The 45 Steps Of Project Management

When I first got out of college, twenty years before the internet, I searched and searched for a description of how to do project management.  I wanted a how-to. A checklist. 

I never did find one...until one day...

About ten years later a friend, who designs public schools in Ohio, shared this with me. I believe the state architect developed this as a guide to keeping projects for the state on schedule. There are 45 steps in the process. One for every week of the expected duration of the combined three design phases - Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Documents. 

You will notice that we began making it our own, and you might want to do the same thing. Download it here.  The Word.doc of the document will let you customize it.
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Of course not every project is a public school. But if you think of this as a master list of 45 steps for the production of a project, it is easy to see how you might cut it down to suit smaller projects or assign longer durations to each step for larger projects. Some steps won't apply and some steps will be missing. 
In any case, you now have what I searched for - a comprehensive list of steps for the design of your next project. 

After you customize it, of course.

Below are three screenshots in a slideshow so you can preview what the document is like.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIMELINE PREVIEW