Project Management Stages
The various stages of project management or project development are crucially important, and no matter what methodology is used to describe them, these primary stages are development, initiation, production, execution, and closing. In this article, I will go through each of these stages in details, explaining their role and importance in the project management process.
The first stage that you will want to become familiar with is initiation. The initiation stage is responsible for laying down the scope of the project. This is a very important stage that should never be taken lightly. If the initation is not done correctly, the chances of the project being successful are very low.
To process the initiation stage correctly, members of the project need to have a good understanding of the environment they are working in. It is also important to make sure the proper controls are set in place. If any problems are found, they should be reported as quickly as possible, and they will need to be fixed before the project can proceed. The initation stage is all about planning. The team responsible for the project should take the time to review the needs of the client the project is geared towards. They should look at goals that can be achieved within a realistic period of time. They should also take the time to review any current operations that may be in progress.
Once this is done, the team will next want to come up with a concept for the design of the end product or service. The necessary equipment should be gathered in advance. The team should also look at the financial aspect of the project. A budget must be set up, and the costs involved should be well understood. After this, the stakeholders must be selected. These will include the users, and the individuals who will be working on the project. Once all of this information has been gathered, the team will next want to create a charter. The charter will have information that deals with the cost, schedule, and procedures that need to be carried out.
Once the initiation stage has been completed, the team will next want to focus on the planning and creation of the actual product or service. In most cases, a prototype will be built that can be tested before an attempt is made to build the final product. The process of testing the product will generally be done both by professional testers and those who are commonly called end users. Controls should be created to make sure the final products meets the objectives which were placed on the charter. During the design stage, the team must produce a product that meets the needs of the sponsor and end users. In addition to this, the business aspects of the design must be met as well.
It is also important for the product to function in the proper manner. If it cannot, it will not be able to achieve the objectives that it was designed for. However, it is not just enough to produce a product that does what it was designed to do. It must also have the ability to be produced in a way that allows it to follow established standards, and perhaps most importantly, the team must be able to product it within a specified time and budget. Once all of these things have been done successfully, the team will next want to focus on the execution stage. This is where either the plan or design will be implemented.
If the product is software, a transfer of information from an older system to a new system may need to take place. The documentation for the software will need to be created, and users must be trained in how to use it. In most cases, a larger amount of money will be spent during this stage than all other stages of the project. After this stage comes the last and final stage, which is called the closing. Some may also call this tie maintenance stage. The information related to the project will be archived, and support for end users will be continued. Any errors that are found will be corrected, and the product may need to be updated over time. The closing process is generally ongoing, and does not end, especially of the product is software related.
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