Project Management - WBS PDF

**Overview of Project Management** - **What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?** A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a **project management tool used to break down the work within a project**, providing a complete view of each individual component. A WBS is often created in the early stages of...

**Overview of Project Management** - **What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)?** A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a **project management tool used to break down the work within a project**, providing a complete view of each individual component. A WBS is often created in the early stages of the project life cycle, helping teams to: - Identify project deliverables - Build their initial project plan - Assign task owners Like many things in project management, a work breakdown structure chart is shown in a **hierarchical structure** to highlight the dependencies between components and subcomponents. This creates a clear visual representation of the project to help project team members stay aligned. A work breakdown structure also **shows how tasks align with each of the project phases** and **how each one contributes to the project objective**. This makes it easier for project managers to track progress against the project schedule and spot any risks to the project budget. For all of these reasons, the Project Management Institute, the leading project management body, recommends completing a work breakdown structure as part of its project planning process. And honestly, with all the benefits a work breakdown structure provides, it's hard to argue, especially if you're managing multiple complex projects! **Different types of work breakdown structures** There are two ways to break down a project. You can either focus on 'what' the entire project will deliver or 'when' the project will deliver each part. Based on your answer to those questions, you will likely use one of two different types of work breakdown structure templates to uncover all the tasks. Let's take a look at each one to see which may be best for you and your project. **Deliverable-based work breakdown structure** If you're keen to **understand 'what' the project will achieve**, a deliverable-based WBS organizes the work under each of the products, services, or outputs within the project's scope. For this type of WBS, each deliverable is broken down into sub-deliverables, clearly showing the components that make up the final outputs. This type of WBS is commonly used for engineering, manufacturing, or construction projects, where the deliverables are highly technical and include many intricate parts. **TIP:** A deliverable-based WBS provides clarity on the deliverables themselves and clearly shows how the work aligns with the project's scope. But on the other hand, it doesn't highlight when each deliverable will be completed within the project timeline. **Phase-based work breakdown structure** A phase-based WBS is perfect for **breaking down 'when' each work package will be completed**. Depending on your chosen project life cycle, WBS packages are organized under each project phase, showing how the deliverables are created over time.  This approach clearly shows when work packages will be completed and how each one feeds into project scheduling and key transition points. Where the **required deliverables are highly complex, a phase-based WBS isn't as strong** as it focuses more on timing rather than specification. **TIP:** This type of WBS is commonly used for design, software, or marketing projects that follow a sequential process or have many task dependencies. **Key elements of a work breakdown structure** While every company is slightly different, bodies such as the Project Management Institute have worked hard to standardize the key components of a great work breakdown structure. This helps keep project management documents consistent and ensures every project manager works to the same standard. When building a WBS structure, make sure it includes the following elements: \#1 --- Project scope: All work breakdown structures start with the project scope statement. This ensures all the work links back to the project objectives. For example, 'building a house.' \#2---Deliverables or phases: Depending on your chosen format, the next level of a WBS shows the project deliverables or phases that underpin the project scope. In a deliverable-based WBS, this could be 'walls,' 'roof,' and 'foundation,' whereas in a phase-based approach, you may go for 'design,' 'plan,' and 'build.' \#3 --- WBS elements: Underneath the deliverables or phases come the specific WBS elements or work packages. E.g., In our deliverable-based WBS example, under the 'walls' deliverable you could list 'bricks' or 'mortar' as a WBS element. \#4 --- Supporting information: To finish, for each of the work packages, you may include additional information, such as who is responsible for individual tasks, how much budget is assigned, or how much of the work is currently completed. This information will develop over time as the project progresses. **TOP:** Many project managers also create a **WBS dictionary** along with a project's work breakdown structure. This dictionary details more information about each WBS element, including a detailed explanation of what the work is and how it contributes to the overarching project objectives. **Why use a WBS in project management?** As you can see, work breakdown structures are an essential part of project management. They help break projects into manageable components, improve project structure, align key team members, and support risk management. Let's look at each of those benefits in more detail. **Improved project organization** A work breakdown structure provides a clear framework for organizing and managing project tasks. This helps make large projects more manageable and improves resource allocation, budget control, and stakeholder management. **Enhance clarity and communication** Clear work packages improve understanding and communication across the team. Outlining and visualizing detailed tasks creates alignment and clarity for all involved, helping to avoid miscommunications, minimize conflicts, and improve task management for all project participants. **Better time management** Understanding each work package helps project managers create more reliable estimates and track progress more accurately. This, in turn, helps the team be more efficient, maximizing resource capacity while keeping project costs down. **Earlier risk identification** Clear work breakdown structures help project managers spot risks such as bottlenecks and competing priorities. This allows them more time to develop mitigation strategies, reducing the likelihood of missing project milestones or underperforming on project deliverables. **How to create a work breakdown structure** Much like other planning techniques, such as creating a Gantt Chart, building a work breakdown structure is easier if you follow a consistent process. