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Project Management

Project development strategies: step-by-step guide.

October 30, 2023

We all know that project management is the art and science of running a project smoothly. But what about project development? While it’s not as talked about, this approach plays a crucial role in helping project managers deliver their best work.

In this guide, we’ll reflect on what project development is, the role it plays, and how the process looks. We’ll also give you an insight into how ClickUp helps real companies build more effective project teams and processes, and which templates you can use to kickstart your project development habit. ⚒️

Let’s take a deep dive into project development.

What Is Project Development?

Why is project development important, step 1: project initiation, step 2: project planning, step 3: project execution, step 4: project control and monitoring, step 5: project closure, how clickup helps teams with project development, what are the 5 stages of the project life cycle, what is the role of a project development manager, what makes a good project developer, what should be included in a project development plan.

Project development is a catch-all term given to the process of making sure you have everything ready for your project to succeed. It involves planning project timelines , investing in resources, and organizing your team members’ time.

Project development also helps you reflect on your goals and big-picture ambitions, so you can plan a way to reach them.

You can manage projects without project development, but the process becomes much harder. Investing in project development means you’re organized, ready, and planned for success—instead of leaving resource management and budget planning until the last minute.

Project development is a useful process for any type of project. Software development projects, construction projects, transportation projects, and change management projects all benefit from the structure, guidance, and strategy that this approach provides. 🚚

Like project management, project development happens throughout a project—not just at the start. Smart project managers will check in regularly to make sure that their resources, time, and budgets are being used effectively.

Some teams skip the project development stage, but it’s an essential part of any successful project management process. This pre-project prep allows you to plan more strategically, ensure you have the right resources, and guide your team toward success.

According to a study by the Project Management Institute , organizations that invest in project development and proven project management practices waste 28 times less money due to poor project performance. This shows the critical value and effectiveness of project development in ensuring a project’s success.

Investing your time in project development can also help you:

• Take your scope of work and tackle it in a strategic way
• Feel prepared and brief your project team accordingly
• Set a realistic budget and oversee spending priorities
• Build a project schedule that reflects your overall project objectives and goals
• Determine the right project management methodology (like agile project management or waterfall) and stick with it throughout the entire project
• Consider quality assurance and risk management right from the start
• Speed up decision-making, thanks to predetermined plans and timelines
• Build workflows and processes that help you achieve your overall goal
• Promote better teamwork and team management through effective communication from the beginning

Teams that invest in project development know how to deliver on time, on budget, and according to their goals. Having a smart, strategic approach to project and resource planning can help your project team deliver their best work. 🤩

5 Steps to Build a Strong Project Development Process

Project development isn’t a one-step process. It’s something that happens throughout the project life cycle. Let’s take a closer look at every development phase in the process, so you can work toward a more successful project approach.

The first step in the process is (helpfully) called initiation. This is where you get clear on your project goals and objectives, so you can decide how to reach them in the most effective way.

Gather all the relevant plans and documents you already have—like your business case, feasibility study, project scope of work , project deliverables, and a preliminary project budget. Review what you know, and use this to help inform you on the way forward.

Put together an initial project plan or outline based on your goals and the research you have available. This might change as you move into the next stage of the process, but having an outline here helps you develop a project plan in a more strategic way.

At this stage of the process, it’s a great idea to create a place dedicated to your project.

Create a new Space in ClickUp and set up your project goal so it’s always front and center. Creating a digital home will help you stay organized throughout the project development process. ✅

Once you have an idea of your project goals and scope, it’s time to get more detailed. In the next phase, take your high-level strategy and turn it into a practical and achievable plan of action.

In the planning phase, the focus is on making sure you have the right resources available at the right time. Resources can cover anything from in-house team members and contractors to physical materials and digital tools.

It also includes your project budget, which may get released in stages as the project hits certain milestones.

ClickUp’s project management features help you manage the planning process like a pro. Add milestones and assign tasks or monetary values to match your project goals.

Get a visual reminder of your team’s workload so you can assign resources based on project prioritization . Create a project timeline based on your outline and plan, and easily make changes or re-assign tasks as and when you need to.

Managing all these resources can feel like a juggling act, which is why project managers spend so much time in this stage of the process. Building a project development plan takes time, but tools like ClickUp help you streamline the process and get to your destination faster. ✨

With your project development plan ready to go, it’s time to start working on your project. The project execution stage is all about moving through the tasks and stages of your plan until the project is complete.

If you’re using ClickUp for your project management needs, your team members will have everything they need to be set up for success. Organize your docs, create a project wiki, and build a digital home for your project.

Assign team members and collaborators to specific tasks and promote autonomy and ownership. Collaborate with whiteboards, comments, and real-time chat. Flag urgent or important tasks, update custom statuses, and check off tasks as they’re completed.

Visualize your project in a way that works for you—whether that’s a table, Gantt chart, Kanban board, or calendar. See your dependencies, task progress, and roadblocks before they become an issue. Use ClickUp to help you stay organized and confident throughout the entire project process. 🌻

The project control step is a crucial part of the project development process. In this stage, you’ll run a quality assurance check on your progress so far. It’s an opportunity to evaluate what is and isn’t working, and make changes to aid your project’s success.

When you go through project monitoring and controlling , consider how your progress has been to date. Review any missed deadlines, scheduling conflicts, budget issues, and resource management challenges. Identify why they happened, and what you can do to prevent them from happening again in the future.

Quality assurance always happens after the project ends, but it can also happen at set milestones as the project progresses. Building these monitoring moments into your timeline can help you stay on track with your budget, resources, and delivery, and spot challenges before they become a major issue.

Use ClickUp Milestones to view your progress so far against your goals and objectives. Keep track of your project and monitor changes through your ClickUp Dashboard , where you can see and manage resources, budgets, time, and progress.

Together, ClickUp’s project management features allow you to get a clear view of what’s happening—both when you want to schedule a quality assurance check and throughout the lifecycle of the project. 👀

After your project is complete and your product or improvement has launched, it’s time to sit down and evaluate what happened. The project closing stage is an essential part of the project as it gives your team an opportunity to reflect on the entire process, what went well, and where you can improve next time.

Consider whether or not you met your objectives or project management KPIs , or if you had to change direction completely. Reflect on roadblocks or resource constraints , and how you overcame them.

Discuss the budget and resources, and whether you were able to manage them both effectively. Consider what helped make the project a success, and how you can make an even bigger impact with future projects.

Once you’ve met and discussed the project, prepare a project completion report to share with team members and key stakeholders. Outline the project’s goals, strategy, progress, and end results.

Share useful facts and figures, and use the Project Report template by ClickUp to help you translate your technical know-how into a report that’s visual, engaging, and easy for anyone to understand. ✨

ClickUp is your ultimate productivity hub. Our platform is packed with features designed to help project managers and their teams plan and run projects in a more productive way. That is certainly true for the project team at Lulu , who have used ClickUp to further their mission to empower creators.

Lulu’s team previously used a mix of clunky tools and processes that worked but led to a number of inefficiencies across the team. They turned to ClickUp in search of a better way to streamline processes for product releases and marketing materials and create a source of truth for the entire organization.

Now, Lulu’s software development and marketing teams can ideate, collaborate, and work on tasks that help them reach their goals—all in one place. Their product innovation and release process has been streamlined, leading to greater efficiency and productivity. ⚒️

“ClickUp helps us organize our product and feature roadmap so we can easily introduce new features and functionality to customers, and continually check to see how we’re progressing toward our goals,” says Nick Foster, Director of Product Management at Lulu. “At the end of the day, our number one goal is to make better products for our customers, and ClickUp helps us do that.”

Investing in ClickUp’s project management software meant that Lulu could eliminate time-intensive tasks and save their team members’ valuable energy for bigger and better projects. It puts everyone on the same page, united in their goal to help creators do what they do best. 🤩

Project Development: Your Questions Answered

Whether you’ve been a project manager for years or you’re new to the role, there’s always something new to learn. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about project development.

The five stages of the project life cycle coincide with those of the project development process. The Project Management Institute (PMI) proposes that the project life cycle is made up of five stages—initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.

A project development manager’s role differs from that of a project manager. Instead of being tasked with overseeing the technical progress of a project, a project development manager’s main role is to plan and coordinate resources and project activities based on the goals and objectives.

Good project developers are naturally curious, and great problem solvers. They’re adept at spotting potential challenges and figuring out a way forward. Project developers are also great with numbers—it’s a skill that’s essential when you’re balancing and managing budgets, resources, and deadlines.

Your project development plan should cover all the details that help your project team plan for and execute against your goal. This includes your project’s goals and objectives, key dates and milestones, project scope, collaborators, key stakeholders, project timeline, risks, budget, and resources. The plan should be a comprehensive guide that acts as a source of truth for your entire project team.

Plan Your Way to Success With Project Management Software

The best project teams don’t rely on their project management skills to get them through. They invest in project development and continue to monitor progress through the project timeline.

Use these project development strategies and steps to build your own workflows and processes to help you meet your project goals.

If you’re ready to swap your cobbled-together project management tools for an all-in-one collaborative platform designed to help you stay productive and effective, try ClickUp for free . Our platform has every feature a leading project team needs, with the ultimate flexibility to customize every template, project, and process the way you want it.

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Project Management

Software development project management: beginner’s guide 2024.

Cloudwards.net may earn a small commission from some purchases made through our site. However, any earnings do not affect how we review services. Learn more about our editorial integrity and research process .

This software development project management guide is going to give you the full rundown on the topic. We'll cover what goes into successful software project management and share some of the best project management software to help you do the job.

Last Updated: 21 Feb'24 2024-02-21T17:43:46+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

• Jira — The best project management tool specifically made for software developers.
• monday.com — The best overall project management tool
• ClickUp — An affordable and flexible project management tool

Facts & Expert Analysis

• Management: Managing a software project requires a high level of adaptability, especially when reacting to customer feedback.
• Development: The software development lifecycle will be the foundation of your whole project.
• The Right Tools: Having the best project management tools will make it much easier to achieve your goals.

Approaching software development project management correctly is essential to ensure that you get a product ready as smoothly as possible. If you’re a project manager who’s new to software development projects, here’s a crash course on what software project management is and how to nail it each and every time.

The best project management software can assist you with your goals. However, there’s no point in having the right tools for the job if you don’t know how to use them. Although this article isn’t a tutorial on using software, once you better understand the intricacies of software project management, you’ll be able to use these tools to maximize your success.

In this article, we’ll touch on the different software development types, the processes involved and some of the core responsibilities of project managers working in this field. Buckle up, as we’re about to take you from being a novice to having the confidence to successfully implement strong software project management.  

What Is Software Development Project Management?

When a client or internal stakeholder needs a software product, their first point of call will be to work with software development teams — aka experts who know how to build the software. As straightforward as that sounds, building a product involves several stages, and the path to the final goal is often complex.

Check out our project management courses and grab a limited-time offer. Registration available now!

This is where people use software development project management. It involves creating an environment where software project managers can plan, develop deadlines, communicate, perform resource and time management duties, and visualize how the team can meet its goal. 

A term you’ll often hear in this type of project management process is Agile development. It consists of several frameworks designed to help a project manager and the development team fulfill their project. We’ll touch on this more later, but for now, we encourage you to take a look at the best tools for Agile project management . 

Software Development Types

There are several types of software projects. Some are extremely long and complex, while others involve simple updates to existing software. If you’re entering the world of software project management, below are some common areas worth knowing about.

• Embedded systems development — This is the process of writing code and developing software that can run on a specific piece of hardware. 
• SaaS products — These involve software solutions that are offered as a continuous service rather than a one-time purchase, like cloud storage or Scrum management software.
• Mobile apps — All your favorite smartphone apps began as software projects that were driven by a software project manager.
• Desktop apps — Think Excel and Google Docs; these simple everyday tools all require a software development team.
• Updates — These involve new iterations and patch fixes of already existing software. 

Benefits of Software Development Project Management

Although all of this sounds legit, you may wonder how understanding and implementing certain project management methodologies can be beneficial, specifically for software development. We’ll break those benefits down.

Provides a Catalyst for Organization 

Due to the ever-changing nature of software development, it’s easy for things to get derailed. Agile project management practices let you implement project planning and pathways, enabling you to adjust as the project progresses. Project managers can use frameworks like Scrum, Kanban and XP to organize a software development project, leading to a smooth workflow.

Increases Productivity

Having no rhyme or reason for software development will result in a decrease in productivity. Establishing clear goals, implementing effective resource management and using the right software project management tools will allow your team to work more effectively. Less confusion and clear project objectives lead to better project performance and productivity. 

Improves Communication

Project managers ensure there’s cross-departmental communication. In Agile project management, specifically Scrum, they link the Scrum Master with stakeholders and the product owner with the development team. Effective communication ensures that nothing gets lost in the pipeline and that everyone understands the project’s direction and the end product.  

Helps Prevent Issues Before They Arise

By performing risk management before a project starts, project managers can identify potential problems and establish plans to deal with any issues that arise. Also, when developers track and log issues throughout a project, managers can react quickly as they pop up. Overall, risk management helps keep a project running smoothly.  

Helps You Stick To Deadlines

Arguably the most important element of project management is ensuring you deliver a working product to the end user at the agreed-upon time. Unless you’re lucky, just winging it won’t get you where you want to be when you need to be there. That’s why project management strategies and the right tools for software development projects are essential to your success.

Challenges of Project Management in Software Development

Due to its complexity, there are many challenges that arise during the project management process. Below are some key hurdles that managers should be mindful of when working on a project.

Changes in Demands

It’s common for clients to reconsider what they want from a product. Some changes will be minor, and some will be more complex. This means a project can take a swift change in direction that requires you to restructure the plan. That’s why Agile is useful, as it helps you be adaptable at every stage of the project.

Bugs and Errors

Just when you think a product is where it needs to be, the dev team realizes there are bugs and errors that need fixing. Not only does this take time, but it can also slow down the project — not ideal when you have deadlines. This is why constant testing and quality assurance are essential parts of project monitoring.

Communication Barriers

A software project involves lots of communication with many different people and departments. Whether it’s a confused software dev or an uncooperative stakeholder, a breakdown in effective communication can escalate into a world of issues. Having experienced project managers and product owners is necessary for communication between all users.

Software projects often cost a lot of money. As the product evolves, it’s usually necessary to invest more money into adapting it to meet the latest requirements. Work that takes longer than expected will also hike up a project’s expenditure. That’s why strong budget planning at the start is important because it can help you avoid the pitfalls of scope creep . 

Software Development Lifecycle Phases

A common term you’ll hear in this field is software development lifecycle phases (SDLP). It consists of seven different stages and serves as the anchor for the full project timeline. Without it, software devs couldn’t build and deliver the product that’s required of them. Let’s take a look at each stage. 

• Gather the business requirements
• Assess if the request is possible to build
• Complete the initial task prioritization
• Translate the plan into requirements for the dev team
• Create a use case document
• Share the “requirement traceability matrix” document
• Create the system design
• Select a programming language
• Agree on a platform to build on
• Ask what security measures are necessary for the product
• Divide the project into modules
• Turn requirements into code
• Set goals and milestones for the dev team
• Performance testing looks at the speed and reliability of the product
• Functionality testing assesses if the product matches the requirements
• Security testing helps ensure that the product is secure
• Usability testing looks at the user interface and assesses the user experience
• Acceptance testing is the final testing stage before the product goes to the end user
• The completed product is ready to go to the end user
• Make improvements to the final product
• Fix any bugs that were missed in the development cycle
• Adapt the product where necessary

It’s worth noting there isn’t just one SDLC model. In fact, there are five in total: Agile, Waterfall, Iterative, Spiral and the Big Bang model. Agile suits flexible projects, Waterfall is for clearly defined projects, Iterative works for projects that require high flexibility, Spiral is best for complex projects, and finally, Big Bang is great for academic projects with small dev teams. 

The Software Development Process Explained

Software project management requires a clear process. It’s similar to the software development lifecycle, but it’s more condensed and defined. Usually, the software project manager is responsible for creating this process. Below, we’ll go through the five stages involved.

1. Initiation

The initiation stage is where the software project manager learns about the request. It could be a brand-new system or an update to an established system. They’ll also learn what type of platform the end user needs the software for, such as mobile or desktop. During the initiation stage, the manager must create a project charter and identify key project stakeholders.

2. Planning

The project planning phase is where you start to create and assign tasks. The project manager will input specific project milestones, establish key performance indicators and separate groups of tasks into lists. It’s also a key stage for liaising with different departments (development, marketing, finance) so you can ensure everyone is on the same page as you begin the project.

3. Execution

In simple terms, execution means doing the work. This includes designing and building the product, as well as testing and performing quality assurance. It’s critical that project managers keep a high level of communication during this stage, as it’s likely the most sensitive and unpredictable part of the full process. 

4. Monitoring

The monitoring phase of a project is where the project manager pays close attention to what their team is working on. It’s here that they will monitor output and assess workloads. They’ll also use this stage to respond to and resolve any issues that may arise. 

At closing, the project managers ensure that all the tasks are complete. Once this is done, the software will be handed to the client. It’s a good opportunity to assess what parts of the project were most successful and which areas could be improved in the future. In Agile project management practices, it’s common to refer to this stage as “retrospectives.”

What Is Agile Project Management?

We wrote a detailed article answering what Agile project management is . However, for those who prefer the TL;DR version, we’ll briefly explain Agile project management here.

Agile is essentially a customer-focused approach to project management. This means working within a set of core values to meet customer needs and expectations. As per the Agile Manifesto , these values include focusing on individuals and interactions, prioritizing working software over documentation, responding to change and facilitating customer collaboration. 

It’s very much a reactionary approach to project management, which is also built on calculated anticipation of potential issues. The planning system may not be rigid, but having an adaptable mindset while developing software leads to better structure when using Agile project management and its frameworks, like Kanban , Scrum and Lean.  

What Are a Project Manager’s Responsibilities?

