Development Cooperation Handbook/Designing and Executing Projects/Project Execution and Control/Manage Project Implementation and Transition

Manage Tasks Implementation and Transition


Managing Implementation includes:

  • Ensuring timely completion of all facilities issues, such as acquiring the necessary physical space, installing appropriate equipment, obtaining the appropriate permits, etc. * Managing the detailed implementation of the activities. The Project Manager must monitor implementation activities and make any necessary adjustments.
  • Manage the acceptance by project beneficiaries of the project deliverables and of other direct project outputs; this may include a number of steps steps that need to be taken to ensure Beneficiaries will be ready to use the products and services prepared for them.
  • Overall, the Project Manager must be sure each required activity is carried out according to the Project Plan Document and its schedule, and to immediately communicate any discrepancies to the Programme manager and eventually to the Project Sponsors.

A fundamental of project management is that :

  • a good deal of managerial autonomy (from institutional superiors) is given to the project manager to lead the project team to implement the Project Plan Document, in order to deliver the project results according the methodology indicated in the plan and within the cost and time limits previously defined;
  • the project manager and the project team have no authority to change project scope and methodology, nor to increase budget and time allocations and that for whatever modification to the project plan they have to get the approval of the other stakeholders through a previously defined change process that will lead to formally agreed
    • Changes to Project Scope,
    • Changes to the Project Schedule
    • Changes to the Costs Established in the Project Budget.

The Project Plan Document has subdivided the main activities into a number of smaller tasks, each one supposed to deliver a specific intermediate (process) of final output.

See Control the Project Schedule and Manage Schedule Changes

During the project execution in order to implement the Project Plan there will be a need to further plan each task and to plan the transition from predecessor tasks to their successors. These plan may not be formally documented, unless modify the structure decided in the Project Plan; still they need to be there as result of cooperation and understanding between team members.

More focused planning will also be required on the basis of monitoring the on going project results. During Project Execution the Project Team will verify the validity of project assumptions and gain a better understanding of the requirements of the project and of the actual utilization of the project outputs by beneficiaries and other project stakeholders.

It may be a good idea to prepare a Project Detailed Tasks Implementation Document that expanded and developed the description of the activities of the Project Plan and includes the new learning derived by project monitoring. This document may also include a more detailed description of the work and time to be spent on transactions from predecessor tasks to their successors.

In case there are issues that causes changes or delays that impact on the project scope, the project manager will have to activate the procedures of issues and change process management.

Manage Tasks Implementation and Transition should be properly integrated with reporting of project performance, i.e the most important features of project communication management.


Tools edit

Templates edit

  Tasks implementation report form
  Template - Project Status Snapshot
  Template - Project status summary
  Template - Project Status Report

Guidelines edit

  How to report project performance