The Agile PrepCast is your complete PMI-ACP training. With over 40 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMI-ACP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Lean software development (LSD) is a translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, it is emerging with the support of a pro-lean subculture within the Agile community. Lean offers a solid conceptual framework, values and principles, as well as good practices, derived from experience, that support agile organizations."
Wikipedia
This lesson will be describing the Agile method called Lean. The term “Lean Software Development” was first used in the book Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit, written by Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Lean Software Development is a translation of lean manufacturing and lean IT principles and practices used in the Toyota Production System and then adapted for software development. Seven basic principles form the foundation of Lean Software Development, which in turn are implemented on Agile projects by employing a set of 22 supporting tools.
This lesson here is the first of THREE lessons in which we review Lean.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
Coming soon: Transcript in Development
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMI-ACP® Exam Prep: Scrum
The Agile PrepCast is your complete PMI-ACP training. With over 40 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMI-ACP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Scrum is an agile framework for managing work with an emphasis on software development. It is designed for development teams of between three to nine members who break their work into actions that can be completed within timeboxed iterations, called sprints (30 days or less, most commonly two weeks) and track progress and re-plan in 15-minute stand-up meetings, called daily scrums. Approaches to coordinating the work of multiple scrum teams in larger organizations include Large-scale Scrum (LeSS), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), scrum of scrums, and Scrum@Scale, among others."
Wikipedia
This lesson is the first of several where we review the most popular methods available to those interested in implementing Agile principles on their projects. Scrum is by far the most popular method used today by the world’s Agile project development teams, and is also one of the most rigid in terms of recommended practices and procedures. At the heart of Scrum is the Agile iterative cycle called the Sprint, which is supported by different types of project team “Roles”, meetings called “Events”, and documentation and tools called “Artifacts”. Scrum is embraced by most organizations that not only want to implement Agile principles quickly on their projects, but are also interested in implementing Agile principles across their entire organization.
This lesson here is the first of SIX lessons in which we review Scrum.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
Coming soon: Transcript in Development
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMI-ACP® Exam Prep: The Declaration of Interdependence
The Agile PrepCast is your complete PMI-ACP training. With over 40 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMI-ACP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"The PM Declaration of interdependence is a set of management principles initially intended for project managers of Agile Software Development projects. Later on, the name was changed to "The declaration of interdependence for modern management", as it was realized that the principles might be applicable to other management situations."
Wikipedia
In this lesson we will review The Declaration of Interdependence. The Declaration of Interdependence was published in 2005 by a group of Agile practitioners to help implement guidelines set forth in the Agile Manifesto. It contains six principles essential to “management’ in general, not just to “project’ or “product’ management, and outlines leadership methods used to manage the interdependency of people, processes and value in order to perform work.
The following will be reviewed as part of this lesson:
The history of the Declaration of Interdependence
The Agile Declaration of Interdependence as it was originally conceived
Details of the six principle statements that make up the Declaration
Insight into why each of these principles is important to Agile
Why using the aspects of ‘interdependence’ on your Agile projects will help them succeed
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
Coming soon: Transcript in Development
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Plan Risk Management
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP certification training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Risk. An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
One of the most important jobs a project manager has is to successfully complete her or his projects. But per definition, projects are usually something that has never been done before and so we are faced with risk. Managing risk helps us achieve project success.
We explore the process of Plan Risk Management in detail. We discuss its importance and then review all inputs, tools & techniques, as well as outputs one by one. You need to know this for your PMP exam.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am the lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
For over 45,000 students, The PM PrepCast™ was the right choice. This free session here will allow you to experience what the course is like and you’ll see that it is the right choice for you too.
The greatest technological benefit that The PM PrepCast™ gives you over other online courses is the fact that it is a podcast that you can choose to download. This means that you cannot only watch online but even better. You can save all 150 lessons on your tablet or on your phone! In that way, your PMP® training course is always in your pocket no matter where you are even if you are offline.
Preparing for your PMP® Exam has never been easier. Like I said, it’s the right choice! Please visit www.pm-prepcast.com for all the details.
And now, on with the show.
[Music]
[01:06] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™ where the PMP® Exam gets easier and easier. I am your instructor, Cornelius Fichtner, and in this lesson we review the concepts and you determine how to approach plan and ultimately execute risk management-related activities on your project. Specifically, we discuss steps in planning such as choosing proper visibility and defining and communicating how we manage risks.
We examine process details like our ITTO’s. We look at what the risk Management plan contains and why it is important. We’ll also open up the risk breakdown structure to see what it is and how it is used and how and why probability and impact are defined in the risk management plan.
[02:07] You are Here
Here is our usual process groups and knowledge area mapping. We are project risk management and as the process name implies, we are in the planning process group for this knowledge area and obviously plan risk management, the process here is defined as the process of defining how to conduct risk management activities for a project.
[02:33] Follow Along on Pages: 401-408
If you would like to follow along, please turn to pages 401 to 408 in the PMBOK® Guide.
[02:41] Main Concept
The main concept that you should remember is that in this process, we are not interested in planning how you manage the actual individual risks. Instead, we are interested in planning how to approach and execute the risk management activities on your project.
For instance, how will we identify our risks? How will define probability and impact of risks that we have identified? What techniques will we employ to define risk response strategies? And how will we monitor our risks during the life of our project? In other words, we want to create the risk management plan.
[03:26] Benefit or Risk Planning
What are some of the benefits of risk planning? Well by planning your risk management approach early in the project life cycle, you ensure that risk management receives the appropriate visibility to the stakeholders and corresponds with the size and strategic importance of your project. You would very likely plan for high visibility of risk in a large strategic project.
On the other hand, you would aim for low visibility on a project that is a fourth in a series of six similar small projects. This ensures the risk management plan activities receive the attention that is proportional to the project’s importance to the company. Again, remember, risk planning needs to start early on in the project and may need to be revisited if there is any significant scope change.
[04:15] Inputs
Let us dive into the inputs of this process…
[04:23] Plan Risk Management
And they are the project charter, the project management plan, and interestingly enough for plan risk management, we use all components of the plan as inputs whereas from the project documents, the stakeholder register is most important.
Then we also use the Enterprise environmental factors and some organizational process assets. Let’s look at why these are significant in helping us create our risk management plan.
[04:53] Project Charter
First, we have the Project charter as an input, which supplies the following high-level information, the initial high-level risks that are identified on the project. The project description that helps us identify risks based on what is and what is not included in the project.
Requirements that can shed light on how much risk is inherent in our project. For example, many complex requirements means high risk while simple requirements usually imply less risk. And then assumptions and constraints, both directly relate to the level and type of risk in a project. What do you think happens when one of our assumptions proves invalid later on? Well risk increases.
[5:44] Project Management Plan
Next, we have the information contained in the project management plan, which influences that plan risk management process. In preparing the risk management plan, all management plans and baselines must be considered for the risk management plan to be consistent with them. So let’s review then some of the reasons why these subsidiary components within the project management plan are important.
First, the more complex our cost management plan is, the more inherent risk there is on something going wrong in managing our cost. We would want to know the aggressiveness of schedule objectives within the schedule management plan as an indication of the risk of meeting those objectives.
And the communications management plan can help us answer questions on how many and with whom we have to communicate. And since one of the biggest problems on many projects is poor communication, there is a strong connection between planning communication and decreasing risk.
Also all baselines such as the scope, schedule and cost baseline should be taken into consideration. The methodology outlined in each of these plans is essential since these are all risk-affected areas.
[7:07] Project Documents
Next, we have the project documents and an important one among these project documents is the stakeholder register. The lessons about project communication and stakeholder management explain how the stakeholder register contains details about the project’s stakeholders. So why is the stakeholder register important to risk management planning? Well this document informs the project manager based on power, role and level of interest, which stakeholders are likely to impact the project. Stakeholders with high-potential impact likely need and expect to be involved in the planning of risk management activities since they typically can provide or limit resources; their ability to influence risk is substantial.
Secondly, the stakeholder register contains the classification of the project stakeholders. Are they supporters, resistors, or champions? Risk planning includes information about who may cause risks like a resistor and who can reduce risk like a champion? In essence, this information helps the project manager to associate a level of risk to a stakeholder. The better the project knows their stakeholders and level of influence, the more effective and purposeful risk planning is. It is also useful in determining roles and responsibilities for managing the risk on the project, as well as setting the risk threshold for the project.
[8:44] Commonly Used EEFs
The relevant information from the Enterprise environmental factors that we want as an input here are the risk attitudes of both the stakeholders, as well as the sponsoring organization. There are three things that influence these risk attitudes.
First, how much uncertainty will an organization take in anticipating a reward from a project? In other words, what is their risk appetite? Second, what is the measurable amount of acceptable risk or in other words, what is the risk tolerance, the degree or volume of risk an organization will withstand? And third, at what point does my risk become unacceptable? What is my risk threshold? For example, it may be acceptable if a project were 5% over-budget but not be 15% over-budget. Knowing these areas and amounts of risk an organization is willing to accept helps to identify the impact of risk and determine what strategies to use.
[9:54] How Much Risk Would You Accept?
So, how much risk would you accept? Well depending on what company you work for, you would likely have a different answer. A young and dynamic start-up company is very likely to take on high risk. They are willing to try out new technology to boldly go where no man has gone before in order to reap the greatest rewards. They are risk seekers.
Whereas older, established companies on the other hand may be more reluctant to behaving this way. They may be conservative and have less tolerance towards risk. They tend to be risk-averse and avoid enormous levels of risk.
Again, knowing how much risk an organization is willing to accept is key in risk planning. And this once again shows that it is interesting to know what inputs we have to these processes but understanding why we have them and how to use them to our benefit on the projects. That’s really key.
[11:01] Commonly Used OPAs
It is worth noting that companies themselves have a certain approach in how they manage risk and this approach is documented and defined in the organizational process assets. Let’s take a look at a few beginning with the company’s policies and procedures manual that documents how risk management is to be performed.
A company might have defined risk categories or even a complete listing of possible risks on certain project types possibly organized in a risk breakdown structure.
Some companies have a glossary with definitions of risk terms that you can use to educate your stakeholders in risk management. Or a company may also have standard templates for risk management activities. This may be as simple as just a template for your risk register.
But wait there is more because we also have to consider the company’s documented roles and responsibilities for risk management or the company’s definition on levels of authority when it comes to making decisions on risks. And of course let’s not forget that your company may have ready-made risk management plans.
Lastly, a wealth of information about risk management can be obtained from reviewing project lessons learned repositories and interviewing experienced project managers. The good thing about organizational process assets is that they exist. They represent best practices within your company from past projects and make your life easier. They make your life easier because you don’t have to reinvent all these assets from scratch.
[12:50] Tools and Techniques
We are moving on to the tools and techniques to help us plan for our ascent.
[12:56] Plan Risk Management
There are three tools and techniques in the Plan Risk Management process that used the inputs that we just described. These tools and techniques are expert judgment, data analysis and meetings. Normally, we review these in the order that you see them here. But this time, let’s start with data analysis and then discuss the other two together.
[13:21] Data Analysis
Data analysis is used to establish the overall risk management context. One important technique is stakeholder analysis, which is used to determine the risk appetite of the stakeholder again, determining how much uncertainty they will take on.
The key to understanding more about the overall risk management context requires you to determine who cares, what do they care about and how much do they care about it. To determine the answers to who, what and how much, you must engage your stakeholders and map their issues. The commitment they demonstrate to managing risk and their ownership of the risk management context also has to be defined.
This assessment permits you to allocate the appropriate resources to risk management planning and an ability to address risk. Early in establishing your context, it is critical to establish assessment criteria, which reflect an organization’s risk appetite and tolerance.
[14:25] Risk Management Meetings
For your risk management meetings to be effective, you rely on expert judgment to lay the foundation for a comprehensive risk management plan. A successful risk planning team includes the project manager, select members of the project team, stakeholders and experts from within or without your company. The idea is to invite those people that have a certain responsibility on the project or expertise when it comes to risk management. And for course leverage their expert judgment.
And what do you in these meetings? Well you define your fundamental strategies of how risk management is performed on the project. For example, what is your plan for conduction risk management activities? And you may even define certain risk-related deliverables that need to be included in the WBS. This may lead to the realization that you need additional activities on your schedule, which in turn leads to additional components on your budget, which touches cost management. And all of this work is documented in a single output.
[15:33] Outputs
And that means, we are moving on to the outputs. Well what will we have when we finish our climb-up-the-risk hill?
[15:47] Plan Risk Management
You can probably guess what that single output is. It is of course the Risk management plan. Like other plans, the Risk management plan is a subsidiary plan of the overall project management plan. It can be broadly framed or detailed and it can be formal or informal. It’s all based on the needs of your project. The risk management plan is vital to communicate to the stakeholders and get their approval and support to ensure proper execution of the risk management activities.
[16:25] What is the Plan?
