A Guide to the Project Execution Process

What is the Project Execution Process?

The project management life-cycle consists of five stages: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Control, and Closure. The execution phase is the core of the project. This stage begins with the preparatory works to undertake the required tasks as determined in the planning phase, with team members working towards the desired ends. The management monitors project progress, and tries to control the cost and time variables to ensure that the work output meets the required quality, and remains on track. The control phase is closely related to the execution phase, and integrated with the execution phase in many projects. [caption id=“attachment_132611” align=“aligncenter” width=“509”] Project execution is a critical piece of the project management process[/caption] Refer to the wide range of articles and templates that lend clarity on the project execution process, the major tasks and events associated with this phase, and related information.

• Project Execution: Putting Your Plan to Work
• Elements of a Project Execution Plan
• PM Execution Templates to Download and Use
• A Summary of PMBOK Practices - Project Integration Management
• IT Project Execution: Ensuring You Have A Successful Project
• Project 2007: Using Microsoft Project to Manage Projects

Project Team Management

The execution of a project takes place through project teams. Developing and managing project teams constitute a core activity of the project manager during the execution phase. The increased importance and dependence on human resources in the new knowledge economy means that project teams make or break the project. Good project managers ensure optimal allocation of workforce, provide goal and role clarity, ensure that the team has all the resources required to perform well, monitor team performance on a real-time basis, intervene as required, motivate the team to ensure that they deliver the best possible output, and manage the team on a proactive basis to nip any problems or issues that arise in the bud. Bright Hub provides a wide range on articles that specifically focus on the role, development and best practices related to project teams during the execution phase.

• Developing the Management Skills of Project Team Members
• Need to Gently Influence Project Teams? Use the Cohen-Bradford Model
• How Belbin’s Team Roles Apply to Project Management
• 10 Typical Activities of a Project Development Team
• How to Manage a Globally Distributed Project Team
• Resource Management - Effective Matrix Management

Communications

A good and seamless communication plan is indispensable for the successful execution of any project. A proper communication system allows team members to interact, messages to get across in time and in the correct format, relevant and useful reporting, and fixing issues as they arise. Failure to get the message across or delays in communication can lead to holds-up, team members doing the wrong thing,and a dysfunctional team working at cross-purposes. Each project is unique, and as such simply adopting a generic communication plan or a plan that has worked well for one project may not succeed always. The best communication plans are tailor-made for the specific project, with only the theoretical base and the best practices in approach adopted or replicated across projects. Bright Hub has a wide range of articles that lend clarity on this matter and provide definite how-tos:

• PMBOK Guide: Project Communications Management
• An Example Communication Plan for the Project Manager
• Using the Communications Management Matrix as a Tool
• The Road to Better Project Communication Management
• Project Communication Obstacles
• Project Communication: Keeping Remote Workers in the Loop

Quality in Project Execution

Ensuring that the work executes to the required quality and fulfills both stated and implied needs is an important consideration of the project execution phase. Quality management ensures that the project matches the customer’s expectation and that the project meets its intended goals. Many projects, especially Six Sigma projects are an end in itself, meaning that the focus on the project itself is to improve quality or eliminate waste. Even otherwise, the contemporary approach to quality requires incorporating quality to the work execution rather than having a separate quality testing phase and rejecting products that do not confirm to quality specifications.

• A Roundup of Quality Control Tools and Techniques
• Quality Management: What Does PMBOK Say?
• Looking at the Benefits of Total Quality Management
• Project Quality Management for Quality in PMP
• Principles of Lean Project Management
• Interpreting Control Charts in Project Quality Management
• 10 Free Six Sigma Templates You Can Download

Monitoring and Control

Project control is monitoring the project for risks or other issues that impede project execution, and keeping such threats at bay. Although a separate phase, it remains closely integrated with project execution, as the two activities take place simultaneously. Very often the execution and control process become one for all practical purposes. The project manager or the designated project team monitors the progress of the project and makes the necessary interventions as required to change the pace, add or remove resources, make trade offs, set priorities, or make any other intervention, to meet timelines and ensure effective project scope management. Refer to the wide collection of articles that shed light on how to do so:

• What Is Meant by the Project Control Process?
• Project Controls: Best Practices and Methods
• Understanding the S-Curve Theory for Project Management Monitoring
• Crazy Project Management Problems in the Project Execution Phase
• Issue Resolution in Software Project Management
• Characteristics of Good Project Risk Management
• Understanding How Project Monitoring and Controlling Integrates with Other Processes

This guide to the project execution process is incomplete without a review of the latest trends in project management. These trends show an increasing consolidation of lean methodology, increasing use of technology, flatter organizations, empowered employees, and better collaboration to manage globalization. Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay