Types of Project Management Artifacts

If you are a part of the project management team, you may already know that the elements of a project are very important to complete it efficiently. So, what exactly are these components? Well, the professionals call them project artifacts. These components ensure that a project operates within its established budget. They also allow for a common understanding of its purpose, goals, and details.

You must learn about these project artifacts if you want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the projects you complete with your team. We will discuss the different types of project management artifacts in this article and also provide insights into them. 

Definition of Project Management Artifacts

A project management artifact is the documentation a particular company produces to define and support a project's process. These artifacts relate to project management and include the following:

• Documents
• Outputs
• Specific Deliverables
• Objectives
• Templates

Project management artifacts further help align projects with the objectives of a specific organization. They also address the needs of stakeholders and define a particular team's expectations. 

Different Types of Project Management Artifacts

You may consider several project management artifacts when planning a project. The most common ones are: 

1. Strategy Artifacts

These artifacts are responsible for entailing documentation that relates to a particular project's initiation. They often form the first step of a project because they help guide a team's work moving forward. The best part about strategy artifacts is that they remain the same throughout an entire project. 

Common strategy artifacts include:

• Project Proposals
• Project Charters
• Vision Statements
• Road Maps

Read More:what is project charter?

2. Communication Plan

An effective team working on a particular project creates a communication plan. This helps them agree on optimal ways to convey important information related to the same project.

For example, the team members can develop strategies to communicate about document reviews, meetings, issues, access to deliverables, and lastly, the status of a specific project. A team creates their respective communication plan at the beginning of the project.

Also, check:What is Project Communication Management?

3. Logs and Registers

These artifacts are often called project management raid logs. They include a raid analysis which certifies that team members analyze things daily. This helps them gauge a particular project's process and determine their tasks for any specific workday. 

Logs and registers often include

• Risk Registers
• Assumption Logs
• Backlogs
• Stakeholder Registers

Also, read: What is a product Backlog?

4. Release Specifications

A project team often uses release specifications to test different raw materials, units in development, and other kinds of end products. These specifications allow the same team to measure the performance of a particular product before its use or release. 

Release specifications also include different vision statements and evaluation criteria. Vision statements often include the contract between the developer of a company and a buyer. Evaluation criteria, on the other hand, refers to the requirements a particular management may use to determine whether a particular project met its respective goals. 

5. General Plans

Most managers develop these plans to determine how they can ensure a specific project's progression and efficiency. This artifact may include both textual and visual elements. Moreover, several documents may be associated with the general plans.

You may encounter several general plans related to

• Logistics
• Quality
• Releases
• Scope Management
• Iteration and Tests

6. Reports

Project management across industries and companies often involves a series of reports. Most of these reports cover the quality, risks, and status updates of a particular project. Formal records for stakeholder use are another piece of documentation that the managers may include in this category of project management artifacts. 

7. Hierarchy Charts

These artifacts for management describe the relationships between different parts of a specific project. These sections include several breakdown structures of the organization, its work processes, products, and risks. 

Most of the time, a manager may create various versions of the breakdowns at a fast or slower pace, depending on the project. They may also choose to omit certain hierarchy charts. Unlike other architects, the hierarchy charts often need frequent updates. 

8. Visual Data and Information

This category is not considered a part of a traditional document. This may include different dashboards, flow charts, velocity charts, and requirement traceability matrices. Visual data sources can also make it easier for the project management team to understand information related to the plan. A project manager is responsible for creating visual information sources post the data analysis process. The managers can also use various tools to update them automatically.

9. Baselines

These project management artifacts represent approved versions of the specific plan. Common examples of such baselines include

• Budgets
• Scope Baselines
• Milestone Schedules
• Performance Measurement

A manager is responsible for creating and updating baselines throughout a specific project's duration.

10. Agreements and Contracts

These are legally binding documents that apply to a particular project. A few projects may include contracts. Whereas a few others may not require the use of these documents. Some common agreements include

• Fixed Price Contracts
• Time and Materials Contract
• Cost Reimbursement Contracts

Also, check:Three Artifacts of Scrum

Importance of Project Management Artifacts

Project management artifacts always help increase the efficiency of projects within an organization. The following points explain the importance of these artifacts:

• Project artifacts document all the project objectives and deliverables. 
• These artifacts ensure that a project is completed and finished efficiently with effective planning strategies. 
• Project managers use project management artifacts to assess a particular project’s development and update the plans if required.
• They facilitate communication among all the respective stakeholders.
• Project artifacts help a project manager deal with different risks during a particular project. 
• They also help with resource planning and allocation.
• Project artifacts make the specific project traceable and trackable.
• The artifacts in project management also help project managers incorporate all the necessary changes. 

Conclusion

By now, you already know the importance of project management artifacts and the reason why they are important across organizations and industries. Yet, you must also know how to implement them efficiently to complete the project on time. For this, you must be well-versed in every project management terminology. We recommend going for project management courses by Simpliaxis to know more about the concept. 
You can try doing the PMP® Certification Training Course to cover new trends, core competencies, and practices in project management. So, go ahead and join these special courses and make sure you use project management artifacts the right way in the organization.