Now that you have got this far and read this Project Management Guide, it would be important to reflect on how you should manage your projects. We are not for one minute suggesting that you should follow every step in sequence as presented in this guide. However if you are new to project management then as an exercise you could walk through the steps presented in summary here and design your own project management approach using these as a basis.

(1) Initiate the Project

1. Get the Project Approved and Resources Allocated
2. Decide the Project Management Process
3. Create a Collaborative Project Site

(2) Plan and Setup the Project

1. Plan the Project
• Complete a Project Statement
• Define and Allocate the Tasks
• Add the Other Project Artifacts Needed
• Assignment
2. Desk Check the Project Plan
3. Notify the Team of their Responsibilities
• Host a Project Kick-Off Meeting
• Enable your collaborative site with the facility to email notification on all new work assignments
• On your collaborative site setup an easy to find “My Work” reports / dashboards
• Setup scheduled emails with nudges for upcoming or late work. For example on a Monday morning early have an email of the work due this week and then on a Thursday morning have another email with work still open and due this week.

(3) Work on the Project

1. Find work
2. Do work
3. Update progress on work (recording any issues)

(4) Track and Re-Plan the Project

1. Check and understand the project's progress
• Virtual Check
• Individual Check
• Team Check
• Review, discuss and resolve (in so far as possible) any open issues
• Look at upcoming tasks for next week
• (time permitting) Look at tasks achieved last week or at least the highlight tasks from last week
2. Find and Manage Exceptions (e.g. issues, risks and change requests)
3. Re-Plan the project
• Re-assign work and send notifications
• Project Redefinition
• Project re-assignments
• Notifications
• Report to and Work with the Appropriate Stakeholders
• Deliver Periodic Status Reports (Printed or emailed)
• Raise Exceptions including Project Change Requests, Top Issues and Top Risks
• Resolve Sponsor Level Issues and apply the resolution through Re-Plan Project (if appropriate)
• Tailor the project site to match the evolving needs of the project

(5) Close the Project

1. Run Project Post-Mortem and Track Lessons Learnt
2. Close out the Project site
3. Capture any useful modifications made to the project site for use on future projects

(6) Project Management and Leadership Style

• Using the steps in the prior section on leadership write out the steps you are prepared to follow.

(7) Collaborative Project Management Sites

• Now that you have decided on your approach to managing projects, you can and should put together a collaborative site for your project, a virtual project team room.