Project managers are responsible for ensuring project success. They’re the glue that keeps everyone together and the captain of the project’s ship. Responsibilities will vary depending on the project and your client, but below is a rundown of the kinds of responsibilities you can expect to have.

• Leading and planning the journey of the project
• Building different teams for specific parts of the project
• Creating and assigning tasks to team members
• Being a point of contact for external stakeholders and clients
• Tracking and managing budgets (usually with a financial officer)
• Ensuring each stage of the project is complete before delivering the product to the client

Simply put, the project manager is largely responsible for the project’s success (or lack thereof). That’s why reading guides like this and making sure you use the best project management platform will be essential to your performance.

Important Metrics for Software Development Project Management

Your project will consist of many individual goals and targets spread across multiple departments. You can use the following metrics to help you analyze how well a project went and determine what improvements you can make in future projects.

Stakeholder Satisfaction

Were your clients happy with the project’s execution and the software they received? Through a client survey, you can gather information to understand their level of satisfaction. 

This metric allows you to assess what percentage of tasks stayed on schedule. It also lets you understand how successful your team is at delivering products at the agreed deadline.

Your financial officer’s favorite metric tells you if you were able to stick to the budget throughout your project. Here you can confirm which areas led to overspending and plan how you can stay within budget for future projects.

Defects are your chance to monitor how many bugs and issues came up throughout the product creation process. You can also see the amount of issues that the software developers were able to repair. 

The Best Software Development Project Management Software

It’s time to look at some of the best tools for the trade. Below are three of the best project management software platforms for software development teams. 

• Made for software devs
• Solid pricing structure
• Very easy to use
• Not the most versatile

Software development teams will love Jira. From kanban to Scrum , it supports frameworks that will appeal to software development teams. Tools for your software project — such as version tracking, backlog refinement and sprint planning — are all available, as is the ability to add story points so the team can assess the depth of work that’s required.

If you’re familiar with the terminology used for software-related objectives, then you’ll have no issues using Jira. Epics, stories, and issues are all embedded into the solutions’ lingo. Both the kanban and Scrum boards come with a great design, and moving cards between each project stage is smooth. Jira is fairly priced too. Take a look at our Jira review to learn more. 

• Max. 10 users. unlimited boards, reports and insights; backlog; basic roadmaps; 2GB of storage; community support
• Annual price is for 10 users; with more than 10, annual pricing changes based on the number of users. Monthly pricing changes with teams over 100.

2. monday.com 

• Beautifully designed
• Free & basic plans are weak

monday.com is a project management tool that has all the features that a software development project manager needs. You can create a backlog, organize sprints, track bugs and develop a release plan. Project managers can also create roadmaps, add timelines, set priorities and add epics.

One thing we really like about monday.com is that it offers several visual customizations. You can color-code your data and the fonts you use. This functionality is embedded into a beautiful user interface, which helps users digest complex project data. Furthermore, it has excellent value on select plans . You can learn more by reading our monday.com review . 

• Maximum users: 2
• Minimum users: 3
• Enterprise-level features.

• Good for collaboration 
• Highly customizable
• Excellent value
• Navigation can be long-winded

ClickUp may not seem ready-made for software development teams. However, once you see the level of customizations available, you’ll soon realize it can do everything you need. The platform is also packed with a range of project templates, and there are several options that suit the software development process, including an Agile sprint planning template.

Beyond its project and task management tools, ClickUp is built for effective communication, a critical part of software development. The real-time chat tool is one of the best around. You can have group and private conversations alongside relevant tasks and projects. It’s also possible to embed videos and format messages into lists for more effective communication. 

ClickUp is affordable too, making it perfect for all budget types . You can learn more about the app and why it’s suitable for software and Agile teams by reading our ClickUp review .

• Basic functionality with some limitations
• All prices per user

Final Thoughts

Well, that’s it — your complete beginner’s guide to managing a software project. It’s a good idea to add this to your bookmarks for reference if you need to scrub up on some project management methodologies. Remember, if you need project management software, the three that we mentioned above are the best options.

Did you find this guide helpful? What are your favorite project management tools for software projects? Is there a project management platform you would like us to review? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

FAQ: Software Development Project Management Tools

This simply refers to how you manage the time and workload involved in developing a piece of software. Traditionally, Agile frameworks are used to manage software development projects.

PMP stands for Project Management Professional certification, which you can obtain through the Project Management Institute. It’s essentially an accreditation that says you understand project management and can implement it in software development. It’s not essential for project managers to have it, but some employers may prefer that you do.

Program development means designing and building software applications that meet specific needs. Project management is how you plan and manage the successful build of the software product.

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The Complete Guide to Project Management

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What is project management? Project management is the coordination of your processes, tools, team members, and skills so you can deliver projects that exceed your goals.

You and your team are getting ready to conquer a major project. It’s like a long stack of dominoes — it’s so cool when it works, but a big ol’ disappointment if a single piece is even slightly out of place. 

These types of projects can be both daunting and exciting, and you might be tempted to start as soon as possible. Do you cross your fingers that everything magically falls into place? Rub a lamp and hope a wish-granting genie arrives to lend a helping hand? 

Those would be nice (and let us know if you find a way to make them work!). But, in reality, the secret to success for your big, hairy projects is effective project management.

What is project management, and why is it important?

Project management is the practice of coordinating processes, tools, team members, and skills to deliver projects that meet goals and satisfy requirements.

It empowers your team to complete projects by rallying them around clear objectives, increasing transparency and visibility, streamlining communication, and establishing the project scope. Need more convincing? Consider that  Project overruns are frighteningly common. In the IT industry alone, McKinsey found that on average, large IT projects run 45% over budget and 7% over time. 

Project management methodologies

Have you heard that old adage “more than one way to cook an egg”? There’s no one strategy for completing a kick-ass project. That’s where a project management methodology comes into play. It’s a set of rules, principles, and processes for managing a project.

Methodologies might sound formal, but you have some room to innovate here! It’s important to note that many teams and companies use a combination, rather than relying exclusively on one. Regardless of which approach you choose, it should help promote a strong culture of transparency .

1. Waterfall project management

When you think of traditional, sequential project management, you’re picturing waterfall project management . With this method, you break your project into different phases. When one phase ends, the next one begins — there’s no overlap between them. 

When to use : For long projects that require a single timeline and a sequential order.

Commonly used in : Construction. Building a house or structure requires a successive order. You can’t put on a roof before you’ve poured a foundation, for example. 

2. Agile project management

Agile project management is an iterative approach and is much more flexible than waterfall project management. It's a DevOps best practice that breaks projects into chunks that are tackled in short bursts (called sprints). After each sprint, your team reevaluates the work you’re doing to make any necessary changes and ensure you’re staying on target.

Scrum project management is one of the most popular Agile  methodologies used by project managers. Like Agile, scrum is centered around continuous improvement . You can use a framework like scrum to help you start thinking in a more Agile way and practice building Agile principles into your everyday communication and work.

When to use:  For projects that aren’t yet well-defined and require a lot of adaptability. 

Commonly used in : Software development. This profession pioneered agile, and this approach allows developers to build higher-quality software because they’re able to test and review at regular intervals.

3. Lean project management

If you’ve heard of lean manufacturing, those same principles apply to lean project management . The goal of this methodology is to increase output and value while reducing waste. To use it, you’ll need to map a value stream, which is the sequence of project activities. Then, you take a magnifying glass to that stream to identify and eliminate work that doesn’t add value. This means your project process will be as streamlined, optimized, and efficient as possible.

Kanban is a specific implementation of Lean project management. Project tasks are represented visually on a Kanban board , allowing team members to see the state of every piece of work at any time.

When to use : For projects that need to be delivered quickly. 

Commonly used in : Manufacturing. When you’re producing physical goods, you want as little waste as possible to minimize spend and maximize profit. That’s why this approach is popular in manufacturing, especially in the automotive industry .

The 5 stages of the project management process

Imagine that you’re starting a project from the very beginning. Project management doesn’t come into play only when you actually start checking off tasks — you need to lay the groundwork first.

With that in mind, the Project Management Institute (PMI) established five distinct stages of project management .

Stage #1: Initiating

Think the first step of the project management process is planning? Not quite. Before you can map out a strategy for your project, you need to get stakeholder buy-in. This is where a project charter comes in to outline the business objective of your project for approval. We recommend using a project poster instead, as a more digestible format that’s faster and easier to read. In this stage, you should answer questions like:

• What’s the business case for this project? Our strategic plan template can help!
• Is this project feasible?
• Should we pursue this project?

To put it simply, in this stage you’re trying to decide if this project is even worth tackling before you invest too much elbow grease. 

A great way to help facilitate this discussion is a premortem , a thought exercise in which you imagine what could go wrong and decide how to prevent it.

Stage #2: Planning

If you decide to move forward, you’ll next head into the planning stage. This is where you’ll develop a detailed project plan that your entire team will follow––and thank you for! Planning is essential for avoiding scope creep . Our to-do list template can help! . Questions to answer in this stage include:

• What is the goal of this project?
• What are the key performance indicators (KPIs)?
• What is the scope?
• What is the budget?
• What are the risks?
• What team members are involved?
• What tasks are involved?
• What milestones need to be met? 

This step is to ensure you and your team all have shared expectations before you get started. If you think you’re getting too caught up in the minutiae, you aren’t. And strategic planning frameworks can help!

Stage #3: Executing

Grab your coffee and get your power cable, because it’s go-time. This is where you and your team will roll up your sleeves and start conquering project tasks with your project plan as your guide. In the execution stage , you’ll need to: 

• Allocate necessary resources
• Ensure assignees carry out their tasks
• Host status meetings
• Set up tracking systems

The bulk of the work happens in this stage, and it’s also where you’ll start to see your project really coming together. See? All that planning was worth it.

Stage #4: Monitoring

Just because you have a project plan doesn’t mean things will run smoothly on their own. It’s like setting a budget for yourself — having the budget doesn’t do anything if you don’t keep a close eye on how you’re managing your money. 

That’s why you need to monitor project progress to ensure things stay on track. You should evaluate your project against the KPIs you established in the planning stage.

What should you do if your project feels like it’s strayed from the path or fallen prey to scope creep? Take a moment to reevaluate. You can decide if you need to realign things, or if your original plan needs to shift. That’s the great thing about monitoring — you have regular checkpoints to course correct.

Stage #5: Closing

The closing stage is about wrapping up loose ends. This includes:

• Hosting a postmortem or retrospective to evaluate the project
• Preparing a final project report
• Collecting and storing necessary project documentation somewhere safe. A collaborative documentation space like Confluence is great for this, by the way.

Not only does this give your team the chance to officially wash their hands of the project, but it also makes it easier to refer back to it when necessary.

7 Tips for successful project management

Even if you follow all of the above steps, effective project management isn’t a set-and-forget scenario. There are a few other best practices you’ll want to implement to help your project run as smoothly as possible.

Host a project kickoff meeting

Your project kickoff meeting is when you’ll establish goals, break down your timeline , and generally get everybody on the same page about your project. Our team meeting agenda template can help!

Regardless of how excited your team is to get to work, don’t skip this sitdown. You’ll proactively clear up confusion and rally your team around a shared goal.

Be mindful of task and resource dependencies

Remember when we talked about projects that feel like a string of teetering dominoes? That’s especially true for large, cross-functional projects. Maybe Daisy can’t start creating graphics until Joel has drafted the content (that’s a task dependency). Or maybe Choua can’t use a piece of software while Derek is using the shared license (that’s a resource dependency).

Your project tasks don’t happen in a vacuum, so it’s important that you account for these dependencies using a Gantt chart template . 

When all of your tasks and resources are connected, you need to understand how they fit together, or you run the risk of watching in horror as your whole line of dominoes comes toppling down.

Identify your critical path

Identifying your critical path is a great way to prevent schedule overruns. While it might sound like something out of an action movie, your critical path is just your longest string of dependent project activities. If you hit a snag or delay on that path, you know the whole project is at risk of coming in late. 

Finding your critical path allows you to know where you have some wiggle room in your schedule, and where you need to stick as close to your timeline as possible.

Be realistic with your timeline

It’s common to underestimate the time it takes us to complete tasks, and it can be a real detriment to your project timeline.

Keep yourself in check by referring back to timelines for previous projects. Consult your time-tracking software (if you have it) to see how long typical tasks take, and ask your team to gut check their schedules.

Use project management software

If your team members need to dig through endless email threads or folders to find what they need, your project is bound to drag behind. 

That’s why it’s helpful to use project management software (like Jira ) to store your documentation and organize your project in a knowledge management software (like Confluence ). It increases visibility into all project steps and tasks, centralizes communication, and gives your project team one single source of truth .

Establish clear roles and responsibilities

To get the best output from your team, people need to know exactly why they’re involved. What is their role and what are they expected to contribute? 

Not only does this instill a sense of purpose and accountability in your project team members, but it also prevents them from stepping on each other’s toes and allows you to play to everyone’s strengths. A RACI   framework is a popular way to assign roles and responsibilities . The acronym RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Confluence slightly tweaks this framework, calling it DACI , with “D” standing for “driver.”

Make it a collaborative process

Managing a project can be stressful, and you don’t have to do it all alone. Your team will have a lot of great insight into your project plan , including if your timeline is realistic or if you’re forgetting about dependencies.  Team brainstorming is a great way to share and hash out ideas. Here are some tips for running an effective brainstorming session .

Even if you’re part of a hybrid or remote team , resist the temptation to plan projects in isolation. Involve your team to hash out a more reasonable plan and boost their sense of ownership over the project. Our brainstorming template can help!

Key members of a project team

Every project must begin by identifying r oles and responsibilities . Knowing your role upfront sets everyone up for success in staying on track to meet project deadlines. Potential project roles include:

• Project manager : Person who oversees the entire project and is responsible for the project’s success.
• Project sponsor : Senior manager who champions the project and works closely with the project manager.
• Team member : People who actively work on the project tasks.
• Supplier : People who provide goods or services for a project.
• Primary stakeholders : People who actually do the work and are actively involved in the project.
• Secondary stakeholders : People who might come to meetings and play a small part but aren’t key decision-makers in the project.
• Interested stakeholders : People who are in the loop on the project but don’t play an active part or have a lot of influence.
• Client : Person who receives the final project, if it’s a client-facing project rather than an internal one. 

What to look for when evaluating project management software

Choosing the right project management software can be tricky. To ensure your team gets the most out of its project management tool, we recommend that you look for a solution that offers the following capabilities:

• Create a shared calendar to track project milestones and deadlines
• Share files and documents for easy access and collaboration
• Create task lists and assign tasks to team members
• Track project progress and generate reports
• Facilitate and streamline communication between team members and stakeholders
• Estimate project duration and budget
• Allow team members to comment on tasks and provide feedback
• Generate automated reminders and notifications
• Set up project templates to streamline project creation
• Manage resources and workloads
• Track issues and risks
• Manage change requests
• Create detailed reports
• Monitor project performance

Why use Confluence for project management

Confluence sets itself apart as a collaborative knowledge hub to supercharge project management with thousands of templates , plays , and integrations for maximum flexibility and scale.

Consolidate tools and centralize work

With Confluence you have knowledge, task, and project management combined with team collaboration. Embed a Trello board for Kanban-style project management, like Sprout Social . Or, integrate Confluence with Jira  for an Agile approach to project management, like Castlight Health . Jira makes it easy to plan, track, and manage your projects, while Confluence boosts transparency and centralizes your project-related conversations and resources. 

Scale with team and company growth

Confluence is designed to enable project management for technical teams and business teams, as well as for small businesses , remote teams , and enterprise-scale companies . Scale with unlimited instances to provide organizational autonomy, segregate data for security reasons, or customize environments. Confluence also has the security, compliance, performance, and reliability needed to support enterprises, including guaranteed SLA uptimes; data residency in US, EU, Australia, or Germany; and certifications with GDPR, SOC2, and more.

Secure and protect work and knowledge

What happens when a teammates leave your company, does their work leave too? Confluence protects project work from being lost, even if teammates leave a company. You can create permissions, set controls, and assign admins roles.

Analyze and optimize performance

You can’t manage what you can’t measure, right? In combination with Jira , you can track progress, monitor activities, and generate reports to help optimize project processes and workflows.

Project management is the engine powering team productivity. But not all project management solutions are created equal. Find out why more than 85,000 companies use Confluence.

Project management templates

Persona template.

The Persona template helps you create detailed profiles of target customers for marketing and product development, complete with persona names, goals, challenges, and information sources.

Customer journey mapping template

Use this template to understand your customer’s experience with your product, including their emotions and pain points.

Disruptive brainstorming template

This Confluence template will help your teeam generate fresh ideas.

DACI template

Use this DACI template to define each person's role in the decision-making process and make the right call sooner.

Project poster template

If project briefs and project charters aren’t your cup of tea, try this template for a project poster instead.

Key benefits of project management

1. improve collaboration.

We know we need to work with others to meet our goals, yet effective collaboration doesn’t come easy for most of us. There are varying communication styles, different approaches to organization, and so many other factors that make collaboration challenging. 

Project management software gives teams greater visibility into what their colleagues are working on, what deadlines are set, how individual tasks fit into the overall project process, and more. All of this contributes to the greatest benefit of project management software: better and easier project collaboration.

2. Centralize communication

Your team is struggling to communicate with disorganized email threads, direct instant message pings, and comments that get lost in the shuffle. 

That’s bad news (and a big time-waster) for your projects. When team members have too many places to check for information, wires are crossed, deadlines are missed, tasks are forgotten, and confusion builds. 

Project management software keeps all of your communication — from timelines and status updates to feedback and questions — in one single place that’s easily accessible to everyone. This breaks down silos so that everybody can not only share knowledge, but effectively manage how and where they share it. 

3. Streamline task management

For your projects to be delivered successfully, team members need to know which tasks they’re responsible for and when they need to have them completed.

Unclear responsibilities and directions from managers are a big piece of that; working within numerous apps and tools only adds to the mayhem. 

