Successfully managing a project is an incredibly valuable skill for nearly any role in any business today. Yet, with a constantly evolving landscape of frameworks, jargon, and concepts, knowing the exact steps to manage a project effectively can feel challenging. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, you can learn a clear, actionable roadmap to guide your projects from start to finish.
Whether you're currently leading a project, aspire to in the future, or want to sharpen your organizational skills, following modern project management best practices is key to staying ahead. You can avoid common pitfalls like scope creep, feeling overwhelmed, or disorganization by following these specific steps to manage any project effectively, from its inception to successful completion.
This post will cover:
It will also share the 14 steps of managing a project:
- Research your project and identify its purpose
- Create a clear vision statement
- Choose an appropriate framework
- Select your team and communicate effectively
- Define the project scope and delegate tasks
- Identify and plan for project risks
- Engage stakeholders proactively
- Build your product roadmap
- Check for adequate resources
- Get smart with scheduling
- Choose the appropriate software
- Run a strong project kick-off meeting
- Review progress and adjust accordingly
- Celebrate achievements
What is project management?
Project management is the strategic action of leading a team through a structured process to complete work on time, within budget, and to the required quality. It involves expertly managing every aspect of a project — including people, tools, deliverables, and expectations — to meet all defined requirements.
Project management can be internally focused (e.g., optimizing an internal process) or client-facing (e.g., launching a new customer product). Businesses across all sectors leverage project management to achieve diverse goals, such as creating engaging marketing content, developing a new digital product or service, optimizing supply chains, and much more.
Virtually any business process can benefit immensely from a structured project management approach. Learning how to manage projects effectively can help you:
- Meet deadlines more consistently.
- Improve overall project outcomes and quality.
- Simplify task delegation and accountability.
- Ensure all project requirements are fully met.
Instead of allowing projects to drift without oversight, effective project management ensures a guiding hand, steering projects through an approved process that significantly increases the team’s chances of success. While every organization has its unique nuances, following these 14 essential steps can help you manage any project from start to finish.
1. Research your project and identify its purpose.
Before officially launching any new project, it’s crucial to conduct initial research and define its core purpose. The primary goal here is to identify the legitimate business needs that the project aims to address.
Ask yourself what specific problem this project is trying to solve. For instance, it might be improving your app’s user experience to boost subscriber retention or making the public aware of your newest product to drive sales. You should also determine why it's important to allocate resources to this project now. For example, while marketing projects are vital, it makes little sense to market a product that's still riddled with bugs heavily. Constraints such as budget limitations, available skill sets, and strict timelines also play a significant role in which projects you prioritize.
Keep in mind that project managers aren’t always solely responsible for this initial strategic stage. In many organizations, this responsibility might fall to a product owner, senior manager, or executive, defining the problem before the project manager takes over execution.
2. Create a clear vision statement.
A vision statement clearly articulates your project's core idea and lays out the foundational blueprint for its strategic plan. Think of this as your "elevator pitch" for the entire project. You can create a compelling vision statement by following a simple, structured formula:
- For (target customer) - Identify the primary audience or user who will benefit from the product.
- Who (statement of the need) - Clearly articulate this audience's biggest pain point or unmet need.
- The (product/service name) is a (product category) - Introduce the basics of your product, including its name and its high-level function.
- That (main product/service benefit and compelling reason to purchase/use) - Explain your biggest differentiator and the core value it provides.
- Unlike (primary competitive alternative) - Shed light on a common practice by competitors that your target audience dislikes or finds inadequate.
- Our product (final statement of primary differentiation) - Highlight how your solution uniquely addresses the problem and stands out in the market.
Here’s an example of a complete vision statement:
3. Choose an appropriate framework.
If you're learning how to manage a project, understanding the various project management methodologies or frameworks available to you is crucial. The purpose of a framework is to provide a structured approach for how work should be prioritized, completed, and visualized. Choose from these widely used frameworks to optimize your project management approach:
- Waterfall: Also known as traditional project management, Waterfall involves a linear, sequential approach. You complete a series of defined steps in strict order, with thorough documentation at each stage, and typically test the product only at the very end. Waterfall works well for simpler projects with minimal ambiguity and very stable requirements, but it's not ideal if you anticipate frequent iterations or need to incorporate ongoing feedback.
