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February 28, 2023
Are you new at Project Management? You are at the right place. In this article, we will cover every detail of Project Management Templates that is equally beneficial for Professionals and the beginners.
Project Management is a systematic approach toward the planning, managing, and organization of all the project activities along with the available resources. Project managers use core actions of project management as stairs to climb the project planning and execution phase successfully.
Furthermore, according to Project Management Institute (PMI); “project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirement of a particular project.”
Related Article: 30+ Free Project Management Template Excel Spreadsheets (2020)
A template is a file used as a starting point for anything. It is pre-formatted for a specific purpose. Also, this file can be anything from a document to a complex design format. Because the templates are used everywhere.
So, the utilization of templates free downloaded is so common in our daily activities that it doesn’t even feel like someone is using a pre-formatted file.
As it has a lot of pros. But the basic one is to provide enough ready-made information to not let anyone waste their time on starting things from scratch.
In Microsoft PowerPoint, there is a number of default themes available for creating a new presentation. Additionally, these all themes have a certain level of pre-defined settings that’s why these are also templates.
Similarly, making a new file on any software asks to choose one of the preset settings. Although, these preset settings are also templates. Which are stored in the directory of software with a certain level of pre-defined information about the category user is going to use.
Herein Templates Free Download, we will provide you templates related to a number of disciplines to help in utilizing your time and efforts in the core field.
Altogether, some of the disciplines that will be covered here are;
In this article, we will discuss the basic introduction of project management discuss in depth. Along with 4 elementary types of project management templates.
Project management is a multi-dimensional discipline that requires the talent of a variety of disciplines for successful management. However, project managers are field specialists who have spent their life’s in managing projects of different nature.
So. it isn’t possible for project managers to put all of their attention and time on making plans, reports and different tracking sheets for different knowledge areas of project management from scratch.
The project management templates can be freely downloaded and preferred due to high utilization. It has a lot of pre-defined settings and tools. Which fits best to the specific nature of the projects.
Additionally, these templates are equally efficient and effective for all the phases of project management from definition to closure.
On this website, we will provide you with the best templates to manage all the project management activities with minimum effort and best results.
There are 5 phases of project management as follows;
As each project management phase has it’s important and given much attention by project managers. However, the project planning and execution phases stand out as the challenging phases. Similarly, the project definition phase deals with the development of project charter and identification of stakeholders.
The most important and vital phase of project management is planning. Therefore, a well-planned project has bright chances of getting successful. Basically, the planning phase consists of 24 core processes from all the knowledge areas of project management.
However, the vital ones are; development of project management plan, definition, and management of project scope and WBS, planning, and development of project schedule. Also, it involves planning and management of project cost, quality, performance, resources, risks, communication, procurement, and stakeholders.
So, any ignorance in the planning phase of project management will definitely be going to hurt the project performance and deliverables actuality over the project lifecycle.
Therefore, the project managers spend a lot of time planning every single dimension of the project. So, before heading towards the execution phase of the project. It must make sure that everything has been covered.
Although, it gives confidence to the project teams and eliminates the maximum probably of bad surprises over the project lifecycle.
The project execution phase is mostly focused on the track developed during the project planning phase. Whereas, some of the processes involved in the execution stage of project management are; management of project work and knowledge, management of quality, stakeholders and communication, development and management of teams, and implementation of risk responses.
Furthermore, the monitoring and controlling phase of project management is in action parallel to the execution phase. Also, it involves a lot of processes in different knowledge areas of project management.
However, the core processes of monitoring and controlling phase are; monitoring and controlling of project work, change control, scope, schedule, costs, quality, resources, communications, risks, procurement, and stakeholder engagement.
Whereas, the closing phase deals with the project integration management area of project management for assistance in the successful closure of the project.
Related Article: 45+ Free Project Management Spreadsheet Templates for Excel (2020)
The project lifecycle involves all the phases of the project, from the definition to the closure of the project. Although, the defining phase of the project lifecycle is referred to as zero phases.
Whereas, there are 5 basic phases of the project as discussed earlier. There can be more phases depending on the complexity and level of the project.
However, most project managers prefer to use the agile project lifecycle approach. On the other hand, the user-centered design process presents the best methods of planning and analyzing the data, designing, development, and testing of the data.
Project management plays an important role in managing the project to achieve the objectives and goals of the project set by an organization in an efficient and effective manner.
A good project management approach helps the employees to have a clear understanding of their duties and responsibilities. Because they are well aware of the activities schedule along with deliverables and plan the work schedules accordingly.
So, project managers give a lot of importance to the timely completion of the project and devise a number of strategies to minimize the project completion time.
For this purpose, the risks associated with the different activities of the project are identified and classified.
Furthermore, based on the impact and likelihood of risks, mitigations strategies are implemented. Project managers made contingency plans to deal with any unpredictable natural mishaps for ensuring the minimum impact on the project quality, performance, and timeline.
In fact, the project management system deeply covers all the aspects of the project to ensure the successful implementation of the project with the achievement of goals and objectives.
