Project Structures & Life Cycles | Google Project Management Certificate

[Music] no two projects are exactly the same which means there are many different ways to manage them each project comes with its own needs and factors that impact how you'll take action and achieve your goals there are many ways to manage projects and not always one right way to do so picture this your project managing a political campaign for a local candidate to make it happen you need to think about things like your available resources the people you'll be working with the election date and the location you need to be aware of lots of details

to successfully complete your project because so many different things can impact a project it's important to understand its basic structure we call this structure the project life cycle the life cycle is a great way to guide your project in the right direction so that you and your project stay on track and end up in the right place most project life cycles have four major phases each with their own set of tasks and concerns check it out the main phases of a project are initiate the project make a plan execute and complete tasks and finally close

the project let's talk about the first phase initiate the project this is the launch pad for the entire process of your project in this phase you'll define project goals and deliverables identify the budget and resources you'll need the people involved in your project and any other details that can impact the successful completion of your project you'll document all this information in one place to showcase the project's value and hopefully get approval to move forward with it once the project is approved it's time to get rolling next you'll make a plan for how you'll meet the

goals of your project there are all kinds of ways to plan your project and we'll get into some different methods and techniques later on but right now the important thing to know is that for every single project creating a plan of how you're going to meet your goals is absolutely 100 essential think about it you can't hire a contractor to build a house without planning what it'll look like or how much you have to spend these same considerations apply to any project that you manage to be effective your plan needs to include a lot of

things for example a budget a breakdown of all the tasks that you need to be completed ways to communicate team roles and responsibilities a schedule resources and what to do in case your project encounters problems or needs to change that's just to name a few once you have your plan in place it's time to execute and complete those tasks it's important to point out that your project team has the job of completing the project tasks now as a project manager your role is a little different while you might be in charge of completing certain tasks

in the project your primary tasks as the project manager are to monitor progress and keep your team motivated you'll also remove any obstacles that might come up so that the tasks are executed well and on time finally when all the tasks have been completed all the resources have been accounted for and the project has crossed the finish line it's time to close the project why is it important to close well one big reason is so your team has a moment to celebrate all of their hard work but closing the project is also a chance to

evaluate how the project went you can make note of what worked and what didn't so you can plan better for next time even if the project was a massive success it's helpful to take time to reflect closing the project is also a great way to connect with anyone outside your team who may have had interest in the project's goal you can let everyone know what was completed and what you accomplished some projects like the campaign example will have a firm end date once the project is finished that's it there's no more work to do other

projects have different finish lines for example a project where you're implementing a new ordering system at a restaurant is complete after the system is set up and the employees know how it works at that point your goals are completed now it's time to hand over the project to another group whose job it is to provide support and make sure the system stays running on a day-to-day basis another example of this is iowan's project managed the creation of a dashboard that would be used by various stakeholders in my organization this dashboard would show pertinent information to

each stakeholder depending on the team that they were a part of in our broader organization iproject managed the beginning from writing out the vision for the project to the end where we delivered the dashboard now once i passed off the final product i transitioned the continued update of each team's data and the corresponding dashboard page to the respective teams think of it like turning over the keys of a newly built house to its new owner the project of building the house is complete and now it's up to the owner to take care of the house's

maintenance and the upkeep so there you have it the project lifecycle the exact name for each phase might change depending on the type of project or organization you work for but the general idea stays the same and following the project processes you will learn in this course will set you up for project management success next we'll take a closer look into what happens during each phase of the traditional project life cycle now that we've discussed the project life cycle we're going to explore some of the different tasks that match up with each life cycle phase

but first let's review the phases the project life cycle phases are initiate the project make a plan execute and complete tasks and close out the project okay great let's get back to the tasks that need to be accomplished during each phase for this video we're going to focus on the first two project life cycle phases initiating the project and making a plan it's important to call out that the name or tasks for each phase might change or may be a little different depending on the type of project or the organization where you work at google