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you get started. **1. Define the project scope** The first step to building a project work breakdown structure is to clearly define your project scope. In many instances, this may be included in the project's business case, but if not, work with stakeholders to **agree on a set of project aims.** **TIP:** Remember, a project's scope must cover everything it sets out to do. For large projects or programs, you may even need more than one scope item, and thus WBS! **2. Establish the top-level phases or deliverables** For a deliverable-based WBS, next, identify the products, services, or outputs that underpin each scope item. These should be the highest level deliverables you can describe and should strictly be just one step down from the scope items themselves. **TIP:** For a phased approach, align with your organization's chosen project life cycle. If your organization doesn't have one, at a minimum, include phases for Design, Planning, Build, Test, and Go-Live. **3. Break down deliverables or phases into smaller tasks** With your outline structure in place, it's time to create the work packages that sit underneath. First, start with the parent task that underpins each deliverable within the project before breaking them down further into sub-tasks and sub-deliverables.  **TIP:** Be careful to strike the balance between too much and not enough detail, though. As a rule of thumb, anyone should be able to quickly read and understand a WBS, with further details saved for the WBS dictionary. **4. Assign tasks and responsibilities to the team** Now that you've identified all of your work breakdown structure elements, it's time to begin turning your WBS into a project plan by assigning each task to a team or individual. This helps build accountability, feeds into resource management, and ensures everyone is clear on how they contribute to the project's deliverables. **5. Agree on a time and cost estimate for each task** As you assign tasks to each team member, use their knowledge and experience to estimate how long they think each one will take and how much it will cost. Again, this will feed into other project controls, such as scheduling and project budgeting. **TIP:** Alternatively, if you're using tools like Toggl Track, you can view past data within the project dashboard to better understand what tasks, time, and costs went into each deliverable. Here is what that might look like. A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated **6. Refine your WBS and track your progress** Where many project managers go wrong is creating a WBS that they never use again. Instead, use your WBS to help you actively manage your project, keeping track of task completion as well as your performance against the project schedule and budget. As your project evolves, so will your WBS. So, keep reviewing and refining it as things change to help you stay organized and keep your stakeholders up to date. Toggl Track is great for this, automatically alerting you to delays and overspends as your project develops. **Tips for making a work breakdown structure** You must adapt your work breakdown structure to fit your team, projects, and goals. While a project breakdown seems like a simple process, there are some common pitfalls that make it easy to go wrong. To help, here are four top tips to help you stay on track and nail your first work breakdown structure. **Involve the entire project team** Project managers can't do everything on their own, so why would this be the case for a WBS? Use your team's knowledge, experience, and skills to co-create your project's breakdown structure. Not only will this lead to a more comprehensive output, but it will also foster ownership, accountability, and buy-in around the project plan. **Clarity beats detail every time** A WBS should make your project easier to understand, not harder, so do away with complex jargon, acronyms, and complexity. A clear, high-level WBS helps visualize the project and get everyone on the same page, with a WBS dictionary perfect for storing additional detail if required. **Stick to the 100% rule** Every work breakdown structure should follow the 100% rule, meaning it must include 100% of your project's work! Even if a task only contributes one percent to the final product, it should still be in the WBS. This ensures your project estimates are as accurate as possible and eliminates the risk of missing something that may trip you up in the future. **Align your WBS with other project documents** While a WBS is a crucial project management tool, it shouldn't be created in isolation. Ensure your WBS aligns with the project scope, project charter, and business case to align every task with the overarching goal. **TIP:** Once created, your WBS will help shape other documents, such as the project timeline, project budget, and risk management plan. As those other items are updated, make sure you re-align the WBS to keep your entire project in sync. **Do you need work breakdown structure software?** If you're managing a simple project with only a few moving parts, you may not need software and can simply create a basic WBS in a spreadsheet or digital notepad. But, like many things in project management, when things get complex, software can really help make your life so much easier. Here are just a few of the advantages that using specialized software, like Toggl Track, brings to the WBS process: - Flexibility to use different work breakdown structure formats - Helps easily break complex deliverables down into manageable tasks - Creates one central point to share, collaborate, and store data for the next project - As your project changes, it's easy to make updates at the click of a button - You can use templates to create work packages in seconds, boosting efficiency and saving time - Automatically track task progress and costs, alerting you when something doesn't look right If you need a place to easily plan, track, and report on projects, check out Toggl Track. If you bring together the