Some Key Project Manager Actions and their impact in terms of results.
There are twenty key actions organized according to their support of the five essential project management lifecycle phases: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and Closing
Phase | Action | Results of Successful Performance |
Initiating | 1. Demonstrate project need and feasibility. | A document confirming that there is a need for the project deliverables and describing, in broad terms: the deliverables, means of creating the deliverables, costs of creating and implementing the deliverables, benefits to be obtained by implementing the deliverables. |
2. Obtain project authorization. | A “go/no go” decision is made by the sponsor. | |
3. Obtain authorization for the phase. | A “go/no go” decision is made by the sponsor which authorizes the project manager to apply organizational resources to the activities of a particular phase | |
Planning | 4. Describe project scope. | Statement of project scope |
5. Define and sequence project activities. | An activity list (list of all activities that will be performed on the project) | |
6. Estimate durations for activities and resources required. | Estimate of durations (time required) for each activity and assumptions related to each estimate | |
7. Develop a project schedule. | Project schedule in the form of Gantt charts, network diagrams, milestone charts, or text tables | |
8. Estimate costs. | Cost estimates for completing each activity | |
9. Build a budget and spending plan. | A cost baseline or time-phased budget for measuring/monitoring costs | |
10. Create a formal quality plan. (optional) | Quality management plan, including operational definitions | |
11. Create a formal project communications plan. (optional) | A communication management plan, including: | |
12. Organize and acquire staff. | Role and responsibility assignments | |
13. Identify risks and plan to respond. (optional | A document describing potential risks, including their sources, symptoms, and ways to address them | |
14. Plan for and acquire outside resources. (optional) | Procurement management plan describing how contractors will be obtained | |
15. Organize the project plan | A comprehensive project plan that pulls together all the outputs of the preceding project planning activities | |
16. Close out the planning phase. | A project plan that has been approved, in writing, by the sponsor A “green light” or okay to begin work on the project | |
17. Revisit the project plan and re-plan if needed. | Confidence that the detailed plans to execute a particular phase are still accurate and will effectively achieve results as planned. | |
Executing | 18. Execute project activities. | Work results (deliverables) are created. |
Controlling | 19. Control project activities. | Decision to accept inspected deliverables |
Closing | 20. Close out project activities. | Formal acceptance, documented in writing, that the sponsor has accepted the product of this phase or activity. |