7. Book Example

Now that we know the project life cycle and the four major project management phases, it is time to take a look at a concrete real-life example. We will keep it simple and assume that you and your team intend to create and publish a new textbook.

1. Project Initiation
In the initiation phase, we need to get a rough idea of how long it will take to make, how much it will cost, and the effect it will have. If the CEO of the publishing company decides that the value is worth the perceived difficulty, it’s time to move onto planning.

2. Project Planning
The planning stage would involve meeting with the marketing team and stamping out a timeframe for each chapter of the book to be completed. Once the topic has been set and assessed (for the difficulty of writing), these dates will become more solid.

The person responsible for writing each chapter will be assigned, along with the task of designing and creating the book itself. Furthermore, risks such as hidden topic depth or difficulty in securing a designer for the book would be assessed.

3. Project Execution
The execution stage would involve figuring out what each chapter will consist of, assigning various team members to complete said chapters, giving a deadline for each chapter, and carving out a regular meeting time during which your team’s progress and problems will be relayed. Everyone should know what they are working on, why they are working on it, when it should be completed by, and what everyone else is responsible for.

For our book, let’s say that you’ve set out a two-month deadline for the final product, and you meet twice a week with your marketing team to check on their progress.

If problems arise, such as a chapter being more complex than originally thought or team members having to take time off for one reason or another, you may have to bring in someone who wasn’t already working on the project, or shift the responsibilities of the current workforce on the project to better suit the new situation.

4. Project Closure
The project closing step would be after the book’s public launch. Once complete, the benefits would be tracked (eg, increased conversion rates), any expenses on items such as the design of the book would be totaled, and contracts with freelancers terminated.