Project Management Process

1. Initiating

2. Planning

3. Executing

4. Monitoring and controlling

5. Closing

• Observe

• Orient

• Decide

• Act

• Plan to change something

• Do. Test the planned change empirically

• Check. Assess the results of the test, to decide whether to implement change, or make further studies

• Act on the basis of the test and assessment

• Don’t try to use all parts of the process groups

• Don’t worry about whether you understand the detail of the process groups and there are easier ways to cope with any gaps

• Do use the high-level idea of the process groups as a mental checklist to ensure that you are doing the right thing at the right time

• Do use the detail process groups as a guide, to refresh your thinking, or when you hit particular problems.

The initiating process group is all about getting the project started. Initiation means getting the project started

Before:

• You may not be certain at a high level of what the project is and why it is being done

• Project manager and the sponsor may have quite different ideas about the project from each other

• There is no written recognized picture of what the project is about that can be used as a general basis for communicating to others

After:

• You will have maybe not complete certainty but a clear idea for starters

• if you are not certain, you will know what kinds of things you need to find out next to increase your certainty

• Either both will have roughly the same idea, or at least they will understand clearly where their ideas differ, and that the sponsor’s idea is the more important of the two

• There is a «recognized picture» of what the project is or might be

There are two processes within the initiating process group which got developed:

• The most important output is the Project Charter (known as Project Initiation Document (in PRINCE2) and the Project Brief (BS 6079))

• The other (possible) output is the Preliminary Scope Statement (often it is incorporated in the project charter)

• Initiate well and you can cope with much that is not quite right later on.

• Initiate badly and your project may never recover even if you excel at all the subsequent process groups

The sponsor and the project manager should definitely be involved in the initiation process group, although at times and in certain organizations one or both of these may not be appointed until after initiation

• The planning process group is the set of processes used in project management to create a plan by which to manage the project

The main output of the planning process group is of course the project plan, and, important not to forget, updates to the plan

• A complication here is the risk that the project may come to feel as if it is about producing the plan instead of producing the final product of the project.

• This risk needs to be managed, by having a plan that is the right size

Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to accomplish the project’s objectives defined in the project scope statement

• Turns a theoretical plan into something tangible.

• The executing process group contains more than the production of the project deliverables

• Important part of the execution process group is the selection and development of the project team to complete the project work packages

Main output -> Project deliverables

Other main output -> change requests and implementation of change requests

The monitoring and controlling process group is the feedback mechanism that compares the performance of the project during the execution process to the project plan

The main output of the monitoring and controlling process group comprises the actions necessary to correct issues or defects identified during the execution process

The closing process group consists of two main activities: project closure and administrative closure

The main output of the closing process group is the formal transfer of the project deliverables to others, either internal or external to the project organization