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Projects and project life cycle

A project is a set of tasks that must be completed to achieve planned objectives. These tasks are completed by a group of people known as the project team, which is led by a project manager, who oversees the planning, scheduling, tracking and successful completion of projects. A project is usually considered successful if it achieves the objectives within an agreed timescale and budget.

The project life cycle is the order of processes and phases used in delivering projects. It consists of five main stages:

1. Initiation - The starting phase where the need or opportunity for the project is identified. During this phase, the project's objectives, scope, feasibility, and stakeholders are defined.
2. Planning - Project managers and teams define project goals, deliverables, tasks, schedules, budgets, resources, and risk management strategies.
3. Execution - Teams execute the tasks according to the project plan, and project managers oversee the progress, monitor resources, and communicate with stakeholders.
4. Monitoring & Controlling - The project's progress is tracked against the project plan. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure and assess the project's performance. Regular status reports and updates are provided to stakeholders.
5. Closure - Finalising and delivering project deliverables, obtaining formal acceptance from stakeholders, and closing out contracts and resources. A post-project review is often conducted to evaluate the project's overall success and identify areas for improvement.

Project management

Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to meet project deliverables within agreed parameters.

A key factor that distinguishes project management from management as such is that it has this final deliverable and a specific timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Therefore, a project professional needs a wide range of skills, often technical skills, people management skills, and good business awareness.

Project managers are responsible for day-to-day management of projects. Their tasks typically include:

• planning what work needs to be done, when and who is going to do it,
• looking at the risks involved in a particular project and managing these risks,
• making sure the work is done to the right standard,
• motivating the team of people involved in the project,
• co-ordinating work done by different people,
• making sure the project is running on time and to budget,
• dealing with changes to the project when necessary,
• making sure the project delivers the expected outcomes and benefits.

Project management skills

Successful project managers need the right balance and combination of various skills. Soft skills are called “non-technical skills,” or skills that can help improve quality of work without a specific tool or technical requirement. These are also called “people skills” or “interpersonal skills” because they often help project managers work with and relate to others in their workspace:

• COLLABORATION helps get work done quickly and more efficiently. Coordinating across teams brings valuable insights into a project, makes it more creative and well-developed.
• TEAMWORK is more effective and it ensures that everyone feels welcome, valued, and they are supported to contribute.
• COMMUNICATION - Miscommunications are common when working with a group of people. Learning how to communicate well will make projects run more smoothly and be more enjoyable. Communicating well also includes listening to others.
• TIME MANAGEMENT goes hand in hand with ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS. Improvement of these skills and also reduction of procrastination can be ensured by prioritising
• LEADERSHIP - Good leaders bring everyone together and make them feel supported to foster teamwork and collaboration.
• PROBLEM-SOLVING - People with good problem-solving skills do not necessarily have the “right” answer to every problem but they are able to approach problems from new perspectives and work methodically towards a solution.
• CRITICAL THINKING, like problem-solving, does not have a “solution.” Problems may be approached logically instead of decisions being based on emotions. Good critical thinkers practise analysing information and form their own conclusions based on facts.
• ADAPTABILITY - Great project managers are able to adapt to new situations to continue steering their project team in the right direction.
• CONFLICT RESOLUTION - Addressing both sides of the conflict so everyone feels heard and supported.

Unlike soft skills, hard skills are quantifiable abilities. While the soft skills are applicable to many work skills, the following hard skills are relevant specifically to project management:

• PROJECT PLANNING will typically include objectives, success metrics, stakeholders and roles, scope and budget, milestones, deliverables, project dependencies, schedule, and a communication plan. Some of these may be defined in the project roadmap.
• PROJECT SCOPING - Project scope is the size, goals, and limitations (i.e. deadlines and resources) for a project.
• HOSTING a project kick-off meeting that presents an opportunity to clarify the project goals and scope and specify roles and responsibilities on the project.
• PROJECT ROADMAPPING - A project roadmap is a high-level overview of the project’s key deliverables and timeline.

Technical skills refer to the knowledge of specific tools and software within project management:

• Project management SOFTWARE SKILLS
• GANTT CHARTS are a way to visualise the project as a horizontal bar chart, where each bar represents a piece of work and the length of each bar represents the amount of time that work will take.
  • Project milestones
  • Dependencies
  • Real-time project progress
  • Start and end dates
• KANBAN BOARDS - Each column in a Kanban board represents a stage of work, such as New, In progress, or Done. Individual work is represented by cards, which move through the columns until they are completed.
• AGILE MANAGEMENT - Agile management is a lean project management methodology that is particularly popular with product, engineering, and software development teams.
• WORKLOAD MANAGEMENT - Workload management helps measure a team’s capacity and make sure they are not over- or under-worked.
• COST MANAGEMENT - Cost management is considering how each task impacts the budget at every stage of the project.
• CHANGE MANAGEMENT - Change management is the process of introducing organisational change, such as new processes or tools, over a set period of time to make them easier to adapt to.

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are a set of quantifiable tools that a company or industry uses to measure and compare performance in terms of meeting their strategic and operational goals. KPIs vary between companies and industries, depending on their priorities or performance criteria.

KPIs are usually developed following the well-known S.M.A.R.T. criteria:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Result-oriented or Relevant
• Time-bound

There are four different types of project management KPIs:

• TIMELINESS KPIs ensure that all of a project’s activities are done on time, and if they are lagging behind schedule, an estimated completion date can always be calculated. Timeliness KPIs include for example Cycle Time and Planned Hours vs Time Spent.
• QUALITY KPIs help check the quality of the work done so far and how the project team benefits from the project development process.
• BUDGET KPIs ask serious questions and determine how much funding is being spent on the project development process and if it is exceeding that budget.
• EFFECTIVENESS KPIs are the resource monitoring ones, and they determine how you spend the allocated resources for the project and how you use them more effectively.