Your risk management plan may include all or some of these elements here beginning with the risk strategy, methodology, which describes approaches, tools or where your data, your risk data comes from, roles and responsibilities in executing the risk management process. You could have funding and also timing and risk categories, which are a means for grouping individual project risk. For example with the risk breakdown structure.
Then we talked a couple of times about the risk appetite. And then there is also the risk probability and impact. These are levels that are specific to the project and reflect the risk appetite and thresholds of your organization and key stakeholders. These are often plotted into a matrix and used in the qualitative risk analysis. And lastly also, documentation requirements.
As you can see, there can be many elements in the risk management plan. At its core, the risk management plan tells you how risk management is structured and performed on your project. Again, we are not talking about how to respond to individual risks. We are talking about how to manage the overall approach to risk management as a major process on your project. Now that we have seen what is in the plan, let’s examine a few points in more detail.
[18:00] Risk Breakdown Structure
I think a mentioned a couple of times already that a common way to structure risk categories is with a risk breakdown structure, RBS. Like all the other breakdown structures, the RBS is a graphical, hierarchical structure of your risk categories. You could have high-level categories such as business infrastructure, technical or project management and these are then again subdivided into low-level categories.
An organization may have a generic RBS to be used for all projects or each project has a tailored RBS with many more or fewer levels. It all really depends on your project.
The RBS is a great tool to make people aware that there are a multitude of sources where risks may arise and it helps put risk management at the forefront of people’s thoughts.
[19:18] Define Probability and Impact
A crucial step in risk management planning requires the project manager and the risk management team to create specific definitions for levels of probability and impact for the project. These definitions are documented in the risk management plan and serve as a basis for future risk management activities. These definitions are therefore required before we can perform the qualitative and quantitative analyses of risks, which we cover in another lesson.
And as with many things, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to defining probability and impact. While we apply the organizational process assets, we benefit from the experience of other project managers and risk management experts to help us create definitions that are specific and tailored to our project’s context.
Since risk can have both positive and negative impact, our definitions and the tools we use to define probability and impact should be able to account for each type of impact. So positive and negative.
And lastly, relative terms like high, medium and low and numerical values are commonly used both individually and together in defining levels or probability and impact.
[20:49] Cost Impact Definition Table
Let’s look at an example. A very helpful approach for defining probability and impact is the use of a lookup table. Let’s assume that our company uses a five point scale to define the impact that the risk may have on the overall project. We now have to define what the ratings of risk 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 actually means. Let’s see how this would work in such a lookup table. Here we go.
In this table, we have incorporated columns for a numerical rating, relative description and specific criteria. To illustrate, let’s start here with the risk that has been given an impact rating of 1 on the project cost.
This rating and its impact is classified as very low and the specific criteria that defines the impact as equal to 1 or very low is a cost deviation of less than or equal to 3% of the total cost.
Similarly, if we have a risk that is rated 2, that means here in our table that this rating and its impact to cost is described as low since the cost overrun was above 3% but does not exceed 10% of total budget.
And as you may expect, the rest simply follows in a very similar fashion. You may create or use existing tables that apply to all risk-affected areas like time, scope and quality just to name a few.
Probability and impact matrix or table is a very common example where both probability and impact are considered in combination. The levels and criteria for such a matrix are often set by the organization, again, based on a variety of factors such as risk tolerance and attitudes. We discuss this table in greater detail in the lesson on perform qualitative risk analysis.
[23:28] Takeaways
And that’s it! And here are the key takeaways from this process. First of all, plan risk management is a process that you start early on in your project. We are not interested in planning how we manage the actual individual risk. Instead, we are interested in planning how to approach and execute the risk management activities on our project.
By planning your risk management approach early on, we ensure that risk management receives the appropriate visibility to the stakeholders and it corresponds with the size and strategic importance of the project in the organization overall.
Risk attitudes and risk tolerance of both the company and our stakeholders are an important input. And the risk management plan is our only output. It tells us how risk management is structured and performed on the project.
And that concludes our look at plan risk management.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Estimate Activity Resources
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP certification training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Estimate Activity Resources. The process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material, equipment, and supplies necessary to perform project work."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
This lesson looks at the second process of the Project Resource Knowledge Area. It is closely related to Estimate Activity Durations because without knowing who will be performing a task you cannot estimate precisely how long it will take them.
We explore the process in detail and review all Inputs, Tools & Techniques, as well as Outputs (ITTOs) that you need to know for the exam.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am the lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
For over 45,000 students, The PM PrepCast™ was the right choice. This free session here will allow you to experience what the course is like and you’ll see that it is the right choice for you too.
The greatest technological benefit that The PM PrepCast™ gives you over other online courses is the fact that it is a podcast that you can choose to download. This means that you cannot only watch online but even better. You can save all 150 lessons on your tablet or on your phone! In that way, your PMP® training course is always in your pocket no matter where you are even if you are offline.
Preparing for your PMP® Exam has never been easier. Like I said, it’s the right choice! Please visit www.pm-prepcast.com for all the details.
And now, on with the show.
[01:17] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™ where you can use your ears and eyes to prepare for your exam. I am instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
In this lesson, we discuss the Estimate Activity Resources process. We go through the various types of resources that are estimated. Several factors that influence Activity resource estimating and we discuss the process details and how you need to coordinate with other processes.
This important process here will help you estimate and identify the type and quantities of human resources, equipment materials and supplies required to perform each of the schedule activities and the project as a whole.
[02:06] You are Here
But first let us see where we are in the overall PMBOK® Guide map. We are in Project Resource Management and as the process name implies in the planning process group and we are at the second process Estimate Activity Resources which is defined as the process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material, equipment and supplies necessary to perform project work.
[02:37] Follow Along on Pages: 320-327
If you want to follow along in your own PMBOK® Guide, please turn to pages 320 to 327.
[02:46] Main Concept
A central theme and estimate activity resources is that you should have a thorough understanding of the resources required for each individual activity in order to achieve an accurate estimate of duration and costs for the project as a whole.
In other words, if you understand the resource details at the activity level then figuring out the total cost and duration will be a breeze. But if you fail to understand the required resources then you can expect cost overruns, schedule slippage and possibly total project failure.
[03:27] Types of Resources
The Estimate Activity Resources process helps us to identify and quantify the resources required for each activity. For any given activity on our project, we may require some or all of these resources here --- people, equipment, material, as well as goods or supplies.
So even though we focus mainly on the topic of estimating what type of human resources are needed to perform our activities, we should never forget that our activities may also need some or all of the other types.
[04:05] Four Factors
Furthermore, when you estimate resources, you should also consider these four factors here starting with the complexity of the task then the skill level that is required of the resource; the organization’s history in doing similar activities and finally, the required resources availability. If you’ll properly weigh these factors, you should be able to provide accurate estimates for the resources required.
[04:36] Let’s Dig Deeper
But let’s dig a little deeper here because when choosing resources, it’s imperative that you give adequate consideration to what resource is best to doing a particular job.
Let’s say one of the activities on your project requires the digging of a 40 x 40 x40 cm hole. How long this will take is dependent on your choice of resource. Suppose we have many of these holes to dig. We better choose our resource wisely or it could take a long time.
Well if employing a 6-year-old were not against the law, in most places, we would probably a result in the region of 1 to 2 hours for that 6-year-old to dig the hole. Probably not ideal since many holes would be requiring a lot of time to be scheduled for this child to dig, say, 50, 60 holes like that. A better choice would be to employ an adult who could probably complete each hole in about 10 to 20 minutes. But if we had hundreds of these holes to dig, even that choice would not be optimal. A modern excavating machine would complete the task in only about 10 seconds and so if you have hundreds of these holes to dig, it would likely be the best choice of resources here.
And you probably also noticed that each of these choices would have a different cost attached to it. Let me also fill you in in a little secret here. See the adorable dog on the image here on the right who seems ever so ready to dig. Well I was told that this dog would likely prefer hunting to digging. A terrier would be better for the digging job. So don’t forget the skills of your resources either.
[06:35] Cost Perspective
I just mentioned cost a second ago because in addition to considering duration when choosing resources, it is also very important to look at these resources from a cost perspective. After all, each resource has a cost associated with them and selecting one ton of resource over another can have an impact on your project budget. But there is more to cost than simply the hourly rate.
Know-how and experience is also connected to cost. Experience usually means greater productivity. If your resources don’t have the appropriate know-how to perform a task, you must send them to be trained and that costs money or you could decide that it’s overall cheaper for you to simply hire the external resources who have the specialized know-how. Remember that the more experience a resource has, that resource will usually also cost more and you have to account for this.
[07:33] Inputs
Let’s get our hands dirty and start planting some seeds of knowledge about this process…
[7:40] Estimate Activity Resources
…Beginning with the inputs. We have four of them. Within the project management plan, you will need the Resources management plan, as well as the schedule baseline. There are some interesting project documents that are especially helpful in the estimating processes.
Enterprise environmental factors such as resource availability, location and skill can all influence resource selection. And organizational process assets can also influence or even impact resource used. Most common examples are policies or procedures that address staffing, the rental or purchase of materials, equipment and supplies.
[8:25] Project Management Plan
The Project management plan and its subsidiary components may be quite large. So focus on those elements that we know that we need. First of all, we need the Resource management plan, which shows us how we approach identifying all the required resources and how they will be quantified. And we’ll need the scope baseline to see which activities need people or activities that require things or perhaps both. And lastly, the Schedule baseline answers the question ‘when’. When does an activity start means that’s also the when a resource may be required.
[9:06] Project Documents
Here are the project documents that we need. Activity attributes, which are the details that allow resource estimation for those activities; details like successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lacks, imposed dates and constraints to name just a few.
Then the Activity list is a list of all activities that will require resources. Don’t forget a list of the Assumptions that we made about our project. Then we also have the Activity cost estimates. They can influence whether or not resources are used and if so, what type of resources are used based on cost. Oh and be careful because cost and quality may be interdependent.
Next we have the Resource calendars. They can be consulted to identify what resources such as people or equipment are available at a given time. And lastly, the Risk register; it provides a list of risk events that may impact resources required, selected or available. Each of these provides information needed to make accurate resource estimates.
[10:25] Commonly Used EEFs & OPAs
Here are a few of the commonly used Enterprise environmental factors and Organizational process assets. Starting with the EEFs, we have the resource location and availability, team resource skills, the organizational culture and the marketplace conditions.
And then on the other side for the OPAs, we have standard HR policies, physical management procedures, as well as the history of resource used on past similar projects. We have discussed most of them in other lessons so I won’t go into detail here. However, there is one factor I would like to look at with you and that is the fact that we have to keep in mind that the choice of resource or quantity can potentially impact multiple project variables like time and cost. But how do we make these decisions without having an enormous base of knowledge about those factors and more? Well that brings us to the fifth EEF that is missing here on the left-hand side.
[11:37] Published Estimating Data
Because the answers to my questions can be found in Published estimating data. This data is indeed available and it tells us how long it will take and excavate it to dig a hole. How long it takes a skilled laborer to dig the same hole or maybe even how long it takes a 6-year-old to do the same job? I doubt that one though.
Similarly, there are catalogues available that give you the unit cost for labor equipment and material resources, and having these two pieces of information available, you can use the rate information and unit cost together to determine total cost of production for the resources selected. These sorts of external publications whether industry-based or even government-created may be very helpful since someone else has done all the brainwork for us.
[12:33] Tools and Techniques
Let’s keep going and grab our spade and shovel as we learn all about the tools and techniques to estimate activity resources.
[12:43] Estimate Activity Resources
We have quite a number of them to choose from starting with one of our usual suspects here: Expert judgment. Then we have three specific estimating tools namely Bottom-up estimating, Analogous estimating, Parametric estimating. We also have Data analysis, your Project management information system; and finally Meetings that’s the other usual suspect. Each of these tools and techniques helps you to estimate all the resources that you are going to need for the project.
[13:18] Expert Judgment
Expert judgment is the first tool and technique. Experts can provide real perspective when it comes to estimating resources for our activities. First off, experts can help the project staff choose the right resource based on their wealth of experience with similar projects or activities. Remember our earlier example about digging holes? I suppose the expert will not tell us to pick the 6-year-old. Experience counts!
Once we have decided on which resource is correct for the task, experts can then help us to determine how many of these resources we should employ for a given activity. Experts usually know the optimum number so there is just enough work to go around and avoid idle time.
Experts earn their big paychecks also by sharing their knowledge and insights about requirements for a given activity that is common in their area of expertise. Experts can give us choices of different techniques for estimating and because they have seen many different situations, experts can typically also provide a range of choices of resources appropriate for a given activity.
[14:39] Estimating Tools
Next, we have the three common estimating techniques that you have already seen in both Cost Management, as well as Schedule Management lessons. Bottom-up estimating is often on PMP® exams. It’s a PMP® exams favorite because even though it is time consuming, it is the most accurate of estimating approaches. Some call it the Engineering or Grassroots estimate because of the level of detail involved.
