Launch Project and Make It a Success

Unfortunately there is no single method of breaking up your project into appropriate stages and phases, otherwise everybody would be using same method. Basically as there are no two identical projects there are no two identical ways of getting your project divided into stages. So, when chunking up your project, its best to rely on your experience, project conditions and intuition. The only rule you need to follow is to keep to the 4 stages described in the Project Lifecycle post.

However difficult the task of breaking up a project might appear, some relatively accurate calculations may be used in this process.  Of course, these are only very generic figures, given in percentages from the overall length of a project. Each individual project has to undergo individual working out of its stages’ timescales anyway, especially if you are not overseeing the project full time.

1. The Idea

Defining the idea behind your project and setting clear objective(s) might take something between 1 and 5% of overall time budgeted for the entire project. During this stage you also would be expected to budget for any alternative outcome of the project you overseeing.

2. The Planning

Planning should not take more than 9 — 15% of your project’s overall length. For some this might seem like a rather generous chunk, but planning is a very important phase. The better is your planning the better you prepare yourself for any unexpected events that might pop up during your project’s execution.

3. The Execution

First two stages might take something between 10 and 20% of the overall time. The project’s realization should take between 65 and 80%, depending on how much was taken up by the first two stages. Also it is highly recommended that some of this time would be given to troubleshooting — an unavoidable process while realizing a project.

4. Finishing off

Something between 10 and 15% of your time should be enough to deal with whatever bits and bobs you are going to have left after the main work is done. When you get to this stage you will know why you need all this time.

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.