Phrasal Verbs for Project Managers

Introduction

If you’re in Lviv (or any IT hub), you probably use English every day: replying to customers by email, speaking to clients, or running team meetings. You might be a programmer, QA engineer, network engineer – or a project manager. If you are a project manager, it’s highly likely you have a daily stand-up or status meeting to get an update on progress.

This page is for you. Below you’ll find 21 phrasal verbs, expressions, and useful words that you can start using in your meetings with your team and when talking to your clients. If you’re not a project manager, take note – your PM is going to wow you with some natural project English soon.

Remember, phrasal verbs are just like normal verbs: they change their form with the tense you use.

21 Phrasal Verbs for Project Managers

1. To kick off (a meeting) – to begin something.
To kick off, I’d like to say well done to everyone for the work they did last week.

2. To finish something off – to complete something that has been started.
We need to finish the adverts off before we move on to anything else.

3. To move on – to move to another area when one area is finished.
We can’t move on until we have finished the plan.

4. To put back (a date/meeting) – to move something to a later date.
The release date has been put back by two weeks, so we have a little more time to finish.

5. To bring forward (a date/meeting) – to move something earlier than the original date.
Because it is so urgent, we have brought forward the meeting with the client to tomorrow.

6. To give someone a heads up – to warn or inform someone in advance.
Before we start, I want to give you a heads up that tomorrow we are going to have a test run.

7. To come out – to be released to the public.
Our next patch comes out tomorrow, so we need to be ready for all the emails.

8. To deal with – to handle or try to solve a problem.
Our top priority today is to deal with the backend issues.

9. To look into – to investigate a problem.
We have looked into the reason why it isn’t working and it’s because of a bug on the server.

10. To point out – to highlight or mention something important.
I should point out that if this keeps happening, we are in danger of losing our client.

11. To take turns – to rotate doing something.
The support team will take turns answering tickets for the next 24 hours after the patch comes out.

12. To break something down – to divide something into smaller parts.
This meeting is going to be a little longer than normal, so I’m going to break it down into 6 parts with breaks in between.

13. To get through (work) – to finish or cover a large amount of work or information.
We have a lot to get through today and I hope we can finish.

14. To come up with – to think of / create an idea or solution.
John has come up with a good idea that we could use for the design.

15. To run into problems – to meet problems unexpectedly.
If we do run into problems, we need to report them as soon as possible.

15a. A work-around – a temporary fix that allows you to continue working.
We don’t know the problem yet, but we have a work-around that will buy us some time.

16. To write up – to document something in detail.
I have written up a report for the next couple of days that you should all read.

17. To work out / figure out – to find the reason or solution to a problem.
Late last night John figured out why the script was failing and has now sorted it out.

18. To sort out – to fix something or arrange something.
We’ve now sorted out the problem, so we should sort out a meeting with Clive to talk about the next step.

19. To fall behind – to be behind schedule and not at the level you should be.
We have to keep working like we are because we don’t want to fall behind on our work.

20. To catch up – to get back to the correct level or schedule.
We’ve fallen behind with our plans, so we are going to have to work at the weekend to catch up.

21. Pressed for time – when you don’t have much time to do something.
The deadline is on Friday, so we really are pressed for time.