If a team member is assigned a task in one tool but they spend more of their time in another platform, they’ll miss that important notification. Managing your projects in one piece of software patches those holes and also breaks your biggest most overwhelming projects into individual steps and action items. 

From there, you can assign those tasks to the correct team members with a deadline so they’re aggregated in one place, and people will get notified of their new to-dos.

4. Create a single source of truth

Your project management software will be your repository of project-related information. Documents, assets, updates, timelines, meeting notes, and everything else should be stored in your software. (Here’s a handy template for meeting notes to keep track!) Doing so ensures it’s accessible, organized, and searchable. Team members can find what they need without wasting a ton of time digging for the truth. 

5. Boost efficiency

Add all of the above benefits together, and you get the best benefit of all: your team can move work forward faster. A lot faster. 

With project management software in place, your team is communicating well. They know what’s expected of them and what they should get started on next. They can easily locate the information they need.

Working together like a well-oiled machine significantly cuts down on lost time. The Jira project management template helps teams get started faster with tried-and-tested workflows, instead of starting a blank page every time they need to create a new project. 

Now, work no longer drags on and on because your team is equipped with the resources they need to crank out high-quality results at an impressive pace.

6. Track progress

You don’t want to deliver just any project. You want to deliver a project that stays under your budget, honors your timeline, and meets its original goals.

Those important elements are easy to lose track of when you’re up to your eyeballs in project work, and it’s a slippery slope. If you don’t keep a close eye on those limitations and expectations, you’ll struggle with schedule, budget overruns, and wasted effort when team members need to re-do work to get the project back on track.

Project management software organizes your work so it’s simpler to track things like your spend and deadlines. Additionally, you can generate reports to monitor progress as you move forward — rather than realizing too late that you’ve missed the mark.

Why use Jira for project management

Jira  helps teams successfully plan, track, and deliver top-quality products supported by specialized project management apps for Jira .

Centralized reporting

Jira brings all your project data together, allowing you to effortlessly track task completion, identify bottlenecks, and make decisions with confidence.

Real-time updates

Everyone stays in the loop with Jira’s instant updates, ensuring quick reactions and consistent project alignment.

No-code automation

Jira cuts the hassle with simple no-code automation, saving time on repetitive tasks and letting you focus on what matters.

Manage projects with confidence

Steer teams of all sizes toward success and achieve objectives confidently with Jira.

Offering tailored solutions for nonprofits and small businesses

You may also like

Project poster template.

A collaborative one-pager that keeps your project team and stakeholders aligned

Project Plan Template

Define, scope, and plan milestones for your next project

Enable faster content collaboration for every team with Confluence

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Project Management: What Is Project Management?

This guide is brought to you by projectmanager, online project management software used by 35,000+ users worldwide..

What Is a Project?

What is project management, project management history, why is project management important, what are the areas of project management, what are the 5 steps in the project management process, what types of project management exist, what tools are used in project management, project management templates, what are the key project management roles, how to start a project management career, which are the best project management certifications, what is project management software.

A project can be simply defined as an endeavor that involves completing tasks to achieve an objective with a limited set of resources and a finite timeline . Based on this definition, it’s clear that most businesses, nonprofits, governments and other types of organizations execute projects of some sort and therefore, need to implement a project management process.

Project management is a process that allows project managers to plan, execute, track and complete projects with the help of a project team. To do so, they must use project management principles, skills, methodologies and tools to lead team members through each of the project management steps which are known as the project lifecycle.

However, project management can’t be defined in one paragraph. In this guide, we’ll cover the basic concepts you need to know to understand what project management is, the stages of the project management process, different types of project management approaches and the tools you can use for managing projects.

In addition, you’ll need project management software to plan, execute and track projects. ProjectManager , for example, has the project planning, scheduling and tracking features you need to manage timelines, resources, costs and teams in one online tool. Use our Gantt charts, kanban boards, and calendars to create project schedules and assign work with real-time resource availability. Get started for free today.

Project management is closely related to other disciplines including program management and portfolio management. However, while they’re similar, they’re not exactly the same. Here’s how they differ.

What Is the Difference Between Project Management and Program Management?

Program management uses the same principles and techniques as project management, but as its name suggests, it consists of managing programs instead of projects . Programs are a group of related projects that are executed simultaneously to make the most out of an organization’s available resources which presents unique challenges for project management professionals.

What Is the Difference Between Project Management and Project Portfolio Management?

The main difference between project management and project portfolio management is that the latter focuses on prioritizing projects based on the business objectives and strategic goals of an organization.

Now, let’s review the history of project management and explain its importance for organizations in any industry.

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• Project Plan Template

Use this free Project Plan Template for Word to manage your projects better.

Project management as we know it today began taking shape roughly in the 1950s when foundational tools and techniques of project management such as the critical path method (CPM), work breakdown structure (WBS) and the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) were created.

However, the origins of project management can be traced back to 1896 when Karol Adamiecki created the harmonogram, which was the inspiration for the Gantt chart , which was later created in 1910 by Henry Gantt and remains one of the most important project management tools today. The origins of project management are closely related to construction, engineering, scientific management and even military research.

Now that we’ve defined what project management is and where it came from, let’s review how it can be implemented by organizations by reviewing the project management steps.

Related: 25 Free Project Management Templates for Excel

In a nutshell, project management is important because it helps organizations control all the moving parts of projects to bring them to successful completion. These moving parts are known as project management areas, which are key project aspects that must be overseen as projects progress.

Here’s a quick definition of each of the 10 project management knowledge areas, first defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in its Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

• Scope management : Managing the scope of a project, which refers to the tasks, deliverables and milestones that should be delivered.
• Schedule management : Creating a project schedule and setting guidelines for how it’ll be tracked and maintained.
• Cost management : Estimating project costs to create a budget which is then tracked throughout the project.
• Quality management : Ensuring project deliverables meet quality standards.
• Resource management : Acquiring, allocating and tracking project resources like labor, materials and equipment.
• Communication management : Defining communication guidelines for project teams and stakeholders.
• Risk management : Identifying, evaluating and preventing or mitigating risks in your project.
• Procurement Management : Acquiring project resources and maintaining relationships with vendors and suppliers.
• Stakeholder management : Identifying project stakeholders, and managing them based on their expectations and influence over projects.
• Integration management : Creating a framework that helps project teams work better together.

These project management knowledge areas need to be managed during each step of the project management process.

The project management process consists of five steps or phases that all projects must go through: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and closure. These project management phases are also known as process groups, the project management cycle or the project lifecycle . Let’s review each of these steps.

1. Project Initiation

This is the starting phase where the project manager must prove that the project has value and is feasible through a series of project management documents . Here are the most important ones:

• Business case : A business case justifies the need for the project, project objectives and return on investment.
• Feasibility study : A feasibility study proves that the project can be executed within a reasonable time and cost.
• Project charter : A project charter conveys what the project is going to deliver.

Once the project gets approved, the project manager must assemble a project team and set up a project management office. The project initiation phase ends with a kickoff meeting, which is when project goals and scope are defined.

2. Project Planning

The goal of the project planning phase is the creation of the project plan, a comprehensive project document that explains in great detail how the project will be executed. Here’s a quick overview of the most important sections of a project plan.

• Project schedule : The project schedule defines a timeline for the execution of tasks and resource allocation.
• Project budget : A project budget is the sum of all the estimated project costs.
• Scope management plan : Explains how your project scope will be tracked throughout the project.
• Risk management plan : Explains the risks that might affect the project, along with strategies to mitigate them.
• Resource management plan : Describes how your resources will be obtained, allocated and managed during the project.
• Stakeholder management plan : Identifies all project stakeholders  and the guidelines to manage them.

Project managers often lay out their project plan using Gantt chart software , which provides a visual representation of the entire project schedule and project scope. Some Gantt charts automatically identify critical path activities.

3. Project Execution

The third project management phase is project execution, which is when the project plan is executed to meet the project goals and objectives.

The project execution phase is when project managers need to oversee the project management knowledge areas as their project progresses toward the monitoring and control phase.

Along the way, the project manager will reallocate resources or adjust time and scope as needed to keep the team working. In addition, they’ll identify and mitigate risks, deal with problems and incorporate any changes.

4. Project Monitoring and Control

The fourth project management phase, project monitoring and control, takes place concurrently with the execution phase of the project. It involves monitoring the progress of the project execution activities to ensure the project team stays on schedule and within budget. Quality control procedures are applied to guarantee quality assurance.

Reporting is also a critical part of this project management phase. First, it allows project managers to track progress, and second, it provides data for stakeholders during presentations to keep them in the loop. There are many project management reports such as project status, timesheets, workload, allocation and expense reports.

5. Project Closure

The fifth project management phase is project closure, in which the final project deliverables are presented to the stakeholders. Once approved, resources are released, documentation is completed and everything is signed off on.

Now that we’ve learned about the project management life cycle, let’s look at some project management approaches.

Through the years, many project management methodologies have been developed to adjust to the needs of different industries. Some of these project management types or approaches also work best for projects of certain sizes and complexity levels.

Here’s a list of the main project management methodologies . Click the links for an in-depth explanation of each.

Waterfall Project Management

A linear project management approach, in which stakeholder requirements are gathered at the beginning of the project, and then a sequential project plan is created.

Agile Project Management

An iterative project management approach that doesn’t follow a rigid project plan, but instead short sprints of work called agile sprints.

Scrum Project Management

An agile framework that’s very popular for product and software development.

Lean Project Management (or Lean Manufacturing)

This technique was invented to improve manufacturing processes and became a very important project management methodology through the years.

Kanban Method

Kanban is a widely used project management approach that consists of managing work through visual boards and cards. Kanban boards are used by agile and scrum teams.

Just like kanban or lean, six sigma is a set of tools and techniques that were developed to improve production processes and later became a project management approach.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

The critical path method is a project scheduling technique that allows project managers to estimate the duration of a project, identify task dependencies, float and critical activities.

Critical Chain Project Management

A project management approach that’s based on the theory of constraints and uses resource management as the primary way to execute projects effectively.

PRINCE2 is the most popular project management methodology in the UK, Australia, and European countries. PRINCE2 is very similar to the Project Management Body of Knowledge from the PMI because it provides definitions and best practices for project managers.

There is a wide range of project management tools, both online and mobile, available to manage projects. These are the most essential tools for a project manager:

Project Dashboard

A project dashboard is a project-tracking tool that allows you to monitor your costs, tasks and progress. It’s a very useful tool during project execution because it helps project managers quickly determine whether their projects are on track.

Gantt Charts

A Gantt chart is a visual representation of a project timeline that shows all the project tasks in one graph. Gantt charts are used for project planning, project scheduling, task management and resource management. They work best on waterfall projects.

The Gantt chart is the preferred method used by project managers to schedule their projects. Some tasks are dependent on others before they can start or end, and these task dependencies can create bottlenecks later in the project.

By linking them on a Gantt chart, task dependencies help avoid slowing down the schedule. Projects can be divided by milestones  and diamond symbols, which indicate the end of one phase and the beginning of the next.

Kanban Boards

A kanban board is a task management tool that allows project managers and team members to visualize tasks. Kanban boards are used by agile and scrum teams who work in iterative sprints. They’re easy to use and foster team collaboration.

There are many project management charts and diagrams that project managers use to plan, schedule and track their projects. Here are some of the most commonly used ones.

• Gantt Chart Template
• Work Breakdown Structure Template
• Project Budget Template
• Project Timeline Template

These are just some examples of project management charts. We have a library of project management templates you can use to manage every project phase.

However, while these templates can be very useful, they’re still static documents that can’t match the features that you’d get from project management software such as ProjectManager.

A project works best when project management roles are well-defined. While there are project management methods that require different types of project teams, these are the main project management roles:

• Project manager: As we’ve mentioned above, the project manager is responsible for managing the project management knowledge areas throughout the project.
• Project sponsor: The project sponsor represents the customer of the project. Depending on the organization, there can be different levels of project sponsors.
• Project team members: Team members are skilled professionals who work to contribute to the process of producing deliverables, managing risks and achieving project goals.
• Project stakeholders: This is a person or a group who has a vested interest or “stake” in the project. The project manager must communicate project progress to stakeholders throughout the project life cycle.
• Clients: This is a group or a person for whom the project or a key component of the project is delivered.

Ready to become a project management professional? You’ll need to work on your project management skills and a certification program to become a professional project manager.

Project managers are leaders. They need to motivate their teams as well as plan, monitor and report on their progress. It’s a job requiring many hats. They must have strong project management skills and be able to clearly connect with both stakeholders and the project team.

Additionally, formal project managers are typically certified through agencies like the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the U.S. or PRINCE2 in the U.K. After certification, they’re required to maintain their certifications by acquiring additional project management training to gather a targeted number of Professional Development Units (PDU).

How Much Does a Project Manager Make?

In terms of salary, a project manager can earn anywhere from under $100,000 to close to $200,000 a year. This is dependent on a number of factors, including location, education, years of experience, performance and more.

There are several organizations over the world that provide project management certifications and training. Here are the most popular ones.

• Google project management certificate : Google recently developed this training program in association with Coursera, which teaches all the project management basics.
• PMI certifications : PMI offers numerous project management certifications. Most project managers obtain the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification which is an industry standard.
• Agile certifications: There are plenty of agile project management certifications and training courses. These are a requirement for agile and scrum project managers.
• PRINCE2 certifications: PRINCE2 is the project management framework used in the UK, Australia and Europe. You’ll need specific certifications to participate in a PRINCE2 project.

What Skills Are Needed to Succeed In Project Management?

In addition to certifications, project management positions require a set of soft and hard skills to lead project teams. Project management skills are grouped under two main categories: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills are skills that can be acquired by individuals through formal training, such as becoming knowledgeable about project management methodologies, learning how to use project management software or implementing project management techniques.

Soft skills, on the other hand, are skills that people develop over the course of their lives, such as communication skills, problem-solving, time management or work ethic.

Project management software is a platform for managers to plan, monitor and report on projects; it lets teams manage their work and collaborate, too. Watch the video below to see project management software in action:

Choosing the best project management software for your organization isn’t easy as there are many alternatives to choose from. But not all project management software has the same features and, as a project manager, it’s your responsibility to decide which tool works best for your organization.

ProjectManager offers a suite of all the project management tools you need to take your project every step of the way—from initiation through closure. We have the best project planning, scheduling and tracking features.

Project Management Resources

• Work Breakdown Structure
• Project Management Trends (2022)
• Guide to Gantt Charts
• Guide to Project Plans
• Guide to Construction Project Management
• Guide to Program Management

Software Tools

• Gantt Chart Software
• Project Planning Software
• Dashboard Software
• Reporting Software
• Project Management Information System
• Project Management Software for Mac
• Project Management Basics
• Project Management Conferences
• Project Management Framework
• Project Management Principles

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Software Project Management: Unique Skills for Highly Complex and Ever-Changing Projects

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In this article, you’ll find the most useful tips for learning how software project management practices and tools optimize release cycles and help bring state-of-the-art software to market quickly.

Included on this page, you'll find information on the six phases of the software development project lifecycle , details on project manager duties that align with the SDLC , as well as tips and best practices from software PM experts .

What Is Software Project Management?

Developing cutting-edge software is not easy and requires a controlled environment that manages time, resources, people, and costs to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery. The term software project management refers to the planning, scheduling, and organization of a software development project. 

Project management dates back to the start of human civilization, but modern project management was born in the early part of the 20th century, when Henry Gantt developed the Gantt chart. Today, project management practices take place across organizations of all sizes and in all industries, including manufacturing, information technology (IT), marketing, finance, and construction. You can find a concise history of project management methodologies here.  

John Tukey , a Princeton University statistician, introduced the term “software” in 1958. Initially, companies packaged software as part of the purchase or lease of a computer. In 1969, however, IBM began selling their software as a standalone product, thereby establishing an industry exclusively dedicated to software. As the industry grew, software manufacturers required formalized practices for controlling and releasing software tools. The already-popular project management practices were the perfect fit for managing the lifecycle of software projects.

Project Management Guide

Your one-stop shop for everything project management

Ready to get more out of your project management efforts? Visit our comprehensive project management guide for tips, best practices, and free resources to manage your work more effectively.

View the guide

Why Is Software Project Management Important?

Project managers have a big responsibility — one that involves much more than avoiding overdue, over-budget software projects. Software project management ensures that the project in question aligns with business goals, achieves high-quality results, and delivers real value to all stakeholders. 

Software development comes with multiple risks and challenges — frequent technology changes, immature technology, sloppy development practices, and staff and management turnover, to name a few. Creating software brings other potential challenges as well, such as navigating through stakeholder politics and communicating clearly with end-users, developers, and others. Failure to address such issues can lead to poorly defined system requirements and other problems. 

Software project management helps project managers overcome these complexities by inspiring end-user and stakeholder involvement, managing risks, and creating an environment for transparent communication. All of these capabilities help you set realistic project goals, estimate resource requirements more accurately, report on project status, and handle commercial pressures. Software project management offers strategic alignment, leadership, planning, practicality, quality assurance, and proven processes to combat chaos and complexity.

What Are the Types of Software Projects?

Software projects can fall into several categories depending on numerous factors, including the intended use of the software, the type of company developing the software, and the type of end-users. Here are a few of the most common types of software projects: 

• New software tools developed by existing software vendors or startups
• Updates, patch fixes, and version releases of an existing software solution
• Mobile applications
• Homegrown, internal support software solutions

The 6 Phases of the Software Development Project Lifecycle

The five phases of project management, developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI), work to standardize project management practices. Each step of the project lifecycle represents the activities necessary to complete the project. 

The software development lifecycle (SDLC), a unique software project management lifecycle process, aims to design, develop, and test the quality of software tools. (Note that there are several SDLC models — Agile currently dominates the industry due to its flexibility and fast pace.) 

Depending on the methodology you use (e.g., Agile, traditional Waterfall , iterative, v-shaped, spiral, big bang, or a hybrid approach), the phases of software development — also known as software project management stages or steps — you follow may be linear, overlap, repeat, or have varying amounts of focus placed on them. You may find different naming conventions across phases, but the following six steps are the most common designations for the major software development phases:

• Initiation/Planning
• Requirements
• Implementation

What Is the Software Planning Process?

