Who What When Where Why and How in Project Management

Some of us have projects run around construction, information technologies, and others. Projects can be spent alot of useless time if we cannot manage.

There are just so many questions we need to answer. How long should it take? When should I start? What is the best way to manage this project? What project management software should I use?

Who What When Where Why and How in Project Management

These questions can often lead to taking on too much work and not bring productivity. Someone’s got to help us out with all these unclear issues! That’s where the project management process comes in.

To answer these questions, you can use a practical and straightforward method: the 5W+1H method.

When making decisions, a project manager must be based on good choices and can answer the 5W and 1H questions to make the right decisions.

Contents

Who What When Where Why and How in Project Management

We will discuss these questions one by one starting from:

1. What

This means that a project manager must be able to answer WHAT questions, i.e. what is related to a project, what will be achieved, and what will be formulated to achieve the project’s goals.

Example of a list in the form of some questions:

What type of project will be carried out?
What technology will be used?
What goals will we achieve?
What work methods will we use?
What equipment is needed?
What facilities and infrastructure are needed?
What companies will be involved in the project?
What are the possible risks that will occur in the project?

2. Why

Why means that a project manager must be able to provide reasons in response to WHY questions such as why that is the goal, not something else, etc. A complete and robust rationale will make the project’s goals easier to achieve.

Example of a list in the form of some questions:

Why would this type of project be chosen?
Why do we hire these workers?
Why do we need cooperation on this project?
Why do we use this technology?
Why does the project run five years?
Why do we need financial assistance?
Why do we need to focus on one thing first?

3.Where

The choice of an activities location is the responsibility of a project manager, so when choosing a site, a good analysis must be considered, for example, choosing a strategic location such as in crowds, major roads, technical, environmental issues, and other aspects concerning the selection of activities locations.

Example of a list in the form of questions:

Where will we work on the project?
Where will the project start?
Where will it end?
Where are the offices of workers and stakeholders located?

4. When

When the work will start, and when the work will be completed, the project manager must be able to manage time and maximize efforts to achieve goals.

Example of a list in the form of questions:

When will project mobilization take place?
When will we start this project, and when will it end?
When will the project milestones be achieved?
When will the project handover take place?
When will project demobilization take place?

5. Who

Who is chosen to do a job must be accompanied by reasons when choosing the person who will do the work by taking into account “the right man in the right place.”

Example of a list in the form of questions:

Who owns the project?
Who is the contractor handling the project?
Who is the engineer supervising the project?
Who will be involved in project implementation?

6. How

How means that a project manager must be able to determine the direction of the work, and the manager can delegate his duties to his staff so that the manager does not have to do his job.

What is the condition of the project that we are going to run?
How is the project financed?
How to run the project?
How will the project benefit?
How are tools and machines used in the project, are they traditional, modern, or mixed (semi-modern)?
What is the nature of the project we are going to run?
How are the financial arrangements, processes, project supervision that we will run?

Using the 5W + 1H principle, the project goals will be more focused and on target, making evaluation easier, and these principles can be used as guidelines in carrying out activities.

A project manager must be able to answer these questions so that goals can be more easily planned (forecast).

Author
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edwinls

Engineer at Media Aplikatif

I am an experienced Project Control professional in Construction industry, with over 10 years of involvement in scheduling.

My work experience includes roles as Project Control, Planner, Scheduler, and more. My responsibilities include fulfilling project manager needs in multinational companies by analyzing and presenting project feasibility related to planning (master schedule), monitoring and coordinating project schedules/progress, conducting delay analysis (EoT - Extension of Time), and mitigation analysis.