What is project management? Benefits, process, and tools

Well, maybe not. At Asana, we think project management skills help teams complete projects more efficiently. Finding a way to plan, manage, and execute work is relevant for every team and company. And while you may not need every piece of a traditional project management system, your team could still benefit from some of the fundamental parts of project management.

What is project management?

Project management helps teams organize, track, and execute work within a project. Think of a project as a collection of tasks to accomplish a specific goal. Project management techniques can help your team plan, manage, and execute your work in order to meet your project’s requirements on time. With a project management tool, your team can organize all of the details of your work in one place, share feedback and progress, and, ultimately, collaborate more effectively.

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Instead of shuffling between spreadsheets, email, and other tools to juggle all of your work, a project management tool helps your team:

• Coordinate cross-functional work

• Centralize project plans, details, files, and feedback

• Share status updates with all stakeholders

• Improve team collaboration

Evolution of  project management methodologies

Project management developed from the convergence of several different types of engineering in the early 1900s, but the tools and techniques that define modern project management didn’t begin emerging until the 1950s. At that point, project management started becoming a distinct, recognizable methodology—most frequently applied to engineering projects. In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was officially formed, and the organization played a large role in defining and solidifying project management over the next several decades. In addition to offering certifications for project managers, the PMI published the first ever Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (the PMBOK guide) in 1996, which they update regularly.

Historically, the project manager was a dedicated employee—frequently trained in project management methodologies and toolsets, and often certified by organizations like the PMI. To run a project management process, you needed a project manager because project management tools were difficult to set up and use and often required unique expertise.

Modern project management is different. Instead of complex certifications and hard-to-understand jargon, anyone can be a project manager today. In fact, at Asana, we think if you manage a project—any project—you’re a project manager. The flexibility and democratization of project management are due in large part to improved, modern project management software. Instead of clunky, hard-to-navigate tools, modern project management is flexible, visual, and made for you—instead of the other way around.

The project management process: 5 critical phases

The project life cycle is a structured approach to managing projects from initiation to closure. It consists of five critical phases that help project managers and their teams stay organized and focused on achieving project objectives.

1. Initiation phase: Defining project goals and scope

In the initiation phase, project managers work with stakeholders to define the project's goals, objectives, and scope. This involves identifying the problem or opportunity and creating a project charter that outlines the project's purpose and high-level requirements. Depending on the complexity and scale of your project, you may also want to create a project roadmap.

2. Planning phase: Creating a project plan

During the planning phase, the project manager creates a detailed project plan that outlines the tasks, resources, timeline, and budget required to complete the project. This plan serves as a roadmap for the project team.

3. Executing phase: Implementing the project plan

In the project execution phase, team members work on their assigned project tasks and deliverables, while the project manager oversees progress. Regular communication and collaboration are essential to ensuring that everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives. 

During this phase of the project lifecycle, you’ll want to practice workload management, time management, and task management to make sure your team is aligned, on track, and not overwhelmed.

4. Monitoring and controlling phase: Tracking progress and managing risks

The project manager continuously monitors and controls the project's progress to ensure that it stays on track. This involves tracking key metrics, identifying and managing risks, and making adjustments as needed.

Then, once your project is complete, you can report on how you did it and brainstorm ideas with project stakeholders on how to improve it during future projects.

5. Closing phase: Evaluating deliverables and project documentation

In the closing phase, the project manager and team evaluate the project's deliverables to ensure that they meet the objectives and requirements. They compile and archive all project documentation and conduct a post-project review to assess success and identify areas for improvement.

Once the project is done, take some time to debrief with project stakeholders in order to capture lessons learned. Depending on your team, you might do this as a project retrospective meeting, a project post mortem, or a project debrief.

5 Key benefits of project management

If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you need project management, read on to discover the benefits of project management, along with a few simple ways to bring these ideas to your team’s way of working—no fancy degree or certification course required.

