The five stages
The PMBOK process groups are a useful skeleton even in a fully iterative delivery — you still initiate, plan, control and close, just more often and in smaller pieces. Each page puts the traditional artifact next to its Agile equivalent and tells you what to do this week.
Initiation
Agree why this project exists, who owns it, and what 'done' looks like.
You are here if: Nobody can state the goal in one sentence without arguing.
Planning
Turn intent into a sequence of decisions, commitments and known risks.
You are here if: You have a goal but no credible path to it.
Execution
Keep the team producing working output and remove what blocks them.
You are here if: Work is happening but progress is hard to demonstrate.
Monitoring & Control
Detect drift early and change course while it is still cheap.
You are here if: Scope keeps growing without anyone approving it.
Closing
Land the value, hand over cleanly and capture what the organisation learned.
You are here if: Delivery is basically done but the project will not end.
Work with me
Sometimes the fix needs a person, not a template.
I am Tigran Zakarian, a senior project manager with 13 years of end-to-end delivery for clients such as H&M Group, TV4, SEB and Clear Channel. I work on exactly the situations described across this site: rescuing drifting deliveries, setting up governance that people actually use, and facilitating the workshops that unblock decisions.
Projects & programmes
- Interim / rescue project management
- Programme & multi-team delivery ownership
- PMO, governance and steering setup
- Product ownership & backlog clarity
Workshops
- Risk analysis workshops
- Planning and prioritisation sessions
- Decision and stakeholder alignment
- Retrospectives that change something
Talks & training
- Educational talks and keynotes
- Hybrid PMBOK + Agile training
- Kanban / flow ways of working
- Team coaching for new PMs