Planning is the first phase in the SDLC and consists of several activities that set the stage for a successful software development project. Below are the software project planning activities and phases:

• Outline project goals.
• Create a baseline.
• Set a budget.
• Create deadlines.
• Identify stakeholders.
• Host a brainstorming session that includes the entire project team.
• Perform an analysis of past projects.
• Identify all tasks and break them down into subtasks.
• Create a list of all activities and assign them to an individual or group.
• Estimate timelines.
• Identify resources.
• Evaluate resource constraints.
• Consider outsourcing options.
• Allocate resources.
• Identify potential risks and impact.
• Perform qualitative and quantitative risk analyses.
• Create contingency plans.
• Identify the required functionality.
• Evaluate products.
• Select a solution.

A project planning template can help you begin mapping out your strategy. The template can be simple or complex, but it should allow for collaboration and real-time adjustments. Click here to download the top project planning templates.

Who Is Involved in Software Project Management?

The responsibilities of software project management — as well as the project results — touch many people and teams across an organization. A software project manager is typically responsible for the management of a project, and developers, engineers, IT, quality assurance (QA), employees from various business departments, contractors, and leadership are also involved at varying stages of the process. 

Additionally, clients and customers are involved in the SDLC during user acceptance testing (UAT), which is the final phase of the testing process. During this stage, users (typically clients and customers) put software to the test with real-world test cases to make sure the development is complete.

Software Project Manager Job Duties

Like other types of project managers, a software project manager is the project leader with a diverse set of responsibilities, including project planning, leadership, activity monitoring, time management, budgeting, communication, risk analysis, resource management, and change management. The primary responsibility of the software project manager, though, is to ensure that the team adheres to the SDLC.

If we look at the phases of the SDLC, we can better visualize the many hats worn by the software project manager.

• Define the project scope.
• Gather feedback and buy-in from all stakeholders.
• Decomposition Techniques: These methods use a breakdown of significant project activities to estimate size, effort, and associated costs.
• Empirical Estimation Techniques: These methods use an educated guess from an expert or group of experts. The techniques base decisions on previous software development projects and apply lines of code (LOC) or function points (FP) in the formula. COCOMO and Putnam are two empirical techniques.
• Divide work into subtasks and relate similar tasks.
• Assign responsibilities based on availability by creating resource requests.
• Create a change control, quality control, communication, and risk management plan.
• Host a project kickoff meeting.
• Estimate project costs, including software, hardware, tools, licenses, human resources, travel expenses, communication needs, training tools, and additional project support.
• Create a business requirements document.
• Create an implementation plan.
• Take an active role in the software design document.
• Execute the active development portion of the project.
• Monitor activities and milestones.
• Share status reports with all stakeholders.
• Measure progress and performance along the way.
• Remain informed on user acceptance testing results.
• Ensure the team makes appropriate updates.
• Close project activity.
• Ensure that all tasks are complete.
• Evaluate project performance.
• Execute the next steps.

Risk analysis and management will take place throughout the entire SDLC. The project manager must have the skills and insight to monitor for, identify, categorize, and manage risks that may occur. If problems arise, they must be able to manage changes (i.e., identify, validate, analyze, control, and execute changes) to reduce or remove risk. 

Based on the aforementioned responsibilities of the software project manager, it comes as no surprise that a qualified candidate must possess outstanding multitasking skills. Strong communication and leadership skills, as well as technical acumen, are also vital, along with the ability to pay close attention to detail and remain organized amidst constant change.

Software Project Management Metrics

Each project is subject to unique metrics based on the goals of the business. In other words, all metrics should answer business-related questions. Below are four useful software project management metrics:

• Satisfaction: How satisfied are stakeholders with the project? Similar to a net promoter score , this post-project survey contains a question that calculates the overall satisfaction on a numerical scale.
• Delivery: This refers to the percentage of projects that the team completes on time.
• Cost: This refers to the percentage of projects on which the team stays within budget.
• Defects: This refers to the amount of defects that the team identifies and repairs during the project versus the amount of errors that users report post-implementation.

The Benefits of Software Project Management

Project management can be a significant expense for some organizations, but when software projects involve numerous stakeholders, tasks, and teams — and the results impact customers — the benefits easily outweigh the risks. A project manager can reduce overall expenses by streamlining operations. A project manager has the power to keep a project on time and within budget, but, more importantly, they can create a relationship between internal stakeholders and clients, improving communication and visibility into projects. Additionally, they can reduce risks that negatively impact an organization and minimize the number of issues that can burden software development teams.

Challenges That Impact Software Project Management

Software project management is packed with benefits, but there are potential issues that may arise. These challenges are generally prominent in organizations that attempt to take a cookie-cutter approach, rather than considering each software project individually before applying project management methods. Start by evaluating each project one by one to accommodate unique requirements. 

For example, some project management solutions are too expensive for small software development teams. If you purchase a needlessly pricey solution, you risk yielding little return on your investment. Software project management solutions do not have to be costly; spreadsheets and basic solutions are available at minimal expense. And, some software projects may not even require an extensive project management solution. In fact, in the case of a simple project, implementing a complicated solution may do more harm than good. Be sure to consider the type of software projects your team will be managing before investing in a software project management solution.

Tips and Best Practices for Software Project Managers

We have talked about the software development lifecycle and a software project manager’s typical duties, but what are some best practices that contribute to project success? Here are just a few things a project manager can do to build trust and create a high-quality relationship with their team: 

• Understand and articulate a company’s needs and goals.
• Gather team feedback.
• Break down a plan into daily tasks.
• Stick to that plan (or make changes only when necessary). 
• Share successes to inspire and encourage a team. 

Alan Zucker, a project management instructor, advisory consultant, and Founding Principal of Project Management Essentials , recognizes the current communication challenges that project managers face and offers this advice: “Project managers spend nearly 90 percent of their time communicating with team members and stakeholders. The Project Management Institute has researched this subject extensively and supports this statistic. While the most effective form of communication is face to face, many of today’s project teams include remote members. Closing the communication quality gap using an online project management tool can help build relationships and effective collaboration.”

Sergei Brovkin holds an MBA, is a certified PMP, and is a Lean and Six Sigma leader. He echoes the need for excellent communication: “Communication is critical. Set up project meetings from day zero and be sure that they are productive and that everyone attends them. Make sure you fully understand the strategic direction and purpose of the project and be able to explain it clearly.” 

In addition to possessing the human-touch elements, software project managers must have technical acumen, be able to separate development from non-development tasks, understand the number and types of users the software tool serves, and have insight into pricing models and deployment methods.

What Software Is Best for Project Management?

Finding the right project management software can be tricky. As mentioned earlier, you must analyze the type of projects you will manage, their complexity and intricacy of detail, your team’s size, and your budget to help you determine the best solution for project success. A software’s features and methods of deployment (in-house versus cloud) are essential considerations. Look at tools that offer Gantt charts , PERT diagrams , resource histograms , and critical path analysis functions. To help you choose the right project management software, read “All about Project Management Software.”

Features to Look for in Software Project Management Tools

A project manager’s workload can quickly become overwhelming. As mentioned in the discussion of the SDLC and project managers’ duties, project managers have a wide variety of responsibilities. But, there are hundreds of software project management tools available to help; they range from individual to mid-sized and high-end systems. To identify the best tool for you, first determine your organization size, the type(s) of software projects you’ll be doing, and which development methodology you’ll be using. Below, you will find features that support the planning, execution, and control of each phase of the SDLC.

• Project estimation 
• Scope definition, verification, and control 
• Project scheduling/calendar
• Resource management
• Risk management planning and control
• Task management with priorities and categories
• Budget management and forecasting
• Time and expense management
• Project monitoring and control
• Team collaboration and communication (online discussions and chat, video, and email notifications)
• Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and PERT diagrams
• Milestone tracking
• Document management and file storage
• Analysis, reports, key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboards, and objectives and key results (OKRs), including cost-to-complete analyses
• Permissions and user roles
• Workflow processes
• Portfolio management
• Billing and invoicing
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android
• Easy to use, drag-and-drop configurations and out-of-the-box templates
• Contact management
• Change management
• Configuration management
• Release management
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Product roadmaps
• Backlogs/stories
• Bug tracking
• Client portals for communication, UAT, and approvals

The Future of Software Project Management

Emerging technology is revolutionizing every aspect of the technology industry. AI, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning are already transforming consumer interactions, and it’s only a matter of time before bots are also handling project management activities. Employee expectations are changing, too. Workers now seek flexible, remote work environments, along with the use of personal devices for work purposes (e.g., bring your own device [BYOD]). In many industries, a remote workforce is already the norm. 

Project managers are facing the challenge of communicating with a remote workforce, while also having to worry about robots that will take their jobs. Over the next few years, project managers will experience the effects of digital transformation, which will minimize issues that currently cause project delays. Intelligent tools may take on some project management tasks, leaving human project managers to focus on more strategic activities. In addition, technology that improves communication with the increasingly distributed workforce will become the standard. In the near future, companies will have fully adopted and implemented technology and practices that support today’s modern workers. Then, we will move on to the next technological revolution.

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Software Development Project Management: Understanding, Planning, Agile & More

Table of contents.

Software development project management is a critical aspect of ensuring successful project delivery. It involves planning, organizing, and overseeing the development of software products from inception to completion. Effective management in this field requires a deep understanding of both software development processes and project management principles. This blog post delves into key strategies, best practices , and tools essential for efficient software development project management.

Understanding the intricacies of managing software projects can significantly impact their success rates. From agile methodologies to risk assessment techniques, mastering these skills is vital for any project manager in the software development industry. Stay tuned as we explore how to navigate challenges and optimize outcomes in software development project management.

Understanding Project Management

Core concepts.

Software development project management involves planning, organizing, and controlling a project to deliver high-quality software within budget and time constraints. The core concepts include project initiation , requirements gathering , design , development , testing , deployment , and maintenance. For example, during the requirements gathering phase, the team collects and documents all necessary features and functionalities.

Effective software development project management is crucial for successful project completion by managing resources efficiently. It helps in optimizing productivity throughout the project lifecycle. By focusing on delivering quality software within set timelines, it ensures customer satisfaction by meeting their expectations. This process also involves coordinating various tasks such as design, coding, testing, deployment, etc., to achieve the desired outcome.

Adopting strategies like agile methodologies (Scrum or Kanban) allows for iterative development cycles that enhance adaptability to changing requirements. Utilizing waterfall methodology enables a sequential approach where each phase must be completed before moving onto the next one. Hybrid approaches combine elements from different methodologies to tailor them according to specific project needs.

Managing changing requirements poses a significant challenge throughout the project lifecycle due to evolving client needs or market trends. Balancing scope against schedule and budget constraints is crucial for ensuring that projects stay on track without compromising quality standards or delivery timelines. Effective communication among team members fosters collaboration essential for resolving issues promptly and maintaining productivity levels.

Planning a Software Development Project

Goal setting.

In software development project management , setting clear and measurable goals is crucial. These goals should be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. By aligning project objectives with organizational targets, teams can work cohesively towards a common purpose. For instance, if the goal is to reduce software bugs by 20% within six months, it meets the criteria of being specific and time-bound.

Defining these objectives guides the team in focusing their efforts effectively during different stages of software development projects . It helps in creating a roadmap that ensures all activities are geared towards achieving the desired outcomes.

Scope Definition

When planning a software development project , defining its scope becomes paramount. This involves outlining what will be included within the project’s boundaries while also specifying what falls outside those limits. By documenting this through statements of work or project charters, clarity prevails on what tasks need completion for successful delivery. For example, if developing an e-commerce platform includes building payment gateways but excludes designing marketing materials.

By clearly delineating the scope at the outset of project planning , teams prevent unnecessary deviations from initial objectives and ensure that everyone involved understands their roles and responsibilities accurately.

Resource Allocation

Resource allocation in software development projects involves distributing human capital, tools, and equipment as per project needs efficiently. Teams must optimize these resources to enhance productivity while keeping costs in check throughout various phases of product development. Balancing resource availability with demand ensures smooth progress without overburdening team members or causing delays due to lack of necessary tools or expertise.

Optimizing resource allocation not only boosts efficiency but also minimizes wastage by ensuring that every resource contributes meaningfully towards achieving set milestones during software development .

Agile Methodology

Agile methodology in software development project management involves following industry best practices like the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). It emphasizes principles such as transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Effective stakeholder engagement and risk management are also key aspects of agile project management .

Adhering to these principles brings several benefits, including improved project success rates and higher customer satisfaction. Enhanced team collaboration and communication are fostered through agile practices. Moreover, increased efficiency and productivity are achieved by optimizing resource allocation within the team.

Implementation

Implementing agile methodology involves breaking down the software development project into manageable tasks or user stories . Tasks are then assigned to team members based on their skills and expertise to ensure efficient progress. Monitoring the progress regularly helps identify bottlenecks early on so that necessary adjustments can be made promptly for smoother workflow.

When implementing agile methodology, it is crucial to incorporate the Scrum framework for iterative development. This framework includes roles like Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team who work collaboratively towards achieving project goals. Key events within the Scrum framework include Sprint Planning sessions, Daily Stand-ups for quick updates, Sprint Reviews for feedback incorporation, and Retrospectives for reflecting on past iterations.

Team Dynamics

Roles and responsibilities.

Assigning clear roles like project manager, developer, tester, and business analyst ensures a structured approach to software development project management . By leveraging individual strengths and expertise, responsibilities can be allocated effectively within the team. Encouraging cross-functional collaboration fosters a sense of shared ownership among team members.

• Clear roles enhance accountability
• Cross-functional collaboration boosts innovation
• Individual strengths contribute to overall project success

Effective communication is vital in software development project management . Establishing channels for open and transparent communication within the team promotes synergy. Regular updates to stakeholders ensure transparency while addressing any concerns promptly maintains trust among all parties involved.

• Open communication fosters trust
• Regular updates promote transparency
• Addressing concerns promptly prevents misunderstandings

Collaboration Techniques

Leveraging collaborative tools such as project management software or online platforms streamlines workflow efficiency. Face-to-face interactions through meetings or workshops facilitate real-time discussions that enhance teamwork dynamics. Promoting knowledge sharing among team members cultivates a culture of continuous learning.

• Utilize collaborative tools for streamlined workflow.
• Conduct face-to-face interactions to promote real-time discussions.
• Foster knowledge sharing for continuous learning opportunities.

Conflict resolution plays a crucial role in maintaining harmony within tech teams during software development projects by identifying conflicts early on and addressing them promptly before they escalate further. Open discussions allow for understanding different perspectives, leading to effective solutions through negotiation or mediation techniques.

Tools and Technologies

Project management software.

Project management software plays a crucial role in software development project management by providing tools like Jira, Trello, and Asana. These platforms help teams track tasks, timelines, and resources efficiently. They centralize project-related information, enabling collaboration, documentation, and reporting in one place. For example, Jira allows teams to create user stories for features they are developing.

Development Tools

In software development , utilizing programming languages such as Python or Java is essential. Frameworks like React or Angular streamline the development process. Integrated development environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code aid in coding and debugging applications effectively. Version control systems such as Git ensure that code changes are tracked systematically to manage collaborative projects successfully.

Collaboration Platforms

Collaboration platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace enhance team communication during software development projects. These tools facilitate real-time messaging among team members regardless of their locations. File sharing capabilities enable seamless collaboration on project documents while integrating with other tools streamlines workflows further by reducing manual processes within the team.

Testing Tools

Testing is a critical aspect of software development , ensuring that applications function correctly before deployment. Automated testing tools like Selenium or JUnit assist in conducting functional tests efficiently to validate software behavior under various scenarios. Performance testing tools such as Apache JMeter or LoadRunner evaluate system performance metrics to identify bottlenecks proactively before launch date approaches.

Quality Assurance Strategies

Testing types.

Software development project management involves various testing types . Unit testing verifies individual components, integration testing ensures proper functioning of integrated parts, and system testing validates the entire software system. For instance, when a developer checks if a single function in the code works correctly, it’s unit testing.

Continuous Integration is crucial in quality assurance strategies . It merges code changes frequently, automates build processes on each commit, and detects integration issues early to enhance overall software quality. An example is running automated tests every time new code is added to ensure that all parts work together smoothly.

Code Review Practices

Code review practices are essential for maintaining high-quality software products. Developers conduct reviews to ensure coding standards are met and identify bugs or security vulnerabilities through peer evaluation. By providing constructive feedback during these sessions, developers can improve their skills while ensuring better quality control.

Deployment strategies play a vital role in software development project management by determining how new features or updates reach end-users efficiently. Choosing between continuous deployment or staged rollout methods impacts how quickly users receive improvements. Automation tools like Jenkins or Docker streamline deployment processes for smoother transitions from development to production environments.

Risk Management

Identifying risks.

Identifying risks in software development project management involves conducting assessments to pinpoint potential threats. These can be internal or external factors that might affect the project’s success. By documenting these risks and their possible impacts on objectives, teams can better prepare for challenges ahead.

For instance, a common risk could be changes in client requirements mid-project, impacting timelines and resources. By recognizing this early on, the team can adjust plans accordingly to mitigate its effects.

Mitigation Plans

Developing mitigation plans is crucial in software development project management to proactively address identified risks. Assigning responsibilities for mitigating actions ensures accountability within the team. Regular monitoring and reviewing of these strategies help assess their effectiveness over time.

An example of a mitigation plan could involve having backup resources ready in case key team members are unexpectedly unavailable during critical project phases.

Monitoring Risks

In software development project management , monitoring identified risks throughout the project lifecycle is vital. Assessing both likelihood and impact helps prioritize risk responses effectively. Updating risk registers or logs regularly ensures all stakeholders are informed about current risk statuses.

For instance, if there’s a high chance of delays due to third-party dependencies, constant monitoring allows for swift action before it escalates.

