Project Management Explained: Definition and Basics

1. What counts as a project?
2. What types of projects are there?
3. What is project management?
4. Why is project management important?
5. What types of project management are there?
6. Which project participants or project roles are there?
7. What are the tasks of project management?
8. What procedure models are there in project management?
9. What project management methods are there?
10. What project management phases are there?
11. Possible reasons why projects fail
12. What are success factors in project management?
13. What project management tools are there?

One often hears about project management and in most industries there is a frantic search for project managers. But what is project management actually? How can it be useful for companies? And what are the tasks of a project manager? We reveal all this and much more in this article.

What counts as a project?

Not every task that you encounter in your daily work is automatically a project. To be considered as such, a few of the following conditions should be met:

• the project pursues a very specific goal
• the project is limited in time
• only limited resources are available for the project
• the project is new and/or unique for all project participants
• the project is relatively complex
• the project requires temporary structures in the form of a project-specific organizational form.

Does this mean that routine tasks, for example, do not represent projects?

Exactly, because the key components of uniqueness and singularity are clearly missing here. When several projects have to be coordinated at the same time, one also speaks ofproject portfolio management.

Before a project can start, the scope, time, and cost are determined. These three factors are also called the magic triangle of project management. Magic because it is the art of keeping all three factors in balance. After all, they depend on each other and are in direct competition with each other. Especially the project management in start-ups is important for its existential survival, as quite a lot of - and sometimes unknown - projects come your way at the beginning of the foundation. And the faster a start-up grows, the more important is structured project management.

What types of projects are there?

A project can be grouped into different types. This is useful for making important decisions based on the type of project. These primarily include decisions that affect the right type of project management, the appropriate procedure model, and the suitable project management method. In addition, it is possible to draw on previous experience values in similar or identical types of projects, which can greatly support the project planning.

A project can be categorized according to the following aspects:

• By the project subject
• By the project size
• By the client
• By the degree of innovation

• By the procedure model

What is project management?

Many projects are complex, with the complexity referring to various areas: the project size, the project plan, or the degree of innovation of the project. For this reason, projects are implemented using project management. The task of project management is to keep the magic triangle in balance and thus successfully bring the project to its goal.

Magic triangle of project management

As already mentioned above, the magic triangle of project management consists of scope, time, and cost. The project scope specifies what individual tasks and components the respective project consists of and which goals should be achieved with it. The time specifies the start and end time of the project, but also individual deadlines within the project duration. The costs give the total budget for the project and should not be exceeded.

The following video explains the principle and the interrelationships of the magic triangle in more detail:

If one of the three components changes, this directly affects the other two factors and an imbalance can occur. As a result, it also has a strong influence on the project success.

Example:
Imagine you have a project X with already defined scope, time, and cost. Now this project is supposed to be finished four weeks earlier. What does that mean? Either it has a negative effect on the costs, because you need more personnel support to implement the planned project scope despite the less available time. Or it has a negative effect on the quality and the project scope if you cannot exceed the planned and approved project budget.

This example shows you very well what a high value project management has in the implementation of the project. Many different factors come together, whose dependencies and possible consequences must be recognized, planned and monitored.

Why is project management important?

To prevent a project from getting out of hand, the use of project management is essential. After all, projects are often associated with immense costs. Moreover, there are hardly any larger projects that run completely smoothly. And the higher the complexity of a project, the more likely it is to become confusing and no one knows where the front and back are anymore. Therefore, project management is indispensable. In an emergency, quick solution-oriented approaches and ideas are needed.

Through project management, the entire project is broken down into several partial projects, structures and roles within a project are organized, and processes are defined along with their workflows. In addition, tasks are analyzed, planned, monitored, and controlled. In order to successfully implement all this, different project methods and project procedures are used.

It is slowly becoming clear, why project management is important, right?

If you want to learn how to integrate good project management into your company, then these project management tools for companies, like ZEP or awork can help.

What types of project management are there?