- Kanban: Kanban is a highly visual project management method focused on managing workflow. You use either physical or digital Kanban board to represent tasks moving through different stages like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done." Kanban excels at visualizing multiple projects or tasks simultaneously and optimizing workflow by limiting work-in-progress. However, it can become cluttered for projects with an extremely high number of granular, unrelated moving parts.
- Scrum: The Scrum approach requires teams to complete work in short, fast-paced iterations called "sprints" (typically 1-4 weeks). In each sprint, the team focuses on completing a small, shippable increment of work. Daily stand-up meetings keep the team aligned on progress and challenges. Scrum is excellent for adding structure and predictability to tasks with defined turnaround times, but its fast-paced, collaborative nature requires highly engaged and adequately staffed teams.
- Agile: Agile is an overarching project management philosophy that champions iterative development, continuous testing, and rapid adaptation to user feedback. Projects work in sprints, much like Scrum, though Agile sprints can sometimes be longer. Agile was originally designed for iterative software development, but its principles of flexibility and responsiveness are now applied across diverse industries. It's ideal for iterative projects that require quick responses to feedback, but it thrives in environments with cross-functional teams and active stakeholder involvement.
- Hybrid (e.g., "Wagile"): Many organizations today opt for hybrid approaches that blend elements of Waterfall and Agile. For instance, a project might follow a Waterfall structure for initial planning and architectural design (where requirements are more stable), then switch to Agile sprints for the development and testing phases. This allows for upfront clarity combined with iterative flexibility.
4. Select your team and communicate effectively.
Once you choose a project management methodology, your next critical step is to identify the right people to help you with the project and clearly define their roles and responsibilities. While it's tempting to bring more people into the fold, smaller, focused teams are generally more agile and efficient, so aim to keep your core team as streamlined as possible. At a minimum, your team should typically include the project sponsor, subject matter experts to define the scope and requirements, and a dedicated project manager.
Next, establish clear and consistent communication channels with your team. Schedule regular meetings (e.g., weekly syncs, daily stand-ups for Agile teams) to ensure everyone has the most recent updates and understands the plan of action. As a project manager, you must keep every team member informed, provide frequent status updates, and proactively address any blockers. Vocalize requirements, deadlines, and any additional context that could affect your project, such as other ongoing initiatives competing for company resources.
5. Define the project scope and delegate tasks.
One of the keys to successful project management is establishing realistic project scope. You need to determine the project's boundaries, the team’s limits, and precisely what you will and will not address with this project. When in doubt, it’s always best to keep a project’s initial scope concise and manageable. You can always plan subsequent phases or projects after completing the initial iteration.
You also need to translate the project's broad objectives into concrete goals that guide your team to success. Your goals are the "what" of your project (e.g., "Increase website visitors by 20%," "Boost sales by 15%," or "Develop a new product feature"). Objectives are the actionable "how" that describe the specific actions you’ll take to make your project a reality (e.g., "Post daily on social media to increase website visits," "Launch an affiliate program to boost sales," or "Conduct comprehensive market research to inform new product development").
Remember, you don’t need to do all the work yourself. Project managers aren’t expected to execute every task, but they are responsible for ensuring the job is done effectively. Once you clearly define the tasks involved in achieving your objectives, assign them strategically to skilled and trusted team members. Play to everyone’s strengths to achieve the best possible outcome. Prioritize and complete the most critical tasks first, then address less urgent ones.
6. Identify and plan for project risks.
While you can’t plan for every conceivable outcome, it’s still crucial to proactively ask yourself about potential obstacles or distractions that could derail your project. The more you prepare for potential pitfalls ahead of time, the easier it will be to mitigate them before they cause significant problems. For example, if your project requires three blog posts a day, you must ensure you have the capacity to manage that workload. Consider any limitations on your team members, dependencies on external factors, or unforeseen distractions that could prevent you from completing the work on time.
Creating a risk management plan can help you identify, assess, and plan for any potential snags that could jeopardize a project. While you'll never be able to eliminate every risk, it’s good practice to think about them from these key perspectives:
- Technical risks. Address potential issues arising from technology, such as database errors, software compatibility problems, licensing issues, or cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
- Managerial/team risks. Look for potential issues related to your team’s schedule, communication breakdowns, or planning inefficiencies. For example, a key subject matter expert being unavailable for an extended period could jeopardize your timeline.
