What is Project Management?

Project Management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to pre-agreed project parameters. Project management has final deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget. The construction of a building, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market, a marketing campaign for an artist’s forthcoming album – these are all examples of projects.

Project Management Software is a collection of digital Project Management tools used by a wide range of industries for project planning, resource allocation and scheduling. It enables project managers as well as entire teams to control their budget, quality management and all documentation exchanged throughout a project, and features the below project management tools:

All of these tools can be accessed via desktop or mobile devices keeping your business responsive and agile. The less time wasted on admin, the more time can be spent actually getting things done.

What types of businesses require Project Management?

Industries that use project management software include construction, manufacturing, engineering, architecture, and real estate development. Project managers work in many different industries, but of the most common types of businesses that apply project management to deliver services are:

Field Service & Trades Businesses
Creative & Design Agencies
Consultancies
Construction & Development Services
Engineering Firms
IT Services
Accounting and Bookkeeping Firms

But there are many, many more types of business and several more relevant industries (for example, landscaping, painting, wedding planners) that can all use project management software to organise and streamline their work. Likewise, there are many types of job roles that can benefit from project management software: Project Managers (of course…), Service Coordinator, Business Owners, Tradespeople and Engineers of various industries can all help their business grow with Project Management Software and bespoke Project Management Tools.

What are the stages of Project Management?

Project Management can be a unique process for every project manager or business, but there are five widely agreed-upon stages or phases within the project management life cycle, that most project managers work with; according to the Project Management Institute, they are:

These stages don’t need to happen in one set order, and many can be carried out at the same time. Also, it’s important to remember that info collected at one stage is often necessary to carry out another activity further on in the cycle (for example, timesheet management and work-in-progress management). This is known as Critical Chain Project Management and by following these steps, you can ensure project success:

1. Project Initiation

The beginnings of the project. The goal of this phase is to define the project at a very general level. This is when you will research whether the project is feasible and if it should be undertaken. If feasibility testing needs to be done, this is the stage of the project in which that will be completed. This is when sign off from stakeholders happen and you can begin moving into the planning stage.

2. Project Planning

This phase is key to successful project management and focuses on developing a roadmap that everyone will follow. This phase typically begins with setting goals. Here are some of the documents that a Project Manager will create during this phase, to ensure the project stays on schedule and on budget:

- Scope Statement: A document that defines the business need, benefits of the project, objectives, deliverables, and key milestones.
- Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS): This is a visual representation that breaks down the scope of the project into manageable sections for the team.
- Milestones: Identify high-level goals that need to be met throughout the project and include them in the Gantt chart.
- Gantt Chart: A visual timeline that you can use to plan out tasks and visualise your project timeline.
- Communication Plan: This is of particular importance if your project involves outside stakeholders. Develop the proper messaging around the project and create a schedule of when to communicate with team members based on deliverables and milestones.
- Risk Management Plan: Identify all foreseeable risks. Common risks include unrealistic time and cost estimates, customer review cycle, budget cuts, changing requirements, and lack of committed resources.

3. Project Execution

This is the part where deliverables are developed and actually completed. A lot happens in this phase, like status reports and meetings, development updates, and performance reports. A “kick-off” meeting usually marks the start of the Project Execution phase where the team members involved are informed of their responsibilities. Work begins, and often, so does the next phase, simultaneously:

4. Project Performance & Monitoring

This is all about measuring project performance and ensuring that everything happening aligns with the project management plan. Project managers will use key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine if the project is on track. Check out this excellent blog post on the sorts of KPI’s that trades, field service and construction businesses might want to track, along with the benefits of doing so! But in a more general project management sense, you might want to track and review the below:

Project Objectives: Measuring whether or not a project is on schedule and budget is an indication if the project will meet the project stakeholder's objectives.
Effort / Cost Tracking: This tracks the effort and cost of resources to see if the budget is on track. This type of tracking informs if a project will meet its completion date based on current performance.
Quality Deliverables: This determines if specific task deliverables are being met.
Project Performance: This monitors changes in the project. It takes into consideration the amount and types of issues that arise and how quickly they are addressed. These can occur from unforeseen hurdles and scope changes.

5. Project Closure

This final phase is the completed project. Contractors hired to work specifically on the project are terminated at this time. Once the project is complete, a Project Manager will often hold a meeting to evaluate what went well in a project and discuss areas of improvement. This is a key part of the Project Management methodology, and leads to learning and useful insights.

Project Managers will likely still have a few tasks to complete event after the project is complete. They will need to create a project punch-list of things that didn’t get accomplished during the project and work with team members to complete them. Perform a final project budget and prepare a final project report. Finally, they will need to collect all project documents and deliverables and store them in a single place. And of course, ensure they get paid too!

Project Management: powering efficiency, innovation and insight

Project Management has always been practiced informally, but it began to emerge as a distinct and formalised profession in the mid-20th century when forward-thinking individuals and businesses in the aerospace, engineering, pharmaceutical and telecommunications fields realised a changing and increasingly digital world needed new tools. Motivated by the need to address the scheduling and resource issues associated with increasingly complex projects, they began to set down and standardise the tools for a new profession, and Project Management methodologies were born.

Projects are the driving force behind how a lot of work is completed, change is realised and value is delivered. A basic knowledge of project management can provide value to people with a variety of roles in a vast range of endeavours. Project management skills can help a student working on a science project get their work completed on time, or a corporate executive settle personality disputes. These skills can help a nurse streamline shift changes to improve patient response times on their ward. They can help an IT professional deliver innovative software in record time or help a government agency improve the services they provide in a more economical manner.

Ready to try some Project Management software?

Why not try a Project Management Software and find out how it can help your business grow!

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Frequently Asked Questions

You can start using Workever today. To get started, you can start a free trial or if you have 5 or more members of staff, you can schedule a product demo. When you first sign up for a free trial we will send you an email with your username, password and a link to access your account.

You start with a 14 day free trial which lets you try everything Workever has to offer. At the end of your trial you can then enter payment details and continue with your account. If you have entered any dummy data whilst testing, that can also be cleared whenever you are ready. If the software doesn’t work for you, then no further action is required and it will automatically cancel at the end of your trial.

No! Our plans are month to month with no contract. We do however offer annual plans if this works best for you, with a saving of up to 15% on your subscription.

Yes! You pay a price per user per month. Check our pricing page for full info depending on your company size.

A user license is either a desktop administrator working in the office or a mobile Fieldworker based out in the Field. Users can also be both if required without an extra cost.

Yes. You can set a user up to have access to the fieldworker mobile app and the desktop office software, you don’t need to purchase two licences for this. But you can also buy mobile fieldworker only licenses if you require more than 10 users.

The software has been designed with ease of use at the forefront. Staff will be able to use the system straight away with limited help. We also have guides to help you get started. If you need any further training or have custom requirements this can be arranged by contacting us.

Yes. You can import customers and your stock list via Excel file. We provide templates for these that you populate. If you are using accounting software Xero or Quickbooks you can also import your chart of accounts, stock, customers and tax rates automatically.