Project management has evolved over time and adapted to the more innovative structures and processes in companies. That's why we want to introduce you to the different types of project management:

Classic project management

When talking about project management, what is often meant is the classic project management . Here, a standard procedure model is used. This means that the project process takes place linearly and the individual project management phases are reached and completed one after the other based on pre-defined milestones. Changes or deviations from the project plan are avoided as much as possible in order to avoid cumbersome or expensive adjustments. Thus, the focus in classic project management is on adhering to the project plan defined at the beginning.

The detailed project requirements and project plans give rise to some advantages for classic project management. The project process and project schedule are very clear and easy to understand, thus also breaking down the complexity into smaller chunks. In addition, due to previous coordination and concrete planning, constant communication between clients, project committee, and project managers is not necessary. The resources planning and distribution can also be made efficiently so that no unnecessary personnel costs arise (provided the project progresses as planned).

Every coin has two sides - this is also true in project management. Therefore, the classic project management also has disadvantages. This includes especially the lack of flexibility due to the rigid project plan. Also, often little interim results are communicated, making errors are noticed late and the possibility of counteracting in time during the project process can hardly be perceived.

Agile project management

The opposite to the previously explained classic project management is the agile project management, which is more dynamic and flexible. This means that adjustments can be made more quickly when new conditions arise.

In agile project management, all project phases are also completed in succession, but based on an iterative-incremental approach. But what exactly does that mean? What is meant is that the circle of individual project phases repeats itself and the project team gradually gets closer to the project success and communicates transparently at all times. Through this modern way of working, the project participants have the chance to give faster feedback and make faster adjustments to the project process. The advantage of this is that the project process is continuously improved.

The advantages of agile project management have thus been mentioned just now: due to the step-by-step approach and regular interim results, it is not necessary for the project participants to have a complete overview of the project with its complexities before the project starts. This simplifies project planning and adjustments can be made quickly if necessary.

The advantages of classic project management are the disadvantages of agile project management. Due to the constant exchange between all project participants, more collaboration and coordination is required here than in classic project management. This takes time. In addition, due to the step-by-step approach, no clear resource planning can be done until the end of the project because it is unpredictable how the project will develop and how long it will actually last.

If despite these challenges the agile project management convinces you, here are the 7 best agile project management tools for modern project management.

Hybrid project management

Last but not least, there is the hybrid project management. Basically, hybrid work, means combining various project management approaches. Often the classic and agile project management. Here, the agile is applied at the operational level and the classic project management at the decision-making level. The goal is to combine the advantages of both project management systems, create synergies, and use the resulting effect.

Which project participants or project roles are there?

In order for a project to be realized and implemented, different project roles are required. After all, extensive and complex tasks are not planned, organized, implemented, and supervised by just one person. No, different project participants are behind it. And we would like to introduce them to you briefly.

Client

First of all, of course, there is the client, because without a client there is no project. His or her task is to clarify the desired project requirements (in classic project management still before the project starts and in agile project management throughout the project duration), determine project goals and commission the project team including project manager.

The client has direct influence on the project success. Because the more clearly and clearly the requirements and goals are formulated and clarified, the more realistic a cost and time plan can be drawn up. Which in turn affects the achievement of the project goal.

In addition, the highest decision-making authority always lies with the client. This also means that he or she has the decision-making power in the event of unforeseen and sudden complications during the project duration. Unless this responsibility is delegated, and transferred to the project committee, for example.

Project Committee

The project committee is sometimes also referred to as the steering committee. The role of the project committee is to support the client in strategic decisions and to represent his or her project concerns. They also play an important and supportive role in problem solving and the actual project organization.

Project Manager

As the word suggests, project managers manage a project. This means that they take over the operational planning and monitoring of the project and lead the project team. That's why project managers are also referred to as project leaders. In addition to planning, monitoring, and leadership, project managers also assign areas of responsibility and jurisdictions to individual team members. They ensure that the project keeps running.

When complications or challenges arise, project managers are the ones who look for solutions. After all, they have to justify and account for the project work and the project success to the client.

Project managers are therefore in close contact with the client and the project committee. All kinds of progress, challenges, and goal achievements are reported to them.

Project Team

The project team is responsible for the practical implementation and the achievement of the project goals. As a rule, the project team consists of the project manager and the team members. The project team members have different technical competencies that are relevant for the implementation of the project and complement each other. As a result, each team member takes on a fixed role and fixed responsibilities in the project. So that the project execution and project communication can be implemented as efficiently as possible, usually all team members have an understanding of project management methods and tasks.