The key is in the detail. When you breakdown an enormous task into smaller, more manageable tasks then the tasks become small enough to make a considered estimate for the required resources. After you assign people, equipment, material and supplies, you get a total for that single task. Add up all these estimates and that is Bottom-up estimating. When each and every task on the WBS has its own detailed estimates, the number can be aggregated at a different level or totaled for the entire project.
Analogous estimating is certainly quicker and easier. This method uses the common features of similar past projects based on recent historical data.
And then Parametric estimates are simple math tools. They are algorithm-based. If you have current, up-to-date data, you can use a formula to make an estimate based on proven relationships. For example, a paving company knows its past cost per lane mile paved and even the cost of a mile of painted centerline. Very handy but using this tool requires current, accurate and relevant data.
[16:25] Data Analysis
We are moving on to our next tool and technique, which is Data analysis where we take the time to look at the activity resource related information so we can organize, assess and evaluate them.
[16:41] Alternative Analysis
We want to look at a particular type of data analysis that is all about alternatives. Just as we have choices of how we derive energy, we have choices of what resources to assign to the various project tasks. As project managers, our project team and often experts will assist us in identifying several resource options for our activities.
When choosing resources, we must first determine what is the best choice and why. Is it faster? Is faster always the best? What about reliability and what about quality? The analysis of alternatives should consider all the ways to accomplish the activity. Should the task be done manually or is automation a better choice?
Questions such as whether it makes sense to do the work in-house or use external resources need to be considered when estimating resources. Very often, project managers will also have to consider whether it makes more sense to build it or buy it or even rent it. For example, software, should we build it ourselves or purchase it from a vendor? Both the requirements of an activity or its product, as well as the current environment will limit our choice of alternatives.
One example that immediately comes to mind is a resource shortage and its effect on cost and considerations in regards to alternatives. So as you see, there are many considerations when choosing and estimating the resources required for the project activities and it’s good to have alternatives.
[18:26] Project Management Information System
The Project management information system and of course in particular project management software is definitely something you are going to want to use. Contemporary software is sophisticate enough to consider several factors when estimating resources such as the Resource breakdown structure, the Resource calendars and Rates and cost. Having these all in on package will allow you to create instant alternatives for comparisons in order to see the potential, scheduling conflicts and resource shortages or overbooking problems. And that is how project management software will support us in our endeavor of estimating activity resources.
[19:13] Outputs
And now that we have applied our tools and techniques to the various inputs, we come to the outputs. We have a total of four outputs here in Estimate activity resources. We have the Activity resource requirements. This is a key listing of what types and quantities of resources will be needed by all activities on the WBS. Indeed, it can directly affect cost and quality.
Then we also have the Basis of estimates, also called the BOE. In some organizations, they provide the rationale for each estimates; the Resource breakdown structure and the Project document updates. Let’s discuss these outputs further.
[20:40] Activity Resource Requirements
The goal of this process is to identify and estimate what kind of and how many resources are needed for each activity in a work package. Therefore, the activity resource requirements list contains the quantity and type of resources for each activity or task on the WBS. It can be used to aggregate the total resources required in a work package or a work period.
It will often contain the details involved in creating the estimate for each resource and the assumptions that were used to determine the resources estimated. This output is a vital piece, which becomes indispensable as an input for other processes. The basis or rationale for each estimate is a handy reference document to remind us how we created our estimates. Let’s see what’s involved!
[21:24] Basis of Estimate
The Basis of estimates, the BOE, supports the activity resource requirements. It is a key source for finding the methods used to develop the estimate --- Analogous or Parametric for example, and it includes the assumptions and the type of resources used.
For example: Did we use a 6-year-old or machines to do the digging? Were there any constraints affecting this estimate? And since estimates are predictions of the future and cover a range of possibilities, we should be able to attach a level of confidence to each. And finally, has our estimating activity revealed or introduced any new risks?
[21:53] Resource Breakdown Structure
The Resource breakdown structure is our third output. It’s a great way of showing required resources in a graphical format. Our example here includes only the human resources that are needed in each of these three categories here. Of course, you could have other categories like labor, material, equipment, supplies and so on.
Take a look at the welding category. Here you see an example that includes the skill level of our resources because we have a Master welder, as well as one other category, an Apprentice welder. And now, we complete our example here with the transportation, as well as the plumbing.
Notice something: We’re only talking about categories here. We haven’t yet assigned individuals. We haven’t yet people. We would need to consider the different roles and types of resources that we need which may include required licenses and certifications, skill or grade levels or knowledge and experience.
[23:01] Project Document Updates
And finally because we have done quite a bit of work in this process here, there are number of project documents that may require updates. For example, the Activity attributes, the Assumptions log and the Lessons learned register could be among them. And that was the last of the outputs here in the Estimate Activity Resources process.
[23:27] Takeaways
Let’s see what we can take away from this lesson: Why do we estimate activity resources? Well we want to estimate how many and what type of resources we will need on our project. And how exactly do we accomplish this? We analyze the type and the quantity of resources that we need for each schedule activity so that we can accurately estimate the activity duration.
We apply expert judgment and alternative analysis in order to document activity resources requirements in the activity attributes of our activity list. And we also create a resource breakdown structure.
And that concludes our look at the Estimate Activity Resources process.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Overview of Project Cost Management
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP certification training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Project Cost Management. Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
This lesson is the introduction and overview of the Project Cost Management Knowledge Area.
We review the definition, glance at the four processes (Plan Cost Management, Estimate Costs, Determine Budget and Control Costs), and we discuss trends, agile and tailoring considerations for the knowledge area.
We answer the question "When can you estimate the cost of a project with 100% precision?".
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Logo shown]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am your lead instructor. And at this point, you probably expect I am going to tell you how great the PrepCast is, right? Well, don’t take it form me. Instead, here are the voices and testimonials from a number of our students so that you hear what they had to say.
First up is Sondra Rosenbauer who loved it because you can study anywhere. Shahrukh Cummins not only used it anywhere but also anytime! In particular, during his breaks several times a day. Gina Vu passed her exam on the first try calls the PrepCast a great investment and recommends it.
I particularly like this one here from Devie Kusuma because he said that I have a very engaging teaching style. Thank you, Devie! Furrukh Rao is completely satisfied with the course material and Jill felt completely prepared and so she passed the exam on her first try. And finally, here is Shadrack Baraka who says that the PM PrepCast™ is the most well thought out course that he has ever interacted with and that he would recommend it to any aspiring project manager.
There are hundreds more testimonials like these from our students on www.pm-prepcast.com for you to read. But now, it’s time for your free lesson. So on with the show.
[01:35] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™ your cost-effective way of preparing for your certification. I am instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
In this lesson, you’ll get an overview of the Project Cost Management knowledge area. The objective of cost management is to provide the information to allow you to complete your project within the approved budget.
In this lesson, we go through the definitions of the processes that belong under this knowledge area. We also discuss some generalizations about changes and cost over the life of the project. And finally, we examine some of the latest trends in costing. This lesson may look nice and light but it’s very informative.
[02:18] Follow Along on Pages: 231-234 and 674
If you would like to follow along in the PMBOK® Guide, please turn to pages 231 to 234, as well as page 674. Page 674 by the way summarizes the key concepts for this knowledge area. Let’s get started, shall we?
[02:35] [Definition]
And the best place to start is the definition. Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget.
With all the charts, graphs, equations, acronyms, the key aspect of this knowledge area is not to make you a mathematician or an accountant but to help you complete the project within the budget that you determine.
[03:09] Cost Management Processes
To achieve this, there are four processes defined in Project Cost Management. You’ll get the details for each in separate lessons. Right now, our goal is to give you a high level understanding.
As with most knowledge area, the first process is planning. Plan Cost Management is defined as the process of defining how the project cost will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored and controlled. The process generates the approach of how the team conducts the other three processes that follow in this knowledge area.
So after we have a plan and a bunch of data from other knowledge areas, we need to estimate the cost of the activities, resources and such. This is done in the Estimate Cost process. It’s defined as the process of developing an approximating of the monetary resources needed to complete project work. It directly feeds and is often confused with the next process, which will help us in determining the budget.
The definition of the Determine Budget process is the process of aggregating the estimated cost of individual activities or work packages to establish and authorize cost baseline. The primary output being the cost baseline of more commonly known as the budget.
Finally, there is the process where you will spend a lot of your time as a project manager, that is Control Cost. The formal definition is the process of monitoring the status of the project to update project cost and manage changes to the cost baseline.
Having only four processes makes this knowledge area sound small but you’ll find that you spend a lot of time working on this topic. It seems some of your stakeholders are pretty picky about money.
[05:10] Processes and Process Groups
What about process groups you ask? I was hoping you would ask that. In a nutshell, three processes in the Planning process group and the last is in the Monitoring and Controlling process group.
The three Planning processes are Plan Cost Management, followed by Estimate cost and finally Determine Budget. The Monitoring and Controlling process is of course Control Cost. These four processes are used to establish and control the cost on your project.
[05:42] Common Questions
There are three questions that we project managers hear time and again. First: How much is this going to cost? Second: Since you are doing this work, could you maybe also do…? And you can end the question with whatever you would like. And then finally: When do you think you are going to get done with this?
The answer to all of these questions is ‘it depends’.
[06:08] Choreographing Success
You see, Cost Management is like choreographing a troop of dancers. You need to get the different people sometimes speaking different languages to make their moves harmoniously. Your team needs to get the right data and information to the right people at the right time to make them happy.
You need to make sure that you know what your project is trying to produce. This sounds too simple but has the biggest effect on cost and is often poorly understood. You should find the right resources, people, equipment and material to do the work and manage them effectively. The wrong resource or managing them poorly can squander significant funds.
Although you can generally complete a project quicker if you add additional or more qualified resources, there is a limit to that both practically and financially. You and your stakeholders should understand that changing project or product scope almost always adds cost. And although everyone likes the best, increasing quality or using higher-grade material increases cost.
Therefore, those three questions: “How much will it cost?”; “Could you also do this other work?”; and “When will you be done?” can have different answers depending on their context.
[07:28] Timing of Cost Processes
Money is almost always central to running a project. It is usually the case that money is the primary constraint. Stakeholders seem to be more concerned about cost than nearly anything else. The old saying is quite true: Money makes the world go round, and your project run.
You cannot develop a reasonable project budget until you know what you are building, the materials that go into it, who will be working on it, what they cost, and where the money will come from to pay for it. Therefore there is a lot of work to get done before being able to start estimating what it will cost. However, if you wait too long, your stakeholders will lose confidence in your capabilities, the project’s viability or both. Hence, cost planning has to happen early and is usually done in progressive steps of refining the cost within tighter ranges of confidence.
[08:29] Project Uncertainty
The problem is that your knowledge about the project is very low when the project starts. The number of unknowns or project uncertainty is super high at the beginning. Uncertainty decreases only after you start defining scope, identifying resources and understanding activities and their durations. Unfortunately, your stakeholders want to know the cost as early as possible.
[8:57] Ability to Change
Because of this uncertainty, project and product scope changes. It should be no surprise to hear that cost and scope are tightly linked. Increased the scope and you almost certainly increase the cost. It is also understandable that the best time for a project team or stakeholders to influence the project scope and therefore cost is early on. For example during early planning and design, you can see this nicely here in this graphic: The ability to affect scope curve.
The team’s ability to affect project and product scope decreases overtime. This is because expectations are set and some key decisions have already been made that anchor the project path. For instance, changing the number of engines in a new airplane design or the number of floors in a house, or switching from buying software to developing it yourself. Those big decisions should be made early on in the project. Those are so big that it is difficult to change them even within just a few weeks of the project starting.
This is true even for adaptive projects, ones that allow for change. Although they are designed to handle most changes better than predictive methodologies, some changes to base components in the project become more difficult the change, the longer the project has been running.
[10:26] Cost of Change
There is one more major factor – Cost of Change. The cost of doing a change increases rapidly as your project progresses. This cost of change curve here shows you the relative cost in the early stages of the project and how the same change would cost more later on in the project.
Think about it, planning to make a two-story house isn’t cheap, but if you wait until the roof has been put on it to finally say: Oh you know what, you need another story on top of that” it’s far more expensive. You would have to remove all or part of the roof, build another story on top of it and then replace the roof again. In fact, your foundation may not even be designed to handle the extra weight.
Again, this is true even for adaptive projects, those that allow for change. Although the cost for change may be lower than in predictive, a change later on in the project generally costs more. The answer is obvious. The earlier you make such scope-related design changes and decisions, the less expensive the project will be. Procrastination causes cost to skyrocket.
[11:47] Solve the Cost Management Puzzle
How will you get answers to the key project cost management questions to solve this puzzle? Consider the stakeholder requirements. We cannot stress enough the importance of the role of stakeholders in Cost Management and they should be involved at the very start during Cost Management Planning. Stakeholders influence how project costs are measures. For example, stakeholders may have a say in the method of cost estimation.