Contingency Planning

Contingency planning plays a significant role in managing unforeseen events or risks during software projects. Developing alternative approaches or identifying additional resources helps minimize disruptions efficiently. Documented contingency plans should be easily accessible to relevant stakeholders for quick reference when needed.

As an illustration, creating backup communication channels would serve as a contingency plan if primary tools experience technical issues.

SEO in Project Management

Importance of seo.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is crucial in software development project management . It enhances website visibility and drives organic traffic. Effective SEO boosts brand awareness and improves online presence significantly. By implementing sound SEO practices, websites can achieve higher search rankings and enhance user experience.

Incorporating SEO strategies involves utilizing keyword research to optimize website content effectively. Optimizing meta tags, URLs, headings, and building high-quality backlinks are vital for enhancing search engine visibility. Improving website loading speed plays a critical role in boosting overall SEO performance.

Integrating SEO Strategies

To maximize the benefits of SEO tools , software development project managers can utilize platforms like Google Analytics or SEMrush for comprehensive keyword analysis and performance tracking. Implementing on-page optimization techniques such as title tag optimization or image alt text optimization further enhances the effectiveness of SEO efforts. Conducting competitor analysis allows project managers to identify areas for improvement within their strategy.

Utilizing various metrics like organic traffic volume, bounce rate percentage, and conversion rates helps measure the success of implemented SEO strategies accurately. Analyzing keyword rankings and monitoring visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of current tactics employed by the project team. Tracking backlink profiles along with social media engagement also contributes to evaluating overall performance accurately.

Case Studies and Examples

Successful projects.

Software development project management involves delivering projects within budget, schedule, and scope constraints. Meeting customer expectations is crucial for achieving desired outcomes. Successful projects demonstrate high-quality deliverables with minimal defects or issues. For instance, a software company completed a project on time, within the set budget, meeting all client requirements.

Lessons Learned

After completing a project, conducting post-project reviews helps identify lessons learned and areas for improvement. Documenting successes, challenges, and best practices is essential for future reference. Sharing these lessons with the team and stakeholders ensures continuous growth. An example of this could be a tech startup documenting feedback from each project to enhance future endeavors.

Best Practices

Adhering to industry best practices in software development project management is key to success. Regularly updating skills through professional development opportunities keeps teams competitive. Embracing continuous improvement fosters innovation within the organization. Following these practices can lead to efficient completion of projects while maintaining quality standards.

Common Pitfalls

Poor communication often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts among team members or stakeholders during software development projects. Inadequate planning may result in scope creep where additional features are added outside the original project scope. Insufficient resource allocation or setting unrealistic timelines can hinder progress and affect overall project success.

The comprehensive exploration of software development project management has shed light on crucial aspects such as planning, agile methodologies, team dynamics , tools, quality assurance, risk management, and SEO strategies. By delving into case studies and examples, a holistic view of effective project management practices has been presented. Emphasizing the significance of integrating these elements seamlessly to ensure successful project outcomes is paramount. Understanding the nuances of each facet discussed is vital for professionals in the field to navigate complex projects successfully.

For those aspiring to excel in software development project management, applying these insights diligently can pave the way for enhanced project efficiency and client satisfaction. By incorporating the best practices outlined in this article, individuals can elevate their project management skills and drive impactful results in the dynamic landscape of software development.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the importance of understanding project management in software development.

Understanding project management in software development is crucial as it helps in defining goals, creating a roadmap, allocating resources efficiently, and ensuring timely delivery of projects within budget constraints.

How does Agile Methodology benefit software development projects?

Agile Methodology enhances software development projects by promoting iterative development, collaboration between cross-functional teams, adapting to changes quickly, and delivering high-quality products that meet customer requirements effectively.

Why are team dynamics significant in software development project management?

Team dynamics play a vital role in the success of software development projects by fostering effective communication among team members, promoting collaboration and innovation, resolving conflicts promptly, and ensuring smooth workflow throughout the project lifecycle.

Which tools and technologies are commonly used for managing software development projects?

Commonly used tools and technologies for managing software development projects include project management platforms like Jira or Trello for task tracking, version control systems like Git for code management, communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams for seamless collaboration among team members.

How do quality assurance strategies contribute to successful software development projects?

Quality assurance strategies ensure the delivery of high-quality products by implementing testing processes such as unit testing, integration testing, regression testing. This helps identify defects early on during the development phase leading to improved product quality and customer satisfaction.

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• Product management
• Development
• Agile development
• What is agile project management?

An introductory guide to agile project management

Last updated: March 2024

Agile is rooted in software development . But anyone can adopt this way of working ( product management and marketing teams often do). Project managers who take an agile approach still handle typical project management activities — such as defining project objectives, schedules, and scope; managing resources and risk; and cross-functional communication. It is how you approach these tasks that makes things "agile."

For example, instead of planning an entire project upfront from start to finish, agile projects are often broken down into sprints where work is prioritized in increments. This allows for quick iterations and constant feedback.

Agile project management involves applying agile principles to project management work. This approach emphasizes continuous improvement, flexibility through iteration, and regular incorporation of stakeholder feedback . In project management, these stakeholders are typically internal customers — including product managers, developers, program managers, and leadership. The goal is to effectively manage resources and timing throughout the project lifecycle, all while improving collaboration and the ability to respond quickly to change.

Deliver agile projects on schedule with Aha! software — try it free .

Plan and track project completion with an in-depth dashboard in Aha! software .

Whether you are looking to bring more agile practices into your role as a project manager or are part of another function that works closely with an agile project management team, this guide can help you learn the fundamentals. Use the following links to jump ahead to a specific section:

Where does agile project management come from?

Agile vs. waterfall project management, benefits of agile project management, examples of agile project management, how do agile project managers work with product managers, agile project management tools, agile project management templates.

The history of agile can be traced back to the 1940s. But agile development as we know it today got its beginnings in the early 2000s when a group of software engineers met to define a more flexible and iterative way of working. They outlined 12 core principles in the Agile Manifesto — which became the basis for many different agile methodologies.

• What is agile software development?

Common agile methodologies

Agile appealed to many engineering teams that sought a less rigid, traditional approach to development. As its popularity grew, people began looking for ways to apply these principles to other disciplines. And with its similar history of fixed linear workflows, project management presented a prime opportunity for " going agile ."

Agile project management emerged as an alternative to the traditional waterfall approach . In general, waterfall projects stick to a pre-planned schedule. Work items cannot progress to the next phase until the prior one is complete.

Depending on the nature of a project, waterfall methodology can still be beneficial. This is particularly true for projects involving repeatable processes with fewer stakeholders, or within highly regulated industries (such as government and healthcare) that demand stringent technical documentation and adherence to standards.

Agile provides a radically different project management style — giving you the ability to adapt plans after a project is underway. Because it encourages flexibility, agile is often preferred by software companies that have to respond quickly to rapidly changing markets, customer preferences, and advancements in technology .

Both methods have their benefits. That is why many organizations use both in different scenarios or a blend of the two (sometimes referred to as "wagile.") Taking a hybrid approach is one way to be more agile while retaining some predictability.

You can decide when to lean more agile or waterfall in your approach. Here is a brief overview of how the two types of project management compare:

• Agile vs. waterfall
• What is waterfall product management?

Adopting an agile approach certainly takes a shift in mindset. But there are good reasons so many project managers make this shift:

Flexibility: Adaptability is prioritized over rigid plans, allowing adjustments to align with changing business needs and market trends.

Reduced risk: Breaking projects into smaller parts and frequent testing minimizes the impact of roadblocks or dependencies , keeping projects on track.

Transparency: Regular meetings (such as daily standups and sprint reviews ) promote open communication, building team alignment on progress and goals.

Productivity: Prioritizing the most impactful projects and frequent deliverables enables agile teams to navigate large efforts more efficiently.

Stakeholder alignment: Agile project management actively involves stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle — inviting and incorporating feedback along the way.

Continuous improvement: Retrospectives help teams learn from past projects and commit to making incremental positive changes.

Agile project management sounds great in theory. And in practice, it often is. But what does this actually look like?

In agile project management, work progresses through similar phases that are established in waterfall project management — though the phases might be more fluid (perhaps ironically). Let's look at some examples of agile project management through that lens:

In the image below, you can see an example of a strategic project roadmap created in Aha! Roadmaps . As an agile project manager, you might build a view like this during the planning phase to help see your project progress through launch and all the way to closure.

Build a project roadmap to visualize your plans in Aha! Roadmaps .

Ultimately, the cross-functional teams you work with depend on you to deliver the project on schedule and within budget. Applying analytical yet flexible thinking to everything you do is essential. Brian de Haaff Aha! co-founder and CEO

Project and product management are two of the most commonly confused roles in product development. This is exacerbated by the fact that the two functions work closely together , and sometimes overlap — in some organizations, product managers cover both areas of responsibility. But in larger organizations, project management can be a separate role within a core product development team (or adjacent team).

This confusion is prevalent whether you practice agile project management or not. So let's walk through some high-level distinctions. Product managers focus on the "why" and "what" of product development . They own the product strategy, prioritize ideas and features, and lead go-to-market launches . A project manager's focus is on the "how" and "when" of different efforts. They oversee the financial details, help alleviate problems and roadblocks, and maintain status updates for stakeholders. (Note that developers also look at the "how", but on a technical level).

Both functions participate in cross-functional meetings and communicate with leadership. In an agile environment, both must also commit to being responsive to change and open to improvement — agile works best when everyone buys into it.

Product manager vs. project manager

Why strategic thinking is so hard for project managers

Why good product managers need to be great project managers

You can find plenty of dedicated tools for project management on the market. The best ones should help you track project progress from initiation to closing, monitor resource allocation, and easily share reports and documentation with stakeholders.

In terms of specific functionality, we suggest you look for the following in your agile project management software:

Goal and initiative tracking

Customizable statuses , workflows, and templates

Gantt-style , calendar, and project roadmap views

Resource and capacity management

Integrations with agile development tools (e.g., Aha! Develop , Jira )

Workflow boards for sprint planning

Shareable reports and presentations

Many project managers use Aha! Roadmaps to plan and deliver successful project outcomes. (No surprise, as it includes all of the functionality listed above.) Our roadmapping software was originally developed for product managers. But it also offers the same benefits of visibility, efficiency, and collaboration for project and program managers . Plus, using the same software as your product team reduces the need for back-and-forth between separate tools — helping you stay close to work-in-progress.

To help you get started quickly, we have a number of templates for project management available in Aha! software. Check out the top ones below:

Stakeholder map template

Identify key stakeholders for any project — including their impact and level of influence on its outcome — with a stakeholder map template . It can help you manage relationships throughout the agile project management lifecycle.

Start using this template now

Change log template

Agile project management encourages a flexible response to change. But it is still important to pause and consider the reasoning behind any changes and have a record of them — so information does not get lost as things evolve. Try a simple change log template to keep track of what was updated and why.

Sprint planning template

When you break down major projects into manageable buckets of work, add them to a sprint planning template . A template like this makes it quick to organize upcoming work items in a visual format. Simply adjust the terminology for agile project management (e.g., change "User stories" to "Deliverables"), and you will be ready to go.

Browse more templates for project managers — including a decision log template and sprint retrospective template — all available in Aha! software.

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The Four Phases of Project Management

• HBR Editors

Planning, build-up, implementation, and closeout.

Whether you’re in charge of developing a website, designing a car, moving a department to a new facility, updating an information system, or just about any other project (large or small), you’ll go through the same four phases of project management: planning, build-up, implementation, and closeout. Even though the phases have distinct qualities, they overlap.

• This story is by the staff at Harvard Business Review.

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Blog Marketing What is a Project Management Plan and How to Create One

What is a Project Management Plan and How to Create One

Written by: Midori Nediger Dec 11, 2023

Have you ever been part of a project that didn’t go as planned?

It doesn’t feel good.

Wasted time, wasted resources. It’s pretty frustrating for everyone involved.

That’s why it’s so important to create a comprehensive project management plan   before your project gets off the ground.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to create and design a successful project management plan.

We’ll also showcase easy-to-customize project plan templates you can create today with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. Let’s get started!

  Click to jump ahead:

What is a project management plan?

5 things you need to know before creating a project management plan, what should a project management plan include, how do you write a project plan, project plan best practices, project management plan templates and examples, common mistakes to avoid when creating a project management plan.

A project management plan is a formal document that defines how a project is going to be carried out by outlining the scope, goals, budget, timeline and deliverables of a project. Its crucial role lies in ensuring the project stays on course.

You write a project plan  during the project planning stage of the  project life cycle , and it must be approved by stakeholders before a project can move on the execution stage.

If some of these terms are new to you, you can get up to speed with this post on project management terms . 

This means your project plan must be engaging, organized, and thorough enough to gain the support of your stakeholders.

Further Reading : New to project management? Read our blog post on the 4 stages of the project life cycle .

The importance of a project management plan

A well-developed project management plan sets the foundation for a successful project by providing a roadmap that guides the project team toward successful project completion. A good project management plan can ensure that:

• Project objectives and goals are clearly defined and understood
• Project scope is effectively managed
• Resources are allocated efficiently to maximize productivity and minimize waste
• Risks are identified, assessed and mitigated
• Project tasks and activities are well-organized and executed in a timely manner.
• Communication among team members , stakeholders and project sponsors is effective and transparent
• Changes to the project are properly evaluated, approved and implemented
• Lessons learned and best practices are documented for future reference and improvement
• Stakeholders are engaged and satisfied with the project outcomes
• The project is delivered within the specified timeline, budget and quality standards

Before diving into creating a project management plan, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the project objectives and the expectations of stakeholders involved.

Without a firm grasp of these fundamental elements, your project may face significant challenges or fail to deliver the desired outcomes.

Here are key points to consider when creating a project management plan:

• Project Objectives: Clearly understand the project objectives and what you want to achieve. Identify the desired outcomes, deliverables and the purpose of the project.
• Scope of the Project: Determine the boundaries and extent of the project. Define what is included and excluded to ensure clarity and prevent scope creep .
• Stakeholders: Identify all stakeholders who will be impacted by or have an interest in the project. Understand their needs, expectations and level of involvement.
• Resources: Assess the resources required to execute the project successfully. This includes human resources, budget, equipment and materials. Determine their availability and allocation.
• Risks and Constraints: Identify potential risks, uncertainties and constraints that may affect the project. Understand the challenges, limitations and potential obstacles that need to be addressed.

Now that you have these key areas identified, let’s get started with creating your project plan.

Before you start assembling your own plan, you should be familiar with the main components of a typical project plan .

A project management plan should include the following sections:

• Executive summary: A short description of the contents of the report
• Project scope & deliverables: An outline of the boundaries of the project, and a description of how the project will be broken down into measurable deliverables
• Project schedule: A high-level view of project tasks and milestones ( Gantt charts are handy for this)
• Project resources: The budget, personnel, and other resources required to meet project goals
• Risk and issue management plan: A list of factors that could derail the project and a plan for how issues will be identified, addressed, and controlled
• Communication management plan: A plan for how team and stakeholder communication will be handled over the course of the project
• Cost and quality management plan: This section encompasses the project’s budget, cost estimation,and cost control mechanisms. It also includes quality assurance and control measures as well as any testing or verification activities to be performed.

Basically, a project plan should tell stakeholders what needs to get done, how it will get done, and when it will get done.

That said, one size doesn’t fit all. Every project management plan must be tailored to the specific industry and circumstances of the project. You can use a project management app for smoother project planning.

For example, this marketing plan looks client facing. It is tailored to sell the client on the agency:

Whereas this commercial development plan focuses on specific objectives and a detailed timeline:

With those basics out of the way, let’s get into how to write a project management plan that’s as engaging as it is professional.

Further Reading : If you’re looking to create a proposal, read our in-depth business proposal guide. Then try our job proposal templates or business proposal templates .

To write a successful project plan, follow these 5 steps below to create an effective project plan that serves as a valuable tool for project management:

1. Highlight the key elements of your project plan in an executive summary  

An executive summary is a brief description of the key contents of a project plan .

I t’s usually the first thing stakeholders will read, and it should act like a Cliff’s-notes version of the whole plan.

It might touch on a project’s value proposition, goals, deliverables, and important milestones, but it has to be concise (it is a summary, after all). First, make sure you develop a proof of concept .

In this example, an executive summary can be broken into columns to contrast the existing problem with the project solution:

The two-column format with clear headers helps break up the information, making it extremely easy to read at a glance.

Here’s another example of a project management plan executive summary. This one visually highlights key takeaways with big fonts and helpful icons:

In this case, the highlighted facts and figures are particularly easy to scan (which is sure to make your stakeholders happy).

But your executive summary won’t always be so simple.

For larger projects, your executive summary will be longer and more detailed.

This project management plan template has a text-heavy executive summary, though the bold headers and different background colors keep it from looking overwhelming:

It’s also a good idea to divide it up into sections, with a dedicated header for each section:

Regardless of how you organize your executive summary, it should give your stakeholders a preview of what’s to come in the rest of the project management plan.

2. Plot your project schedule visually with a Gantt chart

A carefully planned project schedule is key to the success of any project. Without one, your project will likely crumble into a mess of missed deadlines, poor team management, and scope creep.

Luckily, project planning tools like Gantt charts and project timelines make creating your project schedule easy. You can visually plot each project task, add major milestones, then look for any dependencies or conflicts that you haven’t accounted for.

For example, this Gantt chart template outlines high-level project activities over the course of an entire quarter, with tasks color-coded by team:

A high-level roadmap like the one above is probably sufficient for your project management plan. Every team will be able to refer back to this timeline throughout the project to make sure they’re on track.

But before project kickoff, you’ll need to dig in and break down project responsibilities by individual team member, like in this Gantt chart example:

In the later execution and monitoring phases of the project, you’ll thank yourself for creating a detailed visual roadmap that you can track and adjust as things change.

You can also use a project management tool to keep your team organized.

Further Reading:   Our post featuring  Gantt chart examples  and more tips on how to use them for project management.

