Question

Detail the steps in an implementation plan (Gantt Chart) for fire and safety management based on the five project management process groups .

Answer 1

The project management process is a series of phases that represent the evolution of a product—from concept to delivery, maturity, and finally retirement.

The project management process is made up of 5 essential steps:

1. Project initiation & conception
2. Project planning
3. Project execution
4. Project monitoring & control
5. Project closure

Step 1: Project initiation & conception

The objective is to identify the why behind the project and the project goals—usually the business case—and to do preliminary research on project feasibility. What happens here will set the tone and goals for what’s to come.

A project usually arises from a business need or goal aimed at solving a problem or exploring new ways to do business. For instance, if a company is looking to cut down the number of customer service calls they receive, they’ll research and explore what’s driving the number of calls. That research will then inform what can be done to reduce the number of calls.

The best way to understand the challenges and goals is through a project brief that outlines the purpose and needs of the project in conjunction with the business case. This kind of background is invaluable to a team when kicking off a project. It’s also a great way to get all involved parties and stakeholders aligned on what’s to come.

Step 2: Project planning

The project planning phase is where you’ll lay out every detail of the plan from beginning to end. The plan you create here will lead your team through the execution, performance, and closure phases of the project management process.

As part of your project plan, you’ll want to consider these factors:

• Project scope
• Project estimation
• General workflow and process
• Team roles and responsibilities
• Key project milestones (like deliverable reviews and meeting)

Project scope

It’s recommended that you start by defining your project scope. There are several ways to define scope. Just make sure you have a sense for how much time you want to spend on the overall project. Projects tend to go off the rails without some level of constraint or control. There’s no problem with setting guardrails during the project planning phase and readjusting later if needed.

Project estimation

When it comes to estimating, you might want to use a work breakdown structure (WBS) to help identify tasks and effort. A WBS is a visual layout that breaks out the scope of a project.

Once you’ve made your time and effort estimates, you can create a project plan that lays out phases, tasks, resources, responsibilities, milestones, and deadlines. This is a critical step in managing your project, so take your time and think through every step with your team.

The gantt chart—that is well-defined, readable, and easy to update.

Gantt charts are easy to read and are commonly used to display schedule activities. These charts display the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and
summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships (i.e., precedence network) between activities.
A Gantt chart can be drawn quickly and easily and is
often the first tool a project manager uses to provide a rough estimate of the time that it will take to complete the key tasks. Sometimes it is useful to start with the
target deadline for completion of the whole project, because it is soon apparent if the timescale is too short or unnecessarily long. The detailed Gantt chart is usually constructed after the main objectives have been determined.

Step 3: Project execution

In this project phase, the team is off and running! The execution stage is typically the longest in the project management process because it’s when the actual work is done. You’ll find teams collaborating, reviewing work, presenting to stakeholders, and revising.

In the previous project planning phase, a project manager does a lot of heavy-lifting. During project execution, a project manager guides the team—and stakeholders—through a series of milestones.

In this project management step, a project manager is typically responsible for:

• Budget management
• Timeline management
• Resource planning
• Change management
• Risk management
• Quality management
• Internal deliverable reviews
• Communications and facilitation
• Meeting management

As was mentioned in the previous section, a project brief, scope, and plan serve as their source of truth.

At the same time, a project manager needs to be tuned-in to what’s happening with the team. This can be done through regular team check-ins, conversations, status reports, and timeline review and budget tracking.

Step 4: Project monitoring & control

The project runs smoothly and ensuring things go according to plan. As part of the project monitoring phase, you should keep an eye on:

• Budgets
• Timelines
• Project goals
• Quality of deliverables
• Team performance

Project goals

Be sure you fully understand and embrace the project goals. Use those goals to help make decisions about design, functionality, and any new requests.

Quality of deliverables

When it comes to quality, you need to consult with leadership on company standards. As a best practice, review all deliverables before they’re sent out or presented for review. First review them as a team, then individually as the project manager. Be the person who not only manages process, but also cares about the work. Your team and stakeholders will love you for it.

Team performance

As a project manager, you’re not typically responsible for the management of people. Your role is to look out for the project. But the success of a project depends on the team working on it. If you see someone slacking or even unintentionally dropping the ball, it’s your job to address it. Just make sure you find the right avenues to address the problems and be empathetic when handling performance issues with team members.

Step 5: Project closure

When your project is complete and everyone is happy with what’s been delivered, tested, and released, it’s time to wrap up. In the project closure phase, the team will complete the steps needed to close tasks, hand off the project to stakeholders, finalize any reporting, and celebrate the project.

Many organizations move from one project to the next and don’t take time to properly close down a project. It’s a smart move to take a few hours to properly close, reflect, and even celebrate a project.

Celebrate the project

‍Organize a small party over lunch or after work to get the team and stakeholders together to acknowledge the hard work done and the great product produced.

Hold a retrospective meeting

Conduct a retrospective meeting where you discuss what did and did not go well. Record the outcomes and share the notes within your company to improve your next project.

Create a project closure report

Write on the project with details that might be useful for your organization. Information to include might be:

• Project name
• Stated goals
• Date of initiation
• Stated deadline vs. actual date of delivery
• Project budget vs. actual budget used
• Team members involved
• Stakeholders involved
• Project issues and pain points
• Project wins
• General comments

Take the time to reflect on your work so that you can continue to be better.

If there’s no budget, that’s fine. A high-five, or a nice message to the team works really well when it comes to team morale. As the project manager, the more you can be a cheerleader for your team, the better experience you’ll have working with them.

Put the project management process to work

Processes and frameworks are great to have in your back pocket. But remember, every organization runs differently. You have to consider the people, institutional history, challenges, and existing practices before you roll something out. Motivations and empathy are everything in project management's.

I tried my best to explain the solution I hope that you got the answer so please appreciate the effort by liking it.