project-planning power of Toggl Plan and the time-monitoring oversight of Toggl Track, you've got a new best friend who's ready to take you and your project to the next level! - **Identify Task Pattens** Task patterns refer to common types of tasks that frequently occur across different projects or stages of project management. Identifying these patterns helps in recognizing and planning for recurring activities, making project management more efficient and predictable. Here are some common **task patterns**: **1. Initiation Tasks** - **Pattern**: Setting up the project framework and obtaining approval. - **Common Tasks**: - Defining project goals and objectives - Developing the project charter - Identifying stakeholders - Securing project approval from sponsors - Conducting initial feasibility studies **2. Planning Tasks** - **Pattern**: Detailed preparation and strategy for project execution. - **Common Tasks**: - Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - Defining project scope - Developing a detailed schedule (Gantt chart, milestones) - Estimating costs and budgeting - Identifying risks and mitigation strategies - Allocating resources and team roles - Creating communication and stakeholder engagement plans **3. Execution Tasks** - **Pattern**: Implementing the project according to the plan. - **Common Tasks**: - Assigning and managing tasks - Coordinating team activities - Managing stakeholder engagement and communications - Performing quality assurance (reviews, testing) - Conducting regular progress meetings and updates **4. Monitoring and Controlling Tasks** - **Pattern**: Tracking project progress and making adjustments as needed. - **Common Tasks**: - Tracking performance (time, cost, scope) - Reporting on project status (dashboards, reports) - Identifying and addressing variances from the plan - Managing change requests (scope changes, adjustments) - Risk monitoring and control - Ensuring quality standards are maintained **5. Closing Tasks** - **Pattern**: Finalizing and completing the project. - **Common Tasks**: - Completing final deliverables and getting approval - Closing contracts with vendors - Conducting project review and lessons learned - Archiving project documents - Releasing project resources (team members, budget, etc.) - Celebrating project success or finalizing follow-up tasks **6. Recurring or Cyclical Tasks** - **Pattern**: Tasks that repeat periodically throughout the project. - **Common Tasks**: - Conducting status meetings (weekly, bi-weekly) - Updating risk logs and registers - Revising project timelines based on progress - Periodic reporting and stakeholder updates - Performing quality checks at intervals **7. Dependency Tasks** - **Pattern**: Tasks that rely on the completion of previous tasks. - **Common Tasks**: - Tasks requiring approvals before continuing (e.g., starting development after design approval) - Tasks dependent on input from another department (e.g., marketing input before starting product launch) - Sequential activities (e.g., completing a prototype before testing) **8. Risk and Issue Management Tasks** - **Pattern**: Handling and resolving risks and issues during the project lifecycle. - **Common Tasks**: - Identifying new risks - Assessing risk impact and likelihood - Developing risk response strategies - Escalating and resolving issues that arise - Logging and tracking issues and changes in the project **How to Calculate Critical Path in Project Management** Critical path in project management refers to the sequence of tasks essential to your project's success. It's the longest series of tasks within your project, and if any of those tasks are delayed, it will push out your project end date. Tasks that aren't on the critical path can be delayed without impacting your overall schedule. Many scheduling tools will automatically identify your critical path for you, as long as you build the following key elements into your schedule: - All project tasks with start and end dates - Task durations - Task relationships or dependencies **How to manually calculate critical path in project management** If you're not using project management software, or just want to double-check things for yourself, here is how to manually calculate the critical path in project management. - Identify all your activities or tasks and note their durations and relationships. - Build a schedule network diagram, which is a visual sequence of how your tasks interrelate. - Identify all possible paths through the diagram, and add up all tasks' duration to calculate the time to complete each path. - The path that has the longest total duration is your critical path. **The benefits of calculating critical path in project management** Once you identify your project's critical path, you can quickly understand if a delay will impact the overall project and react accordingly. You can prioritize activities on the critical path and reschedule less essential tasks to spread out resources. Video: **What Is Project Monitoring and Control?** Project monitoring and control helps you measure project performance. Use the process to look at the project plan, review project status, identify potential problems, and implement changes when necessary. This phase coincides with the execution phase of the project lifecycle. You can use this phase to keep a project on schedule and within budget while also managing risk and avoiding scope creep. At the end of the monitoring and control phase, the customer accepts the completed project deliverables. **What Is the Main Purpose of the Project Monitoring and Control Phase in Project Management?