3. Clarify the structure of your project team with a team org chart

One of the hardest aspects of project planning is assembling a team and aligning them to the project vision.

And aligning your team is all about communication–communicating the project goals, communicating stakeholder requests, communicating the rationale behind big decisions…the list goes on.

This is where good project documentation is crucial! You need to create documents that your team and your stakeholders can access when they have questions or need guidance.

One easy thing to document visually is the structure of your team, with an organizational chart like this one:

In an organizational chart you should include some basic information like team hierarchy and team member contact information. That way your stakeholders have all of the information they need at their fingertips.

But in addition to that, you can indicate the high-level responsibilities of each team member and the channels of communication within the team (so your team knows exactly what they’re accountable for).

Here’s another simple organizational structure template that you can use as a starting point:

Create an organizational chart with our organizational chart maker .

4. Organize project risk factors in a risk breakdown structure

A big part of project planning is identifying the factors that are likely to derail your project, and coming up with plans and process to deal with those factors. This is generally referred to as risk management .

The first step in coming up with a risk management plan is to list all of the factors at play, which is where a risk breakdown structure comes in handy. A risk breakdown structure is a hierarchical representation of project risks, organized by category.

This risk breakdown structure template, for example, shows project risk broken down into technical risk, management risk, and external risk:

Once you’ve constructed your risk breakdown structure, you’ll be ready to do a deep dive into each risk (to assess and plan for any triggers and outcomes).

Streamline your workflow with business process management software .

5. Plan ahead: create project status reports to communicate progress to stakeholders

As I mentioned earlier, communication is fundamental in any project.

But even so, something that’s often overlooked by project managers is a communication management plan–a plan for how the project team is going to communicate with project stakeholders . Too often, project communication defaults to ad-hoc emails or last-minute meetings.

You can avoid this by planning ahead. Start with a project kickoff meeting and include a project status report template as part of your communication plan.

Here’s an example of a simple project status report that you might send to stakeholders on a weekly basis:

This type of report is invaluable for communicating updates on project progress. It shows what you’ve accomplished in a clear, consistent format, which can help flag issues before they arise, build trust with your stakeholders , and makes it easy to reflect on project performance once you’ve reached your goals.

You might also want to include a broader status report for bigger updates on a monthly or quarterly basis, like this one:

The above template allows you to inform stakeholders of more major updates like new budget requirements, revised completion dates, and project performance ratings.

You can even include visualization of up-to-date project milestones, like this example below:

Want more tips on creating visuals to enhance your communications? Read our visual communication guide for businesses . 

Before you dive in, remember: a clear and adaptable plan is crucial for project success. Here are some best practices to keep your project plan on track:

• Use headers, columns and highlights to make your executive summary easy to read
• Plot your project schedule with a Gantt chart (with tasks color-coded by department or team member)
• Use visuals like organizational charts and risk breakdown structures to communicate across your team and with stakeholders
• Pick a flexible template that you can update to align with stakeholder requests

A project management plan is probably the most important deliverable your stakeholders will receive from you (besides the project itself).

It holds all of the information that stakeholders will use to determine whether your project moves forward or gets kicked to the curb.

That’s why it’s a good idea to start with a project management plan template. Using a template can help you organize your information logically and ensure it’s engaging enough to hold your stakeholders’ attention.

Construction project management plan template

Time is money, especially with construction projects. Having a construction plan template brings order to the chaos.

Instead of staring at a messy pile of construction stuff, you’ve got a plan that breaks everything down into bite-sized pieces.

And let’s not forget the paperwork. Construction projects have rules and regulations to follow. Your project plan helps you stay on the right side of the law with all the necessary documentation and compliance measures.

Start with a meticulous project overview, like in the second page of this template:

Though you may think this project will be similar to others you’ve done in the past, it’s important to nail the details.

This will also help you understand the scope of work so you can estimate costs properly and arrive at a quote that’s neither too high or low. Ontario Construction News has great advice on this process.

Simple project management plan template

This simple project management plan template that clearly lays out all of the information your stakeholders will need:

Simple project management communication plan template

A key part of project management is making sure everyone’s in the loop. A project communication plan ensures everyone knows how, where, who and when the team will communicate during the course of the project. Also construction scheduling is a critical aspect of the project management plan as it helps to ensure that all necessary tasks are completed within the allocated time frame and budget.

The key is to figure out what kind of communications is valuable to stakeholders and what is simply overwhelming and won’t lead to better decisions.

This template clearly outlines all of these factors to help manage expectations and eliminate confusion about what will get communicated and when:

Commercial development project plan template

The below project management plan template is simple and minimal, but still uses a unique layout and simple visuals to create an easy-to-read, scannable project overview.

This template is perfect for building or construction management , or any technical projects:

When picking a project plan template, look for one that’s flexible enough to accommodate any changes your stakeholders might request before they’ll approve the project. You never know what might change in the early planning stages of the project! You can also use project management tools to help you with your planning !

Creating a solid project management plan is crucial for setting your project up for success. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Lack of clear goals: Don’t just have a vague idea of what you want to achieve. Define clear, SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) for your project. That way, everyone will be on the same page and it’ll be easier to measure progress effectively.
• Unrealistic timelines: Be optimistic, but also realistic. Don’t underestimate the time required for tasks. Factor in potential delays and buffer time when creating your project schedule.
• Scope creep: New requirements mid-project can affect deadlines and budgets. Plan the project clearly upfront, and take into consideration any changes that might come up.
• Poor communication: Communication is key throughout the project lifecycle. Regularly update stakeholders, team members and clients on progress, roadblocks and changes.
• Ignoring risks: Things don’t always go according to plan. Identify potential risks upfront and have a mitigation strategy in place for each one.
• Not involving stakeholders: Get key stakeholders involved early on. This helps manage everyone’s expectations and that you have the buy-in you need for success.
• Neglecting resource constraints: Don’t overload your team or underestimate the resources needed. Carefully consider the skills, time and budget available when planning your project.
• Micromanaging: Trust your team! Delegate tasks effectively and give them the autonomy they need to do their jobs.
• Failing to document: Keep good records. Document project decisions, plans and communication. This helps maintain transparency and ensures everyone has access to the latest information.
• Not adapting to change: Be prepared to adapt your plan as needed. Projects are rarely static, so be flexible and willing to adjust your approach based on new information or developments.

So, that’s the scoop on project management plans! I hope this piece will help you to avoid confusion, keep expectations in check and be ready to tackle any bumps for your upcoming projects.

If you ever need a revision, just follow the steps we talked about, use those best practices and you’ll have a plan that sets your project up for a win. Just remember, even the best plans need some tweaking sometimes. Be flexible and adjust as needed and you’re good to go!

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How to ace project development

Project management without project development is like cooking without a recipe.

If you know you want to make pasta and put the basic ingredients together in a timely fashion, you’ve got a high chance of coming up with something good.

But if you want a specific or more complicated dish, it helps to know exactly what you’re doing before you start.

Project management  gets things done. Project development determines what you’re trying to do.

If you’re trying to accomplish something that nobody’s ever done before, you have to pay attention to project development, not just management.

In this article, we’ll tell you exactly how to give project development the attention it deserves.

What is project development?

Project development is the practice of aligning resources and ideas so a project can reach its goals.

The term can be a little confusing since “development” is also often named as the second of the 5 stages of project management.

The development stage is when the project transforms from an idea into a full project plan. During that version of project development, the team defines the project’s scope, creates timelines, and sets a preliminary budget.

In this article, though, we’ll be examining a broader application of the term “project development.” Like project management, this kind of project development covers the entire project life cycle.

We’ve called the second project management stage “planning” in this article to minimize confusion.

The difference between project management and project development isn’t intuitive at first, but it makes sense the more you think about it.

“Resources” is a catch-all term for literally anything the project might need — from software to people, money, and a defined plan.

The more the team has to scrounge resources while the project is in motion, the less attention they can devote to the project itself.

Project developers also answer questions like who will work on the team, what they’ll need, and how the project can reach the place it sets out for .

Picture a board game. If project management is playing the game, project development is setting the pieces up ahead of time.

Project developers work to set the project up for success, while project managers guide it through the plan created by the developers. The project manager is a captain; the project developer is a shipbuilder and provisioner.

We could come up with metaphors all day, but we’re really just trying to get across one specific point: project development is a separate process from project management, with its own vital role to play.

But what does project development look like on the ground? And how can you ensure that you don’t set your project up to fail by skipping this crucial phase?

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What are the 5 steps of project development?

Project development follows the 5 stages of any project: initiation, planning, execution, control, and closing.

1. Initiation

By the time a project is ready for project development, it usually has a few key things already in place.

First, there’s the business case. This exhaustively researched document proves that the project has the potential to turn a profit for the company.

There should also be user requirements. Members of your staff meet with customers from your proposed target market , as well as any stakeholders within your organization, and find out exactly what they would need to call this project a success.

From the business case and requirements, your team should develop a project plan . That’s a document that outlines the conditions for success, a timeline for getting there, a plan for communicating about the project, and what resources it requires.

The project plan is what really kicks off the project development process. To initiate project development, you’ll need to closely read the project plan and determine exactly what it’s asking.

Is its forecast about required resources accurate? If not, where are there misconceptions? If so, how easy or difficult will it be to get those resources in place?

You should also break down the workflows implied by the project timeline . Is there a clear owner for every step of the project? Do you know who’s going to do all this stuff?

This first phase becomes a lot easier if you draft your project plan as a monday.com workdoc .

monday.com workdocs are designed for collaboration. Beyond just text and comments, you can add linked elements into the document, the perfect feature for examining where resources are coming from.

For example, if you’re trying to figure out how a project’s costs will impact the overall budget, you can directly connect your master budget dashboard to the project plan.

Once you know exactly what the project plan demands if it’s going to succeed, you’re ready for the next phase: making a plan of your own.

2. Planning

In this stage, come up with a plan that allocates all necessary resources to the project.

This is a foundational step for the rest of the project development process. Remember, it’s all about ensuring the project team has everything they need to succeed.

It’s almost impossible to get too detailed at this stage. You’re trying to eliminate all possible questions about how the project plan will shake out.

Naturally, there’ll be obstacles you can’t predict. It’s impossible to create a perfect backup plan. But if something unexpected happens, don’t let it be for lack of trying.

It’s a tall order, but having the right software can help. Enter the monday.com workload and resource management  app.

This app was developed by a third party using our low code apps framework . It’s designed to cover team members but can be customized for any type of limited resource.

The app gives you a complete view of how much pressure is currently on each resource and how much more there is to go around.

To create a project development plan at the ideal level of detail, your best bet is to automate a constant flow of information using apps like this one.

3. Execution

When the project is ready to begin, project management moves into a leading role. If there are any staff members focusing mainly on project development, they’ll move into a monitoring position.

The project development plan should make sure that the project has all the resources it needs throughout its lifecycle, not just right at the start.

As we said, though, you can’t forecast everything that might go wrong. If you could, we wouldn’t call it “the unexpected.”

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. Like before, the secret ingredient is information.

The sooner the project development staff becomes aware that something isn’t going according to plan, the sooner they can push it back onto the right path — or adapt to new outside circumstances.

The monday.com single project  template is designed to help with that.

It features linked timelines, status data tables, and other views to help you make sense of the project from every angle. If any part of the project isn’t set up for success, you’ll be able to see right away.

Just like the overall project plan, the project development plan should be a living thing. For example, you might see delays because a resource you were counting on needed to be diverted to another team.

That’s why project development doesn’t end when the project starts. It’s a constant, ongoing process.

The control phase of project development is also called the quality assurance phase. It’s a fitting name — you’re essentially conducting a code review for your project development plan.

Control can happen after the project ships or at regular intervals in the timeline. It’s a chance to look back on what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons you can carry into the future.

As with all 5 steps, your success here will be determined by how much detail you’re able to go into. You’re going to ask questions that get to the heart of how you perform as a team.

These can be questions like:

• Were there any areas where resources went to waste?
• If the project came in behind schedule, what factors led to the delay?
• If the project went over budget, why weren’t your initial projections accurate?
• How accurate was your risk forecasting? When risks appeared, how did you deal with them?

With a little customization, the monday.com analytics and reports  app can help you answer any and all of those questions.

Link it to your project plan dashboard at the start of the timeline, and you’ll be able to see at a glance which milestones caused you the most headache.

You’ll also be able to pick out any positive or negative trends, look for areas where you can trim waste, or see how unexpected risks impacted the bottom line.

Once you’ve gathered insights from the project, there’s one more thing to do. This step usually happens parallel to the customer-facing product launch.

Collect the insights into a report that you can share with every stakeholder. Your goal is to make it part of the institutional knowledge of your organization.

Project development is like a wheel. Sure, it’s always going in a circle — the same 5 steps repeat for every project — but it’s also always moving forward. Each project development cycle should position you closer to success in the future.

And yes, monday.com has an app for that.

Appgami Retrospectives , developed by a third party through our app framework , is a tool for creating shareable retrospectives. It’s ideal for teams working remotely during the closing phase.

You can build your retrospective from a template or start from scratch. When you’re finished, it’s easy to share with your entire staff.

Other features help with timeboxing and group collaboration, ensuring that the final document will be a productive representation of everyone’s viewpoint.

Resources like these retrospectives help you avoid ever making the same mistake twice.

What are some obstacles in project development?

One of the main goals of project development is intercepting problems before they arise.

As such, project development staff members often serve as a project’s “commandos.” They’re deployed to the front line, where they’ll be the first to encounter any problems.

Here are just a few of the obstacles they might run into.

• Scope creep: when a project’s scope isn’t properly defined, it can gradually grow so large that success becomes impossible. Project development can fight scope creep by clearly defining a scope that matches predicted resource availability.
• Resource restrictions: at times, one or more resources may become unexpectedly limited, either because of external conditions or movements elsewhere in the company. Your project development plan should account for potential availability problems.
• Poor communication: no amount of planning will save you from bad communication. People can’t follow your plans if they don’t know what they are. Your project development plan has to involve schema for how stakeholders will communicate.
• Unrealistic timelines: time is a resource. Like any resource, the project development plan should keep it as available as possible. Learn to balance meeting your goals with avoiding crunches that might harm your employees or product.
• Risk management failures: forecasting and analyzing risks is only half the battle. You also need a plan to mitigate each risk you might face. Will you absorb the risk, transfer it to another entity, or find a way to avoid it?

You might have noticed by now that project development can run into obstacles in a lot of different areas. It’s not realistic to expect a single app to cover them all.

But monday.com still offers you the tools to track every possible project development issue — not in one app, but in a whole Work OS .

“Work OS” means that you knit several dashboards together into a complete workflow that covers all your bases.

You might be using one database for your timeline, another for your budget, and a third for risk management. monday.com lets you integrate them all, so changes in one automatically update relevant fields in the others.

Some project development leaders even choose to build a single super-dashboard that reports on all the other ones. You can do it any way that works for you and your team.

What are some project development examples?

Project development, as distinct from project management, is a concept that takes some getting used to. To help clarify, we wanted to share some stories  of what it looks like when it works.

Playtech , an online gaming supplier based in Estonia, fell behind as it tried to tackle a high volume of client requests. The team realized that their missing piece was project development. They’d get bogged down in the middle of the project cycle when key resources didn’t materialize.

Using monday.com, they established preliminary project development as a central part of their process. They start by closely defining each project’s scope. Then they use that scope to determine what resources they’ll require before work begins.

You can see a partially redacted sample of their Work OS below.

Project development isn’t just for technical teams.

The marketing team at Genpact , a professional services firm that caters to the Global Fortune 500, found their productivity starting to drop.

They identified the problem — there was no central source of truth for how to run their campaigns. Running over 20 simultaneous projects with intersecting teams and goals was leading to waste.

Genpact found monday.com ideal for its global team. They used it to build efficient timelines that kept their campaigns from coming into conflict.

You can see some of their work below.

Chart your success with project development

Near the beginning of this article, we illustrated the difference between project management and project development with a metaphor about captains and shipbuilders.

That reminds us of an old saying: “if you don’t have a destination, there’s no such thing as a favorable wind.”

Project development helps you chart a course for success. Once you know where you’re going, you can get there in style.

monday.com makes project development easy, fun, and rewarding. Schedule a demo today .

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• Project management methodologies: 12 po ...

Project management methodologies: 12 popular frameworks

Project management is an ever-evolving field that requires a number of approaches to be successful. Learning the most popular project management methodologies can help you become an industry expert. 

In order to be the best possible project manager , learn about each of these 12 frameworks to find the one that best fits your team’s needs. 

12 project management frameworks

What it is: The Agile project management methodology is one of the most common project management processes. But the reality is that Agile isn’t technically a methodology. Instead, it’s best defined as a project management principle. 

The basis of an Agile approach is:

Collaborative

Fast and effective

Iterative and data-backed

Values individuals over processes

When it comes to putting the Agile manifesto in place, teams often choose specific methodologies to use alongside Agile. These could include Scrum, Kanban, extreme programming, crystal, or even Scrumban . That's because connecting Agile methodology with a more detailed approach produces a well-rounded project management philosophy and a tangible plan for delivering great work. 

Who should use it: The Agile framework can be used for just about any team. This is because the principle behind it is rather universal. The real trick is deciding which methodology to use with it.

2. Waterfall

What it is: The waterfall model is also a very popular framework. But unlike Agile, waterfall is an actual methodology that is rather straightforward. The waterfall methodology , also known as software development life cycle (SDLC), is a linear process in which work cascades down (similar to a waterfall) and is organized in sequential order. 

To achieve this approach, each work task is connected by a dependency. This means each task must be completed before the next task can be started. Not only does this ensure that work stays on track, but it also fosters clear communication throughout the process. 

While viewed as a traditional approach by some modern organizations, this method is good for creating a predictable and thoroughly planned-out project plan . 

Who should use it: Since the waterfall project management methodology is so detailed, it’s great for working on large projects with multiple different stakeholders. This is because there are clear steps throughout the project and dependencies that help track the work needed to reach goals. 

