What is project management in practice?

A project manager is responsible for making things come off paper and become reality, within expected time, budget and quality.

But let’s start with the basics. To understand project management, I first need to explain what a project is.

What is a project anyway

A project is something temporary and unique that you do to create a specific result. Temporary because it has defined start and end. Unique because it’s not something you do every day the same way.

Examples I’ve managed are mobile app development, implementing a new system in the company, building an e-commerce. Each of these had a clear objective, determined deadline and specific resources.

There’s a difference between project and operation, which many end up confusing with project. Operation is what you do every day as routine (serving customers, producing products, processing orders). Project is that special initiative to create something new or improve something existing.

Project management is orchestrating all this

Project management is applying knowledge, skills and tools to make the project happen. It’s like being the conductor of an orchestra where each musician has an important part, but needs to play at the right time.

In practice, it means I need to plan who will do what, when, with how much money, what risks can appear and how we’ll communicate during the whole process.

I’ve worked on 3-month projects and others of 2 years. The size changes, but the essence is always the same: coordinating people, resources and expectations to deliver a result.

The 5 moments of every project

Every project goes through 5 phases, always. It can be a one-week project or two years, but these phases exist.

Initiation is when we decide “let’s do this project”. Here we define what we want to achieve, who the stakeholders are and if it’s really worth doing.

Planning is the most critical phase in my experience. It’s when we detail how we’re going to do it, how much it will cost, how long it will take, who will participate. Plan poorly here, suffer later.

Execution is getting hands dirty. Where work actually happens.

Monitoring and Control happens together with execution. It’s keeping an eye on whether we’re on the right track, if budget is ok, if we’ll deliver on time.

Closure is finishing everything properly. Deliver to client, document what we learned, release the team, close contracts.

The 10 areas I need to master

PMBOK defines 10 knowledge areas that every project manager needs to know. In practice, they’re the aspects managed simultaneously.

Integration is keeping everything connected and aligned. Scope is controlling what’s included (and especially what’s not). Time is managing schedules and deadlines. Costs is controlling budget and expenses.

Quality is ensuring the result meets criteria. Human Resources is managing the team. Communication is keeping everyone informed. Risks is anticipating and managing problems.

Procurement is managing suppliers and contracts. Stakeholders is managing expectations of all people involved.

It seems like a lot, but in practice you develop these skills naturally as you gain experience.

Poorly managed projects cost dearly. I’ve seen projects blow 200% of budget, delay months or be cancelled because they lost focus.

With adequate management, you drastically increase success chances. Stakeholders stay informed, team knows what to do, risks are controlled and final result meets expectations.

In my experience, the difference between a successful project and a disaster usually lies in planning quality and communication during execution.

Project management is not bureaucracy, it’s a structured way to transform ideas into reality.