- Organizational risks. Consider internal factors like budget constraints, inadequate staffing, or logistical challenges. For instance, if your team is geographically distributed across different time zones, this could impact the timeliness of responses and collaboration.
- External risks. Although harder to predict, plan for potential external risks from economic shifts, competitor actions, or unexpected changes in customer behavior. For example, sudden supply chain disruptions could significantly impact a new product launch.
7. Engage stakeholders proactively.
A stakeholder is anyone, internal or external to your company, who has a vested interest in your project's outcome. Stakeholders can profoundly impact your project’s success, so it’s essential to seek their feedback, provide updates, and manage their expectations at appropriate times throughout the project lifecycle. For example, if you’re creating new website content, your legal department would be a critical stakeholder for review and approval before publishing.
The most effective way to engage your stakeholders is to keep them consistently in the loop. Set clear expectations upfront regarding their involvement and communication frequency. Consistently send them transparent updates on the project’s progress. A well-structured communication plan serves as an invaluable roadmap for successful stakeholder relationships, outlining precisely when, how, and to whom you need to send updates, ensuring no one is left in the dark.
8. Build your product roadmap.
Next, you need to create a product roadmap, which is a high-level visual overview of your project’s strategic goals, key themes, and anticipated deliverables over time. A roadmap is a dynamic visual tool that articulates the "why" and "what" of your project, placing tasks, requirements, milestones, and features on a timeline – although the exact details depend on the chosen project management framework.
Product roadmaps are immensely useful for managing stakeholder expectations by providing an easily digestible visual representation of your project's vision and plan. Roadmaps also facilitate clear communication and enable better coordination of resources with other interdependent teams, ensuring everyone understands the big picture and their role within it.
9. Check for adequate resources
Every project, regardless of its size, requires resources to be completed. Before actual work begins, it’s best practice to thoroughly pre-plan, schedule, and allocate your resources to maximize efficiency. Resources can include staff (with specific skill sets), necessary software licenses, expert consultants, or physical materials. Ideally, your resource plan should realistically align with your team’s workload capacity and individual schedules. For example, ensure the project’s demand for expert labor matches your team’s current availability and ongoing commitments.
If your project doesn’t have adequate resources, you risk producing a subpar outcome or missing critical deadlines. A lack of a sufficient budget is, unfortunately, a frequent cause of project failure. If you realize your project is over budget or that you cannot meet the deadline with current resources, you typically have three options:
- Adjust the deadline: Negotiate a later completion date.
- Increase the budget: Secure additional funding, which might allow for hiring more personnel or acquiring new tools.
- Reduce the project scope: Cut features or deliverables to meet the existing deadline and budget.
None of these options is ideal if they deviate from what you initially promised stakeholders, but resource issues are an everyday reality in project management. The key is to take the best possible action to complete your project without compromising quality or core objectives.
10. Get smart with scheduling.
Consult your product roadmap (from step 8) to strategically schedule the right team members for the appropriate stages of the project. Larger initiatives on a roadmap should be broken down into smaller, actionable tasks with clear assignees and estimated durations. As long as you have a realistic understanding of how long each stage will take, you can effectively keep your overall timeline on schedule without overwhelming your team.
However, it’s paramount to set a realistic and achievable schedule that balances your team’s workload with the intended delivery date. Don’t hesitate to engage in proactive, transparent discussions with your stakeholders if you need to adjust deliverables or due dates based on unforeseen complexities or resource constraints.
11. Choose the appropriate software.
Manual project management is not feasible in today's fast-paced, complex business environment. Robust project management (PM) software is a must-have because it provides essential capabilities that enable efficiency and collaboration:
- Enhances interdepartmental collaboration. PM software makes it easy to tag and communicate with any employee in your organization with quick questions or updates, breaking down communication barriers.
- Centralizes file sharing. Important files no longer live on individual computers. PM software allows files to reside in a secure, shared cloud space where all authorized team members can access them anytime, anywhere.