Stakeholder requirements also impact the timing of cost recognition on the project. For example, do we record cost in accounting at the point in time when cost are committed to, or do we wait until the actual money exchanges hands? Consider cost of resources needed to complete the project activities. Project managers are heavily concerned with the cost directly charged to the project. However, different cost horizons should also be considered. We not only manage costs, which are incurred during the duration of the project, but also consider the full product life cycle.
Today’s decision on the project can affect cost after the project completes. For example, spending more time and effort during the project to make sure that we have a user-friendly product will have the effect of reducing customer inquiries for service. Thereby, we are saving on long-run product support costs. Your project is just one piece of a large corporate puzzle that includes operations and support. You are not an island.
[13:32] Financial Performance
Finally, our lessons on costing finance and performance talk in a lot more depth than the PMBOK® Guide. Predicting and analyzing the potential financial performance of the project and its product may or may not be within the scope of the project.
At times, it may seem that every stakeholders want to see numbers in a different way. That is because stakeholders come from different backgrounds and have different needs. Hence, there will be a multitude of different ways you may need to represent the numbers.
Also depending on project type though, if the project is very financially focused such as a capital facilities project, you may need to. Luckily for you, however, many organizations have separate departments or personnel to perform this function outside of the project. But you still need to understand what they are doing so you can communicate with them and understand their concerns.
Some financial management techniques include return on investment, discounted cash flow, investment payback analysis. These techniques have their specific purpose and formulas to help the project manager and relevant stakeholders make project cost decisions.
[14:50] Trends
The world is always changing and even though you may think that methods around costing are static, maybe even boring, there are many aspects of the field that are changing mostly based around core project methodology.
Adaptive methodologies are changing how costs are determined. Some projects are simply given a bucket of money and told to product what they can. Others determine the cost of each iteration based on the projected work and continue doing iterations until the product is developed or the team decides the project is non-viable, which usually happens very early on in the project.
Outsourcing is continuing to become more prevalent as a way to accelerate deliveries and share risks and rewards. This entails not only different costs, but also different investment returns. As vendors who share in a risk, also share in the profit. Not all changes are earth shattering. You have heard little about earned value management and you will hear a lot more about it during the lessons on Project Cost Management.
One area, which is gaining traction, is called Earned Schedule. This is a different way of looking at schedule variances that is not expressed in dollar amounts as it is done in classical earned value. Of course as trends are rather well trendy, new ones can creep up at any time.
[16:20] Agile/Adaptive
We have already talked about a couple of areas where Agile and Adaptive processes come in to play. These methodologies are designed to reduce the effects of change and leave the detailed scope and hence cost planning until the start of an iteration.
For each iteration, the team works with stakeholders to determine what is of the most value to the stakeholders and that becomes the focus. Therefore, the original estimates are lightweight and details are added at the time of execution only. All of these factors heavily change how costing is done and as I said earlier, the projects assignment may be just to see what you can get done for a specific amount of money.
[17:08] Tailoring
In my many years of running projects, I have yet to see two run exactly the same way. Organizations have special processes or new ideas. They may have special needs in estimating based on their products or customer’s requirements. They may not even have a formal costing process that is especially true if it is a younger company or the complete opposite may be true and they have very strict costing and cost control processes. What the Cost Management processes provide is a set of tools for you to use in various situations to meet your stakeholders’ needs.
[17:46] Final Words on Cost Management
We are getting close to the end of this lesson and want to finish off by looking at the importance of Cost Management on your project and how you as the project manager are involved. Managing cost is vital for any business, project or program. It should be a high priority for the project manager and is essential for overall project success.
As many experienced project managers know, managing project cost can be challenging with so many variables involved in a project. Every project activity affects cost. A decision made regarding scope and schedule has the potential to adversely impact project’s cost. Therefore, a project manager must always pay attention to them. It is likely that there is no single answer or solution to a Cost Management question as every project situation is unique.
However, there is no need to panic. Use the processes, tools and techniques for project cost management we introduced you to and you shall see the more work done on all the Cost Management plans, the more effective the project estimates, budgets and controls, the higher the likelihood that you can effectively manage costs and get to project success.
[19:06] When are Costs Known?
Here is a fun question for you: At what time is it possible to precisely determine the cost of any project? I’ll give you a hint here. There’s only one correct answer to this and it is the same moment on any project. The answer is that the only time you have 100% knowledge of what the cost of any project is, is when that project is finished. This may be obvious but still important to remember. Estimates are only guesses and that is all we are doing in this knowledge area, determining estimates and making decisions based on how we perform to those estimates.
[19:49] Review Question
And after this fun question, here is a serious review question for you: Which document sets the format and establishes criteria for planning, structuring, estimating, budgeting and controlling project costs? Is it (a) financial management plan? Is it (b) the consolidated cost and control plan? Is it (c) the asset management plan? Or is it (d) the Cost Management Plan? I’ll give you a few moments to think about the answer here. If you need more time, press ‘pause’.
Did you get it? Well the name of the document was a big hint. The correct answer is D, the Cost Management Plan. You’ll find more about the Cost management plan in the next lesson of our series.
[20:49] Takeaways
Here are your takeaways from this lesson: To estimate cost which is the basis of controlling them, you need to understand what you are building, who will build it, the time allotted to complete it and what materials you need. But cost is almost always the most important factor on any project and one of the first project parameters your stakeholders want to know about. You will almost always feel pressured to provide a cost before you have a good understanding of the details of the project. This means that there is a high chance that the project will change. Those changes are easier to do at the start of the project and we need to be thorough in planning.
This is true if you are running on a predictive or an adaptive methodology. Even though the latter is designed to accommodate change. Changes also impact the cost of the project far more as the project progresses. Changes late in the project can heavily affect the overall project cost especially if we are talking about a core project change.
Lastly, there are hundreds of project methodologies. In our lessons, we learn a lot about Earned Value Management. PMI is a strong supporter of that particular methodology. Hence, you should know it. However, many organizations use far less rigorous methodologies. As you learn about Earned Value, think about how it can apply in a general sense to your projects. And that concludes our overview of Project Cost Management.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: The Process of Define Scope
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP certification training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Project Scope. The work performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
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. And Define Scope is the process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.
This lesson differentiates between the project scope vs product scope, reviews the role of the scope statement, and emphasizes that we not only need to define what is in scope but also clearly have to state what is out of scope.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am your lead instructor. And at this point, you probably expect I am going to tell you how great the PrepCast is, right? Well, don’t take it form me. Instead, here are the voices and testimonials from a number of our students so that you hear what they had to say.
First up is Sondra Rosenbauer who loved it because you can study anywhere. Shahrukh Cummins not only used it anywhere but also anytime! In particular, during his breaks several times a day. Gina Vu passed her exam on the first try calls the PrepCast a great investment and recommends it.
I particularly like this one here from Devie Kusuma because he said that I have a very engaging teaching style. Thank you, Devie! Furrukh Rao is completely satisfied with the course material and Jill felt completely prepared and so she passed the exam on her first try. And finally, here is Shadrack Baraka who says that the PM PrepCast™ is the most well thought out course that he has ever interacted with and that he would recommend it to any aspiring project manager.
There are hundreds more testimonials like these from our students on www.pm-prepcast.com for you to read. But now, it’s time for your free lesson. So on with the show.
[01:35] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™ where the scope of your preparation to passing the Project Management Professsional (PMP)® Exam should include The Project Management PrepCast™. I am your instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
In this lesson, we take a look at the Define Scope process. This is the process of cultivating a detailed description of the project and the product. It is in this process where the project requirements are selected and refined to create a detailed project scope statement, which is the basis for all decisions made regarding the scope of the project.
And we learn how important it is to analyze and discuss what is to be included or excluded from the scope. In this lesson, we discuss what you use tools and techniques and how to go about defining scope. Let’s look at where we are.
[02:33] You are Here
Not surprisingly, we are in the Project Scope Management knowledge area where there is a set of processes under the planning process group and we are on the third of these planning processes, which is Define Scope where we develop a detailed description of the project and product.
[02:54] Follow Along on Pages: 150-155
If you would like to follow along then please join us on page 150 to 155 of the PMBOK® Guide. Feel free to read those pages before or after you go through the lesson to reinforce the concepts in your mind.
[03:13] Main Concept
The main concept in the Define Scope process is that we have to draw a line in the sand. We have to answer the question: Is a requirement in or out in terms of scope.
We describe the product, service or result in sufficient detail so boundaries are clear on how the project and product are to be executed and delivered to meet the needs and expectations of the stakeholders. We define acceptance criteria for those requirements and make it clear what is to be included and we develop a detailed project scope statement. We build upon other work that has already been done in scope planning and collect requirements.
[03:59] Why Define Scope?
You may ask why you as a project manager need to care about defining scope. By the end of the Define Scope process, you would have a much more detailed scope statement available. A detailed scope statement allows for more realistic estimates for cost, time and resources.
Down the line, it helps to define a detailed scope baseline. And last but not least, it is useful to understand scope in a detailed level for purposes of assigning work. Of course, this assignment will not be done in this process here but instead over in schedule management. However, without a clear scope and defined deliverables, it would be difficult to assign activities to your team members.
[04:51] Iterative Nature of Define Scope
The Define Scope process can be highly iterative. How so? In iterative life cycle projects, a high-level vision is developed early on for the overall project because not enough information may be known and determining the detail of the scope is done one iteration at a time.
Another example you may all have experienced where despite your efforts to balance out all the project constraints, you find that what you have put together does not meet stakeholder requirements. For example, stakeholders may say how that cost way too much or that’s unacceptable. I can’t wait that long. If so, you are not alone. If that happens, well you may have to make further adjustments. One option is for scope for renegotiated and asked: Is X or Y in the original scope or is it out? Alternatively, is there another scope option Z that might be better in order to balance scope against other project constraints.
[06:01] Inputs
Let’s take a closer look at each of the inputs used in the Define Scope process in detail.
[06:08] Define Scope
But first a quick overview because there are only a few inputs for the Define Scope process that we have a handful, why is that? Well this process is one of the very early processes that should be executed. So at this point, we typically would only have the basic outline of the project and a few project documents, which means that the inputs to this process are the Project charter, the Project management plan, some project documents, Enterprise environmental factors, as well as Organizational process assets.
And so without further ado, let’s try to understand how and why these inputs are used to define scope.
[06:51] Project Charter
If you want to more fully understand something, it is often helpful to get to its origin or to try to learn more of how it came about. A project charter would be a good place to understand the basis for the project and its scope.
The charter formally creates the project and provides a high-level project description. It also includes product characteristics and approval requirements. If these details are not in a formal charter document, it may be necessary to perform an informal analysis to capture the overall goals of the project constraints and assumptions and identify any other content necessary to develop the scope. Knowing more about its starting point and high-level information about the project and product puts you in a better position to plan and define the scope further.
[7:48] Project Management Plan
When we talk about the project management plan, we want to call its subsidiary plans. In our case here, namely the Scope Management Plan. The Scope Management Plan provides the framework to guide how to manage the project scope. It reflects the iterative nature of scope management.
First, the scope needs to be defined. Then it is developed, monitored and controlled and finally validated where if necessary, the scope is refined further and the scope management plan describes the process for updating and maintaining the scope baseline.
[8:25] Project Documents
You also have to look at other project documents namely, the Assumptions log, the Requirements documentation and Risk register. Let’s see how these documents are relevant to defining scope.
[8:39] Assumption Log: Examples
An Assumptions Log contains assumptions, which are factors that you accept to be real or true without proof and constraints that limit the project in some way. They are restrictions that affect the project or process execution. Let us think of some examples of assumptions that relate to scope here.
For example your project assumes that you are to modify an existing healthcare related website to cater to young teens instead of adults. In a construction project, one assumption might be that you are to build a mix of commercial versus residential units. You can assume a particular format for a deliverable. It is to be written as opposed to an oral presentation.
On the other hand, some examples of constraints that impact scope are that you if you modify an existing healthcare website, you may be constrained by original design decisions. In construction, you may have to conform to specific requirements of types of commercial establishments according to local zoning laws. And final deliverable needs to be within the minimum or maximum length. You can see quite plainly from these examples that assumptions and constraints affect the project and product scope.
[10:09] Requirements
Our next project document input is the Requirements documentation that you gathered and documented in the Collect Requirements process. Requirements documentation describes how individual requirements meet the business need for the projects.
All requirements must be clearly defined. We saw this list here in the Collect Requirements lesson when we talked about what it means unambiguous requirements. You as a project manager will find it challenging to define the project scope that answers the needs of your stakeholders and meets the business goals without clearly defined requirements.
[10:50] Risk Register
And our final project document is the Risk register, which contains response strategies that affects scope. Your project may be avoiding or mitigating risk by either reducing the scope, perhaps opting not to build a feature or devote less effort to low priority work or changing the scope altogether in an aim to make an impossible possible for the project.
