Stop Blaming the Team; Your Project Plan Is the Problem
Why even the best teams can’t succeed without a solid plan.
Introduction
Project Management Offices (PMOs). Project Managers. Gantt charts. For some, these are trigger words from past work experiences. For others, they are essential tools for daily success.
Love it or hate it, understanding how to manage a project can be the difference between wasting time and achieving your goals. In this post, we’ll walk through the basic phases of a project and what you should expect in each stage.
The Phases of a Project
In traditional project management, a project moves through five main phases:
Initiation
Planning
Execution
Performance and Monitoring
Closure
Initiation
Initiation marks the starting point for any project. This is where you define what the project is about, identify key stakeholders, and clarify the expected outcomes.
At this stage, avoid jumping into solutions. Focus on the business functions you want to improve or deliver rather than the tools or methods you’ll use to achieve them. Solutioning comes later.
Stakeholder:
Someone who has significant influence on the project and is required to provide input on final delivery.
It’s equally important to define what is not part of your project. Outlining both in-scope and out-of-scope objectives prevents future confusion.
You can also use surveys or interviews with impacted users to understand their experiences and frustrations. This information provides valuable context before you move to the next phase.
If, by the end of initiation, you have a clear idea of what will be delivered and who needs to be involved, you can move forward. If not, pause and realign before planning begins.
Key Deliverables:
Identification of stakeholders
Project scoping
Collection of feedback
Planning
Once your goals and boundaries are clear, it’s time to plan. This phase involves identifying the skills, budget, and timeline needed to complete the project successfully.
This is a great time to conduct market research, assess existing tools, and outline a high-level design of your solution.
Be careful to avoid gold plating, which refers to adding features or capabilities not included in the original scope. While tempting, it delays progress and adds unnecessary complexity. Stay focused on the defined objectives.
Gold Plating:
Adding additional features or capabilities that were not part of the initial project scope.
Key Deliverables:
High-level architectural documents
Cross-organizational RACI
Functional and non-functional requirements
Budget and timeline
Project resource list
Execution
With the design, budget, and objectives approved, execution begins. This is where the real work happens.
Many organizations use Agile methodologies for iterative development, while others prefer Waterfall for sequential delivery. Both can work well, depending on the project’s nature.
During execution, communication and awareness are critical. Everyone involved should understand the objectives and their role in achieving them.
Common Sub-Phases:
Solution Selection
Proof of Concept
Limited Release
Full Release
Solution Selection
Once your team is assembled, evaluate potential solutions—internal or external—against your earlier requirements. Ask questions, verify assumptions, and make sure the chosen solution aligns with the project’s goals. This is the right stage to be curious and thorough.
Proof of Concept
After selecting your solution, create a proof of concept (PoC). This limited internal implementation allows the team and stakeholders to test ideas and validate that the project meets requirements. The goal is to prove value, not to polish the final product.
Limited Release
With approval from stakeholders, move toward a limited release. At this point, the solution should work as intended, but supporting business processes may still need refinement. Use this phase to integrate systems, gather early user feedback, and make necessary adjustments before full adoption.
User Experience (UX):
The overall interaction a person has with a business process, which may include both technical and non-technical elements.
Full Release
By the time of full release, your systems and processes should be ready for wide adoption. Expect questions and issues to surface as more users engage with the product. Track improvement opportunities, respond quickly, and support users as they adapt. Projects that handle this phase well build trust and long-term adoption across the organization.
Performance and Monitoring
This phase evaluates the project’s success against its original objectives. Duration can vary depending on the project’s size and complexity.
If the earlier phases were handled correctly, this stage should primarily involve wrapping up heightened support and confirming that everything operates as intended.
Key Deliverables:
Performance metrics
Operational support requirements
Closure
Congratulations, you made it to the end.
The closure phase ensures the project is formally completed. This includes reconciling budgets, securing stakeholder approvals, and finalizing documentation for future reference. It is easy to overlook this phase, but skipping it can leave gaps that cause problems later.
Key Deliverables:
Celebration of success
Completed documentation
Final approvals
Conclusion
Understanding the phases of a project and managing expectations at each stage is critical to success.
These five phases: initiation, planning, execution, performance and monitoring, and closure, these create a roadmap for achieving project goals. Every organization will have its own approach, but these principles provide a reliable foundation for planning, delivery, and improvement.