** The primary purpose of monitoring and control in project management is to identify problems before they occur and make adjustments. These changes may require reevaluating and updating the project plan. **Importance of Project Monitoring and Control** Project monitoring and control are essential to completing a project on time, on budget, and within scope. Monitoring and control processes identify deviations from the project plan. Project monitoring and control ensure that performance is seamless, efficient, and on track. **Project Monitoring and Control Process** The monitoring and control process tracks performance metrics to keep a project on schedule, on budget, and within scope. The process helps project teams discover problems before they occur. - **Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):** Monitoring KPIs keeps project deliverables on track and performance up to date. Project managers use data on timelines, budgets, and quality to enable better decisions, make changes to avoid problems, and capitalize on opportunities. - **Monitor Change Requests:** Measuring project performance data helps reveal whether the project is on track or if changes are necessary. If the project is off course, then a change request will be submitted and implemented to make a course correction. - **Monitor Project Scope:** This step helps ensure that any changes to the project scope are verified and documented. You'll need to update any relevant documents, such as a project scope statement and work breakdown structure. You'll also want to determine any timeline and cost adjustments that are relative to a scope increase that can cause a shift in strategy. - **Identify Risks:** Ideally, risk identification should occur throughout a project; when risks arise, you have the relevant information available to make the right decision. - **Communicate with Team Members, Stakeholders, and Clients:** Maintaining regular communication keeps projects on track and helps avoid misunderstandings that cost time and money. It's vital that stakeholders and team members receive all relevant information in a timely manner. **How to Create a Project Monitoring and Control Plan** A project monitoring and control plan integrates factors such as success, scope, schedule, resources, risk, and costs. The plan is developed during the project lifecycle's planning phase. 1. **Outline the project.** Establish scope, schedule, and budget baselines for benchmarking according to the project plan. The plan defines project goals, resources, and milestones. 2. **Break down the project into subtasks or units of work.** A work breakdown structure is a useful tool that project managers can use to create subtasks and manage work. This visualization helps project managers track and simplify performance and deliverables. 3. **Execute the project plan, and report and analyze to identify variances.** Determine if variances are acceptable and continue to monitor them. Find the cause of unacceptable variances and make adjustments. **How to Implement Project Monitoring and Control** Project managers use three to five key performance indicators to report monitoring data and define objectives to keep the project on track. KPIs must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. - **Monitor Project Parameters:** The project plan will include the scope of the project and measurements for success. Project managers use KPIs to track schedule, effort, and cost and to ensure they align with the project plan. - **Monitor Stakeholder Involvement:** By positioning and communicating with the project team, management, and clients, you keep everyone engaged and on task. - **Monitor Risk:** When you complete risk assessments throughout the life of the project, you avoid issues and enable mitigating negative impacts on the project timeline and budget. - **Monitor Project Performance:** Project managers use KPI dashboards to identify problems and measure work progress. - **Take Corrective Action to Control Progress:** Project managers use the project plan as a baseline to control progress and track changes until resolution or the project enters the closure phase. - **Monitor and Manage Data Documentation:** Documenting performance and changes in the project keeps stakeholders involved, mitigates issues, and informs future projects. **Project Monitoring and Control Best Practices** Project monitoring and control best practices require constant attention to detail. These best practices can empower project managers and teams to balance time, cost, and budget. - **Define Project Management Team Roles:** Make sure that team members know the expectations and the timelines to meet. - **Identify a Point of Contact:** When problems arise, there should be a dedicated person who is responsible for tracking, documenting, and monitoring any issues. - **Determine the Frequency of KPI Reporting:** When developing the project plan, decide how often you'll conduct KPI reporting and stick to that schedule. This data is essential for monitoring and control performance. - **Define Variance Thresholds for Schedule, Budget, and Cost:** Decide what percentage of change is acceptable and the variance threshold figure that requires change. - For schedule variance (SV), subtract planned value (PV) from earned value (EV). - For budget variance (BV), subtract the money spent from the planned budget for each line item and divide it by the original budget to calculate the percentage. - For cost variance (CV), subtract actual cost (AC) from earned value (EV). - **Determine if Variance Cause Is Common or Unique:** Work continues without change under expected and acceptable variance. If the variance is caused by the unexpected, identify and implement the proper change. - **Scrutinize Change Orders:** Review documented change requests with the project team to approve or reject them. - **Monitor and Control Scope Creep:** Mitigate scope creep to maintain project parameters and recognize that project change may impact outcomes. - **Conduct a Rigorous Approval Process at Completion:** Make sure to document and file all approvals appropriately. Zucker adds, \"Soft skills are often missed, so focus on communication and effectively maintaining stakeholder interest. Projects can benefit from a fresh perspective, and an advisory board of specialists provides oversight and guidance for project managers.\" **Project Monitoring and Control Techniques** Project managers depend on monitoring and control to track, review, and report on project performance. They rely on this phase to make informed decisions, avoid crises, and maximize performance and opportunities. Project monitoring and control techniques address three areas in project management: - **Project Plan Monitoring:** Use the critical path method (CPM) to identify essential project milestones and keep deliverables on schedule. - **Project Budget Monitoring:** Use earned value management to assign project tasks according to their cost. - **Project Status Monitoring:** Use project status reports to standardize the reporting process and identify completed tasks, key takeaways, risks, and real-time progress. **Project Monitoring and Controlling Strategy** Successful projects require diligence and precision in monitoring and control, so having the right strategy can make all of the difference. A good monitoring and control approach looks at quality, risk, and stakeholder engagement levels and communicates all project outcomes. These tips can help you adhere to a project monitoring and control strategy: - Establish a cadence and well-defined process for managing change requests. - Tailor performance reporting to project needs. - Do not overburden the project team with information requests. - Position stakeholders where they are needed most according to their expertise. - Prioritize performance data that is actionable and requires a decision. - Take into account how decisions impact the schedule, budget, and scope. - Establish a transparent decision-making process and communicate and document outcomes. **Project Managers Rely on Smartsheet for Project Monitoring and Control** From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity \-- empowering you to get more done. The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there's no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. - **What is project reporting?