[11:18] Commonly Used EEFs
Next we consider commonly used Enterprise environmental factors that we have to learn to work with. Let’s give just one example of each: Culture may affect your project scope. Going back to the website example, different culture may interpret different colors in different ways. Would you need to implement the country-specific color palette or style guide?
If you need to build or add to an existing infrastructure to complete your project then work on infrastructure adds to your scope and effort. Personnel administration may help to define the ‘how’ to go about doing something as it relates to personnel. But it can also limit what you can and cannot do as part of your project.
And lastly, marketplace conditions. In an existing market, you may need to have a product that is better than others. On the other hand if it’s all green fields then part of your scope may be to create a new market for your product to begin with.
[12:28] Commonly Used OPAs
We also have to consider the organizational process assets that can influence how scope is defined. Some examples are that we have the policies and procedures that are predefined for the project and the client company as a whole. They aid to align the project goals with the high-level business strategies.
We can use the templates and project files from prior projects. Most companies have a central document repository for previous projects that can be accessed. It is often useful to refer to historical information in these documents or reuse existing templates.
We also have the lessons learned files from previous projects. The knowledge gained during a past project may shed light on how to best define scope for the current project.
[13:20] Tools & Techniques
Now, let’s consider the tools and techniques.
[13:24] Define Scope
They are Expert judgment, Data analysis, Decision-making, Interpersonal and team skills, as well as Product analysis. As always, let’s take a look at each one in detail and how to use them to define scope.
[13:41] Expert Judgment
Here we list some of the experts that should be involved when defining the scope. They are first of all Subject matter experts, SMEs. They would be familiar with the current product and can help us identify future product features. Consultants and contractors may have participated in similar projects and their expertise can help improve scope definitions.
You talk to stakeholders including customers or sponsors to make sure you include in scope the things that ultimately will satisfy their expectations. Professional and technical associations are also part of the experts that we want to look at and you should consider reaching out to industry groups if you need a hand in finding experts or in understanding other tools and techniques in depth.
Other units within the organization perhaps have executed other similar projects. They also may be stakeholders such that what you include or exclude from scope may impact their work. These technical functional and managerial experts provide judgment and expertise that are required during the Define Scope process of a project.
[15:03] Data Analysis
Our next tool and technique is data analysis. Teams often use techniques such as Alternatives analysis to consider and evaluate different options, approaches and paths that the project could take in executing the project work to meet the requirements and goals of the project.
[15:25] Decision Making
Another technique that we have at our disposal when we define scope is decision making. A commonly used decision-making technique is the multi-criteria decision analysis technique. In this technique, you create a matrix or a grid to analyze different criteria to refine project and product scope.
For example, you can consider requirements around resource, cost, schedule or risk. Using such a decision matrix helps guide you to ensure that you have thoroughly evaluated the scope against all the major criteria.
[16:01] Interpersonal & Team Skills
Just as it has been invaluable in other processes having excellent interpersonal and team skills is instrumental in defining scope and we highlight facilitation right now. The scope may not be an easy thing to pin down. So as project manager, you may need to hurt them a little bit like cattle. It can be a gargantuan task for your key stakeholders who may have various backgrounds and potentially different motivations to work together and reach an agreement on the scope.
You need to be efficient but thorough while ensuring that they completely understand the requirements and deliverables, as well as overall project objectives so they can delineate the project and product scope.
You need to foster good communications and build trust among stakeholders and use facilitation to help stakeholders resolve their differences in opinion about scope items. Scope by its very nature is a constraint on a project so stakeholders may be reluctant to give up on their expectations around the project or product so you use facilitation as well as other interpersonal and team skills to resolve issues around scope definition.
[17:22] Product Analysis
Product analysis is another important technique used in defining scope. For those projects that have a product as a deliverable versus a service or result, product analysis can be quite the effective tool for improving the project teams understanding of the product and helping to capture that understanding in the form of requirements and translate the descriptions into deliverables.
Let us look at more specific methods for analyzing the product. First, we have Product breakdown which involves identifying all the components and subcomponents that need to be delivered by the project.
Next is Requirements analysis or requirements engineering which is where you try to understand user requirements. Usually these would be new features or functions or modifications to existing features. Requirements analysis involves eliciting, analyzing, validating, taking account of any conflicting requirements, organizing and prioritizing and of course documenting your requirements.
System analysis is where you study a process, procedure or business so that you can create an effective system or procedures to carry them out. Defining that efficient system or set of procedures is essentially what the next item on the list is all about and that is System engineering. This is a structured development process to enable the design creation and management of potentially complex systems. It would consider aspects such as operations, performance, testing, manufacturing, training and the overall life cycle of the system including its disposal.
Value analysis and Value engineering are related and go hand in hand. You examine and identify alternatives for design material, processes and systems to try to provide necessary functions at the lowest cost. For example, you may choose to substitute materials perhaps use a strong plastic instead of metallic part that meets specifications but are not as costly. These alternatives should not affect required quality, effectiveness and customer satisfaction. This list is obviously not comprehensive. Different industries may employ methods or may have templates or systems that enable to more easily and effectively conduct this type of analysis to help define scope.
Let’s talk through the first Product analysis technique on the previous slide, the product breakdown where you create a product breakdown structure. This technique is similar but should not be confused with the work breakdown structure, the WBS. So let me well break it down for you.
A product breakdown structure contains a breakdown of the product in various components. So for example, Components 1, 2 and 3. You decompose down to the product elements, which could be product concepts, functional or physical features to better understand and define the scope. In this way, you can try to make sure that you have sufficiently defined the scope for each component.
A work breakdown structure on the other hand contains the corresponding work required to complete each of those product components. The work required to complete these components includes project management so you would not include project management as part of your product breakdown structure but it should definitely be part of your work breakdown structure.
[21:16] Work Breakdown Structure
So let’s go to our specific example in an airplane. The WBS and the product breakdown structure, they are very related. In a product breakdown, you would consider its different parts like the fuselage or the empennage, which in turn you could then decompose into lower level components.
But in a WBS, you would also include a work package for management because remember, the WBS is a hierarchical description of the all the project work with various work packages that include all effort in order to create the deliverables you specified in the product breakdown structure.
[21:59] Outputs
And now that we have applied all these tools and techniques, the outputs arise.
[22:06] Outputs
There are only two. But these two outputs are essential in defining the scope for the project in detail and documenting changes and updates that were made in the process of scope definition. The outputs are the Project scope statement and Project document updates. Let’s look at them in detail.
[22:29] Project Scope Statement
The most obvious output from the Define Scope process is the Project scope statement. The Project scope statement is a document that describes many details about the project and product scope. The Project scope statement builds upon the major deliverables, assumptions and constraints that are developed and documented during project initiation.
During the planning of the project, you define and describe the scope being more detailed and specific as more information about the project is established. It assists in managing stakeholder expectations around scope. It exposes existing and additional risk assumptions and constraints, which are analyzed for completeness and validity and added or updated as needed.
And last but not least, the level of detail of the scope is a factor in how well the team can subsequently control scope. It will be difficult to properly control something that you did not define. Developing and documenting a detailed project scope is critical to the success of the project and beneficial to the project going forward.
[23:48] Project Scope Statement
Typically included in the project scope statement are first of all, a deliverable, which is the unique and quantifiable product, result or service that is produced upon the completion of a process, phase or project which may be described at a summary level or in detail. When you think of a deliverable, it could be an object, or a function or aspect of the overall project.
It also includes a product scope description through progressive elaboration; the characteristics of the product, service or result are described. You also find acceptance criteria, which are those conditions that must be met in order for deliverables to be accepted. And don’t forget project exclusions, which identify and explicitly state what is out of the scope of the project and exclude it from the project. It helps to manage the expectations of the stakeholders.
[24:46] Project Charter vs. Scope Statement
The Project Charter and the Project Scope Statement are often believed to be redundant to a degree in their context. However, they are different in the level of detail that is contained in each.
So let’s begin on the left with the Project Charter, which contains a more high level and summary-type contents. Well since it is created at the beginning during project initiation and requirements are still being developed. You really don’t know that much. You have to stay high level.
So some of the key elements of the project charter are the project purpose, measure of project objectives and success and exit criteria; high level requirements and high level project description, boundaries and key deliverables. But as you know from the Develop project charter lesson, there is more in the project charter. So let me just continue here because we also have the overall risk and think about how that affects scope and development of scope, summary milestone schedules, summary budget; we have stakeholder list. We have approval requirements. All of these affect how scope is defined.
And last but not least, you yourself, the project manager, you may have personal style how you like to define scope that also is an influence on this. Don’t forget the charter also list the sponsor who is championing and authorizing the project. All of this affects how scope is defined.
Okay now we have to somehow compare this to the scope statement. I want to put this on the right side. So let me erase the right side again here and just replace this with ‘et cetera’ on the left-hand side and then move on to the scope statement because as you are developing the scope statement, you are not trying to reinvent the project charter. Instead the project scope statement simply contains a more detailed description of the scope and the scope elements that are progressively elaborated throughout the project.
And some of these key elements from the scope statement are a progressively elaborated project scope description, project deliverables, acceptance criteria and exclusions. So you can see they are not exactly matching. Some of these items do match but remember neither of this lists encompasses all of the contents of the project charter and the project scope statement but they provide sort of a good representation of what elements most likely contains. Somewhat similar but different level of detail.
[27:32] Project Document Updates
Our second and final output to the Define Scope process is Project Document Updates. Think about these four particular documents here. First the Assumptions log. It should reflect any new assumptions and constraints that you uncover through this process. Existing entries should capture any clarifications that we have gained.
The Requirements Documentation describes how individual requirements meet the needs of the project. Requirements typically start out at a high level but progressively become more and more detailed as more is discovered about the requirements.
The Traceability Matrix links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them and it provides a way of tracking those requirements throughout the project life cycle. As requirements change, the matrix also requires updating.
And lastly, the Stakeholder register would need to be updated with new information on new or existing stakeholders.
In summary, the iterative nature of the Define Scope process and the progressive emergence of the project scope means that project documents will require updates to reflect any new information that arises as you redefine or refine project scope.
[29:00] Review Question
Let’s review with this question here: The Define Scope process selects the final project requirements from what? Here are our potential answers: Is it (a) the scope management plan? (b) The requirements documentation, which we created during the Collect Requirements process? Is it (c) the project scope statement? Or is it maybe (d) the acceptance criteria?
As always, I am going to give you about 10 seconds. Please press ‘pause’ if you need more time.
Are you ready? The correct answer is B. The requirements documentation created during the Collect Requirements process and this question and answer hints at the fact that not all the requirements that we identify in Collect Requirements may actually end up to be included in the project. The requirements documentation delivered during the Collect Requirements process is from where the Define Scope process then takes these requirements and develops a detailed description of the project and product or service or result but not all of them.
[30:29] Takeaways
Let’s see the nuggets of wisdom on the Define Scope process that we can take away with us today. Firstly, Define Scope is the process of developing a detailed project and product description. The importance of this process is directly related to how important the requirements are. The scope of the project is what ultimately drives the execution of the project. It is essential in management stakeholder expectations because it includes items that are excluded from the scope.
The iterative nature of the Define Scope process means that this process will be revisited many times throughout the project life cycle to continue to develop a detailed scope. And the project scope statement documents the entire scope and it encompasses both the project and product scope.
And this concludes our look at the Define Scope process.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: The Role of The Project Manager
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP certification training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Project Manager (PM). The person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
This lesson focuses on us, the project manager. We begin with a general overview and also give you the formal definition. Then we see how and where the PM fits into the overall organization and how we are 'the movers and shakers' of any organization because the projects we lead, transform the strategic ideas into tactical realities.
We also spend time talking about the importance of the project manager in carrying out effective communications, which is a large part of the project manager’s job. And We close by talking about the commitment a project manager must have to the profession.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am the lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
The PM PrepCast™ gives you the standout factor that you need to succeed on your PMP® exam and makes the skills, knowledge, tools and techniques required for passing seem like second nature. You learn by watching video-based lessons to study what you need for your exam. You get over 150 lessons that all have one goal.
We want you to not only understand but master the concepts. In this way your in depth knowledge of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is going to be a substantial advantage on your exam day.
So smile! You’ve got this. Find out more at www.pm-prepcast.com.
And now, on with the show.
01:03] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™ where we have enabled over 45,000 project managers to study for their certification. I am instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
In this lesson, you’ll get an overview of the role of the project manager. Just to make sure that we are clear on the formal role, we cover the definition of a project manager and discuss how that role fits within the organization.
We also spend time talking about the importance of the project manager in carrying out effective communication, which is a large part of what we project managers do. We close by talking about the commitment a project manager must have to the profession. This lesson is brief but important.
