Launch Project and Make It a Success

Different projects require entirely different methods, processes and strategies. For example building a country-house differ sharply from software development. Despite serious differences, any project passes some necessary stages that are collectively known as a project lifecycle.

1. The idea, the initiation and setting
The idea or the goal of project – is that which you receive when the project ends. Before starting any project you must imagine exactly what you have to do, because this is the only way to achieve the goal of the project.

2. Planning the project
When you have a clear grasp of the project goals, you’ll need to carefully plan out how you will achieve them. At this stage you’ll have to define which efforts you have to make, which resources are necessary, how much time it will take and how much it will cost.

3. Project execution
You’ve gathered all the necessary materials, assigned all tasks, and now you can breathe deeply and start working on the project. Whether you’ve got workers or you are working alone, the main thing is that you have to remember which tasks you have and what the right order to get them done. Naturally, you also need to do a little bit of work.

4. Finishing the project
May be you need to write up some reports, transfer some materials or carry out some administrative work. Maybe you made this project for yourself and now there is time to calm down and draw out conclusions or simply archive documents. In any case, the project always includes some kind of additional post-project tasks in which you need to process your results and transfer that knowledge into your future projects.

You probably have a lot of things to do. You might have a demanding job or maybe you’re a student living under the pressure of your next examination, or you work from home. But no matter what you are constantly busy with work either for yourself or for other people. It could be anything: coordination of events, preparation for presentations, running a business meeting, decorating your house, passing an exam and even making a massive sandwich. How would you recognize what job is a project and what job is not?

To put it plainly a project is a job that is unique in its objectives and its final outcome is defined. In other words every project has to achieve a certain goal within a certain amount of time and under certain circumstances.

The chief criteria by witch to tell a project from a non-project job are the following three rules:

• A project displays clear desirable outcomes, which can be defined in words.
• A project has a beginning and an end. Big projects might be quite lengthy but they will not be infinite.
• A project relies on certain resources — finances, workforce, equipment or information.

All three of the above parts are balanced and interdependent, what means that if you shift one of them, you shift all of them. If the desirable outcome is increased despite the initial planning it will without a doubt shift the deadline forward and quite likely affect the budget. If a deadline is pushed forward, the eventual outcome will, most likely, fail to meet the desirable result.

Projects may be confused with other activities such as accounting, regular delivery of equipment or order processing. The difference of such an activity from a real project is mainly that the former does not have a deadline and is not directed to meet any unique objectives. However some single stages of such an activity may also be classed as projects within their own right.

The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from the Latin verb projicere, “to throw something forwards” which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes something that precedes the action of the next part of the word in time and jacere, “to throw”. The word “project” thus actually originally meant “something that comes before anything else happens”. When the English language initially adopted the word, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project became known as an “object”. This use of “project” changed in the 1950s with the introduction of several techniques for project management. Use of the word “project” evolved slightly to cover both projects and objects. However, certain projects continue to include so-called objects and object leaders.

Part of Wikipedia article

Of course, all projects differ. For example some of the differences are:

• The scale and the length of a project (making a paper plane or building a factory)
• The size of the workforce
• Whether it’s done for yourself or a third party
• Whether it’s done under a formal contract or just as a friendly agreement

In the end it does not matter how big or complicated your project is. Its chief methods of planning and management will remain the same. The better you understand these methods the more successful you are likely to become.