1. Project Management Process Groups
A process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result.
Project management process groups progress from:
Initiating activities
Planning activities
Executing activities
Controlling activities
Closing activities
The process groups occur at varying levels of intensity throughout each phase of a project.
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2. The Project Management Process Groups
Initiating Process
Including actions to begin or end projects and project phases
Taking place during each phase of a project
Examples are:
Defining the business need for the project
Sponsoring the project
Taking on the role of project manager
Reexamining the business need for the project during every phase to determine if the project is worth continuing
Ensuring the project team completes all the work, documents lessons learned, reassigns project resources, and that the customer accepts the work
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3. The Project Management Process Groups
Planning Process
Including planning and maintaining a workable plan to ensure the project addresses the company’s needs
Project plans define each knowledge area as it relates to the project at that point in time.
To account for changing conditions on the project and in the organization, project teams often revise project plans during each phase of the project life cycle.
A project team must develop a project plan to:
Define the scope of the project
Estimate costs
Decide what resources to procure
Define the schedule activities and who will perform them
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4. The Project Management Process Groups
Executing Process
Including coordinating people and other resources to carry out the project plans and produce the deliverables of the project or phase
Examples are:
Developing the project team
Providing leadership
Assuring project quality
Disseminating information
Procuring necessary resources
Delivering the actual work
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5. The Project Management Process Groups
Controlling Process
Ensuring that the project team meets the project objectives
The project manager and staff monitor and measure progress against the project plan and take corrective action when necessary.
Examples are:
Identifying any necessary changes during a performance review
Selecting a staff member to analyze and manage those changes
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6. The Project Management Process Groups
Closing Process
Including clearly describing all the details of the phase’s or project’s acceptance and ending it efficiently
Examples are:
Archiving project files
Documenting lessons learned
Receiving formal acceptance of the delivered work
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7. Overlap of Process Groups in a Phase
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8. Overlap of Process Groups in a Phase (Cont.)
The level of activity and length of each process group varies for every phase and project.
Normally, the executing processes require the most resources and time, followed by the planning processes.
The initiating and closing processes are usually the shortest and require the least amount of resources and time.
The process groups can be applied for each major phase of a project or to an entire project.
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9. What is IT Project Integration Management?
Involving coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout a project’s life cycle
Ensuring that all the elements of a project come together at the right times to complete a project successfully
Including three main processes:
Project plan development – putting the results of other planning processes into a consistent, coherent document (the project plan)
Project plan execution – carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included in it
Integrated change control – coordinating changes across the entire project
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10. Project Plan Development
A project plan is a document used to coordinate all project planning documents and help guide a project’s execution and control.
Project plans also:
Document project planning assumptions and decisions regarding choices;
Facilitate communication among stakeholders;
Define the content, extent, and timing of key management reviews; and
Provide a baseline for progress measurement and project control.
Project plans should be dynamic, flexible, and subject to change when the environment or project changes.
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11. Project Plan Development (Cont.)
Project plans should greatly assist the project manager in leading the project team and assessing project status.
To create and assemble a good project plan, the project manager must practice the art of project integration management, since information is required from all of the project management knowledge areas.
Project plan contents or parts of a project plan include an introduction or overview of the project, a description of how the project is organized, the management and technical processes used on the project, and sections describing the work to be performed, the schedule, and the budget.
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12. The Project Management Process Groups
Project Plan Contents
The introduction or overview of the project
The project name
A brief description of the project and the need it addresses such as the goals and reason for the project, and a rough time and cost estimate
The sponsor’s name, title, and contact information
The names of the project manager and key team members
Deliverables of the project including software packages, pieces of hardware, technical reports, and training materials
A list of important reference materials from the past
A list of definitions and acronyms, if appropriate, to avoid confusion
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13. Project Plan Contents (Cont.)
The description of how the project is organized
Organizational charts:
For the company sponsoring the project
For the customer’s company
For the project itself to show the lines of authority, responsibilities, and communication for the project
Project responsibilities:
Describing the major project functions and activities
Identifying those individuals who are responsible for them
A responsibility assignment matrix is a tool often used for displaying this information.