** Reporting in project management simply refers to providing a high-level overview that offers the critical data the project generates in a simple, easy-to-use format. Project reporting is essential to project management success since it provides a window into what's happening and what to do about it for the entire team. Project management tools with reporting features help manage projects better with simpler, smarter project reporting. **Why is project reporting essential to project management?** Without adequate project management reports, the project team and project stakeholders end up being in the dark, unable to put their finger on what's going on with the project. As a result, it's all too easy for the project to fail, simply because the right insights aren't getting through and therefore, appropriate decisions aren't being taken. Project reporting fulfills the need for information in the project management process so that data is taken from where it's generated, and delivered to where it's interpreted and applied. Overall, project management reports are important because it: - Shows the project team what they are working, so they can explain why it's working and focus more on it. - Uncovers what's not working so the team can investigate and determine an appropriate course of action i.e. what to do about it with the help of the project dashboard. - Gives the team a 360° overview of how the project is doing so they can determine what steps to take next. **The different types of project management reports** Below is a collection of the reports you'll need to manage your projects and what valuable insights each of them provides.  **1. Project status report** The project status report is a critical report that shows stakeholders a general snapshot of how well the project is advancing toward its targets. The project status report can be thought of as a general update that's designed to keep stakeholders or project progress, emerging issues, and key points to note, all at a glance. **2. Project health report** Project health reports are designed to update stakeholders on the overall health of the project, derived from whether the project is either advancing as projected, in danger of stagnating or completely stagnated. Why you need project health reports: The project health report answers the following questions: - Are we on track to deliver this project on target? Have we stagnated? - How far off are we from the target? - What needs the most attention to get us back on track? Project health reports make it easy to identify when something's wrong so the team can identify what and get it out of the way. **3. Team availability reports** The team availability report functions like a team calendar that shows every team member's schedule so it's easy to see who's occupied and when they are busy. This way, stakeholders who are planning for a project or requiring input anywhere can see which team members can be assigned, those who can safely take on more work, as well as those who are at full capacity and might need assistance. Why you need team availability reports: - Availability reports make it easy to visualize how much everyone has on their plates so work can be more evenly distributed to achieve faster results, higher efficiency, and most importantly, prevent project burnout between teams. - An availability report plots staff names against calendar days, with either a color tone or a written designation showing their workload for each calendar day. **4. Risk reports** A risk report identifies the blockers hindering a project's successful completion and presents it for the stakeholders' analysis. The risk report is designed to not only display existing or potential obstacles but to offer a sense of the danger they pose to the project so the project's stakeholders can take adequate steps to eliminate project risks or adapt the project. Why you need risk reports: Project risk reporting helps the project team to: - Determine existing and potential project constraints that are already holding back the project, or that will hold it back - Visualize obstacles on a risk scale to determine which ones to prioritize - Determine how to keep future projects from running into similar hitches **5. Variance report** It's quite common for teams to deviate from the project's key targets without even knowing. In the end, this results in project failure after time and resources have been expended. A variance report helps the project team and stakeholders to ensure that doesn't happen. You can track the target project milestones and objectives of the project along with the work that's getting done. Why you need variance reports: With a variance report, the team can see if the work they're getting done is actually the project's targets or whether they're just spending time without ticking off the following, - project milestones - project objectives - project deliverables. **6. Time tracking report** Project time tracking helps the project team & stakeholders see how much time is getting spent by team members at every stage of the project management process. A time tracking report helps the team to see how much time overall is spent on specific tasks and how much individual team members spend on tasks. Why you need time tracking reports: - Time tracking reports help in assigning team members to tasks where they're more efficient, - Tracking time spent on tasks for compensation, - as well as optimizing systems and processes so work gets done faster. **How to create effective project reports** The aim of project reporting is to offer all the information generated from your projects in a simple format so stakeholders can understand and