4 main phases of project implementation

Overview of project implementation phases

To ensure projects progress smoothly and effectively, it’s important to divide the work into clear phases with formal decision points. Similar to the Stage-Gate methodology, after completing each project phase, a decision gate is reached where the project’s continuation is evaluated and the plan for the next phase is approved. Once the initiation phase is completed, the project’s attractiveness to the company is assessed, and the planning phase begins. This way, the company consciously and structurally builds its project portfolio, avoiding randomness. In the following sections, we will discuss each phase in detail.

Phase 1: Project Initiation

This phase may have a different name depending on the organization. The most common names are the initiation, idea, or initiative phase. However, regardless of the name, this is virtually always the moment when an idea for a potential project begins to take shape. In many organizations, project ideas are collected and evaluated. Companies make the correct assumption that their employees are creative, and this potential for creativity must be leveraged for the company’s development. Ideas are collected in very different ways. It can be a list kept in Excel, or the company has a dedicated IT program for collecting ideas. A simple form is used to describe the idea in such a system. Equally, the idea-collection process itself varies between companies. In some organizations, an employee with an idea for a potential project must first discuss it with their supervisor, and only after approval is given, is the project idea entered into the system. Often, ideas are evaluated through appropriate scoring models. The illustration below from a project and portfolio management program shows the attractiveness of projects and ideas on a matrix.

A description of a potential project idea often consists of the following elements:

• Name of the project
• What problem/challenge does the project address
• Benefits of the project
• Results after project implementation
• Proposed project manager
• Estimated project duration
• Estimated project budget
• Potential risks
• Main tasks to be carried out in the project

Phase 2: Planning

The quality of the project plan developed significantly impacts the project’s outcome. The project assumptions described in the idea sheet must be clarified at this stage. The Project Charter is most often used for this purpose. The illustration below shows an example of a Project Charter from the project and portfolio management software FlexiProject.

The key elements that the project team should focus on when developing the Project Charter are:

• A detailed description of the problem/challenge to be addressed by the project
• A detailed description of the project’s business objective
• Requirements of the main project stakeholders
• A detailed description of the project deliverables/outputs
• A detailed description of the project scope
• Indication of the strategic objective to be addressed by the project
• What competencies are needed to realize the project
• The most crucial project risks
• The main project milestones

The Project Charter prepared in this way should be formally accepted.

Once the Project Charter is accepted, the project team can proceed to create further elements of the project plan: stakeholder analysis, description of partial and final project deliverables, project schedule, project budget, project risk register, or resource plan. There are different approaches to the creation of the elements mentioned above in the project plan, but among the most effective are the following:

1. developing a Project Charter
2. detailed definition of project deliverables
3. development of key schedule tasks and their link to project deliverables
4. refining the schedule – defining tasks, milestones, responsibilities
5. development of project budget
6. development of the risk register
7. development of a resource plan

The following illustration shows an example of a project schedule plan.

When analyzing the above example of a project schedule, it is worth noting the three columns on the right, which show risks, budget, and deliverables. If a risk is associated with a particular scheduled task, a triangle icon with an exclamation mark is shown in the task line in the “risks” column. The same applies by analogy to cost items or project outputs. The developed project plan should be formally accepted.

Phase 3: Project Implementation

The project implementation phase is when the team works to achieve the project goals and deliver the intended results. What you should pay particular attention to during the project delivery phase is:

• Ensuring adequate communication within the project team
• Delivering the main tasks and milestones of the project and assessing the level of progress of the tasks
• Regular analysis of variances from the project plan regarding both the project schedule and budget
• Updating the project plan as additional information becomes available
• Changing the project plan using a Change Request document – the figure below shows an example of a Change Request document

• Regular project meetings to discuss project progress and emerging issues on an ongoing basis
• Regular analysis of project risks and active management of project risks
• Regular meetings and reporting on project status to the steering committee or company management
• Analysis of the workload of project resources and rapid response in cases where the workload of selected resources is excessive
• Delivery of required project deliverables

Phase 4: Project Closure

Despite being a very important project phase, it is often overlooked. The Project team should develop a formal project closure document called the project closure sheet. An example of a Project Closure Sheet is shown in the figure below.

When completing the Project Closure Sheet, the project team should detail the post-project conclusions and analyze what went wrong. Such lessons learned are particularly useful in launching and implementing subsequent projects to make them more effective. Such post-project lessons or Lessons Learned allow an organization to build a knowledge base and achieve higher project culture levels. Elements of the Project Closure Charter worth noting are:

• Detailed description of lessons learned
• Description of key risks and problems that occurred in the project
• Description of post-project conclusions

Project implementation stages as the key to effective goal achievement

The likelihood of projects achieving success significantly increases as they are implemented using the four main phases of project execution. The range of activities carried out in each phase depends on the organization’s project maturity and the type of projects undertaken. It is worth noting that each project delivery phase ends with formal project approval.

FlexiProject – support at every stage of your project

From collecting project ideas, through building a solid project plan, monitoring execution, to drawing conclusions at closure – FlexiProject provides comprehensive tools to guide your team through each phase with clarity and control.

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