What it is: The Scrum methodology involves short “sprints” that are used to create a project cycle. These cycles span one to two weeks at a time and are organized with teams of 10 or less. This is different from the waterfall approach where individual tasks are broken down into dependencies.

Scum is unique for a variety of reasons, one being the use of a Scrum master. Or, in other words, a project manager that leads daily Scrum meetings, demos, sprints, and sprint retrospectives after each sprint is completed. These meetings aim to connect project stakeholders and ensure tasks are completed on time. 

While Scrum is technically a project management methodology in its own right, it’s most commonly associated with an Agile framework. This is because they share similar principles, such as collaboration and valuing individuals over processes. 

Who should use it: Teams that use an Agile approach should use, or at least try, the Scrum methodology as well. Since sprints are divided into small teams, this approach can work for both small and large teams. 

What it is: The Kanban methodology represents project backlogs using visual elements, specifically boards. This approach is used by Agile teams to better visualize workflows and project progress while decreasing the likelihood of bottlenecks. It’s also usually in the form of a software tool that allows you to change and drag boards seamlessly within projects, though it’s not a requirement. 

Since this method doesn’t have a defined process like others, many teams use it differently. The main concept to keep in mind is that Kanban aims to focus on the most important project tasks, keeping the overall framework simple.

Who should use it: Kanban boards are great for teams of all sizes and specifically remote-first teams. This is because the visual capabilities of Kanban boards help team members stay on track no matter where they are. 

5. Scrumban

What it is: As you may have guessed, Scrumban is a methodology that draws inspiration from both Scrum and Kanban frameworks. Some think of this as a hybrid approach that incorporates the best of each. 

Scrumban uses a similar sprint cycle as Scrum but allows individual tasks to be pulled into the plan like Kanban. This allows the most important work to be completed and keeps project plans simple. Scrumban also uses Scrum meetings to enhance collaboration and keep goals top of mind. 

Who should use it: If you like the idea of breaking down a project into smaller tasks, but likewise want to keep it visually simple, Scrumban might be for you. It’s the perfect intersection of simplicity and clarity.  

What it is: PRINCE2 , otherwise known as PR ojects IN C ontrolled E nvironments, uses the overarching waterfall methodology to define stages within a project. It was initially created by the UK government for IT projects and still primarily suits large IT initiatives over the traditional product or market-focused projects. 

There are seven main principles of PRINCE2, which include:

Starting a project

Directing a project

Initiating a project

Controlling a project

Managing product delivery

Managing a stage boundary

Closing a project

These seven principles create a thorough project process and make for an effective enterprise project methodology altogether. It aims to define roles and back management. Not only that, but PRINCE2 can be used to streamline a ton of individual project management tasks, like controlling a stage, managing product delivery, and initiating and closing a project. 

Who should use it: Due to the particular nature of the PRINCE2 project management methodology, it’s best suited for large enterprise projects with a number of project stakeholders . Using it for small projects may create a longer and more complicated process than necessary. 

7. Six Sigma

What it is: Unlike the other PM methodologies, Six Sigma is used for quality management and is frequently described as a philosophy rather than a traditional methodology. It is often paired with either a lean methodology or Agile framework, otherwise known as lean Six Sigma and Agile Six Sigma. 

The main purpose of Six Sigma is to continuously improve processes and eliminate defects. This is achieved through continuous improvements by field experts to sustain, define, and control processes. 

To take this method one step further, you can use a Six Sigma DMAIC process, which creates a phased approach. These phases include:

Define: Create a project scope , business case , and initial stand-up meeting.

Measure: Collect data that helps inform improvement needs.

Analyze: Identify the root causes of problems. 

Improve: Solve the root causes found.

Control: Work to sustain the solutions for future projects. 

Who should use it: Six Sigma is best for large organizations, usually those with a few hundred employees or more. This is when the need to eliminate project waste starts to have a larger impact on your organization. 

8. Critical path method (CPM)

What it is: The critical path method works to identify and schedule critical tasks within a project. This includes creating task dependencies, tracking project goals and progress, prioritizing deliverables , and managing due dates—all of which are similar to a work breakdown structure .

The objective of this methodology is to properly manage successful projects at scale so that milestones and deliverables are mapped correctly. 

Who should use it: The critical path method is best for small and mid-size projects and teams. This is because large projects require many deliverables with multiple stakeholders and the CPM isn’t built to manage complex projects. 

9. Critical chain project management (CCPM)

What it is: The critical chain project management framework is closely related to the critical path methodology but is even more detailed, making it one of the most comprehensive options. 

Along with implementing a work breakdown structure like CPM, CCPM includes specific time requirements for each task. This helps take task tracking one step further, making it clear when tasks are going over their allotted time. It also uses resource leveling which aims to resolve large workloads by distributing work across available resources. 

Not only do these help both productivity and efficiency, but they also help connect the work needed to be completed with project goals. Many project management tools even have visual elements to better visualize these goals, creating an organized road map for team members. 

Who should use it: CCPM is a great method for both small and large teams, but it mostly helps solve project efficiency problems . It can also be a great way to report work in progress to leadership. 

What it is: The lean project management methodology aims to cut waste and create a simple framework for project needs. This ultimately means doing more with less in order to maximize efficiency and teamwork. 

While reducing waste originally referred to a physical product (which dates back to the method used by Henry Ford and later by Toyota and Motorola), it now refers to wasteful practices. There are three Ms that represent this:

Muda (wastefulness): Practices that consume resources but don’t add value  

Mura (unevenness): Occurs through overproduction and leaves behind waste 

Muri (overburden): Occurs when there is too much strain on resources  

As a project manager, your job is to prevent the three Ms in order to better execute projects and streamline processes. This is similar to the approach of rational unified process (RUP), which also aims to reduce waste. The difference is that RUP aims to reduce development costs instead of wasteful practices. 

Who should use it: Since lean is all about reducing waste, it’s best suited for teams struggling with efficiency issues. While this will have a greater impact on large organizations, it can be helpful for project teams of all sizes. 

11. Project management institute’s PMBOK® Guide

What it is: While the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge is associated as a project management methodology, it’s more closely related to a set of best practices that take into account various development processes. 

This framework focuses on implementing the five project management phases , all of which help easily manage a project from start to finish in a structured phase approach. The five phases include:

Project initiation

Project planning

Project executing

Project performance

Project closure

While this is a good foundation to keep in mind, the PMBOK® Guide isn’t necessarily as specific as other approaches. This means you’ll need to decide which tasks to complete in each phase. 

Who should use it: The PMBOK® Guide can be used on its own for small teams on standard projects, though it’s a good idea to pair it with a more detailed methodology (like CPM) for large teams handling complex projects. 

12. Extreme programming (XP)

What it is: As the name suggests, extreme programming is used for fast-paced projects with tight deadlines. The approach works by creating short development cycles with many releases. This makes for quick turnaround times and increased productivity . 

Extreme programming has a few core values, which include simplicity, communication, feedback, respect, and courage. It also includes a specific set of XP rules which includes all phases from planning to testing. 

Who should use it: Extreme programming can be used for individual projects with tight deadlines, most commonly with small to midsize teams. Since XP is a fast-paced method, it should be used lightly in order to prevent burnout . 

Choosing the right project management methodology for your team

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to project management methodologies. Each one offers unique principles to take a development project from an initial plan to final execution. 

The main aspects to keep in mind are the size of your team and how your team prefers to work. Here are some additional tips to consider:

Your industry : Consider if you’re in an industry that changes frequently. For example, a technology company would be an industry that is ever-evolving. This will affect project consistency and should be paired with either a flexible or stagnant methodology. 

Your project focus : Consider the objectives of your projects . Do you value people over efficiency? This will help pair you with a methodology that matches a similar objective. 

The complexity of projects : Are your projects on the more complex side, or are they usually straightforward? Some methods aren’t as good as others at organizing complex tasks, such a CCPM.

The specialization of roles : Consider how niche the roles within your team are. Can multiple team members alternate the same type of work, or do you need a method that focuses on specialization?

Your organization’s size : The size of your organization and team should be weighed heavily when deciding on a methodology. Methods like Kanban are universal for team size, while options like CPM are better suited for small teams. 

Whether your team members prefer a visual process like Kanban or a more traditional project management approach like the waterfall method, there’s an option for every type of team. To take a project management methodology one step further, consider a work management tool to better track and execute development projects. 

Methods to manage your projects mindfully

With the right project management methodology in place, you’ll be able to take your projects to new levels of efficiency and implement processes that are right for your team, your organization, and yourself.

Related resources

How to choose project management software for your team

7 steps to complete a social media audit (with template)

3 visual project management layouts (and how to use them)

Grant management: A nonprofit’s guide

• Get started

The Ultimate Guide To Web Development Project Management in 2024

Emilia gette.

Emilia Gette serves as a marketing associate at Workast, specializing in crafting innovative strategies to engage with the audience. With a focus on creativity and attention to detail, she contributes to driving impactful results across various marketing channels.

Starting a web development project can be an exciting yet complex journey. From defining project goals to selecting the right project management methodology, every step plays a crucial role in delivering a successful website. 

In this guide, we'll explore the key aspects of web development project management, including popular methodologies like Agile and Waterfall, effective steps for project planning and execution, and top project management software tools. 

Whether you're a seasoned web developer or new to the field, this guide will provide valuable insights to navigate your web development projects with confidence.

What is Web Development Project Management?

Web development project management is the process of planning, organizing, and overseeing the execution of a web development project from inception to completion. 

3 Project Management Methodologies for Website Development

Here's a structured guide on three project management methodologies commonly used in website development, each providing unique benefits and approaches to managing web projects effectively:

1. Waterfall Methodology

Waterfall methodology is a traditional, linear project management approach where tasks progress sequentially through requirements gathering, design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance. 

Phases of Waterfall Methodology:

Requirements Gathering:

Detailed gathering of client requirements and project specifications.

Clear documentation of project goals, scope, and deliverables.

Creation of design mockups, wireframes, and prototypes based on gathered requirements.

Approval of design elements before proceeding to development.

Development:

Implementation of the approved design into functional website components.

Coding, programming, and integration of features as per specifications.

Thorough testing of the developed website to identify bugs, errors, and functionality issues.

Testing includes unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT).

Deployment:

Deployment of the tested and approved website to the live environment.

Configuration of servers, databases, and other infrastructure components.

When to Consider Waterfall Methodology:

Clear and well-defined project requirements and scope.

Stable project timelines and limited need for frequent changes during development.

Client expectations aligned with the initial project plan.

Smaller-scale website development projects with straightforward functionalities.

Projects where a linear, sequential process is suitable and efficient.

Benefits of Waterfall Methodology:

Clear project structure and defined milestones.

Well-documented requirements and deliverables.

Sequential progress ensures each phase is completed thoroughly before moving forward.

Suitable for projects with stable scopes and limited changes during development.

Limitations of Waterfall Methodology:

Limited flexibility for accommodating changes during development.

Client feedback incorporated late in the process, potentially leading to revisions and delays.

Risk of delivering a product that may not fully meet evolving client needs or market expectations.

2. Agile Methodology:

Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, prioritize flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development. Scrum divides the project into short iterations called sprints, usually 2-4 weeks long, where cross-functional teams work on specific tasks. 

Experts at Clickysoft , a leading web development in Houston , suggest leveraging Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban for website development projects. They emphasize that Agile's focus on flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development aligns well with the dynamic nature of web projects. 

Key Components of Agile Methodology:

Iterative Development:

Projects are divided into short iterations called sprints, usually 2-4 weeks long.

Cross-functional teams work collaboratively on specific tasks during each sprint.

Continuous Feedback:

Regular feedback loops with clients and stakeholders ensure alignment with project goals.

Iterative development allows for adjustments based on feedback received during each sprint.

Adaptability:

Agile teams are adaptable and responsive to changes, accommodating new requirements or priorities as they arise.

Flexibility in planning and execution allows for quick responses to market demands or client needs.

Collaboration:

Close collaboration between team members, including developers, designers, testers, and clients, promotes transparency and communication.

Daily stand-up meetings, sprint reviews, and retrospectives facilitate collaboration and problem-solving.

When to Consider Agile Methodology:

Projects with evolving or unclear requirements may benefit from iterative development and frequent feedback loops.

Client-centric projects where continuous collaboration and responsiveness to feedback are crucial.

Complex projects require flexibility, adaptability, and the ability to prioritize deliverables based on changing priorities.

Benefits of Agile Methodology:

Enhanced flexibility and adaptability to changing requirements.

Continuous delivery of working features or increments, providing value throughout the development process.

Improved collaboration, communication, and transparency among team members and stakeholders.

Client satisfaction through early and frequent delivery of functional components and responsiveness to feedback.

Limitations of Agile Methodology:

Requires active involvement and collaboration from clients and stakeholders throughout the project.

May be challenging to estimate timelines and budgets accurately, especially in the early stages.

Continuous changes and iterations can lead to scope creep if not managed effectively.

3. Lean Methodology

Lean project management focuses on maximizing value while minimizing waste. It emphasizes efficiency, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction. 

Lean principles, like eliminating unnecessary steps, optimizing processes, and prioritizing customer needs, can be applied to website development to streamline workflows and deliver high-quality results efficiently. 

By identifying and eliminating bottlenecks, Lean helps teams deliver websites that meet client requirements and exceed expectations.

Key Principles of Lean Methodology:

Value Stream Mapping:

Identifying and optimizing value streams to eliminate waste and inefficiencies in the development process.

Streamlining workflows and processes to deliver value to clients and end-users efficiently.

Continuous Improvement:

Encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and learning within teams.

Regularly assessing and refining processes, tools, and practices to optimize performance and outcomes.

Customer Focus:

Prioritizing customer needs and preferences in website development, aligning solutions with client expectations.

Incorporating user feedback and data-driven insights to enhance user experience and satisfaction.

Waste Elimination:

Identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities, such as redundant tasks, unnecessary documentation, or inefficient processes.

Streamlining workflows and resources to maximize productivity and value delivery.

When to Consider Lean Methodology:

Projects focused on delivering value efficiently and optimizing processes for maximum efficiency.

Customer-centric projects where understanding and meeting customer needs are top priorities.

Continuous improvement-oriented projects aiming to eliminate waste and optimize workflows.

Benefits of Lean Methodology:

Increased efficiency and productivity by eliminating waste and non-value-adding activities.

Enhanced customer satisfaction through solutions aligned with customer needs and preferences.

Streamlined processes and workflows, reducing lead times and improving time-to-market.

Data-driven decision-making and a continuous improvement culture drive innovation and quality.

Limitations of Lean Methodology:

Requires a cultural shift and commitment to continuous improvement within teams and organizations.

May face challenges in complex or large-scale projects where process optimization and waste elimination are more intricate.

Balancing efficiency with quality and innovation requires careful planning and execution.

5 Effective Steps for Web Development Project Management

Here are five effective steps for web development project management:

Step 1: Define Project Scope and Objectives:

Defining the project scope and objectives is crucial for setting clear expectations and goals. This involves understanding the client's requirements, business goals, target audience, and desired outcomes. By clearly defining what needs to be achieved and the boundaries of the project, you can avoid scope creep and ensure everyone is aligned on the project's purpose and deliverables.

Step 2: Gather Requirements:

Gathering requirements involves detailed discussions with clients, stakeholders, and end-users to understand their needs and expectations. This step includes documenting functional requirements (e.g., features, functionalities, user interactions) and non-functional requirements (e.g., performance, security, scalability). Effective requirements gathering ensures that the final product meets user needs and aligns with the project's objectives.

Step 3: Create a Project Plan:

Developing a project plan involves creating a roadmap that outlines tasks, timelines, milestones, and resource allocations. A well-defined project plan helps in organizing work, managing priorities, and tracking progress. Project management tools such as Gantt charts or Kanban boards can be used to visualize the project's timeline and dependencies, facilitating effective project management and communication within the team.

Step 4: Design and Development:

The design and development phase involves translating requirements into tangible components of the website. This includes creating wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to visualize the layout, user interface, and user experience. Development tasks focus on coding, programming, and integrating functionalities based on the approved design. Collaboration between designers, developers, and other team members ensures a cohesive and functional website.

Step 5: Testing and Quality Assurance:

Testing and quality assurance are essential to ensure the website meets quality standards and functions as intended. This phase includes various types of testing such as unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), and performance testing. Identifying and fixing bugs, errors, and usability issues during testing helps deliver a reliable and user-friendly website.

3 Best Web Design Project Management Software Tools

Here are three of the best web design project management software tools:

Trello is a popular project management tool known for its intuitive Kanban board interface. It allows teams to create boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks, collaborate on projects, and track progress. 

Trello's visual approach makes prioritizing tasks, assigning responsibilities, setting deadlines, and communicating within teams easy. Integration with other tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox enhances collaboration and productivity.

Asana is a versatile project management platform suitable for managing web design projects. It offers features such as task management, project timelines, team collaboration, and customizable workflows. Including Salesforce integration , Asana enhances productivity and collaboration.

Asana's intuitive interface, project templates, and dependency tracking help teams streamline processes, stay organized, and meet project deadlines effectively. Integration with popular tools like Adobe Creative Cloud and Slack enhances productivity and collaboration.

3. Workast:

Workast is a robust project management tool tailored for teams working on web design projects. It offers features like task assignment, customizable workflows, project timelines, and collaboration tools.

Workast's user-friendly interface and integration with communication platforms like Slack make it easy for teams to manage tasks, track progress, and communicate effectively. Its flexibility allows teams to adapt workflows to their specific project needs, ensuring efficient project management and timely delivery.

Managing a web development project requires careful planning, collaboration, and the right tools. By understanding the nuances of project management methodologies and following effective steps, you can streamline workflows, meet client expectations, and deliver high-quality websites. 

With the help of project management software tools like Trello, Asana, Jira, Basecamp, and Monday.com, teams can enhance productivity, communication, and project transparency. 

