Methodologies

What is a Project Methodology?

There are many different types of project. In practice they all have a number of common stages:

  • Initiate - confirm the project is feasible, agree scope and main objectives
  • Plan - list down who is going to do what and when
  • Do it  - which typically will be broken down into many tasks
  • Check it - carry out quality assurance tasks and rectify until project deliverables pass acceptance criteria
  • Release -  Implement,  launch or publish the project deliverables
  • Close - confirm objectives and benefits are realised and close down project

A project methodology is a structured method for effective project management. One well-known methodology is Prince2 which was originally developed to run large software projects but is now widely used for all types of projects. A project methodology helps you manage your project in a consistent way which improves the chances of success.

Why use the Projects Website?

The Projects Website provides template documents for project management. It also provides a filing structure for project documentation that is logical, clear and easy to use.  The Projects Website includes a Standard Software and a Basic set of templates. Both template sets include elements that are common to all projects. Further information on the currently available template sets is given in the table below:

Templates Description Further Documentation
Standard Software Project Set of templates intended for larger, software related projects. Guidance
Basic Project Set of basic templates for a wide range of projects. Guidance

The template documents include help text giving information on what is expected to be recorded in each section. All the templates can be modified to suit the needs of your particular project or substituted with more sophisticated outputs produced by Microsoft Project or another project management tools. If you make changes that you'd like to incorporate in the template sets please let us know!

If you need help or advice on using a methodology or individual template contact apps-projects@lists.ed.ac.uk

Getting Started

You can find more information on using the Projects Website on our guidance pages. If you would like to add your project to the Projects Website and use one of the available methodologies please complete the Add a Project form on the Requests page. Finally, please use the the Feedback Form to let us us know what you think so that we can use your input to improve the site!

jump to left-hand (main) navigation