we use a mix of different project management methods which you'll learn more about later in the course but regardless of the method all projects share a lot of the same tasks needed to get the job done so let's get into it the first step of the project life cycle is to initiate the project during initiation you'll organize all of the information you have available to you about your project this way when you're ready to continue on you'll be prepared for the next phase when you can create your plan defining project goals makes the details of

your project clear so that you and your team can successfully complete the project for example if the project goal is to manage a political campaign then some deliverables which are specific tasks or outcomes might be to raise five thousand dollars or get 500 signatures in support of your candidate's cause with this in mind you'll need to do some research to come up with ideas that will help you meet your goals you'll also need to find out what resources are available resources can include people equipment software programs vendors physical space or locations and more anything you

need to actually complete the project is considered a resource now as a project manager you'll record all of these details in your project proposal and then get them approved by a decision maker or group of decision makers at your company so that you can move ahead with your project plans now in some cases you may be the decision maker so be sure to consider the same set of factors when initiating your project before moving to the next stage no worries you will learn all the details about how to create a project proposal we will be

getting into more detail of what this is and how to create one later in the course voila once your project is approved you'll move into the second step of the project life cycle which is to make a plan in this phase you'll create a budget and set the project schedule you'll establish the project team and determine each person's roles and responsibilities let's pause for a second you may be thinking why can't we just get started but that's the thing with project management deliberate planning is critical to a project's success a crucial part of project management

is planning for risk and change an experienced project manager knows that plans always change this ability to adapt is all about thinking and planning ahead scheduling delays budget changes technology and software requirements legal issues quality control and access to resources are just some of the more common types of risks and changes that a project manager needs to consider so it's important to keep in mind that planning is key to reducing those risks but don't worry if the idea of risk seems a little overwhelming right now in later courses we'll teach you all about understanding risks

just know that it's really important not to skip this step and to always make a plan again the success of your project depends on it once you have a plan you'll communicate all of this information to your team that way each member will know which tasks they'll own and what to do if they have questions or if they run into problems you'll also communicate your plan with others who have an interest in the project success so that they are aware of your plans and your progress as the project continues to move forward [Music] we just

learned about the core tasks that need to be completed and the first two phases of the project life cycle initiating the project and making plans now it's time to put your plans into action remember it's not your job to actually do all the tasks your primary job as the project manager is to manage the progress of the project as a whole this means you'll oversee your team's efforts and make sure everyone understands what's expected of them what tasks need to be done and how and when to complete those tasks it's also your job to help

remove any obstacles and to alert the right people if it looks like there might be a delay to the project this means you'll need to communicate with your team and anyone else involved in your project through meetings written communications like memos emails or internal chat tools and other working documents like task reports quick pro tip if in doubt air on the side of over communication as your project progresses you'll make adjustments to the schedule budget and allocation of resources clearly communicating updates all along the way when all the tasks are complete and you've met the

project goal it's time to close the project this phase is usually overlooked because it's easy to assume that once the project goal has been delivered everyone can move on but hold up there's still a lot that needs to be done first check to make sure all tasks have been completed including any work that was added along the way be sure any outstanding invoices have been paid resources are returned and accounted for and project documentation has been submitted next and this is very important get confirmation that the final outcome of your project is acceptable to the

people you're delivering it to it is crucial to your project's success that the person who asked you to manage the project is satisfied with the end result once your project has been accepted as meeting its goals take some time to reflect on what went well and maybe what didn't go so well this reflection is usually called a retrospective and it's a chance to note best practices and learn how to manage a project more effectively next time even if everything went great the notes from your retrospective are also valuable to the people or organization receiving the

end result of the project that's because they can use that information to inform decisions about their business the next time they consider a project now it's time to collect all the project documentation that you've created or collected along the way including all of your plans and reflections and share the final results of your project with your stakeholders remember stakeholders are people who are interested in and affected by the project's completion and success depending on the type of project stakeholders can include a department or organization's management team clients or customers of your product or service users

of your new tool or process or even the community at large if you're planning a community town hall meeting pro tip stakeholders play a huge role in the development and success of your project you'll learn a lot more about these key players later on but for now just know that they are like the vips of your project next take some time to celebrate the effort your team invested in the project celebrations help people feel good about the work they've done and think of the work as uplifting and rewarding because it truly is some ideas for