[01:49] Follow Along on Pages: 51-56 and 550-552
If you would like to follow along in the PMBOK® Guide, please turn to pages 51 through 56. You can also find some useful information on stakeholders and project managers in part two of the guide in the standard for project management, which are on pages 550 through 552.
[02:09] Project Manager (PM)
The best place to start is with the definition. A project manager or PM is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives. That is who we are trying to be if only it were that easy.
[02:30] Projects as a Business
When you read the PMBOK® Guide, you see that it likens the role of the project manager to a conductor of an orchestra. That’s a very good analogy but I prefer to bring it a little bit closer to home. Instead of an orchestra, I prefer the analogy of a project manager running a business where you, the project manager, are the CEO or Chief Executive Officer.
A project is like a mini business in many ways. It has tasks that need to be done and things it must deliver to customers and end-users. It must buy or lease resources. It needs material, data, information or other resources and to pay people to do the work.
As projects build the deliverables, the process looks similar to an operations model. Projects must conform to regulations and standards. External governmental and standard bodies control how the products are built and how they perform in both situations. And projects have financial constraints that must be met in order to be successful.
The one critical difference between businesses and projects is that projects must end. That is part of the definition of a project. Most businesses want to do just the opposite and continue to operate and grow.
[03:52] Answerable to…
Looking more closely at the analogy, we find more similarities. If we place the CEO on the left and the project manager on the right to see how they are answerable to, what do you we would find?
Well CEOs are answerable to a number of groups; this includes investors, stockholders, board of directors, customers and owners or some combination of all of these. Project managers are answerable to sponsors, stakeholders, customers and end-users, and maybe all of these parties at the same time. That sounds pretty similar.
[04:26] Responsible for…
What about their responsibilities? CEOs are responsible for leading a company and are ultimately responsible for the company’s performance. The CEO is responsible for getting the right employees ensuring they get paid, have the right tools to do their job and that employees have direction.
In a business, CEOs need to ensure the company meets profit goals and in non profit organizations, they need to ensure that finances are in balance. CEOs need to coordinate sales, marketing, operations, finance, procurement, customers and anyone else that deals with the company. They need to provide a safe and cooperative work environment. Ultimately, the business delivers some form of product or service to customers and the CEO has to stand behind that.
On the other side, project managers have responsibilities of leading a project or two or three or more. It’s very common for project managers to run multiple projects in tandem. Project managers have to identify the right team members. They have to negotiate to get these team members allocated to the project and assigned to tasks. Project managers should ensure that the team is equipped with the right tools and have clear direction. Project managers are not always profit-driven but all need to stay within the budget and make sure stakeholders are happy.
Project managers have to coordinate sponsors, the project team, finance, procurement, customers, end-users and anyone else that deals with the project. They must also provide a safe and cooperative work environment and of course a project has deliverables in the form of products, services, results or some combination of those items. Well when we compare each item side by side, CEOs and project managers sound very similar in terms of responsibilities too.
[06:27] Knowledgeable of…
What about the knowledge that these roles needs? There should be some differences because after all, a CEO runs an entire business. So on the CEO side, we see that CEOs need to have business acumen and know how to run a business. They need to know their business domain whether it’s telephony, construction, automotive, insurance and the like. But they do not need to know how to do most of the jobs that the employees do. For instance, they may never have sold or built the cellphone. They need to be leaders and have the traits of a leader.
On the other hand, what does a project manager need to know? Project managers need to know how to run and manage a project. No surprise there. That is probably a large part of the reason that you are taking this course. Project managers also need to understand the business domain of the project. That may be more than what it looks like on the surface. A project manager delivering an automated manufacturing system to semiconductor fabs needs to understand equipment automation and semiconductor manufacturing. He does not need to know how to do the work but he needs to be fluent with the common risks and issues for both just like a CEO. Project managers also have to be leaders. They must have the traits of a successful leader. Unlike a CEO however, the project manager has little or no authority.
[07:54] Actions…
What about actions? They ought to be a lot different, right? CEOs need to create a vision for the company that inspires people to show up to the office and to do their best and work to make the company successful. They need to lead, inspire and motivate people. They also have to manage by giving direction and telling people what to do. And CEOs need to be problem-solvers, make decisions and resolve conflicts.
When we turn to project managers, we see that they create a vision for achieving the project goals that inspires stakeholders and the project team to do their best work to make the project successful. They need to lead, inspire and motivate the people working for them and the stakeholders that are affected by the project. They need to do that without having much, if any, authority. Of course as the name implies, project managers have to do a lot more management tasks than executives who are more leadership-focused. They have to manage scope, schedule, budgets and risks often in more detail than a CEO.
Project managers are often taskmasters ensuring people are doing the right work the right way. And project managers are on the frontline of problem solving, decision-making and conflict resolution. Although the conductor analogy has merit based on the similarities in the CEO and project managers’ responsibilities, knowledge and actions, the CEO analogy resonates very well for me.
[09:30] Differences
But there are also many things a CEO does that project managers do not do. There are two that make an enormous difference. Most CEOs have a commitment to the investors and stakeholders to grow the business. This may be measurable in revenue, profit, projects completed or customer-based. The goal, however, is usually growth.
The second item, I already mentioned but it’s worth repeating because of its importance and that’s that businesses usually want to last forever. Their plans are not to go out of business. The goals of a project manager differ from those of a CEO. Although project managers may help land new business, their goal is to limit the growth of the project and to ensure that the project completes its deliverables. Project managers want to achieve project objectives and complete tasks so they can ultimately complete and close the project. Unlike a business, all projects have a planned ending. Following that plan is considered in most cases a success!
[10:37] Project Manager’s Connections
To do this, a project manager has to be well connected. If you were to map out the connections a project manager needs to do this work, it would look a lot like those of a CEO too. The project manager manages and leads the project team to meet the project objectives and stakeholder expectations. And quite often, the latter part of the statement is the struggle. There are dozens maybe thousands of stakeholders that you may need to deal with. The project team may be just a few dozen people.
You need to work with your project sponsor and help her see solutions where there only appear to be problems. It takes a leader to guide your customer towards most cost-effective solutions that meet their business needs. You need to work with and lead suppliers to a vision that is beneficial to them. You need to lead up and steer your organization’s executives to the vision of your project plan to make them a reality.
Leaders also ensure that end-users adapt and use the project’s output. You should also work with government agencies and regulators to see a vision of a better way. You need to coordinate with other projects that you may share deliverables or resources with as well. Resource managers who test your negotiating skill for a person’s time and how much they cost. If one exists, you need to get the PMO to provide the support you need. There could be steering committees that approve or give direction for your project that you need to work with. And you may have to deal with a number of project, program or portfolio managers to get your project done. Your success is based on your ability to lead, communicate and work with others.
[12:28] Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
There is a saying that a project manager has only three priorities --- communication, communication and communication. Not just once but it’s ongoing. It should not be a deluge since it is about quality not just quantity.
I know a guy, he does project rescue and he once taught me that he was on a project that failed where the project manager swore up and down that he have communicated hundreds of times with everyone on the project. But when my friend talked to the stakeholders, they had a different story. Most said the project manager had talked to them once, at most twice.
When my friend dug into it a little bit further, he found out that both stories were right. The project manager did have hundreds of meetings but there were so many stakeholders that it took hundreds of meetings to talk to them all just once. When stakeholders do complain about over-communication, they usually mean that you may be conveying the wrong kind of information.
For example, providing overly detailed information to executives is considered improper communication when in general they need summary information and potential solutions to an issue so that they can make decisions.
[13:49] Communications Management
The key is properly tailored communications. Communication comes in many forms. Some people like to read reports. Some like graphs. Others want to hear you talk about the status. So you need to be prepared to do all of them. It could be that people want the data pushed to them and others may allot time to go to a website and pull the information. The more ways that your provide information, the better your chances that people comprehend the message. However, you need to have a communications management plan that everyone understands and you need to be consistent about providing the information.
The information needs to be in a format that the recipient can use. Executives like summaries and action items while problem-solvers need details. This could mean that you need multiple dashboards classified by stakeholder.
Your message needs to be concise and clear. Information with spurious data thrown in can be frustrating and misleading. Your communication must be unbiased. Report both the positive and negative. Slanting your communication either way misleads people on the status of your project.
You should make it clear how people should react and respond. Executives should be clearly told when they need to make decisions that communication should provide a list of options with their pros and cons. If people have questions, they should know who and how to ask. However, communication is not always formal. Often informal networks are very valuable in getting the right message to the proper person who can then take action. More than once, I have used a liaison with a connection to an executive to deliver a message in a manner that gets me the results I need. Networks are critical.
[15:45] Project Manager in an Organization
Those brought interactions for the project manager cost more than just communication needs. The interrelatedness of projects with all these groups means that you need to monitor the demands of the same resources on the project and across the organization.
People in operations say have worked they need to get done. Suddenly your project pops up along with one or two other projects. The folks in operations need to find time to help. I bet that before any of these projects came around, these resources were already working a full day. How can they get the time in to help you?
Funding priorities can shift. Money is always an issue. Any number of corporate parameters can shift such as revenue, sales, margins, investors, priorities and your project changes. You must always remember that your project is not an island. In fact, there are often dependencies between projects. You may be dependent on the other project managers completing their deliverables to complete yours.
For example, a friend managed a project to deploy software at a brand new, yet-to-build facility. Their deployment schedule either had to accelerate or stall depending on the construction of the facility. All this means that your project goals and objectives need to be aligned with the organization’s ever-changing goals and objectives. As pointed out the previous example, the goal of the project was not to get done early unless the construction was ahead of schedule.
[17:20] Advancing Project Management
Project managers may work towards greater and more effective application of project management principles. As a project manager, you may look towards improving interactions with sponsors, managers and other stakeholders to ensure that people understand the value of project management and develop everyone’s competency and capability including your own.
This requires continually seeking ways to increase and improve knowledge transfer by capturing explicit knowledge and working with others to share tacit knowledge. These actions alone promote the use of project management as a tool to address needs and resolve issues in the business. Lastly, you need to work to advance the effectiveness of a project or program management office if one exists.
[18:10] Reporting Structure
You may find yourself in two main structures as a project manager. If your organization has a functional structure, you may be reporting to a functional manager. But if the organization is project-oriented, runs a lot of projects, there may be a PMO that all project managers report into. There are less used structures though where project managers report into a sponsor or program group, thus, is as temporary as the project itself.
[18:40] Your Education & Staying Current
Education is essential to keep your skills current. In the past, business and technology did not change nearly as quickly as it does today. One did not need to constantly absorb massive amounts of data. Today, new product and technology development is so rapid that either could be obsolete before your project is done.
Businesses see new markets and exploit niches at lightning speed. You do not have time to become an expert in any one before you need to move on to the next.
You need to learn the standards that affect your industries - project management, quality, information security, accounting and the like to ease our load in one area so that you can focus on more troubled areas.
Along with standards come the support tools to automate processes and improve efficiency. Just as business and technology changes, economic forces affect our business and therefore your projects. Understanding housing bubbles, electronics manufacturing cycles and incoming regulations that affect sales help you judge the pressures on your project.
You need to also track advances and trends in project management as they can point to potential process improvement that can enhance sustainability and efficiency of your projects.
[20:06] Professional Education
Education is a two-way street and as a project manager, you should be looking for ways of educating other project managers and professionals on what you have learned. This goes beyond what you are doing as part of your job and may even go beyond your industry or area of expertise.
You should be looking to help advance project management by working at local, national and global levels. It could be working with students in high school doing their senior project, attending a roundtable discussion or presenting a successful technique at a national conference.
You should participate in training and continuing education in project management, related fields like construction management, software development, organization change management and the like, and even other profession such as law, aerospace, healthcare, government, non-profit and so on.
[21:01] Review Question
Before we go, a review question is in order. Here it is: Which of the following is not a function of the project manager? Is it: (a) Communicating with stakeholders? (b) Lengthening the duration of the project as much as possible? (c) Educating others on project management? Or is it (d) Learning about other disciplines?
I am sure you’ve already spotted the correct answer but I will give you the usual 10 seconds anyway to think about it. If you need more time, please do press ‘pause’.
And yes, if you selected B as the correct answer here, lengthening the duration of the project as much as possible, you are absolutely correct. Although a project manager may need to lengthen the project to accommodate a change or they might do some action to maximize profit, their goal is to get the project done as soon as reasonably possible and not to lengthen its duration as much as possible.
[22:15] Takeaways
To close this lesson, we have our takeaways and in this case, some are so huge, you are going to need special equipment to draw them away.
Project managers may need to cooperate with and coordinate numerous stakeholders with different roles, positions and capabilities inside and outside the organizations. Project managers must be proficient and excellent communicators and sculpt their message to the intended recipient.
On any given project, the reach and connectedness of the project manager can be into almost any part of the organization. A project manager’s education is never ending. It reaches beyond project management and needs to encompass business education, domain knowledge and education on disciplines outside project management.
