Follow The 3 Steps To A Successful Project

If a certain television programme were to be believed project management is all about shouting over colleagues, making poorly informed choices, making up a nonsensical strategy on the fly and then blaming everybody around you when it all goes wrong.

Needless to say the reality is significantly different. That is not to say that bad project management does not exist nor that there are not individuals for whom loud mouthed bullying and obnoxious behaviour appear to fit the job description. But, taken as a whole, the standard of project management within the modern business world is professional and highly competent and this is largely down to the established project management methodology that ensures clarity and effectiveness.

This methodology is broken down into three simple stages; those of initiation, control and closure. The initiation phase lays out the details and proposals of the specified project and is crucial in both focusing the mind of the project manager on exactly what the project is intended to achieve, how long it is likely to take to reach its goal, how great the cost of the project will be etc. and also in establishing a dialogue between the Project Manager and the Project Sponsor concerning what both parties see as being the end result.

There may be a number of proposals and reports that fly back and forth in the initiation phase of a project. The first and most basic will be the mandate which outlines the bare bones of the project and then, once that has been approved by the sponsor, a more detailed project definition report will be circulated by the PM.

The control phase of the project management methodology is where most mistakes get made and the project can end up running out of control. It is essential for the PM to create a realistic Gantt chart to track progress and set short term milestones to adequately assess the success of the ongoing project.

Risks and issues that arise during the project need to be correctly identified and logged so that the project manager is always on top of any developments and prepared to act accordingly. It is equally important that this information is communicated clearly and effectively to team members, stakeholders and project sponsors so that all parties are aware of the project's progress throughout its duration.

When the project has achieved its goal it is vital to establish successful closure. This may seem like a common sense thing to say yet many PMs do not implement this phase of the methodology either because they feel it unnecessary or they simply forget amidst the euphoria of the project's goals being attained. On a purely practical level it is essential to tie up any of the project's loose ends as the bottom line can be affected by any financial 'leakages' left running unchecked. But it is also highly valuable for future reference to record the path of the project and any unexpected issues that arose so that lessons can be learned and valuable precedents followed.