In addition, it plays a role that the individual team members also match on a human level, i.e. personally and in terms of character. Otherwise, it can make teamwork in the project team difficult. Especially in smaller project teams, this point should not be neglected.

The size of the project team is directly related to the project size. If the project is large and complex, more man and woman power is needed than if a less extensive project is pending. In principle, the team size should be: As small as possible and as large as necessary. This means that a project team should not be inflated unnecessarily, because otherwise the efficient team communication and the quick decision-making could suffer. Experts recommend not deploying more than seven project participants for a project.

Another characteristic of project team members is that they usually accompany the project from the beginning to the end and thus work on the project and for the project for the entire duration of the project.

What are the tasks of project management?

That project management can be very comprehensive, you have surely noticed by now. But also the following excerpt of possible project management tasks makes the scope and complexity visible again. Many of these tasks are also taken over by the project leader.

We have tried to assign the tasks roughly to the three different phases. But of course, there is not only black and white here, so some tasks could belong in two phases.

Project management tasks during planning

• Clarification of orders
• Contracts
• Financing
• Schedule, timeline, resource, cost planning
• Environmental analysis
• Risk management
• Goal formulation
• Procurement

Project management tasks during implementation

• Communication techniques
• Presentation
• Moderation
• Team leadership
• Stakeholder management
• Quality management
• Conflict management
• Negotiations
• Regulations
• Compliance
• Controlling, e.g. with ZEP
• Documentation

Project management tasks during control / monitoring

• Change management
• Problem solving

What procedure models are there in project management?

As the name already suggests, procedure models indicate how the project should be implemented or how the implementation should proceed. As you have already seen, projects in classic project management run rather linearly and iteratively in agile project management.

From both categories, we briefly introduce you to three different procedure models. However, we only go into more detail on the two most common procedure models of classic and agile project management.

Procedure models in classic project management

• Waterfall model
• V-model

Waterfall model

In project management, the waterfall model exactly represents what many associate with classic project management. Here, all project phases are clearly defined, worked through one after the other (i.e. linearly) and only run through once. Once the first phase is completed, the second phase begins. Once the second phase is completed, the third phase begins. And so it goes on until all project phases have been run through. The workflow thus flows from one phase to the next until the project goal is reached.

V-model

The V-model is mostly used in software development. Also like the waterfall model, it is a linear procedure model in project management. The difference here is that there are additional testing phases in the V-model, which are opposite the individual project phases. This way, the individual functions developed for the software are tested, resulting in an implementable overall model at the end.

Procedure models in agile project management

• Scrum
• Kanban
• Extreme Programming

Scrum

Scrum is probably one of the most well-known and also popular procedure models of agile project management. The Scrum framework consists of Scrum teams and their roles, as well as of events, artifacts, and rules.

In Scrum there is no project manager, but only a product owner, a Scrum master and the development team. Rather than all the project management tasks lying with the project manager, in Scrum all tasks are distributed among the three named positions.

• Thus, the product owner is responsible for the project content and project planning.
• The Scrum master then takes on the responsibility for the project implementation and deals with any challenges that may arise.
• The development team finally assumes the actual project implementation with all that entails.

Kanban

Originally, Kanban was a method for scheduling in production at Toyota, which is still very popular today. Kanban is based on three principles: visualization, limitation, and improvement.

What is meant is that all pending tasks are visually displayed to get an overview of the upcoming work. These individual tasks can be assigned to the different, successive work departments. And here is where the limitation of ongoing work takes place: Each department can only take in a certain maximum amount of work. If the maximum in a department is reached, it can only continue to work when the department following it takes away some of the work. This approach makes it apparent where an "overload" and thus a need for action for continuous improvement exists.

What project management methods are there?

For the different procedure models, there are different project management methods, which are applied for the project implementation. Here again the project management methods differ after the classic and the agile model.