Other organizational or process related information:
Depending on the nature of the project, there may be a need to document major processes followed on the project such as a diagram or timeline of the major steps involved in the project
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14. Project Plan Contents (Cont.)
The description of management and technical approaches
Management objectives:
understanding top management’s view of the project, what the priorities are for the project, and any major assumptions or constraints.
Project controls:
Describing how to monitor project progress and handle changes
Risk management:
Addressing how the project team will identify, manage, and control risks
Referring to the risk management plan
Project staffing:
Describing the number and types of people required for the project
Referring to the staffing management plan
Technical processes:
Describing specific methodologies a project might use and how information is to be documented
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15. Project Plan Contents (Cont.)
The description of the work to be done
Major work packages:
Organizing the project work into several work packages using a work breakdown structure (WBS)
Producing a scope statement or statement of work (SOW) to describe the work in more detail
Summarizing the main work packages for the project
Referring to appropriate sections of the scope management plan
Key deliverables:
Listing and describing the key deliverables produced as part of the project
Describing the quality expectations for the product deliverables
Other work-related information:
Highlighting key information related to the work performed on the project such as specific hardware or software to use on the project or certain specifications to follow
Documenting major assumptions made in defining the project work
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16. Project Plan Contents (Cont.)
The project schedule information section
Summary schedule:
Developing a one-page summary of the overall project schedule:
Only key deliverables and their planned completion dates for larger projects
All of the work and associated dates for the entire project in a Gantt chart for smaller projects
Detailed schedule:
Providing information on the project schedule that is more detailed
Referencing the schedule management plan
Discussing dependencies among project activities that could affect the project schedule
Other schedule-related information:
Documenting major assumptions
Highlighting other important information related to the project schedule
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17. Project Plan Contents (Cont.)
The budget section of the overall project plan
Summary budget:
Total estimate of the overall project’s budget
Budget estimate for each month or year by certain budget categories
Some explanation of what these numbers mean
Detailed budget:
Summarizing what is in the cost management plan
Including more detailed budget information
Other budget-related information:
Documenting major assumptions
Highlighting other important information related to financial aspects of the project
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18. Project Plan Execution
Involving managing and performing the work described in the project plans
Using the majority of time and budget of a project
Producing the products of the project
Requiring the project manager to focus on leading the project team and managing stakeholder relationships to successfully execute the project plan
Three main activities of the process of project plan execution are:
Coordinating planning and execution
Providing strong leadership and a supportive culture
Capitalizing on product, business, and application area knowledge
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19. Project Plan Execution (Cont.)
Coordinating planning and execution
Project integration management views project planning and execution as intertwined and inseparable activities.
A good project plan should help produce good products or work results.
A common-sense approach to improving the coordination between project plan development and execution is to follow this simple rule: Those who will do the work should plan the work.
The main function of creating project plans is to guide project execution.
All project personnel need to develop both planning and executing skills and need experience in these areas.
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20. Project Plan Execution (Cont.)
Providing strong leadership and a supportive culture
Strong leadership
Project managers must lead by example to demonstrate the importance of creating good project plans and then following them in project execution.
Supportive culture
It will be easier for project managers and their teams to plan and do their work if their organization has useful guidelines and templates for project management that everyone in the organization follows.
If the organization uses the project plans as the basis for performing and monitoring progress during execution, the culture will promote the relationship between good planning and execution.
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21. Project Plan Execution (Cont.)
Capitalizing on product, business, and application area knowledge
Project managers need to posses product, business, and application area knowledge to execute projects successfully.
Project managers should have prior technical experience or at least a working knowledge of IT products.
Many IT projects are small, so project managers may be required to perform some technical work or mentor team members to complete the project.
It is even more important on large projects for the project manager to understand the business and application area of their projects.
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22. Integrated Change Control
Integrated change control involves identifying, evaluating, and managing changes throughout the project life cycle.
The three main objectives of integrated change control are:
Influencing the factors that create changes to ensure that changes are beneficial
Project managers and their teams must make trade-offs among key project dimensions such as scope, time, cost, and quality.
Determining that a change has occurred
The project manager must know the status of key project areas at all times, and communicate significant changes to top management and key stakeholders.
Managing actual changes as they occur
Project managers exercise discipline in managing the project to help minimize the number of changes that occur.
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