Complete Project Management

The Project Management Institute is a global professional organization for project management that believes successful project management drives change, value creation and adaptation across all organizations. This sixth edition of the Project Management Institute’s definitive guide provides a comprehensive, detailed approach to all aspects of project management for practitioners, business leaders and students. The manual covers each project management knowledge area, from the role of the project manager to scheduling and cost management. It contains timely, valuable advice on adaptive project management for today’s rapidly changing business environment.

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which represents acknowledged practices within the profession, derives from The Standard for Project Management recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). PMBOK provides additional detail on project scope, scheduling and resource management.

Tools and Methodologies

Project management applies to the development of any unique product or service separate from an organization’s ongoing operations. Five processes define the procedures involved in project management: “initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.”

Project management is not new. It has been in use for hundreds of years. Examples of project outcomes include: [the] Pyramids of Giza…Great Wall of China…[and] placement of the International Space Station into Earth’s orbit. The Project Management Institute

The ANSI clearly defines project success, project life cycle, project stakeholders, the role of the project manager, project knowledge areas and the process groups.

Environment

The operational environment encompasses internal and external “enterprise factors,” and “organizational process assets.” Internal enterprise factors include corporate culture, facilities, infrastructure, IT assets and employees. External factors include the competitive setting, government regulations, access to financial markets, and geographical and trade restrictions.

Project Manager

The project manager (PM) is the organizational leader who is responsible for all aspects of project definition, delivery and completion.

The project manager is not expected to perform every role on the project but should possess project management knowledge, technical knowledge, understanding and experience. The Project Management Institute

The project manager doesn’t need to have all the relevant technical expertise, but must have strong industry knowledge to manage technical experts andunderstand the project holistically.

Project Integration Management

The project manager uses project integration management (PIM) – which is unique to the discipline of project management – to evaluate the interdependence of project activities. The PM develops a project charter that authorizes the project, links to broader corporate objectives and provides organizational resources. The PM also handles project knowledge, monitors and controls project work, performs internal change control, and closes out the project.

Project Scope Management

Project scope management makes sure that the project stays on track and delivers the outcomes specified in its charter and management plan. It defines a project’s work requirements, maintains ongoing scope control, manages and gets approval for changes, and validates completion. Project scope management also creates a detailed baseline and procedures for maintaining control over changes.

Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. The Project Management Institute

Listing project requirements leads to work breakdown structures (WBS), including acceptance criteria for approving deliverables.

Project Schedule Management

The project schedule tracks performance and provides information to management and stakeholders via scheduling software and visual representations, such as Gantt charts.

Schedule management includes developing a plan, defining activities, sequencing, time estimates and the schedule document.

Project Cost Management

Project cost management means estimating and assigning costs. The PM will measure actual costs as the project progresses against the defined costs estimated in a baseline budget. The cost estimate may include the cost of capital and the expected future financial benefits of the product or service under development.

Use common metrics – for example, time, work and units of cost – and formats to create the baseline project budget, which defines funding requirements and cost control procedures.

Managing Project Quality

Project quality management makes sure that products meet the requirements defined internally or externally by customers, stakeholders or industry standards. The project management staff will apply cost-benefit analyses to determine the efficiency of quality control measures.

Project quality management addresses the management of the project and the deliverables of the project. It applies to all projects, regardless of the nature of their deliverables.The Project Management Institute

Incorporate quality control with tangible and executable activities – not vague principles.

Project Resource Management

Project resource management identifies and manages people, facilities, equipment and materials.

Teamwork is a critical factor for project success, and developing effective project teams is one of the primary responsibilities of the project manager.The Project Management Institute

Project managers must assemble strong teams and muster excellent leadership skills to deal with potential conflicts, to maintain quality and budget control, and to motivate team members.

Project Management Knowledge

Project communications management means managing information and making it available to customers, the public or government regulators.

Project risk management calls for analyzing and defining project risks.

A common way to structure risk categories is with a Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS), which is a hierarchical representation of potential sources of risk. The Project Management Institute

Procurement involves drafting and executing “contracts, memoranda and internal service level agreements.

Project stakeholder management requires developing strategies for engaging interested parties and managing their expectations. Team members with strong communication and negotiation skills should engage stakeholders.

Every Step

This is likely not the sexiest, liveliest, funniest overview of project management you’ve encountered. It’s not supposed to be. This extremely straightforward guide will, for some readers of previous editions, perhaps prove lacking in granular depth and detail. Experienced project managers may prefer earlier, more complex editions. The Institute, it seems, slightly simplified this edition to increase its potential market. Even so, this edition offers everything beginning and intermediate managers need to know to handle projects of any kind efficiently and comprehensively.

The Project Management Institute has more than 100 degree programs and also publishes many other manuals, including Agile Practice Guide; The Standard for Program Management; The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects; Business Analysis for Practitioners; and Q & A’s for the PMBOK Guide Sixth Edition.