In case you are not aware, you have been managing projects all your life even without being assigned the title of a project manager — this is a fact you cannot argue. However, project management in simple tasks and project management in complex projects with a good number of people working as a team is entirely different because of the complexity involved.

Here at Plant, we take project management serious because we are not just managing our own project (Plant), but also because our Plant version control system for designers is an effective tool that helps teams manage their work without worrying about versioning or losing any work. Anyone can come along to contribute to a project, make changes, and if the team is not satisfied with the changes made to a design, they can simply revert the changes.

The focus is not on Plant, though; the focus in this article is to show you how project management is done in a team. I will discuss the process involved in project management and then end the article with integral parts of project management in a team.

Processes Involved in Project Management

Because projects that require a team to accomplish are complex and it requires different expertise, which is made up of some process that you have to get it right in each of the steps else; you risk getting the project to be executed in an inefficient manner or even get it to fail. These steps are discussed below.

Initiation Stage

The first process involved in project management is the initiation and creation of an idea. If you are part of the content creation team in your firm and the management come forward to you that they have a project they want you and your team to kick start working, you do not just go straight and start creating graphics — you have to sit and think. The idea of what’s required needs to sink into you and every member of the team.

After each member of the team has understood the goal of the project and its requirements together with the completion deadlines, you can now move to the planning phase.

Planning Stage

I am sure you have heard the popular saying that says that not planning at all is planning to fail. In project management for a team, this saying is even more real. Tell me, how do you intend to create content that thousands and even millions will come across without planning it? You’ll fail, even before you start, except if you were just lucky — and I need not tell you that luck is a rare phenomenon that comes only once in a while. That’s why you need to make planning a priority.

When I mean planning, I don’t mean a haphazardly done one; it should be detailed considering the fact that it is for a complex project. The planning should include the estimated time it will cost the team to finish up the work, how much it will cost, and who does what and how. Yes, the division of labor is key in project execution in a team. You can factor in a lot of other things into the planning. These include;

Risk Management: Risk management is a form of planning for problems before they happen. In this type of planning, you predict problems and challenges you are likely to face during the execution of the project and define how the team will tackle such a problem. This will ensure that you are not cut unaware.

Problem Management: While you might think that you have probably discovered all the risks involved and their mitigation, you have not. Issues not covered in the risk you predicted will arise and when they do, you need to have measures in place to swim with the tides else; your project will be taken off track.

Change Management: How do you intend to deal with changes that arise when you are already in the execution phase? You do not have to lie to yourself, no matter how the requirements were defined, and the preliminary studies that lead to the initiation of the idea, changes can still happen. Because of this, you need to define how to deal with changes when you are faced with them.

Execution Stage

No matter how perfect your plan seems to be to you, just know one thing — it is only but a plan! You need to breathe life into it by executing it. When it comes to the execution of a project plan, you need to make sure that every member of the team sticks to his or her own role and avoid interference as much as it is possible. There’s no point of division of labor if one will end up doing the work of another.

However, no interference does not mean that you as the project manager will not be following the work of the team members. You need to monitor them closely. Set meetings and discuss them. Check their work and see if it is in line with the requirements and make sure they are not working in an inefficient way that will end up increasing the time and budget. That’s why you need to invest in the best equipment and software that will get them to work as efficient as possible.

As you monitor them closely, you’ll observe if any of the risks you foresaw is about to happen and then take actions to avert it. Changes to the project should be communicated to the team member, and required actions should be taken as a team.

Ending Stage

After the successful completion of the project, you need to make sure it was done according to specifications. A project is not complete until the project initiator or sponsor satisfy it to be. When the work has been accepted, the next thing to do is make sure you also finish up all the paperwork and hand it over. However, as you end it, make sure to take with you all the things you learned from your mistakes during the execution, so you do not make them again. This will increase your efficiency in the next projects.