That concludes the lesson on the role of the project manager. An exciting role with infinite possibilities that is central to how businesses advance.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Enterprise Environmental Factors
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Enterprise Environmental Factors. Conditions, not under the immediate control of the team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
If you were to be sent off to manage a project overseas, I bet you’d seriously consider your host country’s political situation, its security, geography, culture, and infrastructure in how you manage the different aspects of your project. What I must emphasize is this. First, these are but a few examples of enterprise environmental factors and second, enterprise environmental factors are an important influence on any project, not just international ones.
This lesson aims to describe different enterprise environmental factors, so you know what they are, and how they can affect your project.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am the lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
For over 45,000 students, the PM PrepCast™ was the right choice. This free session here will allow you to experience what the course is like and you will see that it is the right choice for you too.
The greatest technological benefit that the PM PrepCast™ gives you over other online courses is the fact that it is a Podcast that you can choose to download. This means that you cannot only watch online but even better. You can save all 150 lessons on your tablet…or on your phone! In that way, your PMP training course is always in your pocket no matter where you are, even if you are offline.
Preparing for your PMP® Exam has never been easier. Like I said, it’s the right choice. Please visit www.pm-prepcast.com for all the details.
And now, on with the show.
[01:17] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome back to The Project Management PrepCast™ where we factor everything that you need to know for your CAPM or PMP® Exam. I am instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
In this lesson, we focus on Enterprise Environmental Factors or EEFs for short. Specifically, we provide an overview of what they are. This includes a comparison between EEFs and the Organizational Process Assets, the OPAs.
We discuss two types of EEFs namely internal and external factors. We then describe how EEFs are used as inputs and outputs, and finally we identify several examples for each process groups.
The influence of EEFs on different project management processes is quite vast. This lesson aims to provide you with the foundational knowledge of these EEFs so that you can build on it when you encounter EEFs again in future lessons, as well as on your projects.
[02:22} Follow Along on Pages: 38-39
EEFs are mentioned throughout the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) but for this lesson, we focus on the material on pages 38 and 39. Grab your guide and open up those pages if you want to follow along.
[02:35] New Country
We begin with the hypothetical situation. Imagine you have just been informed that your next work assignment is to manage a project in a different country. I bet you would want to find out more than what’s just in the latest weather report. Apart from figuring out what to pack in to your luggage, more importantly, you need to know what to expect and how to best manage this new project.
You would want to get familiar with the culture, its geography, the political situation, the security, the infrastructure and so on. These are but a few examples of what are called Enterprise Environmental Factors or EEFs. B PMBOK® Guide y the way, these EEFs can affect any project not just international ones.
[03:23] Enterprise Environmental Factors
With this in mind, it’s time to look up the official definition of Enterprise Environmental Factors. The PMBOK® Guide formally describes EEFs as conditions not under the immediate control of the team that influenced constrain or direct the project, program or portfolio.
When we break down this definition, it’s very important to note that EEFs refer to conditions that are not under the immediate control of the team. Remember, this is your outside environment neither you nor the project team can readily change these factors or conditions. If you think about it, there are many environmental factors that surround a project and influence its success. You should think of the dynamics which not only influence constrain or direct your project but which in general your project team cannot control.
[04:26] EEFs vs OPAs
Closely related to EEFs are the Organizational Process Assets or OPAs. Coming from the definition, we know that EEFs are about the conditions or the state of the project environment as opposed to OPAs which are all about assets often documents or knowledge basis.
EEFs can be both internal or external whereas OPAs are internal to the organization only. EEFs and OPAs are both very common inputs to the project management processes. However, there are only very few processes with EEF updates when compared with OPAs which are frequently updated because our project changes them.
EEFs are not under the immediate control of the project team as this is about the environment. There is very little that the project team can do to influence it. Both EEFs and OPAs can and do influence our projects in many ways.
[05:27] Types of EEFs
There are visible an invisible boundaries which separate your project from the rest of your organization. And there are also boundaries that separate your organization from the rest of the world. Within your organization, you have internal enterprise environmental factors. But we also have external enterprise environmental factors relative to your organizations. These factors in combination influence you and your project but as we have already learned, you have very little or no influence over them.
[06:00] Internal Factors
What are examples of these internal factors? There are way too many to have a complete list but here are some of the most common ones.
Organizational culture, structure and governance. This would include for instance your company’s vision, mission and objectives. You need to consider the geographic distribution of facilities and resources. It affects your project team if they are all collocated or scattered across different regional offices.
What infrastructure is available for your team? For example, if we consider the infrastructure for communication, it is relevant to ask: Does everybody have access to the network? Can they access email even if they are out in the field? Would video conferencing be effective? Also, what type of software can you use? For instance, what project management tools are available? Can you submit time tracking reports through a web portal or do you need to send them via email? Resource availability within your organization and the capability of these resources is another important internal factor. The first thing we need to determine project resource availability is checking the resource pool within our organization.
[07:19] External Factors
And here are some external factors. Marketplace conditions refer to characteristics of a market such as the number of competitors, level of intensity of competitiveness and the market’s growth rate. We also need to be sensitive to social and cultural influences and issues. Some members of our team may have religious holidays that we need to respect and consider in our project schedule.
We are constrained by any legal restrictions that apply to our project. For example, data privacy laws. If our project gathers information about our customers, we need to store them in such a way that would be in accordance with data privacy laws in our given location. Perhaps there is even information that we are not allowed to collect. You may need to conform to specific government or industry standards. We have standards that relate to the environment, health and safety communications, regulations to ensure fair trade and competition to name just a few. We also have technological standards. For example, you must follow certain protocols for web design or web architecture.
There are also financial considerations. How the economy is doing affects your projects. Then there end clients. If the currency exchange rate is high then it maybe too expensive to import new material.
Finally, we need to take into account our physical environment. If we encounter extreme weather conditions such as typhoon or a snowstorm, perhaps we need to postpone construction or we may need to talk over the phone instead of attempting a face-to-face meeting with a client.
[09:00] How EEFs are Used
Now that you know what EEFs are, you might be wondering: Are they really that important? Do I need to pay that much attention to them? The answer is “yes”. EEFs are a frequent input to your project management processes. In fact, 42 out of all 49 processes in the PMBOK® Guide have EEFs as inputs. They serve as inputs in early processes. This is true for all initiating and most of the planning processes.
EEFs are also used as outputs of project management processes. However, due to the nature of EEFs not being under the immediate control of the team, this does not happen quite often. For example, you do not have changing of the political climate as an output of your project. In fact, only three processes have EEF updates as outputs. So yes, they are that important.
[10:04] Resource Management Processes
As an example, look at the six processes under the project resource management knowledge area. We have Plan resource management, Estimate active resources, Acquire resources, Develop team, Manage team and Control resources. Can you guess how many of these processes have EEFs as inputs? It’s five!
The first five of these six processes have EEFs as inputs. So this means, all resource management processes except Control resources. EEFs are quite commonly used during the start of the project when we are doing initiation and planning. It makes sense since at those initial stages, we make use of information from our environment and start building our plans.
For example when we acquire our resources, one factor that we consider is availability of resources. Who is available? Do they have the necessary experience and competency levels? Can we even afford to pay their rates? We look at EEFs to help us answer these questions.
How about EEFs as outputs? We know that EEFs are not under the immediate control of the project team. And so there are very few scenarios where we update EEFs as outputs of our processes. In fact, Resource Management is the only knowledge area where we can update EEFs.
Three of our processes that fall under the Executing process group have EEF update as outputs. These are Acquire resources, Develop team and Manage team. For example, once we have acquired the resources for our project, the rest of the organization should know that resources are no longer available on their own projects.
In other words, the organizational inventory of resources is an EEF and the output of the Acquire resource process is an update to the resources inventory. If the organization, say, has a pool of 10 developers and our project is using two of them for a long time, well then the resource inventory should be updated by us to reflect that there are currently only eight developers remaining in the pool. Makes sense, right?
[12:22] Initiating
At this point, I want to simulate a project and go through each of the five project management process groups with you to identify EEF examples for each. For our scenario, your boss, the project sponsor, wants you to lead a project to build out and transform existing officers for a new data center.
As the project manager, one of the first things to do is to develop a project charter. During this process, you might look at existing IT industry standards. You start asking questions like do we require a backup power? Are most of the organizations in our industry already using fiber optic network connections? We assess the overall conditions in the marketplace. Is the economy in a downturn? Does a high-end data center make sense when we know that our organization is undergoing cost-cutting measures? This market conditions would affect how a project is set up and its objectives.
[13:27] Planning
When we are developing our project management plan, we make use of EEFs to drill down into the planning details. We review existing management practices. If our organization requires that we only engage with preapproved suppliers then that should be included in our plan. For infrastructure, we assess the type of network connectivity in our data centers. It may set the minimum connection speed that we must achieve.
[13:57] Executing
During project execution, a significant amount of a project manager’s time is spent in managing communications. You look at EEFs such as established communication channels as a means of having effective communication with your entire team.
Some teams prefer face-to-face discussions. There are also some groups who prefer conference calls. Also depending on the geographical location of your project team, perhaps some engineers are working from remote locations. You identify the most effective means of communication for your project.
[14:31] Monitoring & Controlling
When we are monitoring and controlling, we once again turn to EEFs. We look at our project management information system, the PMIS, to help us understand how well we are performing. We need to see any schedule slippages. We want to monitor our costs.
We also need to be aware of and monitor stakeholder engagement. We need to be familiar with stakeholder risk thresholds. This will help us determine our strategies and responses should an issue or threat arise. We want to make sure that the stakeholders continue to be confident and supportive of the project.
[15:11] Closing
Fast forward to the end of your project or phase. At this time, late in the project or phase, all relevant enterprise environmental factors should already have been considered and likely have already impacted your project as it went through the other project management processes. Now here at the end of the project or phase, nothing more is to be considered in regards to the EEFs.
[15:39] Review Question
Here is a review question to reinforce a concept of an EEF. You are working with your team to develop a communications management plan. What internal EEF should you review? Should you review: (a) Communications management plan from a recent IT project. (b) stakeholder register templates; or is it maybe; (c) social media profiles of your project team; or (d) the regional virtual conference facilities.
As a hint, from a project perspective, there may be several correct answers but look closely for the type of answer the question is looking for. I’ll give you a few seconds to think about it then we are going to go through again the question and the answers in detail to identify the correct choice together.
Alright! Are you ready? Let’s look at this in detail. Reviewing the question, there are two key items that we need to look out for. First, we need to find an internal EEF and second, it has to be relevant for us to review in order to develop a communications management plan. So internal EEF that’s relevant for the communications management plan:
Answer A, normally as a project manager, we would want to review a communications management plan from a similar project to get our bearings. However, A, the communications management plan, that’s not an EEF. That’s a type of organizational process assets.
Same with B, the stakeholder register templates, these are organizational process assets.
C, the social media profile of our project team, well that’s external to the organization. But is it an EEF? Well for example, you should ask yourself would their LinkedIn profiles for example influence our project? Probably not.
So even without reading the last choice, we already know D is the answer because A is an OPA. B is an OPA. C is external. They are all wrong. Therefore, D is the correct answer.
Looking more closely at D, to develop a communications management plan, we need to know what means of communication are available to our project team. Internally, the availability of a virtual conference facility maybe even and each of our local offices is a relevant internal EEF for this activity. This is the only internal EEF that we have and so our analysis is correct. The Answer is D.
[18:33] Takeaways
As we take in the view of our environment, we can reflect on our takeaways from this lesson. Enterprise environmental factors are factors internal or external to the organization over which the project team has little or no control. EEFs may enhance or constrain the options that you have as a project manager.
When you examine your environment, you should understand any positive or negative influence these conditions may have on your project. It is for this reason that EEFs are inputs for all initiating and most planning processes. We consider EEFs when we create our plan and documents.
EEF updates on the other hand are seldom outputs of a process. In fact, there are only three project resource management processes that do that. Acquire resources, Develop team, and Manage team.
And this concludes our lesson for the Enterprise Environmental Factors.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Project Integration Management Overview - Part 2
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Project Integration Management. Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
This lesson is an overview of the Project Integration Management Knowledge area. We look at why we have it, what we do and the concepts you must know for your PMP exam. In particular, we learn about the integrative nature of project management and the processes in this Knowledge Area.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am your lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
The PM PrepCast™ gives you the standout factor that you need to succeed on your PMP® exam and makes the skills, knowledge, tools and techniques required for passing seem like second nature. You learn by watching video-based lessons to study what you need for your exam. You’ll get over 150 lessons that all have one goal.
We want you to not only understand but master the concepts. In this way your in depth knowledge of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is going to be a substantial advantage on your exam day.
So smile! You’ve got this. Find out more at www.pm-prepcast.com.
And now, on with the show.