- Facilitates planning and tracking. You can quickly create, plan, and manage sprints (for Agile teams) or individual tasks. PM software provides project managers with ultimate visibility into all tasks across their team's plate, often from a single, intuitive dashboard.
- Automates workflows. Modern PM software often includes automation capabilities that streamline repetitive tasks, approvals, and hand-offs, further boosting efficiency.
There’s a wide array of PM software solutions available today. Adobe Workfront is an enterprise work management software that connects, collaborates, and simplifies complex workflows, helps large organizations launch campaigns and deliver personalized experiences at scale.
Leveraging the appropriate PM software is crucial for avoiding confusion, streamlining processes, and effectively managing projects from start to finish.
12. Run a strong project kick-off meeting.
A kick-off meeting is a vital part of the project initiation phase and marks the official beginning of your project for the team. It should include all core team members assigned to this project, as well as any key stakeholders. The primary purpose of a kick-off meeting is to get everyone aligned, share the project vision, confirm objectives, and address initial questions. A well-planned and executed kick-off meeting can significantly smooth the project's journey, making future phases much more efficient.
It’s an excellent idea to prepare a detailed agenda for your kick-off meeting that includes these essential components:
- Introduction (5-10 minutes). Allow team members and key stakeholders to introduce themselves and their roles.
- Client and/or context (5 minutes). Provide a high-level overview of the project's background, its purpose, and the client's needs.
- Scope and deliverables (20 minutes). Offer a deeper dive into the specific tasks, key deliverables, and their associated due dates for this project.
- Approach (10 minutes). Explain your chosen project management framework and methodology, potentially by sharing the project roadmap.
- Roles and responsibilities (5 minutes). Assign responsibilities to specific team members, making it explicit who is accountable for what.
- Teamwork and collaboration (5 minutes). Clarify how different team members will need to collaborate or where specific signoffs/approvals are required.
- Timelines, schedules, and milestones (5 minutes). Agree on critical project milestones and assign target dates for each. Ideally, integrate these directly into your PM software for transparent tracking and accountability.
- Next steps (5 minutes). Clearly define the immediate tasks your team needs to complete directly after the kick-off meeting.
- Q&A (5–10 minutes). Dedicate time for the team to ask clarifying questions before concluding the meeting.
13. Review progress and adjust accordingly.
Even the most meticulous project plans won’t account for every unforeseen problem or opportunity that can arise. It’s essential to build flexibility and adaptability into your plan so you can make the necessary adjustments.
If things aren’t progressing as planned, or if new information comes to light, it’s time to pivot. For example, if you realize the project's scope is too large for the deadline, or if your team lacks the specific expertise needed, make the necessary changes to the project plan. Leverage the real-time data you have from your PM software to make informed decisions. This might involve changing original plans, requesting more resources, or strategically reducing the scope. Proactive adjustment is far more effective than hoping problems resolve themselves.
14. Celebrate achievements.
A milestone is a significant goalpost on your project roadmap, marking the completion of a major phase or deliverable. Achieving these milestones is a substantial accomplishment for your team, so managers must acknowledge their team’s hard work and dedication formally.
Celebrating milestones boosts morale, reinforces positive behavior, and validates the effort invested. There are various impactful ways to celebrate, including:
- Organizing a team dinner or celebratory event.
- Publicly acknowledging the team’s success during a company-wide meeting.
- Creating a "brag board" or digital spotlight highlighting exceptional team members and their contributions.
- Offering meaningful, personalized rewards or recognition – even a sincere, personal "thank you" can go a long way.
Scale beyond project management with Workfront.
Learning how to manage a project step-by-step empowers your team to navigate the complexities of various frameworks, jargon, and concepts that are inherent in project management. By proactively addressing each stage, project managers can effectively avoid common pitfalls like scope creep and ensure projects stay on track.
When you’re ready to streamline your entire project lifecycle, explore project management software that can help you manage every step from start to finish with greater ease and intelligence.
Workfront is an enterprise work management software designed to integrate people, data, processes, and technology across an entire organization. By optimizing and centralizing digital projects, cross-functional teams can connect, collaborate, and execute from anywhere, empowering them to do their best work, achieve strategic goals, and scale project success across the enterprise.
To learn more about Workfront and how it can help transform your project management, watch an overview video today.
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