Main Stages of Projects

00:00 Wow. Here we are.

00:03 Things are really heating up.

00:05 We've seen the outer body of what projects and project managers are.

00:09 Now it's time to look under the hood.

00:13 As we discussed, each project is unique.

00:15 The goal the team with their own personalities, the time frame and the circumstances all make a project its own entity.

00:24 However, there is an established view on how each project evolves from start to finish. The Project Management Institute, which we mentioned in an earlier lesson, have determined five phases which characterise the development of a project. Let's have a look.

00:42 The first process group is the initiation.

00:46 This is where the project sponsor lays the foundations of the project.

00:50 They will define the overall objective or concept or the problem which needs resolving. They will suggest a budget and a time frame and put all of this in the project business case.

01:04 And public service announcement for all aspiring project managers.

01:08 This is also the phase where the project manager is chosen.

01:13 Cool. The second phase is planning.

01:17 This is the phase that can make or break a project.

01:21 Good planning will increase the chances of completing a project within the project management constraints.

01:27 You remember those, right? In the planning phase, the project manager needs to set the work and organize how the project team will execute it.

01:38 They estimate and define resources and risks.

01:42 Research is key here.

01:45 The project manager must ask all the right questions and work with other project stakeholders to find the answers.

01:52 They need to find out things like what activities need to be performed to create the deliverables and project scope, how much time should be given to each one of these activities? What is the required budget? What activities will each member of the project team do? And plenty more.

02:10 Finally, the project manager must document all of these findings into a project management plan.

02:16 The recipe for how to execute the work to achieve the goal.

02:20 The better this recipe is more comprehensive, detailed, realistic, the higher the project's chances of being a delicious success.

02:30 Planning equals a strategy for winning.

02:36 Then comes the execution phase.

02:39 Finally, after all this intensive planning, the moment we've all been waiting for, the starting gun is fired.

02:46 Ready, set, go.

02:49 The project team starts creating the deliverables.

02:53 If the project is construction related, this is when the team starts building.

02:58 If it's a software development project, this is when they start coding and programming.

03:02 You get the point.

03:04 It's here in the execution phase where the project manager ensures the smooth running of the project, motivating the team and resolving any issues that crop up.

03:16 Next, we have monitoring and control.

03:21 Beware, though it does not start after execution.

03:25 This phase runs in parallel to it.

03:28 The project manager performs monitoring and control activities they have developed to track the progress of the project streams and ask Is the execution progressing as per the plan we created? Is the speed and quality in line with the time frame? Are the expenses within the budget? If not, if there are delays, slowdowns or gaps, the project manager must identify them and take action to fix them before it's too late.

03:59 Lastly, the closure phase.

04:02 When all the project work is done, the project manager still has some final tasks to do to formally complete the project.

04:10 They must hand the project over to whomever it was designed for.

04:14 The sponsor must officially approve and sign off the project confirming the agreed objective has been achieved.

04:20 Then the project team, the stakeholders and the project manager sit and discuss the lessons, learnt what went well, what didn't, and what could be improved for future projects. Continuous improvement is important, which is why project managers must constantly learn new skills and build on their expertise.

04:40 Once the feedback is documented, the process is complete and everyone involved can have a little bit of rest until the next project begins.

04:50 Wow, what a life project managers have.

04:54 And I know you know what's coming next.

04:58 That's right. An in-depth look into each process group of the project's lifecycle.

05:03 Next lesson we start with the initiation phase.

05:07 See you there.