However, vital aspects of the project are project integration, scope, time, cost, quality, resource, risk, and communication management. Project managers plan, monitor and control these aspects very carefully for timely achievement of project deliverables.
A good project manager gets every stakeholder of the project on the same page about the deliverable and success of the project using a visionary approach.
Whereas, project management provides benefits to every stakeholder of the project. Let’s discuss the project management benefits for the individual as follows.
Project stakeholder benefits include the benefits enjoyed by the investors, clients, and suppliers of the project. As, it improves the scheduling and budgeting, improves cost containment, improves project mapping, reporting and communication.
Also, it helps to improve the change management process, quality assurance, and planning.
There are few benefits for the project team as well. Such as, better management requires less rework, improves the definition of work requirements, a better understanding of roles, and improves their productivity of work.
While, the functional managers of the project teams are getting benefits in the form of better allocation of resources, and improved communication and work instructions.
Also, it allows managers to pay attention to training, quality processes, staff retention, and resource-leveling.
Finally, it helps the senior project managers to optimize the use of business resources, keen risk management, better project monitoring, controlling, scheduling and cost management.
Related Article: Best Free Multiple Project Tracking Template Excel
Project management is always practiced informally. But emerges as a multi-dimensional profession in the last 70 years.
Altogether, the project management core institution is a Project Management Institute that conducts the examination of project management certifications to provide certified professionals in the field of project management.
Further, it has published several versions of its famous guide book for the project managers knowns as “PMBOK or A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge”.
Whereas, it includes practical knowledge of several professionals of the field from different industry experiences. It helps to understand and develop innovative practices in the field of project management.
In the PMBOK 6th edition of 2017, there are 10 knowledge areas, 5 process groups and 49 processes discussed in detail on 978 pages.
However, the 5 process groups are project phases; Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Also, all 10 knowledge areas have some defined processes for each process group.
The core knowledge areas of the PMBOK along with their processes are;
Related Article: Free Project Schedule Template | Plans, Gantt and Timeline Templates
Project management templates are used to serve all the major disciplines of project management techniques and tools. Therefore, there are several types of project management templates. However, three major categories of project management templates are;
The project planning templates are helpful in all the knowledge areas and processes under the planning and even execution process groups of project management.
Also, project managers utilize these templates in the planning phase and modified in the execution stage for the tracing purpose.
Furthermore, these planning sheets are critical before the implementation of the project. Whereas, the main purpose of using a planning template spreadsheets’ is to ensure aspects such as; project managers have pre-define, evaluate and analyze each aspect of the project over the project lifecycle to minimize the risks and ultimately the damage to the project deliverables.
Most important project planning free templates are;
Project planning templates are not just limited to the above-described ones. Because the application of the planning phase covers all processes of project management.
Therefore, these templates play an important role in each knowledge area and process. However, the project planning sheets discussed in the above section are the most important and commonly used ones.
After the project planning phase, project managers’ most important duty is to ensure the successful implementation of the project plan and monitoring its practicality. Both, the project tracking templates, and project evaluation and reporting templates serve the same purpose for the subject project plan.
Project evaluation templates always work parallel to tracking templates as these sheets utilize tracker sheet results for analysis. So, the most common analyses performed during the project implementation phase are related to managing human resources, quality, risk, time, finances and records.
Related Article: Free Project Progress Report Template [XLS]
Similarly, the project managers use reporting templates for project management to report the information and results of evaluation templates. However, other uses of these templates are for keeping stakeholders alive, to celebrate the achievements, to discuss change policy, and project progress.
Let’s shortly describe the common project evaluation and reporting templates;
Although, there are tons of project analyses required to be performed at different points of the project lifecycle. However, project managers prefer to perform the analysis and reports covered in the above paragraph to evaluate the performance of any simple project.
The purpose of the project tracking templates can be well understood from its name. Although, these templates not only serve the purpose of tracking any process of project management. But, the uses and benefits of project tracking templates are way more than just tracking.
Typically, project managers consider project tracking templates as the extraction of project planning templates. In fact, these are the checklist form of planning templates with some extended features to perform different functionalities in the project implementation phase.
Related Article: 12+ Free Project Tracking Templates for Excel | Project Trackers
Project managers use most project tracking templates to monitor and track the completion of the process of project management. But these sheets are also equally helpful in comparison to the planned output and the actual output of any process parameter.
Project tracking templates help in the effective management of project resources, budget, schedule, stakeholders, risks, and communication channels. Some of the most essential project tracking templates or project trackers are;
There are tons of other project trackers available as built-in functionality for project management systems. However, it is preferred to use simple excel spreadsheet-based tracking templates for small projects. Because these are easy to use and highly customizable.
Project Management is a system developed to guide project managers on how to lead the project teams in each phase for the success of the project. Moreover, it involves many techniques and strategies involved in the management process.
It is important to understand each group, knowledge area and process of the project for successful management and delivery of the project objectives.
Also, there are tons of benefits of using project management templates. Although, project management templates are different for each process of the project. However, project templates can be classified into three major heads.
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