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1. Improved project team collaboration

If you’ve ever leapt into a project without a plan, you know how messy things can get right from the start. Instead of planning as you go, map out everything beforehand, including task owners, deliverables, and due dates. Visualize your project to-dos in a timeline or list, outlining who's doing what and when. Using project management templates can help create a repeatable process for successful projects, ensuring all necessary steps are completed and outputs delivered on time.

By planning with all project to-dos, deadlines, and task owners, you'll turn a chaotic process into an efficient workflow. You'll understand the scope and timing, spotting potential conflicts early. With forethought and planning, you'll waste less time and resources. Breaking down your project into manageable sprints keeps your team focused and motivated throughout the project lifecycle.

To successfully manage a project, you need to prioritize. You’ll never have as much time and resources as we’d all hope for, so to do it all you need to focus on the items that will have the most impact. Then make sure these priorities are clear to stakeholders so you can set expectations and to your team so they focus on the right work.”

2. Clear roles and responsibilities

Once the prep work is done, it’s on to the actual management part of project management. However, without a clear project owner to help your team across the finish line, it’s all too easy for teammates to drop tasks, forget details, or not know who to go to with questions.

While companies with a formal project management function will have a Project Manager to make sure project plans are going according to plan, those without one often let these responsibilities fall on the person leading or initiating the project. For example, if you’re an editor publishing a new series of articles, a developer orchestrating a website migration, or an account manager updating their client reporting systems, you’re also likely the one coordinating all the moving pieces of your project.

Fortunately, you don’t have to take on a second job to manage your project effectively—a little communication and collaboration can go a long way. By making it clear to others that you’re the point person for your project, everyone else involved will know who to go to with questions and who to look to for updates. And by outlining everyone else’s role in the project, you’ll eliminate confusion about how you want your teammates to be involved.

With Asana, we’ve become more collaborative overall. There’s one project and everybody’s on it. It’s not like Dalton has his own project for the same thing. It feels like all of us own this one thing together.”

3. Goal-oriented planning and execution

Projects aren’t successful when teams don’t know what their project goals are. Without clear goals, teams not only lack intrinsic motivation—they also run the risk of working towards the wrong objective or toiling away at low-impact work.

With a project management tool, you define your project goals up front. That way, everyone working on the project is aligned with the project goals and can optimize for the steps they need to take to get there. For example, if your project is to launch a new product, you might set a goal to “drive a 20% increase in upgrades.” This goal would, in turn, influence your launch decisions as you go. It would also serve as a metric to measure success after the launch.

The individuals on your project team will benefit too. By ensuring you’ve really thought through the problem you’re trying to solve and giving your team a “north star” to align on, you’ll keep your team focused on tasks that will make an impact on these goals, rather than getting lost on unnecessary work.

Asana allowed us to see the overall amount of work that we were actually doing, and then it allowed us to be able to reprioritize and re-strategize the types of work that we were doing.”

4. Proactive communication plans that keep your team aligned and focused

The term may be project “management,” but managing a project is only one piece of the puzzle. Before you even get started on work, you should align on a communication plan. Your team likely has an email management tool, an instant messaging tool, and a project management tool, among others. A communication plan establishes when each tool should be used. For example, at Asana, we use email for external communication, Slack for quick internal messages, and Asana for all of our actionable work.

The average employee switches between 10 tools per day. When you don’t have an established plan for which tool should be used, switching between those tools can vary from confusing to completely overwhelming. A communication plan reduces decision fatigue and makes sure every team member is on the same page.

5. Increased efficiency with project management tools and techniques

To put these tips into action, consider using a project management tool to help your team better collaborate and stay on track.

While there are literally dozens of tools you could choose from, you’ll want to avoid looking at more traditional project management tools since most of these tools are built for more traditional processes and can take a lot of time to set up and onboard. Instead, look for something that’s easy to adopt, flexible, and customizable. Bonus points if you’re able to connect work across projects (which can be hard to do in email and spreadsheets) and communicate with teammates where the work is happening.