apply those insights. Here are some best practices that'll help you create reports that actually enable project stakeholders to make informed decisions. **1. Keep data at the center** The aim of project management reports is to deliver processed data to those who need it so they can be informed and make appropriate decisions from it. It's important that reports present solid data that stakeholders can look at and get an idea of the big picture. **2. Visualize the data** Apply an abundance of images, charts, and graphs wherever appropriate to fully illustrate the implications of whatever data you present with the help of visual project management tools. **3. Leave the stage open for constructive communication** Reports shouldn't be full stops that spit out data and get over with it, rather reports should try to explain the data and its implications while inviting further questions. It might be demanding but this ensures that project collaboration between stakeholders are on the same page and get a full picture of what you're trying to convey. **4. Create reports appropriate for your audience** Senior-level management won't have the time to sift through small details; team members won't be able to make much out of a report that shows only a few figures, project management charts, and notes. Reports must be adapted to the needs of your specific audience so they get all the information they need through project communication management, without getting bogged down or left in the dark with incomplete data. - **The 4 Phases of the Project Management Life Cycle** Managing projects from start to finish can come with long and complex processes. So, to help make everyone's job easier, the concept of the project life cycle was introduced. The project life cycle, or project management process, consists of four phases: initiating, planning, executing, and closing. It's a structured path your projects go through to help move them from conception to completion and ensure project objectives are delivered in each phase. **1. The initiation phase** Get everyone onboard. The project manager defines the organization, client, or customer's goal, identifies key stakeholders, the project team, and the scope of work of the project, and determines measurable objectives for the team. **2. The planning phase** Strategically prepare and map out the project. The project manager is responsible for creating a detailed project plan and outlining the project schedule that includes the major project milestones and describes what tasks or deliverables make up each milestone. This is important because the project plan provides a strategy and project checklist to help properly manage resources, budget, and timeline along the project life cycle. **3. The execution phase** It's go time. In this phase, the project manager's main job is to oversee the team's efforts and ensure everyone understands what's expected of them, what tasks need to be done, and how and when to complete those tasks to ensure everything is done within the project schedule. **4. The closing phase** Time to wrap up the project. The project manager must identify that their team has completed all of the requested outcomes, then present the final product to the stakeholders to sign off and officially close the project. **Key takeaway:** By following the project life cycle, you're ensuring that you are: - Capturing the expectations of your customer - Setting your project up for success with a plan - Executing project tasks and addressing any issues or project risks that arise - Closing out your project to capture any lessons learned and improve the next projects Key Factors for Successful Project Management Critical factors for successful project management can vary from one project to another, but here are a few factors that should remain constant no matter the type of project or what industry you're in: - Set SMART goals - Understand the project scope and prevent scope creep - Identify project risks and create a risk management plan - Clearly defined roles and responsibilities - Effective team communication - Maintain a high level of project visibility - **The Risk Management Process in Project Management** by Brenna Schwartz \| Feb 26, 2021 When you start the planning process for a project, one of the first things you need to think about is: what can go wrong? It sounds negative, but pragmatic project managers know this type of thinking is preventative. Issues will inevitably come up, and you need a mitigation strategy in place to know how to manage risks when project planning. But how do you work towards resolving the unknown? It sounds like a philosophical paradox, but don't worry---there are practical steps you can take. In this article, we'll discuss strategies that let you get a glimpse at potential risks, so you can identify and track risks on your project. **What Is Risk Management on Projects?** Project risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to any risk that arises over the life cycle of a project to help the project remain on track and meet its goal. Risk management isn't reactive only; it should be part of the planning process to figure out the risk that might happen in the project and how to control that risk if it in fact occurs. A risk is anything that could potentially impact your project's timeline, performance or budget. Risks are potentialities, and in a project management context, if they become realities, they then become classified as "issues" that must be addressed with a risk response plan. So risk management, then, is the process of identifying, categorizing, prioritizing and planning for risks before they become issues. Risk management can mean different things on different types of projects. On large-scale projects, risk management strategies might include extensive detailed planning for each risk to ensure mitigation strategies are in place if project issues arise. For smaller projects, risk management might mean a simple, prioritized list of high, medium and low-priority risks. How to Manage Project Risk To begin managing risk, it's crucial to start with a clear and precise definition of what your project has been tasked to deliver. In other words, write a very detailed project charter, with your project vision, objectives, scope and deliverables. This way risks can be identified at every stage of the project. Then you'll want to engage your team early in identifying any and all risks. Don't be afraid to get more than just your team involved to identify and prioritize risks, too. Many project managers simply email their project team and ask to send them things they think might go wrong on the project. But to better plot project risk, you should get the entire project team, your client's representatives, and vendors into a room together and do a risk identification session. With every risk you define, you'll want to log it somewhere---using a risk tracking template helps you prioritize the level of risk. Then, create a risk management plan to capture the negative and positive impacts of the project and what actions you will take to deal with them. You'll want to set up regular meetings to monitor risk while your project is ongoing. Transparency is critical. **What Is Positive Risk in Project Management?