small celebrations are a company or team-wide email thanking the team and acknowledging individual efforts now for big projects you may even consider a company party to celebrate the team and the project's success to wrap up you and your team can formally move on from the project so that you can pursue new projects in the future well as you can see being a project manager is a lot of work but it's very rewarding and it's all well manageable when you follow through with the project life cycle you can see how the organization communication and improvements you

add to various areas of a project can make the entire team more effective and efficient and you can have an impact on many areas of a project in a way that's greater than if you focused on any one task on the project similar to a coach with a sports team even though you aren't actually playing a direct role in the game your guidance your communication and your team building can make the difference in a happy high performing and successful team [Music] different types of projects will benefit from applying different project management approaches or methodologies a

project management methodology is a set of guiding principles and processes for owning a project through its life cycle project management methodologies help guide project managers throughout a project with steps to take tasks to complete and principles for managing the project overall we will talk through two different types linear and iterative linear means the previous phase or task has to be completed before the next can start a linear approach would work well for a project like building a house you'd need the blueprint created before you can begin laying the foundation you've got to know exactly what

the house will look like its dimensions and what type and how many resources you'll need then you've got to finish the foundation before you put up the walls and the walls before you put up the roof and so on before you have the finished project which is a bungalow style home there's also a clear goal you know exactly what the house will look like it's unlikely that in the middle of building the house your client is going to decide they'd rather have a multi-level victorian instead of a single level bungalow what's more even if they

wanted the change it's too late you already laid the foundation and built the walls for the bungalow done and done a bungalow is what they wanted and a bungalow is what they'll get using this type of linear project management approach completing each step in order and sticking to the agreed-upon specific results and being able to deliver just what the client ordered for a project like producing a new show for a television company on the other hand it might be more effective to use a methodology that uses an iterative more flexible approach where some of the

phases and tasks will overlap or happen at the same time that other tasks are being worked on your team comes up with an idea for a show and films a pilot you run several tests of the pilot in different locations and time slots as your team gathers feedback about the pilot adjustments to the show are made at the same time you're able to make decisions and start working on other parts of the project like hiring permanent actors starting film production and working on advertising even while the final version of the show is being worked on

and even though the overall goal is clear produce a new show the type of show could end up being different from the original idea your team may have started out creating a one hour show but during testing they realized a half hour show would actually be more popular or maybe a supporting character got a lot of positive feedback so you want to make them one of the main characters what's more important is that you produce a show that audiences are going to watch because of the iterative approach plans remain flexible and you're able to make

adjustments as you go along each of these projects benefits from a different approach to how tasks will be carried out in order to best meet the project's goals linear projects don't require many changes during development and have a clear sequential process if you stick to the plan it's likely you'll finish your tasks within the time schedule and all other criteria iterative projects allow for more flexibility and anticipate changes you're able to test out parts of the project to make sure they work before the final result is delivered and you can deliver parts of the project

as they are completed rather than waiting for the entire project to be done over the years the field of project management has developed many different methods that project managers can choose from that will help them manage most effectively google takes a hybrid approach to project management we mix and match from different methods depending on the type of project our project managers are encouraged to adapt their own style to what makes the most sense to their project and their team so are you starting to see how different approaches might benefit the projects you'll be working on

now pretty soon you'll become a pro at picking an approach or combining approaches to fit with your project up next we'll learn about the most well-known and most used project management methods that you can add to your project management toolbox two of the most popular project management methodologies are waterfall and agile each of these methods has a rich and complex history in fact you could take an entire certificate on just one of these methods alone you'll have a chance to learn more about waterfall and agile methods in the upcoming courses of this certificate so be

sure to check those out after completing this one to learn more for now i'll just give you a brief introduction and provide you with some examples that illustrate how different types of projects can be more successful or easier to manage when you consider which method to use first let's take a look at the waterfall approach waterfall as a methodology was created in the 70s and refers to the sequential ordering of phases you complete one at a time down the line like a waterfall starting at the top of a mountain and traveling to the bottom remember