Obviously, we think Asana fits the bill and is a great option for companies who want to get a jump start on better project management with a tool that’s both easy to adopt and has the features your team needs to be successful.

My number one project management tip is to always reflect after a project. Then you can take everything you learned and create a playbook so you’re ready the next time you need to plan and manage a similar project.”

Understanding project management methodologies

There are a lot of project management terms and jargon, but it isn’t as complicated as it might first seem. If you’re just getting started, or if you want to know what your coworker means when they call something an Agile methodology or talk about a project’s scope, here’s a breakdown of the types, components, processes, and team roles within project management.

Types of project management approaches

Project management is a way to help your team track all of the work being done in order to meet a project’s requirements on time. But within the broad category of project management, there are additional types, methodologies, and approaches, including:

Waterfall methodology 

In the waterfall model, tasks cascade down in a linear way: once one task is completed, the next is ready, and so on. The waterfall model includes six phases: requirements, analysis, design, coding, testing, and operations. This model is best suited for projects where the deliverables and scope are fixed, since the waterfall method can be less flexible in-the-moment than some other project management methodologies.

Critical path method (CPM) 

Critical path method is one of the original project management methodologies, developed in the 1950s. CPM provides an algorithm to map the critical path between complex, connected tasks with defined time frames. With CPM, teams can identify the longest stretch of dependent activities.

Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)

Program evaluation and review technique helps teams identify the critical path when the timeline and time frame are unknown. In PERT, project managers identify all of the tasks that need to be completed (not just the critical path) in order to determine the minimum time to complete the total project.

Six Sigma project management

Six Sigma is a data-driven project management methodology that aims to minimize defects and variations in processes. By using statistical analysis and quality management tools, Six Sigma helps organizations improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction. This approach is particularly useful for projects involving process optimization and quality control.

Lean project management

Lean project management is an approach that focuses on maximizing value and minimizing waste throughout the project life cycle. By emphasizing continuous improvement, lean principles help teams identify and eliminate non-value-adding activities, streamline processes, and deliver projects more efficiently. This methodology is well-suited for projects with tight deadlines and limited resources.

Agile project management

Agile methodology is a type of lean project management that’s popular with product, engineering, and software development teams. With Agile, teams believe in continuous improvement, flexible reactions to change, iterative processes, and incremental evolution. Some popular Agile frameworks include Scrum and Kanban.

PRINCE2 methodology 

PRINCE2 stands for PRojects IN Controlled Environments. In the PRINCE2 project management methodology, projects are broken into seven processes: Directing a Project, Starting up a Project, Initiating a Project, Managing Stage Boundaries, Controlling a Stage, Managing Product Delivery, and Closing a Project.

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Key components of effective project management

There isn’t one defined checklist for every component within project management. Mostly, that’s because there are different types of project management, each with its own components, processes, and formats. But in general, whatever project management methodology or tool you use will include:

Project costs

Most projects will have a budget that will restrict and define what you can accomplish during your project.

Deliverables

The deliverables are the assets, files, or products you will have finished at the end of your project timeline. Deliverables can include ads for a brand campaign or new features for a product launch.

Dependencies

Your project may also have dependencies, which happen when one task can’t begin until another task is completed. If your project has a lot of dependencies, you might benefit from a Gantt chart-style view so you can visualize your work in a timeline.

Milestones

Milestones are checkpoints that signify when a group of work is completed or a new bucket of work is launched. Unlike deliverables, which represent a product or result, a milestone is a moment in time.

Progress and status updates

As you manage your project, you’ll need to send progress reports and status updates to project stakeholders. Good reporting can increase cross-functional visibility and collaboration.

Project plan

A project plan is a blueprint of the key elements your team needs to accomplish in order to successfully achieve your project goals.

