Especially if you are not a seasoned project manager and are at the beginning of your ‘project management journey’, quite a lot can come your way.
In this article we share the basics with you. Project management can become very complicated if you don’t do it right, so reading this article is a great first step.
To get off to a good start, here are the components that every project should have:
● Goal: what are you trying to achieve?
● Timeline: within what period are you trying to achieve that?
● Budget: how much can achieving the goal cost?
● Stakeholders: who are the players (people or companies) with an interest in this project?
● Project manager: who will ensure that everything runs smoothly?
● Scope: what is the focus?
Also know that projects are not routine things. Daily, operational tasks and maintenance are not projects because they do not have a predetermined start and end date.
Where do you start when you want to manage a project?
There are quite a few things that you have to arrange before you can even start a project. Reviewing and determining the components listed above is a good first step. That defines the scope – now you probably understand our company name too. You know what needs to be done, when it needs to be finished, who are key people in the process and what budget is available for it.
Then it’s time to schedule work. But that is not possible without being aware of the phases of project management. They also belong to the basics. How many phases are there, well, that’s a bit tricky. Every company has its own standards. At Getscope we use four phases that offer enough variety, but still keep it clear.
That is also the pitfall. When you use too many or too few phases, the whole becomes cluttered. We see these four phases as the ideal distribution.
The phases of project management
One of the basics of project management is understanding the different phases. This will help you plan your project. At Getscope, we define four:
● Initiate: The purpose of this phase is to define the project. This starts with the elaboration of the aforementioned components, but also considers the search for stakeholders and possible investors.
● Planning: In this phase you map out the roadmap that everyone in the project will follow. So this is a general route, the project from start to finish. In addition, you create tasks for individual team members, find out what kind of people you need and start the search for professionals who can contribute to the success of the project.
To give you an example: when we were setting up Getscope and creating a project for it, we found out that we needed at least two full-time developers to go live within the set deadline. Through this phase you have all the necessary professionals ‘on board’ before the actual project starts. This is how you avoid delays!
● Execute and check: in this phase everyone gets to work and deliverables are created. The project manager monitors and measures the team’s performance to ensure everyone stays on track.
● Closure: the project is completed and you schedule a post mortem to learn from mistakes made. After that, the project is handed over to another team who will maintain it or implement all deliverables.
Why is project management so important?
Project management has become increasingly popular in recent years. In more and more sectors, especially in the creative sector, work is only done on a project basis. Both with customers and internally. This has advantages, provided you arrange everything properly and ensure that the project management is of the highest level. Without good project management, many loose ends arise, tasks are not completed and the company makes too little impact at the end of the day.
To prevent this, it is important to state why project management is so important. Below are a few reasons:
More efficiency
Problems are solved quickly through good project management. The manager recognizes when team members run into problems, puts the right people forward and ensures that deadlines are not jeopardized.
Improved team collaboration
Setting up large-scale projects requires insights from different departments and professionals. This improves mutual cooperation. Suddenly professionals within the company are working together who previously only saw each other during breaks or at the coffee machine. That improves collaboration ng between different departments and the knowledge level within the organization.
Identify and terminate tasks that have no relevant business value
Without good project management, it happens too often that project members do everything they can to make themselves look good. Ideas that are discussed during a meeting are implemented immediately after the meeting. Through good project management, these kinds of ideas are placed in a backlog and are only implemented when there is time for it. Team members only work on essential tasks, which means that more and, above all, faster impact is made.
How can managing your creative projects be beneficial for the end result
Managing creative and side projects, partly because you now know the project management basics, has positive consequences for the end result. Those who go through the four aforementioned phases and work out the components for themselves will arrive at a complete and, above all, easily manageable project. Every team member knows what is expected of him or her and the deadlines set are clear and manageable.
This clarity gradually leads to fewer problems. And if only because of the cost, it is interesting to manage your creative projects well. With good project management you keep a grip on costs and quality, win-win!
How all creative projects can be managed with our project tool
Getscope is an all-in-one tool specifically aimed at creative teams. Over the years, our founders have managed many projects, but always with tools that had their limitations. That had to be done differently.
Our tool contains only the necessary elements needed to make your creative project a success. In addition, we have prepared preset workflows for you and developed a large set of features that take your project to the next level.
We can convince you, but we like it better if our tool does that. Try Getscope for free now and experience it for yourself.