the definition an example of linear from that last video well waterfall has a linear approach at first waterfall was used in the physical engineering disciplines like manufacturing and construction then software emerged as an important field of engineering and waterfall was applied to those kinds of projects as well it's still used a lot in engineering fields including product feature design and application also known as app design over time other industries like event planning and retail have adapted waterfall phases to fit their projects there are now many styles of waterfall and each style has its own specific

set of steps what they all have in common though is that they follow an ordered set of steps that are directly linked to clearly defined expectations resources and goals that are not likely to change let's take a closer look the phases of a waterfall project life cycle follow the same standard project lifecycle flow that you learned about earlier initiating planning executing which includes managing and completing tasks and closing so when would you want to use a waterfall approach to project management well when the phases of the project are clearly defined or when there are tasks

to complete before another can begin or when changes to the project are very expensive to implement once it started for example if you were catering an event for a client on a very tight budget you might want to use waterfall methodology this way you could confirm the number of guests first then very clearly define the menu get approval and agreement on the menu items and costs order the unreturnable ingredients and successfully feed the guests because the budget is limited you can't afford to make changes or waste food the traditional method won't allow for the client

to make changes to the menu once the order has been placed you can also reserve tables chairs and dishes because you know exactly how much and what kind of food is being prepared a well thought out traditional approach to managing a project can help you reach your desired outcome with as little pain as possible during the project implementation by spending extra effort thinking through the entire project up front you'll set yourself up for success now in an ideal world following this approach will help you identify the right people and tasks plan accordingly to avoid any

hiccups along the way create room for documenting your plans and progress and enable you to hit that goal however plans don't always go well according to plan in fact they rarely do the waterfall method has some risk management practices to help avoid and deal with project changes luckily there are other methodologies that are entirely built for change and flexibility one of these is agile another popular project management approach the term agile means being able to move quickly and easily it also refers to flexibility which means being willing and able to change and adapt projects that

use an agile approach often have many tasks being worked on at the same time or in various stages of completion which makes it an iterative approach the concepts that shaped agile methodology began to emerge in the 90s as a response to the growing demand for faster delivery of products mainly software applications at that time but it wasn't officially named agile until 2001 the phases of an agile project also follow the project life cycle stages we described earlier generally speaking however rather than having to always go in order or wait for one phase to end before

starting the next agile project phases overlap and tasks are completed in iterations which in scrum are called sprints scrum is a form of agile that you'll learn more about in the course focused entirely on agile and by sprint we do not mean running a race as fast as possible in this case sprints are short chunks of time usually one to four weeks where a team works together to focus on completing specific tasks what's important to understand is that agile is more of a mindset than just a series of steps or phases it's concerned with building

an effective collaborative team that seeks regular feedback from the client so that they can deliver the best value as quickly as possible and adjust as changes emerge projects that are best suited for an agile approach are those where the client has an idea of what they want but doesn't have a concrete picture in mind or they have a set of qualities they'd like to see in the end result but aren't as concerned with exactly what it looks like another indicator that a project may benefit from agile is the level of high uncertainty and risk involved

with the project we'll talk more about those things later an example of a project that would work well with an agile approach might be building a website your team would build the different parts of the website in sprints and deliver each part to the client as they are built this way the website can be launched with some parts say the main home page that are complete and ready for public view while other parts maybe the company blog or the ability to book online appointments continue to get built out over time this allows the team to

get feedback early on about what works and what doesn't make adjustments along the way and reduce wasted efforts in this same website example the waterfall method will plan for and require the whole website to be complete before it can launch having a basic understanding of waterfall and agile will help you figure out an effective way to organize and plan out your project and knowing about these two methodologies will come in handy during future job interviews because you'll be able to demonstrate a solid understanding of the project management landscape waterfall and agile are two of the

