How a Project Works
The concept of ITS projects and project management may seem a little foreign to university faculty and staff. We've created this page to identify the phases you'll go through when you request a project, including some of the project management terminology used.
What Happens During the Project Management Cycle
The Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) is a series of phases that a project passes through from identification to closeout. The PMO utilizes this life cycle for each project.
The goal of the Identification Phase is to ensure that the projects in an organization's portfolio are aligned with its strategic goals and to control and prioritize projects coming into an organization.
While the Project Manager generally has limited involvement in this phase, this process must be in place in order to have effective project management within an organization.
ITS prioritizes and reviews all project requests on a monthly basis, on the first Wednesday of each month. This enables us to complete an appreciable amount of work between reviews, thus facilitating more accurate time and resource estimates.
If your project requires an earlier review due to mandated time sensitivity, security/safety issues, or criticality to university missions, please contact Project Manager Vikki Massey at vmercer@uthsc.edu or (901) 448-8040.
Activity
- Request project (request form) (template)
- Prioritize project (prioritization model)
Action Items | Major Output |
Receive project requests | Prioritization score and category |
Score and categorize requests | |
Determine project type | |
Estimate start date |
The purpose of the Initiation Phase is to develop the Project Charter to formalize project goals and deliverables, identify project participants, and establish roles and responsibilities.
Activity
Action Items | Major Output |
Provide high-level project overview | Project charter |
Identify project manager | |
Get sponsor/champion sign-off | |
Identify stakeholders |
The Planning Phase is critical to a project’s success. A well thought-out project plan provides clear direction and understanding of team member’s contributions to the success of the project.
The planning phase answers the following questions:
- How will the work be accomplished?
- Who will perform the work?
- What, exactly, is the work to be done?
- When will the work be done?
In the Planning Phase, the Project Manager and project leads work with the team to create the Communication Plan, the initial Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and Project Schedule which includes tasks, time, resources, and effort estimates for the project. The Project Schedule is progressively elaborated until all relevant areas of the chartered project have been addressed.
Activity
- Identify and analyze stakeholders (worksheet)
- Start requirements gathering (template)
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (template)
Action Items | Major Output |
Collect requirements | Project plan |
Finalize scope | |
Document project team members and roles/responsibilities | |
Create work breakdown structure | |
Create work schedule | |
Create communication plan | |
Establish change control process |
The executing and monitoring phases of the project management lifecycle consists of completing and managing the work required to meet the project objectives. This phase also ensures that the project performance is monitored and adjustments to the project schedule are made as needed.
Activity
- Track and manage issues, decisions, risks, and changes (template)
- Execution and monitoring review (template)
Action Item | Major Output |
Perform the work | Completed deliverables |
Measure the work | Change requests |
Manage the work | |
Compare planned vs. actual | |
Take corrective or preventive action |
The purpose of the Closeout Phase is to confirm completion of project deliverables to the satisfaction of the project sponsor, and to communicate final project disposition and status to all participants and stakeholders. The project closure period also reviews the successes and challenges of the project for future reference.
Activity
- Gather lessons learned (template)
- Handoff product (transition plan template)
- Conduct closing meeting (checklist)
Action Item | Major Output |
Formally accept final product | Project review and acceptance |
Transition product to operations | Lessons learned |
Collect lessons learned | |
Release project team | |
Archive project documents |