Chapter 58: Executing a Project: Big Picture

The project work defined in the project management plan is executed by using the processes in the executing process group. The high level idea of the whole process can be understood by studying the picture below:

As I said earlier, it is up to the project team to determine which of these processes is relevant for the project that is currently being executed. The processes in this group are used to accomplish a three-pronged goal:

• Coordinate people and resources used to perform the project activities
• Integrate and manage the project activities being performed
• Ensure the implementation of the project scope and approved changes

The following list defines the processes shown in the picture above.

• Direct and manage project execution - Manage various interfaces in the project execution to complete the project work smoothly in order to produce the project outcome, such as deliverables and objectives.
• Acquire project team - Obtain the project team members needed to perform the project work. (You need people to do the work right?)
• Develop project team - Improve the competencies of team members and interaction among team members to enhance project performance.
• Manage project team - Manage the project team, which includes tracking the performance of team members, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing changes to improve project performance. (A Well Managed Team is an efficient team.)
• Perform quality assurance - Audit the results from the quality control measurements to ensure that the quality requirements are being met.
• Distribute information - Make the relevant information about the project, such as project progress, available to the stakeholders according to the communication management plan.
• Conduct procurements - Obtain responses from potential sellers in terms of quotes, bids, offers, and proposals for their product or services needed for the project; select sellers; and negotiate written contracts with the selected sellers.
• Manage stakeholder expectations - Stay on the same page with the stakeholders by communicating and working with them on their needs and issues.

Prev: Introduction to Project Execution

Next: Directing & Managing Project Execution

Chapter 57: Introduction to Project Execution Phase

Well, before we begin, let me congratulate you on completing two big sections on learning for the PMP Certification, “Initiating a Project” and “Planning a Project”. Each section involved multiple chapters and we are now entering the Project Entering Phase. This chapter is just an introduction to the whole project execution phase.

So, lets get started!!!

What is Project Execution Phase?

After a project has been planned using the processes in the planning process group, it needs to be executed using the processes in the executing process group. The project team determines which of the processes in the executing process group are relevant to the project at hand. The goal of the execution stage is to complete the project work specified in the project management plan to meet the project requirements. To accomplish that, you will need to acquire, develop, and manage the project team. Your organization might not have the resources to finish certain parts of this work. You will need to use procurement for those parts of the work. You also need to ensure that all the planned quality activities are performed. This is accomplished by using the quality assurance process.

Directing and managing project execution is the process of implementing the project management plan developed during project planning. The end product of this process is the project deliverables. This is a high-level umbrella process under which other execution processes are performed, such as assuring quality and conducting procurements. So the core question in this section is how to execute a project as planned.

Well my friend, this is what we are going to learn in the subsequent chapters.

Prev: Important Terms - Planning for Quality & Risk Management

Next: Executing a Project - Big Picture

Chapter 6: The Project Lifecycle

In the previous chapter, we learnt what a process is and the fact that, they are used widely in the project management lifecycle. In this chapter, we are going to understand the project lifecycle.

So, lets get started!!!

Project Lifecycle:

From initiation/authorization to completion/closure, a project goes through a whole lifecycle that includes defining the project objectives, planning the work to achieve those objectives, performing the actual work, monitoring and controlling the progress, and closing the project after receiving the product acceptance or after cancellation of the project.
The below picture depicts the relation between the various stages in a projects lifecycle. Each of these stages is a process group and there are a variety of processes involved in each of these stages.

Let us now take a detailed look at these stages, one by one:

Initiating a Project:

This stage defines and authorizes the project. The project manager is named, and the project is officially launched through a signed document called the project charter, which contains items such as the purpose of the project, a high-level product description, a summary of the milestone schedule, and a business case for the project. Another outcome of this stage is a document called the stakeholder register, which identifies the project stakeholders and important information about them. The processes used to perform this stage fall into a group called the initiating process group.

Trivia:
The term high-level means lacking details or not including the details. This term will be used frequently and its good to know what it means. A high level activity would usually involved a detailed activity usually worked out through a process called progressive elaboration which we covered a couple of chapters back.

Planning a Project:

In this stage, you as the project manager, along with the project management team, refine the project objectives and requirements and develop the project management plan, which is a collection of several plans that constitute a course of actions required to achieve the objectives and meet the requirements of the project. The project scope is finalized with the project scope statement. The project management plan, the outcome of this stage, contains subsidiary plans, such as a project scope management plan, a schedule management plan, and a quality management plan. The processes used to perform this stage fall into a group called the planning process group.

Executing a Project:

In this stage, you as the project manager, implement the project management plan, and the project team performs the work scheduled in the planning stage. You coordinate all the activities being performed to achieve the project objectives and meet the project requirements. Of course, the main output of any project is the project deliverables. Approved changes, recommendations, and defect repairs are also implemented in this stage. But where do these changes and recommendations come from? They arise from monitoring and controlling the project. The stakeholders can also suggest changes, which must go through an approval process before implementation. The project execution is performed using the processes that fall into a group called the executing process group.

Monitoring and controlling:

You monitor and control the project through its lifecycle, including the execution stage. Monitoring and controlling includes defending the project against scope creep (unapproved changes to the project scope), monitoring the project progress and performance to identify variance from the plan, and recommending preventive and corrective actions to bring the project in line with the planned expectations in the approved project management plan. Requests for changes, such as change to the project scope, are also included in this stage; they can come from you or from any other project stakeholder. The changes must go through an approval process, and only the approved changes are implemented. The processes used in this stage fall into a group called the monitoring and controlling process group.