more common and well-known project management methodologies but they are by no means the only or the best ones [Music] lean six sigma is one more you can add it's a combination of two parent methodologies lean and six sigma the uses for lean six sigma are common in projects that have goals to save money improve quality and move through processes quickly it also focuses on team collaboration which promotes a positive work environment the idea is that when your team feels valued motivation and productivity increases and the whole process functions more smoothly there are five phases in

the lean six sigma approach they are define measure analyze improve and control commonly known as dmaic dmaic is a strategy for process improvement meaning you're trying to figure out where the problems are in the current process and fix them so that everything runs more smoothly the goal of each step is to ensure the best possible results for your project just like with waterfall and agile there are more specific details for using dmaic and the lean six sigma approach but what's great about the dmaic process is that it can be used to solve any business problem

let's break it down the first phase is to define the project goal and what it will take to meet it this first phase is very similar to the initiation phase of traditional project management let's take a real scenario to illustrate imagine that you are brought on as a project manager for a large travel company to help streamline and minimize customer service wait times that have been surging due to a recent sales promotion before you begin working on tackling the issue you're going to need to define the project goal and talk to stakeholders about expectations for

the project in this case the goal is to take average wait times down to less than 10 minutes on average compared to 30 minutes next it's time to measure how the current process is performing in order to improve processes dmaic focuses on data here you want to map out the current process and locate exactly where the problems are and what kind of effect the problems have on the process using our example you're trying to figure out why it's taking so long for the travel company to address a customer service issue to do this you look

at company data like average wait times number of customers per day and seasonal variations then you'll set a plan for how you'll get that data and how often to measure it this could look something like having the company generate reports on a weekly monthly quarterly basis in other situations you might have employees or customers fill out surveys or look at inventory shipping and tracking records things like that once you have the data and measurements you can move on to the next phase which is analyze here you'll begin to identify gaps and issues in our example

after mapping out the process and data points you may see that staffing is inadequate on days where customers are the highest data analysis is important for project managers regardless of which method you choose and we will learn more about that in an upcoming course from your data you'll have a strong understanding of causes and solutions to get to the next stage improve oftentimes project managers may want to leap straight to this phase but really projects and process improvements should only be made after a careful analysis this is the point where you present your findings and

get ready to start making improvements in our example this could be modifying staffing to address customer needs the last step of this cycle is control you've gotten the process and project to a good place and now it's time to implement it and keep it there controlling is all about learning from the work you did up front to put new processes and documentation in place and continue to monitor so the company doesn't revert back to the old inefficient way of doing things to sum it all up you can remember dmaic like this defining tells you what

to measure measuring tells you what to analyze analyzing tells you what to improve and improving tells you what to control lean six sigma and the dmaic approach are ideal when the project goal includes improving a current process to fix complex or high-risk problems like improving sales conversions or eliminating a bottleneck which is when things get backed up during a process following the dmaic process prevents the likelihood of skipping important steps and increases the chances of a successful project and as a way for your team to discover best practices that your client can use going forward

it uses data and focuses on the customer or end user to solve problems in a way that builds on previous learning so that you can discover effective permanent solutions for difficult problems there are many ways out there that break the flow of project management into digestible phases and approaches all with the same end goal of accomplishing the desired outcome as smoothly as possible and delivering the best value like i said earlier at google we follow a lot of different approaches for instance an engineering team releasing a customer focused product may primarily use agile when creating

the product but decide to plug in some of the aspects of waterfall project management for planning and documentation a customer service team might focus on using lean six sigma to improve an experience for our users like offering new features based on a recent analysis but the team might develop parts of the code and roll out the features using agile iterations and sprints to allow for change or one of our internal education and training teams may focus solely on waterfall project management to achieve a targeted goal of having all employees complete an annual compliance training here

waterfall makes sense since the requirements of the training program are fixed and so is the deadline and goal the biggest takeaway is to know the various methods and tools to be able to confidently apply what works best for you your team and the end goal there is no real prescription for how to execute a project perfectly because they're always pieces you can't 100 control but the good news is you can get pretty close with the skill sets you develop through learning about these different frameworks congratulations on finishing this video in the google project management certificate

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