Stages or Group of Processes of a Project

Each project has its stages clearly defined, which are divided into 5 groups of processes:

Project start

This group of processes is what gives rise to the project. At this stage, all the participants who interfere, either directly or indirectly, in the project are identified. The vision, mission and objectives of the project, deliverables, deadlines and initial costs are defined. Basically through this group of processes the project is formally started.

In this stage the contracts are developed, the structure of the organization (organization chart), environmental factors that affect the project, etc.

Project planning

It is the group of processes that is in charge of designing the future state to which one wants to reach through the documentation of the actions that must be carried out in all the other stages of the project. In other words, it refers to all the plans (or subsidiary plans according to the PMBOK Guide (Project Management Institute, 2008)) that will be in charge of guiding the project along the indicated path. The diagram below summarizes this concept:

Each of the boxes shown in the figure indicates a group of processes. The main emphasis is on the planning process group which shows all the subsidiary plans that make up the overall plan.

This group of processes is one of the most complex to develop among the 5 groups already described. To plan It involves predicting and forecasting the state to which you want to reach through plans that will be the guide for execution and control.

It is important to note that there is today a different way of planning projects. Formerly what was planned was untouchable and had to be developed strictly as predicted. Currently there is what is called PSP (Gareth Byatt) acronym that comes from the English Project Success Plan, and that It basically tries to develop a new way of working especially from the point of view of the director of the draft. The PSP in simple terms are meetings that the project manager must organize to generate a Project Success Plan as a team. The frequency of these meetings will clearly depend on the size of the project, but in general they should be held at least once a week. In these meetings, the project manager must align progress, reschedule or advance tasks, generate ties of trust with the team and most importantly determine what will be the keys to the success of the project for the period in question. Generally, in unique projects, work teams are formed to carry out that specific project and almost never people know each other, which can hinder the fluency of communication between participants (Gareth Byatt). This is one of the main reasons for the Project Director to generate a PSP at the beginning of the project, build trust and join forces for a common goal.

Project execution

This group of processes is in charge of carrying out the plan or plans developed in the Planning stage. In general, the hiring is carried out, the work teams are integrated (Gonzalez, 2006), all the competent actions are carried out for the execution and success of the activities.

Project closure

Project closure is the group of processes in charge of formally finalizing all activities. Among the activities that we can find in this stage, are the formal delivery of documents, registration of lessons learned, among others.

Project control

This is the group of processes that transversally covers the life cycle of the project, since it begins almost in parallel with the initial stages and culminates at the same time as the final stages. This group of processes is very critical when evaluating how a company performs as it is an important part of the continuous improvement of the executing company's processes. In simple terms, the project control is in charge of keeping a control comparing what is planned with the actual progress. The main objective of this process is to detect the deviations that occur and correct them in a timely manner, applying the pertinent correction or mitigation measures as the case may be.