Closing a Project:

In this stage, you manage the formal acceptance of the project product, close any contracts involved, and bring the project to an end by disbanding the project team. Closing the project includes conducting a project review for lessons learned and possibly turning over the outcome of the project to another group, such as the maintenance or operations group.
This stage is applicable even for Terminated/Cancelled Projects. Terminated projects (that is, projects cancelled before completion) should also go through the closing stage. The processes used to perform the closing stage fall into the group called the closing process group.
Don’t forget the last, but not the least, task of the closing stage: Project Closure Party!!!

Trivia:
What we refer to as project stages here are not actually the project phases. A project phase is part of the whole project in which certain milestones or project deliverables are completed. All these stages, technically called process groups, can be applied to any phase of a project that is divided into multiple phases.

Project Lifecycle Summary:

Let us wrap up this chapter, by summarizing the project lifecycle and the activities involved in it.

Process Group	Project Stage	Goal	Outcome
Initiating	Starting the project	Authorize the project	Project charter
Planning	Organizing and preparing	Plan and schedule the work to perform the project	Project management plan
Executing	Carrying out the work	Perform the project work	Project deliverables: product, service, results
Monitoring and controlling	Spans the project lifecycle	Monitor the progress of the project to identify the variance from the plan and to correct it	Change requests and recommendations for preventive and corrective actions
Closing	Closing the project formally	Close the project	Product acceptance, contract closure, and archiving

The initiating stage authorizes a project by naming the project manager, the planning stage further defines the project objectives and plans the work to meet those objectives, the execution stage executes the work, the monitoring and controlling stage monitors the progress of the project and controls it to keep it in line with the plan, and the closing stage formally closes the project by obtaining the product acceptance. Each of these stages is performed by using a group of processes. Thereby, these stages are called process groups.

The stages of a project or process groups determine when a process is executed, whereas the processes themselves belong to certain knowledge areas of project management. In the next chapter, we will be looking at the project management knowledge areas.

Previous: Understanding a Process

Next: Project Management Knowledge Areas

Chapter 1: Main parts in Managing a Project

Congratulations to you for choosing to pursue the PMP Certification. Well, to begin this journey we need to understand the 5 main parts in Managing a Project Successfully.

Note: We havent formally defined what a project is, but dont worry just yet. It will be covered will all the syllabus of the PMP Certification in the subsequent chapters.

This chapter is just going to outline the 5 main parts in Managing a Project Successfully.

So, lets get started!!!

Part I: Initiating the Project

This is the first part of the sequence of events that help you to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, control and close a project. All the topics covered herein will deal with the steps required to start a project properly and to ensure that all the due diligence is done in a proper way to result in a successful projects.

In order to initiate a project, you will need to know what a project is, and you will want to have a bird’s eye view of the field of project management. Also, you need to know how projects are selected and Initiated.

All of these are covered in depth in Part 1.

Part II: Planning the Project

You have already defined your project and started it at the end of Part I. You can’t wait to start executing it. But hold on for a moment!

When you are executing your project, how will you know that your project is on the right track? or even better When you are executing your project, how will you know that your project will end in a success?

You can answer the above 2 questions only if you had a proper planning phase before you jumped into executing the project.

Also, to lead the project to success, you have to monitor and control it throughout its lifetime. Planning gives you the tools and the framework to do that. You need to plan for the resources that are needed to complete the project. Any management task has certain risks associated with it. So, you need to have plans to manage those risks and also the quality of the work done.

Initiation determines what will be done, whereas planning embraces that what, refines it, and determines how it will be done.

These are the things you will learn in Part 2

Part III: Executing the Project

After the project is authorized through initiation and planning, it’s time to start the execution. You will be directing and managing the project execution throughout the lifecycle of the project. To perform the project work, you will also need to acquire, develop, and manage the project team. Furthermore, your organization might not have the resources to finish certain parts of the project work. You will need to conduct procurements for those parts of the work. In addition to producing deliverables, project execution will also include assuring quality, distributing information on project progress and issues, and managing stakeholder expectations.

You will learn how to do all these things in Part 3

Part IV: Monitoring and Controlling the Project

Any task has to be consistently monitored and corrective measures taken at times when things are going off-track if it has to be a success. And the same is true with projects as well. You need to continually monitor and control your project. In general, monitoring means watching the course, and controlling means taking action to either stay the course or change the wrong course. Applied to project management, you monitor the project by activities such as making performance measurements to ensure that it is on the track set by the project management plan, and you control the project to keep it on track and to bring it back on track if it falls off.

You will learn about how to Monitor the Progress of your project and how to Control it in Part 4.

Part V: Closing the Project

This is the last and final step in any project. To be honest, common sense tells us that anything that was started needs to end. A project is not an activity that is going to continue for eternity. It will end too.

Finishing a project deliberately means finishing it in a controlled way, not just letting it finish, even when it’s cancelled.

To close a project successfully, you verify the deliverables to the customer and get an acceptance about their correctness. All legal contracts too need to be closed in a proper way.

You will learn, how to do all these things in Part 5.

Last but not the least, you will also learn about Professional and Social Responsibilities as a Project Manager and about behaving ethically and morally during your time as a good manager.

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