Topics

PMP - Integration Management - covers coordination of various elements of the project

What is Integration Management?

It is unification, consolidation, articulation and interactive actions that are crucial to project completion. Integration is about making choices, about where to concentrate resources and effort; making tradeoffs among competing objectives and alternatives.

For any project there are many moving parts like cost management, schedule management, time management, resolving conflicts, human resource issues, iterative planning etc. With proper Project integration management process, Project Manager ensures that the project moves forward and project plan is fully developed and properly implemented. For example - It is the responsibility of a Project Manager to manage cost, schedule and other changes whenever any new resource is added to the project.

What processes are involved in Integration Management and what are typical deliverables?

Process and description Deliverable Project Management Process Group
Develop Project Charter - which authorizes the project Project Charter Initiating Process
Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement - which defines high level scope of the project Preliminary Scope Statement Initiating Process
Develop Project Management Plan - identify actions necessary to define, prepare, integrate and coordinate all subsidiary plans Project Management Plan Planning Process
Develop and manage Project Execution - Excedute the project work defined in project management plan Deliverables Executing Process
Monitor and Control Project Work - monitoring and controlling all the processes to meet the project objectives Requested changes Monitoring and Controlling Process
Integrated Change Control - review all change request Review and Approve change requests Monitoring and Controlling Process
Close project - finalizing all activities across all the Project Management Process groups Final product/service Closing Process

Refer to PMBOK - 3rd Edition - Chapter 4 - fig 4.2 for the processs flow.

What are the typical characterstics of Project charter?

  • It formally authorize the project
  • Generally issued by initiator or project sponsor external to project organization who has the authority to fund the project
  • Provides authority to a Project Manager to excetue the project
  • Provides high level objectives and business case
  • It is described in generic terms so that it does not have to change as the project changes

    • What does Project charter contain?

    It may contain

  • High level requirements that specify Customer/Sponsor Needs; customer expectations
  • High level Business needs
  • Project purpose or justification
  • Assigned Project Manager authority
  • Assumptions and Constraints
  • Business case and return on investment
  • Summary Budget

    • What are the Inputs, Tools & Techniques and Outputs (ITTO) for a Project charter?

    Always remember that every project has specific reason and specific duration. To start a project, an organization needs a reason/demand.

    To develop a Project Charter ITTOs are

    ITTO Description
    Inputs Contract
    Statement of Work (SOW)
    Enterprise Enviornmental Factors
    Organizational Process assets
    Tools and Techniques Project Selection Methods
    Project Management Methodology
    Project Management Information System (PMIS)
    Expert Judgement
    Output Project Charter

    Definitions - Inputs -

  • Contract - is a legal document between two paties
  • Statement of Work (SOW) - is a narrative description of the project to be supplied by project. It describes high level business needs, high level product scope description and organizational goals
  • Environmental Factors - While developing project charter all influential factors, external or internal like Company's Culture and Structure; Government or industry standards; infrastructure; existing human resources; personal administration (Hire, Fire, performance); work authorization; Market place condition; Stake holder risk tolerance; Commercial databases available in market etc
  • Organizational Process Assets – Almost every organization has their own internal standards and they influence the project. So while developing project charter all those internal influential factorsshould be considered. Factors are Standards; Policies; Standard Product and Project Life Cycles; Quality policies and procedure; performance measurement criteria; anay available templates; Communication requirements; Project Closure Guidelines; Risk Control procedure; Issue and Defect Management Procedure; Change Control Procedure; Procedure for Approving and issuing work authorization. It also include Process Measurement database, project files, Historical information & Lessons learned, Configuration management database, financial database containing labor hours, costs and budgets.

    • Definitions - Tools and Techniques-

    Project Selection Method - Why we need this tool? Before approving any project, an organizaion uses any of the following methods to identify beneficial and required project for the organization. Methods are -

  • Benefit Measurement Methods (Comparative Approach)
      • Scoring Models
      Benefit Contributions
      Murder board - Panel of people who try to shoot down a new project idea.
      Peer Review
      Economic Models
      Benefit Cost Ratio
  • Cash Flow
  • Internal Return Rate
  • Preset Value (PV) and net present value (NPV)
  • Opportunity Cost
  • Discounted Cash Flow
  • Return On Investment
  • Constrained Optimization Methods (Mathematical Models)
      • Linear
      Nonlinear
      Dynamic
      Integer
      Multiple Objective Programming

    What is Project Management Information System (PMIS)?

    PMIS is a system that keeps track of all the project tasks and used to track the status of the project.

    Home