** Not all risk is created equally. Risk can be either positive or negative, though most people assume risks are inherently the latter. Where negative risk implies something unwanted that has the potential to irreparably damage a project, positive risks are opportunities that can affect the project in beneficial ways. Negative risks are part of your risk management plan, just as positive risks should be, but the difference is in approach. You manage and account for known negative risks to neuter their impact, but positive risks can also be managed to take full advantage of them. There are many examples of positive risks in projects: you could complete the project early; you could acquire more customers than you accounted for; you could imagine how a delay in shipping might open up a potential window for better marketing opportunities, etc. It's important to note, though, that these definitions are not etched in stone. Positive risk can quickly turn to negative risk and vice versa, so you must be sure to plan for all eventualities with your team. **6 Steps in the Risk Management Process** **Identify the Risk** You can't resolve a risk if you don't know what it is. There are many ways to identify risk. As you do go through this step, you'll want to collect the data in a risk register. One way is brainstorming with your team, colleagues or stakeholders. Find the individuals with relevant experience and set up interviews so you can gather the information you'll need to both identify and resolve the risks. Think of the many things that can go wrong. Note them. Do the same with historical data on past projects. Now your list of potential risks has grown. Make sure the risks are rooted in the cause of a problem. Basically, drill down to the root cause to see if the risk is one that will have the kind of impact on your project that needs identifying. When trying to minimize risk, it's good to trust your intuition. This can point you to unlikely scenarios that you just assume couldn't happen. Use a risk breakdown structure process to weed out risks from non-risks. **Analyze the Risk** Analyzing risk is hard. There is never enough information you can gather. Of course, a lot of that data is complex, but most industries have best practices, which can help you with your risk analysis. You might be surprised to discover that your company already has a framework for this process. When you assess project risk you can ultimately and proactively address many impacts, such as avoiding potential litigation, addressing regulatory issues, complying with new legislation, reducing your exposure and minimizing impact. **Prioritize Risks & Issues** Not all risks are created equally. You need to evaluate the risk to know what resources you're going to assemble towards resolving it when and if it occurs. Having a large list of risks can be daunting. But you can manage this by simply categorizing risks as high, medium or low. Now there's a horizon line and you can see the risk in context. With this perspective, you can begin to plan for how and when you'll address these risks. Then, if risks become issues, it's advisable to keep an issue log so you can keep track of each of them and implement corrective actions. Some risks are going to require immediate attention. These are the risks that can derail your project. Failure isn't an option. Other risks are important, but perhaps do not threaten the success of your project. You can act accordingly. Then there are those risks that have little to no impact on the overall project's schedule and budget. Some of these low-priority risks might be important, but not enough to waste time on. **Assign an Owner to the Risk** All your hard work identifying and evaluating risk is for naught if you don't assign someone to oversee the risk. In fact, this is something that you should do when listing the risks. Who is the person who is responsible for that risk, identifying it when and if it should occur and then leading the work toward resolving it? That determination is up to you. There might be a team member who is more skilled or experienced in the risk. Then that person should lead the charge to resolve it. Or it might just be an arbitrary choice. Of course, it's better to assign the task to the right person, but equally important in making sure that every risk has a person responsible for it. Think about it. If you don't give each risk a person tasked with watching out for it, and then dealing with resolving it when and if it should arise, you're opening yourself up to more risk. It's one thing to identify risk, but if you don't manage it then you're not protecting the project. **Respond to the Risk** Now the rubber hits the road. You've found a risk. All that planning you've done is going to be put to use. First, you need to know if this is a positive or negative risk. Is it something you could exploit for the betterment of the project? If not you need to deploy a risk mitigation strategy.