Project risk

Project risks are anything that might go wrong in your project—like going over budget or missing your due date. Project risk management is the practice of identifying risks before getting started on a project, so you can best prevent them. This entails creating a risk register.

Project scope

During the planning process, you’ll also define your project scope, which is the size, limitations, budget, and goals of your project. Knowing your project scope can prevent scope creep, which occurs when your project deliverables and work exceeds your project scope.

Resource management plan

A resource management plan is a plan for how you’re going to allocate your team’s resources—whether that’s employee bandwidth, technical tools, or project costs. Creating a resource management plan for your project can help you best manage and schedule your team resources, so you can maximize resource availability.

Smart goals

Every project should have a defined goal or objective. As you outline your project goals, use the SMART goal framework to ensure you have clear metrics and criteria so you can accurately measure project success.

Stakeholders

Project stakeholders are anyone involved in your project. This can be cross-functional team members or executive leadership.

Timeline

Most projects will have a timeline—a start date, when work is kicked off, and an end date, when work is completed.

Becoming a project management professional

Becoming a project management professional involves developing a strong foundation in project management principles, methodologies, and tools. Aspiring project managers should seek education and training, gain practical experience, and consider obtaining industry-recognized certifications to demonstrate their expertise and commitment to the field.

Essential tools for project managers

Project management tools are a visual way to gain clarity and connect with your team. Think about how your team currently manages work. If you don’t share a project management tool, your team’s projects, tasks, files, and communication are likely scattered across tools, which reduces team visibility and alignment.

• Kanban boards provide a visual representation of project tasks and their progress, enabling teams to collaborate and manage work more efficiently.

• Gantt charts are used to create project schedules, identify bottlenecks, and display tasks, dependencies, and milestones in a timeline format.

• Calendars help project managers track important dates, deadlines, and meetings, ensuring that project activities stay on schedule.

• Spreadsheet-style lists are versatile tools for organizing and tracking project data, such as task lists, resource allocation, and budgets.

With an online project management tool, you have a better way of communicating priorities and aligning on who’s doing what and when. To help teams provide clarity, project management tools offer several different ways to visualize your project work in real time.

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Project management software

We mentioned work management software earlier because work management is the umbrella under which project management falls. With project management software, you have great tools to organize, plan, and deliver your projects. But work management doesn’t just help you with a single project process—instead, it helps your team get a holistic view of how all of your projects and initiatives connect. There are two main work management tools that do that, in addition to the four common project management views we listed above.

Project portfolio management

Project portfolio management is the secret to monitoring all of your initiatives in one place. Portfolios provide a bird’s-eye view into all of your work, so you can keep your team on track across projects. They allow you to connect everyday business with corporate strategy.

Workload management

Workload management software helps project managers optimize resource allocation, balance workloads, and ensure that team members are not overloaded or underutilized.

Project management certifications

Project management certifications, such as the PMP (Project Management Professional) and others offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), validate a professional's expertise and commitment to the field.

PMP (Project Management Professional)

The PMP certification is the most widely recognized and respected certification in the project management industry. It demonstrates a project manager's proficiency in leading and directing projects across various domains.

To earn the PMP, candidates must meet educational and experience requirements and pass a rigorous exam that tests their knowledge of the PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

PMI (Project Management Institute) Certifications 

In addition to the PMP, the PMI offers a range of certifications catering to different project management roles and specialties. These include:

• Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

• Program Management Professional (PgMP)

• Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)

• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

• PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)

• PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)

Each certification focuses on specific aspects of project management and requires a combination of education, experience, and examination.

Experience the benefits for yourself

No matter what company or industry you work in, your team will benefit from adopting a few project and work management basics. Even a few simple changes to how you plan, manage, and report on your work can make your team more efficient, accountable to their work, and confident that they’re tackling the things that matter most.

Nucleus Research: Cut project time in half with Asana

In this independent study, learn how Asana can reduce the time it takes to complete a project by 50%, minimize project errors by up to 90%, and more.

Get the insights