Using best practices and continuous improvement ensures successful outcomes in web development projects, driving business growth and customer satisfaction.

Make teamwork simple with Workast

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5 Phases of Project Management Life Cycle | Complete Guide

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If you’re just diving into the world of project management for the first time, you might feel intimidated by starting a new project. Fortunately, you can utilize the project life cycle, which is a set of stages that takes a project from start to completion. Read on to learn about each phase of the project lifecycle, its role in the success of the project, and how you can properly manage each phase for optimum results.

What are Project Phases?

Project phases are smaller portions of a project that represent distinct goals or milestones in the larger project lifecycle. Within the project lifecycle, there are 5 project phases, as defined by the Project Management Institute: 

• Project Initiation
• Project Planning
• Project Execution
• Project Monitoring and Control
• Project Closure

Each phase comes with specific requirements of the project team, as well as key deliverables and action items that keep the project moving forward successfully. Mastering project phases is essential for keeping the project on track while completing essential tasks and checkpoints throughout the process. 

Read more: 14 Important Questions Project Managers Should Ask the Team

What are the 5 phases of project management, project initiation phase.

A team’s performance during the Project Initiation Phase can result in either authorization, delay, or discontinuation of a new project.

The main goal of the Initiation Phase is to ensure that the project meets business needs and that stakeholders and project teams are aligned on the project success criteria throughout the project life cycle.

To achieve the project goal, it’s best to involve internal and external stakeholders from the Initiation Phase . This way, you can effectively align expectations and increase the likelihood of completing all the deliverables throughout the project management life cycle.

During the Initiation Phase, the entire project team defines the project idea, and the project sponsor evaluates it and authorizes the project to proceed. The project manager starts the documentation process, which includes the justification, deliverables, risks, estimated cost, and resource requirements.

The Project Charter is a key deliverable of the Project Initiation Phase and contains all this information. It is the first formal definition of the project. It authorizes the project to exist, establishes the authority of the project manager, and documents high-level requirements, project milestones, and success criteria.

Another important document in the Initiation Phase is the Stakeholder Register. This document includes information about all the stakeholders of the project. It identifies the people, groups, and organizations that have an interest in the task, project, and its results.

Approval of the Project Charter signals the advance of the project to the next phase, the Project Planning Phase.

Read more: What is a Project Charter? Complete Guide & Examples 2023

Project Planning Phase

Once the expectations and success criteria are clear, the next project management life cycle phase focuses on planning each task the team needs to perform to cover the scope, achieve the deliverables, and meet the overall goal.

In the Project Planning Phase, the project team members dive into specific requirements, tasks, timelines, and actions. The project manager works with the entire team to create the design, enumerate the task list, and estimate the budget.

The project team builds the resource plan, the communications plan, and the initial project schedule. The project manager also establishes the roles and responsibilities of the team and stakeholders. The project scope is finalized depending on approved available resources and client priorities.

During the Planning Phase , the project team finalizes the Work Breakdown Structure, Project Plan, Requirements List, Communications Management Plan, and other relevant documents to iron out the workflow and coordination with involved parties.

The Project Plan is a key deliverable and contains a detailed work breakdown structure (WBS) or task list with start and end dates, and estimated effort and duration. It identifies milestones, resources, and the schedule. It also includes task dependencies that will allow the project team to use the critical path method if it chooses.

Other important deliverables are the Communications Management Plan, which helps facilitate effective communication with stakeholders, and the Resource Allocation Plan which identifies the schedule of project team resources as to their availability during the whole project life cycle.

Something PMs should keep in mind: As you discover more information, you may have to adjust your previous Project Plan and related procedures. More complex projects will require more back-and-forth approvals for every task created.

Project planning is an iterative process so the project manager should review, revise, and revisit all the plans at least once a month until the completion of the project. It is crucial for the project team to involve relevant stakeholders in this stage of the project life cycle as well.

Read more: Project Management Communication Plan

Project Execution Phase

The Project Execution Phase is where the project team executes and follows through on tasks based on the Project Plan. At this stage, the team spends most of its time coordinating with people, helping to ensure quality work, keeping track of resources, and updating stakeholders.

Sometimes called the Implementation Phase, this is the phase when the project manager tries to manage every task and aspect of project delivery to keep the project on track for the remaining duration of the project life cycle.

The project team focuses on achieving all the objectives set in the earlier phases. At this phase, the project leader likely uses project management software to assign every task to team members. Tools that centralize task information, along with resource availability and team communication can simplify and optimize the needed project management processes.

Quality Assurance documentation, meeting minutes, and Work Orders are some of the documents created during the Execution Phase of the project management life cycle.

It’s also likely that you’ll discover new information that will require a revisit and update of the initial project management plans. Be vigilant with change requests, and make sure that the necessary adjustments are managed.

Read more: Understanding Different Types of Stakeholders and Their Roles

Project Monitoring & Control Phase

The best way to ensure progress and improvement is by tracking and reviewing project performance.

Simultaneously during execution, the project team carefully tracks the progress of the project based on the Project Plan established earlier. Tracking the performance of the project through various metrics is crucial to ensure the project stays on schedule, within budget, and within scope.

The project team keeps track of change management documents, spending records, QA checklists, and team time tracking. They are able to measure where efforts and resources go throughout the project life cycle, crosschecking it with the Project Plan.

Both the Execution Phase and Monitoring & Control Phase are critical times that can determine project success. Aside from monitoring the progress of tasks, the project manager also tries to identify issues or risks, creates a mitigation plan with the team, and reports the project status regularly to stakeholders.

Being diligent in recording and measuring project progress puts the project team in a strategic position. They can identify bottlenecks and initiate essential discussions or project management process improvements.

Having a proactive approach will allow the project team to respond rapidly to any change in the plan. Consistent and appropriate status reporting will update interested stakeholders and provide them the opportunity to intervene in or redirect the project as needed.

If additional planning, time, or resources are needed, you’ll need to communicate them to relevant project stakeholders before it’s too late. You’ll also have the data and results to back up your requests, so you have a better chance of justifying your requests and maintaining their trust despite circumstances.

Read more: 10 Best Project Management Software Buyers’ Guide

Project Closure Phase

In the last project management life cycle phase, all the activities related to its completion are concluded. These may involve the submission of a final deliverable, fulfilling contractual obligations, terminating relevant agreements, and releasing project resources.

The causes of a project closure can be completion, cancellation, termination, or transfer to a new organization. The documentation required to complete Project Closure will differ depending on the situation.

In this phase, the project manager communicates the final project disposition and status to all stakeholders. This phase also ensures to inform participants and stakeholders of any follow-on activities or continuing product life cycle so they can communicate and coordinate with the people in charge.

Regardless of the outcome of the project life cycle, however, it would be good for the team to conduct a project retrospective. During this post-mortem activity, the project team can process new lessons and ensure the improvement of current project management processes for a future project.

During the project closeout, documents to turn over can include various project documentation, final meeting minutes, and other closure reports. These documents can identify and capture lessons learned and best practices for future reference and reuse.

It is a good idea to organize and store project materials in a shared team folder. These materials can provide reference during performance evaluation. The opportunity to continuously test, improve, or reinvent ways to manage the whole project life cycle can help grow the organization and its business.

Read more: How to Host a Good Project Post-Mortem Meeting

VIDEO: Recap of 5 Project Management Phases

Why Are Project Phases Important?

All projects go through each of the five phases regardless of their size.

The decision to officially divide a project into phases is an excellent way to manage the team’s focus, allocate resources, and align the entire project life cycle with clients and stakeholders.

By thinking in terms of phases, the project team ensures that deliverables produced at the end of each phase meet the project’s goals. Managing a project by phase also makes sure that the team is properly prepared for the next phase.

Project life cycle phases provide additional benefits. The approach provides a structured approach for project delivery. Defined activities, outputs, and responsibilities create a clear and common roadmap for the project team to follow.

Defined phases and defined roles show a visible framework easily understood by all team members and stakeholders. Assignment of responsibilities by phase clarifies what the team should only be doing in each phase and helps streamline communication.

Working on projects phase by phase helps track and link progress directly to each phase. Completion of each phase is easily recognizable by all involved.

Another benefit of project management by phase is the progressive evolution of the project. This helps identify areas that need greater attention for a particular phase. It also marks clearly the points and opportunities for structured reviews to support project governance.

While PMBOK recommends assigning project phases according to a project’s life cycle, project teams can follow their own system depending on their industry, organizational policies, and other relevant factors. For example, teams and organizations focused on monitoring the usage of resources can use the critical chain project management methodology.

Read next: Key Project Management Terms and Concepts

Throughout the project lifecycle, there are a variety of tools that can be used to limit stress, automate workflows, and keep the project moving successfully. 

Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are a powerful planning tool that can help teams visualize individual deadlines against task dependencies and overall project progress. This type of chart can be especially useful early on in the project lifecycle, particularly the planning stage. 

Project Management Software

Project management software solutions are likely the most well-known tools in project management—and for good reason. Within one application, users can set task deadlines, view project overviews, extract data about project progress, automate workflows, and more. 

Collaboration Tools

Whether it’s a remote team, in-office, or a hybrid blend, collaboration is one of the most important elements of running a successful project. While some project management software solutions offer built-in collaboration tools, utilizing the power of other tools that are directly centered around team communication, such as Slack, can ensure the team has a central space to communicate updates. 

Throughout the project lifecycle, the project manager takes ownership of the project and relays updates to team members. As each phase of the project progresses, the project manager will facilitate discussions, track progress, and address any roadblocks.

The project initiation phase is arguably the most important phase of the project lifecycle, as this is when the project is conceived and approved so that work can begin. During this phase, it’s common for a team to present a proposal in order to gain approval for the project.

Read more: Project Proposal with Template

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UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

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UN Tourism and Hotelschool The Hague to Drive Innovation in Hospitality

• 23 Apr 2024

UN Tourism and Hotelschool The Hague, have agreed to partner around the development and execution of pioneering projects in the hospitality industry.

A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aims to stimulate innovation and fresh ventures within the hospitality industry, promoting entrepreneurship and education while engaging in open innovation projects that can enhance the tourism industry, with a particular focus on hospitality. Currently, 20% of entrepreneurs of the UN Tourism Network are directly related to hospitality and are the most dynamic projects including a variety of stakeholders of the industry.

Building on the UN Tourism's established innovation network, this agreement will further facilitate connections between startups and potential investors, as well as promote knowledge and skills through joint events, communication channels, and media interactions. This partnership not only underlines a commitment to a more sustainable future for the industry but also signifies a shared commitment to providing inclusive opportunities and memorable global student experiences, demonstrated through Hotelschool The Hague's global Sustainable Hospitality Challenge .

Strong foundations for innovative future

Ms. Natalia Bayona, Executive Director of UN Tourism, expresses: "Unfortunately 90% of startups within the hospitality sector eventually do not succeed. A decent tourism education and knowledge of the hospitality sector is necessary to develop a disruptive and well-functioning product. Through our collaborative efforts, we aspire to alter this trajectory by offering a more robust foundation, fostering invaluable connections, and providing a conducive testbed for emerging startups. Given that technology now permeates 70% of tourism enterprises, it is imperative that these startups are seamlessly integrated into the ecosystem, connected with pertinent stakeholders, and afforded the opportunity to validate their solutions in real-world settings before embarking on a larger scale.

Ms. Regine von Stieglitz, President of the Board of Directors of Hotelschool The Hague says: "At Hotelschool The Hague, we provide our students with the perfect balance of theory, real-world experience and applied research to prepare them for a career in the hospitality industry. We develop leaders who shape our global industry and drive it to give back more than it takes. We are proud to join forces with UN Tourism. We fully embrace their vision to Foster Innovation in the Hospitality Industry. In fact, our Sustainable Hospitality Challenge is a student competition designed to enhance the evolution of sustainable practices in hospitality, aligning seamlessly with the objectives of UN Tourism."

Hotelschool The Hague, founded and funded by the hospitality industry in 1929, provides high-quality education and cutting-edge research in the field of international hospitality management, with an emphasis on the transformation of sustainability and digitalization and on developing students into sought-after hospitality graduates who excel in leadership roles worldwide.

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EY Cyprus awarded project of Holistic Management of Cyta’s Sustainable development

EY Cyprus has signed the contract for the modernization of the web presence of the Republic of Cyprus, through the redesign of the Government’s websites, which will now be accessible through a new digital portal, the gov.cy.

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EY Cyprus has been awarded by Cyta the project of the Holistic Management of the company’s Sustainable Development. The project involves a wide range of tasks that include recording the organization's footprint on the economy, society and the environment, formulating a strategy and defining measurable goals and metrics of Sustainable Development, aligned with the European Union and United Nations goals. It also includes the selection and implementation of supporting projects and the review of activities and processes in a manner consistent with the principles of Circular Economy. The implementation of the project will help the company to realize its ambitious vision with regard to environmental and social issues, as well as in matters of governance and circular economy. The entire project is expected to be completed within two years.

Referring to the project,  Stavros Violaris, Partner and Head of Sustainability of EY Cyprus, said:  "I would like to thank the management of Cyta for choosing EY for the implementation of this demanding project. Cyta's commitment to the principles of sustainable development and the reduction of the organization's impact on the environment are well known and define the important responsibility we assume. EY brings the expertise of the local Cyprus team as well as the know-how of our global network to support Cypriot companies in their transition to a sustainable development model and the adoption of ESG rules as well as decarbonization strategies. We look forward to an excellent collaboration with Cyta for the implementation of this important project which will record the organization's footprint in the economy, society and the environment. Our team will help Cyta to formulate a strategy and establish measurable goals and indicators to realize its ambitious vision in environmental and social matters, but also in matters of governance and circular economy. This particular project can be a milestone for the course of Cypriot entrepreneurship, and our economy as a whole, towards a sustainable future".

The President of Cyta, Mr.  Michael Ο. Ioannides, underlined that:  "The transition to the Principles of Sustainable Development, is a natural continuation of our Organization’s long-standing sensitivity with regards to related issues, but mainly of our belief that the development and economic progress of Cyta must be aligned with the needs and expectations of the country, the society and its people, and effectively contribute to safeguarding the well-being of future generations".

EY has defined its mission to building a better working world. In this context, the EY Sustainability team in Cyprus, in collaboration with all EY service lines and teams, supports a large number of businesses in Cyprus, developing holistic business solutions to address climate change and contribute to sustainable development.

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Maldives Development Update 2024

The Maldives Development Update (MDU) has two main goals. First, it takes the pulse of the Maldivian economy by providing key developments over the past 12 months. Placing these in a global context, and based on these recent developments, it analyzes the outlook over the medium term. Second, every other edition of the MDU provides a more in-depth investigation of selected economic and policy issues. It has a wide audience including policymakers, policy analysts from think tanks or non-governmental organizations, and business and financial sector professionals interested in Maldives’ economic development.

Click here to download the latest Maldives Development Update (May, 2024).

RECENT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

In 2023, the number of tourist arrivals reached a record-breaking figure of 1.88 million. Nevertheless, this did not result in higher GDP growth due to lower per-tourist spending and shorter stays. The Maldivian economy is estimated to have grown by 4% in 2023. Domestic inflation, at 2.9% in 2023, remained higher than the historical average of 0.5%. Price increases were experienced in the food, education, restaurant, and lodging services sectors. Food inflation could increase poverty by 0.4 percentage points, with atolls experiencing even higher rates.

Travel export receipts fell 6.8%, while merchandise imports remained elevated at $3.5 billion. This resulted in a current account deficit of 23.4% of GDP. High import costs and external debt repayments also weighed heavily on gross reserves, which fell to $551.1 million in January 2024. Failure to implement planned subsidy reforms, combined with rising recurrent and capital spending, resulted in a sharp increase in total expenditure and a fiscal deficit of 13.2% of GDP in 2023.

Tourism, which accounts for a quarter of the Maldives' economy, has experienced slower growth in 2023 due to a decline in average duration of stay and lower tourist spending. This slowdown has exposed underlying economic vulnerabilities in the Maldives.

These vulnerabilities stem from persistent large current account and fiscal deficits. The country relies heavily on imports while having limited official reserves, creating an unsustainable imbalance. Government support for struggling state-owned enterprises (SOEs), along with blanket subsidies, high capital spending, and a public health program, further exacerbate these pressures.

While these subsidies and in-kind transfers are crucial for boosting household incomes, their unsustainable nature raises concerns. When fiscal pressures mount, the Maldivian people's well-being could be negatively impacted. Additionally, infrastructure projects, although promising long-term growth, were financed through non-concessional external borrowing and sovereign guarantees. The rising cost of borrowing abroad has forced the government to turn towards domestic sources, increasing the domestic financial sector’s vulnerability to government debt.

The government recently announced its commitment to a fiscal reform agenda to address these economic vulnerabilities. This agenda includes reforms to subsidies, SOEs, the public health insurance scheme (Aasandha), and reprioritizing capital spending. These reforms offer a path towards a more resilient Maldivian economy.

The economy is projected to grow by 4.7% over the medium-term, supported by tourism, a decrease from the pre-pandemic average of 7.4%. This growth is based on expected fiscal adjustments, including subsidy reforms and reduced public expenditure and investments. This slowdown also means slower poverty reduction in 2024.

The fiscal deficit is expected to remain high in 2024 due to ambitious spending plans .The proposed fiscal reform package is expected to help but a more sustainable fiscal path requires a larger adjustment, particularly through cuts in non-essential capital and untargeted recurrent spending.

Inflation is expected to rise due to the removal of blanket subsidies, potentially driving poverty by 2.5 percentage points. The current account deficit is expected to remain high due to commodity price pressures and capital imports for infrastructure projects. Rising external financing needs, including debt servicing, are expected to sustain pressure on foreign exchange reserves.

Major downside risks include a shock to the tourism sector, limited domestic and external financing, and a widening current account deficit. To maintain macroeconomic stability, a major fiscal adjustment and a multi-year reform plan are required, along with a targeted transfer mechanism to offset welfare losses among vulnerable groups.