\\ A risk mitigation strategy is simply a contingency plan to minimize the impact of a project risk. You then act on the risk by how you prioritize it. You have communications with the risk owner and, together, decide on which of the plans you created to implement to resolve the risk. **Monitor the Risk** You can't just set forces against risk without tracking the progress of that initiative. That's where the monitoring comes in. Whoever owns the risk will be responsible for tracking its progress toward resolution. However, you'll need to stay updated to have an accurate picture of the project's overall progress to identify and monitor new risks. You'll want to set up a series of project meetings to manage the risks. Make sure you've already decided on the means of communication to do this. It's best to have various channels dedicated to communication. Whatever you choose to do, remember to always be transparent. It's best if everyone in the project knows what is going on, so they know what to be on the lookout for and help manage the process. - **Managing for success** Effective management is all about successfully achieving the long and short term goals while guiding everyone towards the vision of the organization. However, it is easier said than done. As a manager, having a management system that fulfills your goals and at the same time, maintains the balance to keep the employees happy can be difficult. Organizations can adopt different styles of management, but it all comes down to the fact of how effective these styles are turning out to be. These systems need proper planning and a framework that keeps the flow of work in check. In this article, I will be discussing how you can incorporate an effective management system to maximize performance and productivity. **Effective Management for Success** **1. Communicate Effectively** The most important key to effective management is able to communicate clearly, which is only possible if you listen. Communication is a two-way street, and the more you listen and value others' opinions, they'll do the same with you. When there is a clear flow of communication within the organization, you are able to build the bridge of trust with your employees. It not only boosts their confidence, but they are also able to contribute to collective goals. How to successfully achieve it - - Promote active listening. - Never be biased about opinions. - Understand everyone's perspective. - Always ask your employees about the problems that they are facing. **2. Time Management** Time management is much more than flexible schedules and giving time to complete checklists. It is also about providing adequate time to solve problems that your employees are facing and provide the best guidance for career growth. Moreover, at times, projects don't come with the luxury of time. In situations like that, make sure that you bring the team for sessions where you can strategize on completing the project with the time in hand. Not only will it help you bond the team well, but it will also allow you to use the time efficiently and manage it well. How to successfully achieve it - - Minimize the habit of multitasking. - Never procrastinate. - Prioritize the tasks in hand. - Plan the day in advance. **3. Delegating** Delegating tasks is about dividing the work into separate sections in the team. It is also an opportunity for you to help your team members learn, develop, and grow. But managing the team with the right task is essential. Every employee has their weaknesses and strengths, and assigning the right job is quite crucial. By understanding the abilities of each employee and their goals, you can assign tasks that will eventually help them grow professionally. It is all about taking the best out of them while continuously building the team towards perfection. How to successfully achieve it - - Always provide necessary instructions. - Trust your team when you delegate tasks. - Use feedback to improve your delegation. - Stay committed to the cause and never let interruptions break the flow of work. - Be clear about your goals and your visions. **4. Problem Solving** Inevitably, you and your team, in the long run, are going to face problems and challenges. When there is understanding in the group, you will be able to analyze the issues and work towards practical solutions swiftly. And with effective management in place, your day-to-day processes will involve solving problems independently without any hiccups. Problem-solving starts by building trust and setting realistic goals that your team can achieve. And when there is trust within the group, it provides an opportunity to coach them and prepares them to take the lead on future problems. How to successfully achieve it - - Understand the core of the problem. - Ask the right questions about the problem and do not deviate. - Devise the necessary solutions that your team can come up with. - Evaluate the best solutions. - Stay open-minded and select the solutions that will be effective. **5. Building Transparency** Management is only successful and effective when there is transparency within the organization. And as a manager, you need to be more open and honest with your team and employees. When you pass on every crucial information among the team, you are more likely to gain the trust and loyalty of your employees. Be more mindful and always choose the best time to share a piece of news because it's important not to break your employees' focus. Also, try to withhold information at the time when you are not at the liberty to. Be more observant about sharing so that the foundation of trust can be built without breaking any rules. How to successfully achieve it - - Involve employees in decision making. - Always share results with your team. - Prioritize communication. - Hold a session where you can share every possible important detail of the organization. **6. Culture of Feedback** Effective implementation of feedback has not only proven to be impactful for organizations, but it has also boosted productivity levels. 98% of employees fail to engage when there is little or no feedback from managers. And it is true. If you provide the necessary feedback that your employees need, they will be able to work according to their strengths and weaknesses. This, in turn, will make them better in what they do. The culture of feedback is vital not only for you and your organization but also for the employees. It enhances productivity, boosts morale, and makes your management system durable. How to successfully achieve it - - Be very specific about what feedback you want to give. - Feedback should be on time and should not be delayed. - Always go for constructive feedback. - Focus more on the efforts of your employees. - It should always be a two-way affair. When giving feedback, ask for their opinions as well. Having an effective management system within the organization needs a proper structure and time to run. It cannot be incorporated within a day or a month. Successful managers manage people by guiding them to the right path and leads the team towards greater success. With an effective management system in place, things get easier and employees are more driven towards the vision of the organization because they know that it is going to benefit them in the future driving employee engagement. So, set goals, become a great manager, and create an environment where effective management can bear fruit.