As one of the most crucial – and longest –  phases of the project life-cycle, the project execution stage is where you will build and present all the deliverables of your projects to its stakeholders. The goal here is to execute the tasks that have been previously defined in your project management plan, meeting key objectives within a predefined timeline and budget.

So what is a project execution strategy?

A project execution strategy (or PES) is your strategic approach that will outline the execution of tasks to complete your project. It is usually developed by the project’s leaders along with one or more representatives of the client.

In short, the PES is where you will plan your strategy for executing the tasks of each stage.

Here’s how you can begin to plan your strategy:

1. Focus on the final outcome

Start off by making sure your strategy is aligned with your project’s (or program’s) final goal. To avoid the problem that most people have when implementing the conceptualized strategy, make sure your project’s goals and objectives have been clearly and thoroughly defined.

2. Get your team aboard

As previously discussed in this white paper, your project communication is extremely important. By having clear and straightforward communication plans, you’ll be able to avoid any miscommunication.

Being able to clearly explain your execution strategy will give your project team a better understanding of how they’ll each contribute, what their responsibilities will be, what’s expected of them and much more.

3. It’s your project, take the lead!

None of the strategies will matter if you don’t have the right set of leadership skills to manage the project. This is going to be critical when it comes time to implement the execution strategy. Along with leadership skills, it’s also important to have management skills (strategic and business) along with technical project management skills.

In order to lead your team, you must also be able to understand yourself and poses a certain level of emotional intelligence, after all, you will lose all credibility if you come across as a “loose cannon” or someone who lets their emotions get the best of them.

4. Build an all-star team

We’re all familiar with the expression “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”. The same thing goes for your project team. Make sure you build a team with high-quality members that can help you plan and implement your strategies.

Your team members should also be able to challenge you and help you see things from a different perspective.

5. Manage progress and performance

How will you know if your strategy is progressing and performing as planned if you’re not keeping track and analyzing its metrics? How are you communicating progress to stakeholders?

Yeah, I know that analyzing data and metrics can seem like a scary monster but it can actually be quite easy, not to mention, it’s the most effective way to show that your strategies are working, or, for you to see that they are not working and still have plenty of time to change before your project implodes.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have the right project management tool! A project management tool like SoftExpert’s Project and Portfolio Management solution will help you not only keep track of all of your project data, it will also help you build easy-to-use dashboards!

Watch this video and see it for yourself!