Stage 3: Delivering the project
Page updated: 02/06/2026
The delivery of the project to achieve the objectives, outputs and benefits is the priority of this stage. There are three key areas of activity during this stage that support effective delivery and can be summarised under the following activities:
Planning - confirming what needs to be achieved, by when and by whom, and updating the project plan to reflect any changes.
Delivering - ensuring that the work packages and their outputs are completed to the required time cost and quality.
Managing - managing the project plan, reviewing overall progress, taking management decisions, monitoring and managing risks and issues, controlling and approving any changes necessary to keep the project on track to achieve its agreed objectives.
By the end of this stage the project should have been effectively managed and delivered, or stopped if it became necessary to do so. Outputs should have been measured and should meet quality expectations, future benefits realisation and measurement will be planned.
You should have prepared a Project Delivery Plan before starting this stage so the project delivery should be ready to commence. You may have broken the delivery stage down into smaller stages, in which case you may need to prepare smaller detailed plans for each stage.
Planning is useful preparation to ensure everyone knows what is expected and to be able to monitor progress of the project, but it is important to strike a balance between planning and doing, particularly if the project has significant time constraints.
Appropriate communication with Stakeholders is important for project success, stakeholders can be very influential. A Stakeholder Engagement Plan and Communication Plan should have been developed as part of the Project Business Plan. The Project Manager will be responsible for managing the planned stakeholder engagement and communications.
Remember to let people know that the project has started, particularly if there have been delays to the start date.
It is the Project Managers responsibility to monitor progress and manage the progress of the project delivery.
The project manager should be empowered to make appropriate decisions to progress the project within tolerances set by the Project Board (see Stage 1- Set Up the Project Governance Team). Issues that arise that cannot be dealt with within these tolerances should be referred to the Project Board for guidance.
The Project Board are expected to provide strategic direction and guidance to the project manager and will probably meet on a regular basis to monitor progress.
The Project Manager will be expected to provide the required monitoring information prior to meetings. You should consider using a Highlight Report (see example) to summarise key points of progress and issues rather than spending considerable time writing a full report for every meeting. Stage plans (if they are being used) will also be presented to the Project Board for approval before commencing the stage.
The Project Manager will need to regularly review all project risks – this is best managed as a team exercise to gain everyone’s experience and perspective. Risk reviews should establish if:
- The likelihood and/ or impact rating of risks have changed
- An action needs to be updated or added
- A risk is no longer applicable
- A new risk needs to be added to the register
Issue management is also important. The project manager will need to make sure that even small issues are dealt with and do not disappear from view without a conscious decision being made about what should happen to them.
The risk and issue registers should be kept up to date by reviewing them at regular intervals. In addition to being useful management and monitoring tools, these registers will also help you to meet audit requirements as you are documenting the reasons for decisions.
Change is an almost inevitable part of managing and delivering projects, from relatively minor changes through to major changes that will affect the project scope, deliverables or objectives. Change may occur because the environment or organisational need has changed, or because of issues that have arisen during the project.
When change occurs the project manager should consider it in the context of:
- Time - will the change delay or speed up the project?
- Cost - will the change consume additional resources or produce savings?
- Quality - will the change improve or reduce the quality of a deliverable/ output?
The Project Board may be required to authorise a change if it is outside the Project Managers tolerances. In this situation the project manager should provide the Panel with sufficient information about the impact of the change for them to make and appropriate decision.
Changes to projects that receive external funding will usually require approval from the funding organisation.
If appropriate, significant changes should be documented by updating the Business Plan to reflect the change. Version control should be applied to the document to ensure the most recent document is used to guide the project.
In the public sector we are accountable for everything we do and our records are regularly audited. It is therefore important to keep thorough records of our activities for example: procurement records, rationale for decisions, financial records, evidence of outcomes/ benefits, staff records, project monitoring documents etc.
If the project received external funding the funding body will require certain records to be kept as evidence of activity. The Project Manager should familiarise themselves with these requirements and keep records accordingly. The Project Grants Manual contains guidance on document retention and file structures.
Project Benefits may not be immediately realised upon completion of Project Delivery. It is important that the benefits are still measured and captured so a forward plan needs to be prepared and an appropriate individual nominated to ensure this activity happens.
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