For the typical procedure models waterfall and V-model in classic project management, the following methods are applied:

• Network planning technique
• Risk analysis
• Phase planning
• Effort estimation
• Milestone trend analysis
• Project structure planning

For the typical procedure models Scrum and Kanban in agile project management, the following methods are used:

• Daily Scrum
• Kanban Board
• Backlog Management

If you want to know more about procedure models and project management methods, then read our article on the eight most used project management methods and learn how to find the right method.

If you are interested in the Kanban board method, we have put together the 7 best tools for Digital Kanban Boards for you.

What project management phases are there?

As you now know, project management consists of different phases, which are run through linearly or iteratively depending on the type of project management. In general, a project can be planned in five to six phases. Depending on whether the project monitoring and project management are a common or separate phase, you have either five or six project management phases.

1. Phase: Project Start:

During the project start, all necessary requirements, wishes, and goals are discussed and recorded. In order for the project to start successfully, it is advisable to hold a so-called Kick-Off-Meeting.

2. Phase: Project Planning:

In this project phase, all information from the first phase is collected and brought into a logical project planning, which includes all necessary tasks, milestones, personnel planning, and the determination of responsibilities.

3. Phase: Project Implementation:

During the project implementation, all defined tasks are implemented by the project team according to the defined procedure model and the defined project management method.

4. Phase: Project Monitoring and Project Management:

Especially in complex and large projects, project monitoring and project management are extremely important. These are carried out by the project management leader and if necessary project adjustments are made.

5. Phase: Project Completion:

An essential phase of project management is project completion. Because in this phase, not only the finished project is celebrated, but also the entire project process and the achievement of the project goal are reflected by those responsible. This serves to take these experiences with you into the next project.

On the topic of project management phases, we have written an article that deals with deeper information and explanations about the different project management phases. That's why the individual phases are only briefly treated here. So feel free to read the linked article if you want to delve deeper into the topic.

Possible reasons why projects fail

Not every project becomes a success. After all, according to a Hays study from 2015, about every sixth project fails. There can be many reasons for this. Here we would like to name the most common reasons that lead to a project failure:

• Poor communication between the project participants
• Unclear project requirements and goals
• Lack of resources at project start and / or too few qualified project participants
• Too little project management experience among the project participants
• Insufficient planning of the project

What are success factors in project management?

With certain success factors, the failure of a project can be avoided. Instead, you can make sure that your project becomes successful and you achieve the previously defined project goals.

In principle, the project management success factors result from the reasons for project failure mentioned above. Nevertheless, we would like to present them to you briefly here:

• Well coordinated project requirements and goals as well as a concrete planning is the A and O for successfully conducted projects.
• To match the project requirements and project size, the appropriate personnel with technical know-how, project management experience, and project management skills are needed. In addition, the project participants should also be used in the right places - namely where their core competencies lie.
• For efficient and goal-oriented project implementation, both project management methodologies and methods as well as suitable software and working material are essential.
• In addition to hard skills, soft skills are totally important - especially teamwork, assertiveness, motivation, communication skills, leadership skills

What project management tools are there?

Wow, project management is really a big, varied, and complex subject. Implementing this into your own company is not that easy. But luckily, there are useful project management software,that can help you with the implementation.

You can also start with a free project management tool, like e.g. ZEP to see if it's something for you and your company at all. We can especially recommend Asana and Trello here. And if, for example, you want to know how to use Asana properly , then click on the link now and learn the best practices. These were compiled by the international online marketing group Finc3.

Asana and Trello don't suit you? No problem, because on OMR Reviews you will find many Asana alternatives and Trello alternatives, including reviews from real users. And because you can quickly lose track of the number of software providers, we want to introduce you to the 12 best project management tools here, in addition to Asana and Trello:

• monday
• Jira
• awork
• MOCO
• MeisterTask
• Notion
• Joinpoints
• Stackfield
• Wrike
• Overview
• Basecamp
• ClickUp

You want more precision? Then take a look at our OMR Reviews Software Guide to Project Management, in which, based on over 500 customer ratings, we have created a comparison of the most popular project management tools. In the briefing, we provide you with some decision-making aids and compare the various tools with regard to pricing models, server location, and method focus. And of course, there is also an OMR-Reviews-Grid again, which introduces you to the market leaders among the project management tools.