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Project Planning Using the PMBOK Guide

The project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide is a publication by an industry association of project managers, in an attempt to create a central repository of knowledge and creating a common terminology within the profession.

The guide is divided into nine areas:

1. Integration management: ensuring that the individual elements are working harmoniously toward the overall goal
2. Scope management - ensuring the project is considering all the work required to complete it successfully, and that extraneous items do not interfere
3. Time management: ensuring that tasks are completed according to the projected timeline
4. Cost management: ensuring that the resources consumed are within the allotted budget
5. Quality management: ensuring that the end result will be in compliance with the client's requirements and contractual obligations
6. HR management - Ensuring that the project is making effective use of personnel
7. Communication management - Ensuring that critical information is being adequately communicated and recorded
8. Risk management: Identifying possible sources of risk and mitigating their interference
9. Procurement management -Ensuring that they goods and services required from outside the organization are obtained as needed for the project

Each of these areas is documented in a bit more detail in the remainder of the chapter:

Integration Management

A project generally involves a multitude of resources, each of which performs a few tasks that are requisite to the goal, and care must be taken to ensure that they are well integrated.

Seven processes are defined:

• Develop a project charter - This document formally authorizes a project and describes its objectives
• Develop a preliminary scope statement - This document defines the boundaries of the project, to prevent other concerns from creeping in
• Develop a management plan - Indicates the actions necessary to define, prepare, and integrate the various actions
• Direct and manage the execution - Oversee the performance of tasks to ensure their completion as required
• Monitor and control the effort - Measure success along the way, with an eye toward identifying and addressing issues
• Establish a change control procedure - Should changes be demanded (which is inevitable), have a procedure in place for evaluating and implementing them
• Close the project - Ensure that the project comes to completion and gets sign-off.

Scope Management

Scope is a major concern for project management: as the project proceeds, additional activities are often suggested. Some are requisite to the accomplishment of the goal, others are not and should be defended against.

• Scope Planning - Create a plan that documents how the scope will be defined, verified, and controlled
• Scope Definition - Develop a detailed project scope as a base for future project decisions
• Work Breakdown Structure - Subdivide the main project into components, and further subdivide components as necessary until they are manageable
• Scope Verification - Document the rationale for the scope description and obtain acceptance/authorization
• Scope Control - As change requests come in, ensure that any project scope changes are managed

Time Management

Time management is one of the most visible and recognized aspects of project management: laying out a timeline and ensuring work is completed on schedule.

• Activity Definition - Breaks down tasks into specific schedule activities that must be performed
• Activity Sequencing - Identifying necessary dependencies in activities, ensuring that prerequisite tasks are accomplished before those that depend on them
• Resource Estimation - Determination of what resources will be needed for each activity
• Activity Duration - Estimating the amount of time (labor hours and calendar days) that will be needed to accomplish each action
• Schedule control - Develop procedures in advance for handling scheduling changes

Cost Management

Cost management means ensuring that capital is available to acquire the resources required as they are needed. F importance: activities necessitate costs, but costs should not influence activities.

• Cost estimating - Arriving at a 'best guess" of the requisite costs in advance
• Cost budgeting - Establishing a detailed schedule of costs for individual tasks
• Cost control - The assessment of the probability of fluctuations in project costs and an attempt to minimize risk.

Quality Management

Quality pertains to the standards a project must meet to satisfy the client and to fulfill contractual obligations.

• Quality planning - Identify and document quality standards in advance and determining how to fulfill them
• Quality assurance - Implementing tasks necessary to measure quality in the project and document proof of quality
• Quality control - Monitoring results to ensure standards are met, with an eye toward preventing insufficiencies in advance (or where prevention fails, rectifying them in arrears)

Human Resources Management

Since the project's success depends on activities performed by people, it's necessary to manage human resources involved in the project.

• HR Planning - Determining what functions, responsibilities, and relationships must be filled
• Acquisition - Recruiting the talent necessary to complete the project
• Development - Where skills are not present, obtain training for team members
• HR management - Monitoring of performance, furnish feedback, and solve issues related to wetware.

Communication Management

A communications plan should be in place to ensure that information is provided to the people involved in the project as needed to fulfill their roles, as well as to those outside the project, to inform them of progress.

• Communications planning - Identify the needs of all parties for information through the project process
• Information distribution - Determine the method for storing and communicating information
• Performance Reporting - Determine the metrics that will be used to advise stakeholders of progress
• Stakeholder management - Manage inbound communications from stakeholders

Risk Management

All projects are based on estimates and plans for the future, and nothing is certain. Some steps should be taken to prepare for variances that will inevitably arise.

• Risk management planning - Decides how to plan and perform the risk management activities of a project
• Risk identification - Determine all risks that might affect the project and document their characteristics
• Quantitative Analysis - Develop mathematical models for variances that can be concretely measured (in terms of time, money, quantities, etc.)
• Qualitative Analysis - Develop models for variances that cannot be concretely measured (quality issues)
• Response Planning - Determine what the options are for addressing variances when they occur to prevent them fro threatening the project's core objectives
• Monitor and Control - AS work progresses, keep track of variances with an eye toward mitigating risk in advance or, when prevention fails, addressing risk in arrears

Procurement Management

Procurement management ensures that all external participating elements will guarantee the supply of products or services as needed to the project.

• Purchase Planning - Determine what must be purchased or acquired, as well as when it must be obtained
• Contract Planning - Determine what must be documented in vendor contracts in order to ensure deadlines and quality requirements are met
• Vendor Research - Gather information (price quotes, proposals, etc.) from prospective vendors
• Vendor Selection - Review information to select suppliers and negotiate written contracts
• Vendor Management - Ensure that the contracts are fulfilled by suppliers as agreed
• Contract closure - Plan for the completion and settlement of each contract as they are fulfilled.