10 Effective Tips on How to Manage a Project from Start to Finish [Meeting Project Goals Easily]

Whether you are a professional project manager or manage projects without an official certificate, key points of project management need to be fulfilled.

We will explain the overall project management process project goals and give you valuable tips on how to manage your project successfully “From Start To Finish.”

Project Management Process

1. Project Concept Definition and Planning

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To start a project, you need to draft a concept of the project itself. It is usually just a short, one-page list of your project’s key points. Then set a project definition (answer on your project’s Who, What, Where, When, and How).

Write a description of how you will achieve your goals and the purpose of your project. With this definition, you can consult your stakeholders and get their approval for the project. After the approval, the next important part of project management is project planning.

The project manager needs to plan every detail, from start to finish. Details and project steps must include resources, cost estimations, duration of each step, and prediction of possible problems. After you, as a project manager, have a concrete plan, you can proceed with implementing the project.

2. Implementation

Implementation is the key feature of the project. First, have constructive meetings with your team, where you, as their project manager, will explain every step of project implementation.

This is the time to listen to questions from your team members and solve any issues from your plan that maybe aren’t very clear. After that, you can start your project.

3. Monitoring and Controlling

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As a project manager, your role is to monitor the progress of a project, see if every step from the project plan is finished, and control the efficiency and quality of done tasks during the project.

4. Closing and Evaluation

After a project is finished, you need to close it as a project manager. The first step is to evaluate the project. The first evaluation you need is with your team in a joint meeting. If satisfied, you write a final evaluation and successfully close the project as a project manager.

To conduct all these steps, we will give you ten effective tips you should follow, to successfully manage any project:

Effective Tips

1. Project Scope Definition

This step is the first and the most important tip for any project manager. When writing the project scope, try to think from a big perspective, set as many steps as you like, and then reverse position and narrow them down.

Start by highlighting ones that can be done in one stage, within one stem of the set project timeline. Also, you will see if you missed any steps and include them.

Save all this in a digital document and present it to your stakeholders and your CEO. This is a stage when you will get their opinion and decision on your project’s future.

2. Seating a Timeline

In creating your project scope, you estimated the needed time for each project step. When setting a timeline (project deadline that is fixed and rarely can be changed), you need to determine how much time is needed for each step of your project to be done.

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Also, is it within the budget? For the project manager, this is an important step for the success of the complete project.

3. Evaluation of Resources

You need to conduct a thoughtful evaluation of available investments, human resources, equipment, or machinery to see if there will be any bottlenecks during project implementation from these points.

Remember that you probably won’t have direct control over these resources, but you need to know where you stand with their availability.

4. Project Plan Creation

After receiving feedback about the first three tips, create a project plan. Your project plan must include the project schedule, workflow, resources, any critical path that can occur, and a detailed project network diagram.

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Use this project plan during the implementation of the project.

5. Communication

Successful project management includes open and fluid communication among your team and yourself.

6. Task Delegation

Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks. You are leading a project and have a lot of responsibilities. Efficient task delegation will free some of your time, and also, you will have the right team members doing the right tasks.

7. Keep Records

Every step, every little detail of and from the project must be well documented and kept in records.

8. Monitor Progress

The project manager’s task is to monitor progress for a project. Helpful advice is to have a quick 5-minute meeting with your team in the morning.

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Discuss project implementation of the previous day to see if everything is according to the project plan, and set tasks for the day ahead of you.

9. Follow-up

In the daily meetings with the team, don’t just point out the problems, but give appreciation to your team members for the work they are doing. Remember, without a satisfied and motivated team, you can’t be a good project manager.

10. Meet a Deadline

A project manager must know that every project has a deadline and that deadline must be met. To achieve this, be prepared to adapt to different situations, even unpredicted ones, and quickly improvise to finish the project on time.

Just don’t compromise on project quality because of a deadline.

Conclusion

Use these ten tips so your project will be successful and done without too much stress. And you will be recognized as a successful project manager for future projects.