall success of the undertaking. This is important not only to help close out this chapter but also to recognize and thank your stakeholders for their support throughout the project. People like to be appreciated, even if all they did was not get in your way.

Step 4 is to celebrate!

You heard me right—go off and celebrate! The project team has worked hard, not only during the project’s execution, but during the initial planning process as well. There were a lot of moving parts, stakeholder expectations, and obstacles to overcome. Success was in no way guaranteed, so celebrate! Go out and have one last hurrah with the team. Tell stories, reminisce, and revel in what you’ve all accomplished together.

So there you are! Bring this kind of discipline to your next project and you’ll increase your odds of success ten-fold!

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.