Course 4 — Project Execution
Course 4 of the Google PM Certificate. Running a project once planning is complete: tracking, quality, data-informed decisions, leadership, communication, and closing.
The six phases of execution
Phase 1 — Tracking, risks & change management
- Tracking — method of following progress. Enables transparency, risk management, keeping the project on track.
- Deviation — anything that alters your original course of action. Can be positive or negative.
- Common items tracked: schedule, action items, milestones, costs, decisions, changes, dependencies, risks.
- Tracking methods:
- gantt-chart — dependencies, many tasks, larger projects
- Roadmap — high-level milestones, how a project evolves
- Burndown chart — time vs work done/remaining; granular; finishing on time is the priority
- You can combine methods (e.g., Gantt for scoping, burndown near launch).
- Status reports — RAG (Red/Amber/Green): Red = major issues, Amber = risks, Green = on track. Components: project name, date, summary, status, milestones/tasks, issues.
- Changes & dependencies. Change = anything altering tasks, structures, or processes. Types: new dependencies, changing priorities, capacity, resource limits, scope creep, force majeure. See change-management and dependency-types.
- Risk techniques. Risk register + risk exposure + ROAM (Resolved / Owned / Accepted / Mitigated). See risk-management-process.
- Escalation — enlisting higher-level leadership to remove obstacles or validate next steps. Escalate at the first sign of critical problems. Prevents “trench wars” and “bad compromises.”
- Timeout — stepping back to regroup.
- Retrospective — blameless reflection on incidents or patterns.
Phase 2 — Quality management and continuous improvement
- Quality — meeting or exceeding customer requirements.
- Four pillars: standards, planning, Quality Assurance (prevents problems, ongoing), Quality Control (detects and fixes problems after they occur).
- Customer relationships — negotiation, empathetic listening, trust-building. Ask open-ended questions; set clear expectations.
- user-acceptance-testing — validates product works for real users before launch. Define acceptance criteria, test cases, real users. Differentiates bugs (fix critical first) from change requests (evaluate/prioritize/align).
- Feedback surveys and UAT (“beta tests”).
- Critical user journeys — sequence of steps a user follows.
- Edge cases — rare outliers at maximums/minimums.
- dmaic-framework — Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. Data-driven.
- pdca-cycle — Plan, Do, Check, Act. Continuous improvement.
- Continuous improvement — ongoing effort to improve products/services. Recognize when to create/eliminate/improve.
- Project vs program vs portfolio — project (single), program (related projects), portfolio (projects + programs across an org). See course-1-foundations-of-pm.
- Retrospectives — three purposes: team building, improved collaboration, positive changes. Best practices: blameless (we-language), cover positives, enact agreed changes.
Phase 3 — Data-informed decision-making
- Data — facts/information. Metrics → quantifiable measurements.
- Types of metrics:
- Productivity — milestones, tasks, projections, duration
- Quality — number of changes, issues, cost variance
- Happiness/satisfaction — surveys, retention, recommendations
- Adoption & engagement — sign-ups, usage, participation
- Signal — observable change indicating project health.
- Data ethics — privacy (follow laws, anonymize PII, limit access) + bias (sampling, observer, interpretation, confirmation).
- Six steps of data analysis: Ask → Prepare → Process → Analyze → Share → Act.
- Storytelling with data. 6 steps: define audience → collect → filter/analyze → choose visual → shape narrative → gather feedback.
- Data visualization: scatter plots (relationships), bar graphs (comparison), pie charts (composition), line graphs (trends). Dashboards, KPIs, infographics.
- Effective presentations: precise, flexible, memorable. Prepare → practice → deliver → follow up.
Phase 4 — Leadership and influencing skills
- Team — people planning/solving/deciding together for a specific objective.
- Work group — people toward a common goal but controlled by a single entity; less collaborative than a team.
- Five factors of team effectiveness (from Google’s own research): psychological safety, dependability, structure & clarity, meaning, impact.
- Leading high-functioning teams: systems (chaos → order), communicate & listen, trust & psychological safety, empathy & motivation, delegate & prioritize, celebrate success.
- Air cover — protecting the team from unrealistic demands while managing stakeholder expectations. Push back tactfully, propose solutions, manage behind the scenes.
- tuckman-team-stages — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning.
- Team dynamics — conscious/unconscious forces impacting behavior.
- Ethical leadership — honesty, justice, respect, community, integrity.
- Inclusive leadership — diverse identities/backgrounds valued and integrated. PM leads inclusivity through fostering respect, creating equal opportunity, inviting diverse perspectives.
- 5-step ethical decision-making framework: recognize → get facts → evaluate options → decide & test → act & reflect.
- conger-influencing-steps — establish credibility, frame for common ground, provide evidence, connect emotionally.
- Bacon’s sources of power — organizational (role, information, network, reputation) and personal (knowledge, expressiveness, history, character).
Phase 5 — Effective project communication
- Principles of email: state what you want, concise, structured, correct grammar. Tailor with AI but review carefully.
- Effective meetings: structured (start/end on time, select attendees, prioritize, take notes), intentional (clear purpose), collaborative, inclusive.
- Timeboxing — setting a time limit.
- Accessible meetings — visual/hearing/mobility/neurological accommodations.
- Meeting types: kick-off, status update, stakeholder review, project review, retrospective.
Phase 6 — Closing a project
- Project closing — formally completing the project, current phase, contractual obligations. Ensures all work done, processes executed, formal agreement.
- “Never-ending” project — deliverables/tasks can’t complete.
- “Abandoned” project — inadequate handoff or transition.
- Case study: Tilly’s Toys showed skipping closure causes rework, legal risk, damaged trust.
- Closing process steps:
- Refer to prior docs (SoW, RFP, risk register, RACI)
- Put together closing documentation
- Administrative procurement closure
- Inform stakeholders
- Execute follow-up
- End-of-project closing: training/tools/documentation → verify goals met → document acceptance → review contracts → formal retrospective → disband and thank.
- Impact reporting — final presentation showing stakeholders project value. Include goals, KPIs, schedule/budget, metrics (revenue, ROI, user growth, satisfaction, cost savings).
- Project closeout report — blueprint of what the team did, how, what they delivered; evaluates quality and performance against budget/schedule.
Connections
- course-3-project-planning — previous
- course-5-agile-project-management — next
- All execution concept pages linked above.