The Four Phases of Project Management and Their Key Challenges

Question 3 

Identify the four phases of project management and how they relate to your next project. What key challenges does each of the four phases imply for your project? How will you address them? 

Answers 

Project management is the process of controlling a team’s work to meet success criteria and achieve goals at a particular time. The main task of project management is to achieve all project goals in a given time frame (Iranmanesh et al., 2017). There are four phases in the project management cycle called initiation, planning, execution, and closure. Therefore, the project management life cycle explains high-level procedures for delivering a viable and successful project. In the initiation stage, one identifies a problem, business need, or opportunity and measures how a team can solve the problem, meet the demand or seize the opportunity. During this stage, a manager figures out the project’s objective, determines its feasibility, and identifies its significant deliverables ( Berman, 2006). Critical steps taken in the initiation period are; identifying project stakeholders, identifying the scope and deliverables for the project, carrying out a feasibility study, and developing a business case and a work statement. 

Also, the planning stage occurs once the project gets a nod to move forward through approval of the work statement, business case, and the project initiating document. In this phase, a manager divides the major project into minor tasks, builds their team, and develops a schedule for assignment completion (Iranmanesh et al., 2017). The manager may initiate lesser goals within the large project and ensure they are all achievable at the given time frame. However, small goals should possess a high success potential. Critical steps managers may take in this stage are; creating a project plan and workflow diagrams, budget estimation, creating a financial plan, gathering resources, anticipating potential quality roadblocks and risks, and carrying out a project meeting. Additionally, the following phase is the execution, where the project gets business approval, has a developed plan, and a built team (Iranmanesh et al., 2017). The manager monitors his work, manages timelines, organizes team members, and ensures work according to the initial plan. 

Furthermore, a manager can apply different steps to ensure the success of the execution stage, such as organizing workflows and creating tasks, informing team members on assignments, checking work quality, budget controlling, and communicating with upper management, clients, and team members. The last phase in the cycle is the closure which happens once a team completes a project. As such, a manager may give final deliverables and determine the project’s success and release the project’s resources ( Berman, 2006) . The manager may also evaluate the pros and cons of the project. However, the closure phase must follow multiple procedures to ensure its efficiency and effectiveness (Keeys & Huemann, 2017). The steps include project performance examination, analyzing teamwork performance, project closure documentation, directing post-implementation appraisals, and accounting for the new and used budget. 

In conclusion, the project cycle may lack communication because effective communication is mandatory for any successful project. Miscommunication is risky for a project team because it negatively influences teamwork and may cause conflicts among members, delaying the project. A manager may use coordinated projected management software to ensure all members remain updated. The collaborative tools enable managers to perform their duties and creates accountability and transparency within the team. Another challenge in the project is setting unrealistic deadlines because they can critically influence the end product’s quality (Keeys & Huemann, 2017). Besides, an effective manager knows his project’s team capability and negotiates the timeframe accordingly by prioritizing project tasks and deadlines. To address the problem, a manager may make a collective decision by seeking input from all stakeholders. 

References 

Berman, E. M. (2006).  Performance and productivity in public and nonprofit organizations . Routledge. 

Iranmanesh, S. H., Shakhsi-Niaei, M., & Durandish Yazdi, M. A. (2017). A Decision Support System for Stakeholder Management during Different Project Phases considering Stakeholders’ Personality Types and Available Resources (The Case of Behsama Web-Based Information System).  Journal of Information Technology Management ,  9 (4), 679-700. 

Keeys, L. A., & Huemann, M. (2017). Project benefits co-creation: Shaping sustainable development benefits.  International Journal of Project Management ,  35 (6), 1196-1212.