[01:04] Two-Part Presentation
Hello and welcome back to Part 2 of the Project Integration Management over your lesson here on The Project Management PrepCast™ where we help you piece together what you need to know for your PMP or CAPM® Exam. I am your instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
If you recall in Part 1, we went through an overview of the Project Integration Management knowledge area, and its processes and we discussed a few of the key concepts.
Here in Part 2, we are going to further elaborate on key concepts and then we move on to trends and emerging practices tailoring considerations, as well as Agile and adaptive perspectives.
[01:44] Key Concepts
So some more key concepts. We already mentioned or alluded to some of these in Part 1 of this overview. Project Integration Management involves orchestration of project processes and activities. Integration involves identifying, combining, unifying, consolidating, communicating and coordinating various processes and project management activities. It means managing interrelationships and interdependencies among the project management knowledge areas.
Integration is not a one-and-done activity. Project managers need to oversee integration from start to finish of the project, and at many times have to repeat the same process. Integration is not an easy job but a necessary one on a project.
[02:37] Decisions
Integration involves choices and decisions. Some perhaps are easy and straightforward but others may not be quite as simple. In resources allocation, we as project managers have to make decisions on assigning people to tasks and using people effectively. For example, you have to decide how to allocate project team members and you may have to revisit these decisions almost daily.
When balancing, competing demands for the limited resources, be that money, people, tools or recruitment, we need to make decisions about priorities. We cannot make decisions in isolation. The allocation must be balanced and appropriate to competing demands and goals across the organization.
As integration management has a bird’s eye view of all the other processes, it involves examining alternative options on a project especially as they may mean prioritizing and compromising among competing constraints.
For instance, there may be competing objectives on the project. One objective might be integrating the latest technology into the result while another is a highly aggressive deadline. You need to decide how much of this new technology can truly be integrated based on the available schedule.
As projects are unique, it is rare that we can completely reuse tailoring from one project to another. We have to determine to what depth we go with each process, what level of detail we need, how heavy or light and how strict the process is. The PMBOK® Guide does not tell you how to manage this balancing act. However, mastering the PMBOK® Guide helps you gain confidence in your craft.
[04:31] Considerations
With all those choices, we want a combination that aligns our stakeholder’s expectations and requirements with our project’s due dates. You have internal milestones within your project. Other stakeholders and the environment in which you operate also have dates you have to consider. For example if you want to get human resources via college recruiting, which is handled by your HR Department, you need to make sure that the HR Department conducts college recruiting within your project’s time constraints at colleges where prospective employees will fit in to your budget.
How we integrate processes has to apply and be appropriate for the project life cycle. For example, integration has to be handled differently on a predictive versus an adaptive or change-driven project life cycle, specifically how we handle changes in requirements and the frequency in which we release products to name but two examples.
Finally, integration must support our benefits realization plan. When we integrate, we have to think of how we can identify, sustain and support benefits. For example as we develop the charter or close the project or phase, we should ask ourselves and make sure that we effectively managed the benefits realization aspects and considered how to integrate benefits management into our activities, communications, plans, dates and so on. These benefits realization plan is covered in more detail in another lesson but we must consider how we create, maximize and sustain the benefits provided by the project.
[06:16] Activities
Other activities of integration include measuring and monitoring progress and actions. Project Integration Management monitors or controls everything that is going on in your project. And if something isn’t going to plan then you take corrective action or proactive action to bring actual project results back into alignment with the plan.
Integration also includes communicating with stakeholders. It would be difficult to unify and coordinate without communication. The project manager must collect, analyze and communicate project information to relevant stakeholders.
In addition, we need to manage phase transitions. A phase may occur in parallel with another phase. For example you as the project manager may have to be completing tasks in the first phase while you are already initiating tasks for the second phase.
Finally, integration has to complete project work and formally close each phase, contract and project. As we said, integration covers start to finish on the project. To say our work is done, we must formally confirm with other stakeholders that all the work is truly complete and close out the contracts and hand over the deliverables.
[07:39] Nature of Projects
When we consider integration and project management, we must understand the nature of projects. Projects do not exist in isolation. Therefore project management is integrative by nature. You integrate and need to interact within and outside of the projects.
Projects involve more than one knowledge area. Integration is the so-called glue or connective tissue across all the parts of the project. It is also the balancing factor in the process groups and knowledge areas, which means that in integration, you have to involve others in the project.
Also processes are iterative. Therefore, as some aspects of integration are ongoing, integration steps may also be repetitive.
[08:32] Trends and Emerging Practices
Alright and that’s it for all the key aspects that we wanted to look at. We’re moving on, the PMBOK® Guide highlight some trends and emerging practices in Project Integration Management. And they include use of automated tools, use of visual management tools, project knowledge management, expanding the project manager’s responsibilities and hybrid methodologies. These trends and emerging practices reflect not only a reliance on more advanced technology but also a change in best practices and processes.
[09:12] Automated Tools
Automated tools are geared towards making the project manager’s job easier by automating time-consuming tasks. Tools such as project management information systems are used to gather, integrate and disseminate the outputs of project management processes.
For example many PMIS tools include function such as project planning and scheduling, team collaboration, workflow management, task management, cost and budget tracking, as well as time tracking and reporting. This list is by no means comprehensive. Even as these automated tools aid the team, they also come with strings attached. You need to learn about these tools and implement and integrate them into your project.
[09:59] Visual Management Tools
The second trend and emerging practices are visual management tools that are becoming more common in order to ensure different generations and cultures are coordinated and on the same page. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. In order to integrate the processes, it is useful for us to manage what the team, maybe your sponsor, senior management and other stakeholders see.
For example projects can use several types of charts, paper, posters, electronic displays or the like as visual tools since they are easy and convenient to view. These types of tools help to capture and share project information with the team and other stakeholders. The information should be relevant, up to date and presented in a manner that is simple and easy to understand. To that end, a visual management tool often contains, not only text, but also images, graphs and metrics. Visual management tools help to promote awareness. They can also be useful in seeing trends and in making decisions.
[11:07] Knowledge Management
Knowledge management itself is not new yet it is still considered a trend and emerging practice. It has always been on projects but it was assumed to be there in the background or sidelines. It has always been implied and assumed that you will learn, retain, document and pass on the knowledge.
Now, knowledge management is taking center stage by calling it out and designation it as a process. PMI is stressing how integral it is to a project’s success. It is important to plan knowledge management explicitly to call out best practices and define tools and techniques that are specific to knowledge management, particularly when stakeholders, teams or roles change. Project knowledge management is critical. It is evermore important to capture, retain and transfer knowledge effectively and efficiently.
[12:05] The Project Manager
The expectation and scope of a project manager’s responsibility and what they need to know to be effective is ever increasing and expanding. It is the fourth out of five of our trends and emerging practices here.
Essentially, the project manager is expected to know more. For example, they need to know a little bit more about operations, accounting and legal matters. They need to know more about the market or the technology. We are not saying that you as a project manager have to become an expert in everything but we need to be able to speak with people who are experts.
However, project managers do more by way of interfacing with the project stakeholders such as the project sponsor, senior management and other functional and operational areas within the organization. Project managers need to be more knowledgeable and understand the implications of what others do as they collaborate, communicate and interact with these stakeholders.
[13:11] Hybrid Methodologies
Here is the last of our five trends and emerging practices --- Hybrid Methodologies. In line with the tailoring of the processes that are described in the PMBOK® Guide, projects can opt to use hybrid methodologies. In other words, the project manager can apply and combine practices that work best for the current project.
Depending on the type of project, it may work well to find it best to use specific Agile or Lean methods, business analysis, change management or other practices and techniques that work well for the industry area or discipline. We remind you to exercise care when combining methodologies. Although it may be your intention to get the best of both worlds by opting for a hybrid methodology, if it is used ineffectively, you may end up with neither methodology’s benefits.
[14:11] Tailoring
We have touched upon many tailoring points throughout this overview lesson so you know that no project is the same. Therefore, size, complexity, risk, duration, culture and many other factors affect how to tailor the project and integration. As you go through the other lessons here on the PrepCast, you should think about how one process affects another and how that might affect your integration and tailoring activities.
[14:43] How to Integrate
There are many questions that you must ask yourself as the project manager to manage integration effectively on your project. The PMBOK® Guide calls out some considerations that have to do with underlying life cycle and approach.
Consider the project life cycle. Are we dividing the project up into phases? For example if we are following a software development life cycle then we may organizes the project into requirements, analysis, design, implementation, test and deployment phases.
What about the development life cycle, are you using a traditional Waterfall, predictive approach or an adaptive method? If adaptive, which one? Scrum perhaps? Or are you combining Agile and non-Agile methods?
Apart from life cycle, consider your own management approach. Agile methods promote a servant leadership management approach. Other organizational and social cultures may reflect a different type of management approach that affects how you would approach control, risk, trust and communications, and that’s just what I can think of off the top of my head right now.
[16:00] Tailoring Means Change
Tailoring is also a matter of change. At some point during the project, someone is going to want to make a change either to increase or to reduce the scope. Alternatively, maybe we find that our quality management processes don’t work the way that we had envisioned so we must make a change to the actual processes.
Within the project, we may be getting them through an old way to a new way. Or you may be dealing with a new product technology or regulation. Of course the organization itself can be going through a transformation or change. In tailoring, you have to consider how to integrate and manage the change.
[16:43] Additional Tailoring Considerations
There are many other tailoring considerations for integration management. Let me focus on four here --- Knowledge management. Depending on the project, you would manage knowledge a bit differently. Therefore, if you are working on a proprietary formula or recipe that you do not want your competitors to have, you might integrate knowledge management differently. On the other hand, you may want some information to be very transparent for the team to work well together.
Governance, there may be oversight committees, audit processes and other management requirements that need to be considered. We also have to think about lessons learned. We already discussed different methodologies. For example the Scrum methodology allows for feedback loops at every iteration through retrospectives.
And lastly, benefits. Similarly, how you manage benefits may also be affected by your approach. Are they measured at the end of the phase, project or iteration? Notice how each of these considerations does not fall nicely into one or the other knowledge area. You have to consider all of them --- cost, schedule, risk, communication and so on, on each of these items.
[18:02] Agile and Adaptive Perspectives
When considering Agile and adaptive approaches to tailoring integration, the PMBOK® Guide recommends that teams have generalizing specialists with broad skills in line with Agile best practices. Specialists with very narrow areas of knowledge and expertise are potential bottlenecks. As you may need to wait for specialists to become available to work on specific tasks whereas generalized specialists are flexible and can take on a variety of tasks.
Working together in a collaborative decision-making environment is important in an adaptive environment. Team members have to work and decide together to respond appropriately to changes that come their way. In Agile, teams have to control product and increment planning and delivery very carefully.
[18:56] Local Domain Experts & Scum of Scrums
Lastly, when considering Agile and adaptive approaches to tailoring integration, it is best to engage team members as local domain experts in integration management. This allows team members to participate and to be empowered to make local decisions especially in a volatile and ever-changing environment.
For example, let us think about a large-scale project that employs Scrum. At the top level, they have Scrum of Scrums consisting of ambassadors or representatives from each team so that multiple Scrum teams can coordinate their efforts. However, a Scrum team would be autonomous in making decisions at the team or local level. So team A can make local integration decisions as can team B and C. They act as their local integration experts. However, there may be some wider integration decisions that need to be made together with other teams at the Scrum of Scrums level.
[20:05] Takeaways
What should you take away from this overview lesson? Two things. You need to orchestrate your way to success. Project Integration Management identifies what needs to be done and then creates and implements all the project plans. It coordinates schedule activities, project resources, constraints and assumptions in such a way that you have a successful project outcome.
And as you progress through the project, remember that there is not one single way to manage a project. Depending on what the client wants, you apply your management knowledge, skill and the required processes in a different order, as well as varying intensity to maximize your performance.
However, be sure to address every process even though you may think one or two may not be needed. Be consistent. Be flexible. Think creatively and you will succeed. With that, we have come to the end of this lesson.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
PMP® Exam Prep: Project Integration Management Overview - Part 1
The PM PrepCast is your complete PMP training. With over 50 hours of in-depth lessons it is one of the best PMP classes online. Please enjoy this free lesson:
The first minute of this free lesson is a quick preface about PrepCast features and functionality. Feel free to fast forward.
"Project Integration Management. Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups."
This definition is taken from the Glossary of Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) - Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute Inc., 2017.
This lesson is an overview of the Project Integration Management Knowledge area. We look at why we have it, what we do and the concepts you must know for your PMP exam. In particular, we learn about the integrative nature of project management and the processes in this Knowledge Area.
Until Next Time,
Cornelius Fichtner, PMP, CSM President, OSP International LLC
Transcript
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
[00:00] [Introduction]
Hello, and welcome to this free lesson from The Project Management PrepCast™. I am Cornelius Fichtner and I am the lead instructor. Thank you for your interest in our Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam training course.
For over 45,000 students, The PM PrepCast™ was the right choice. This free session here will allow you to experience what the course is like and you’ll see that it is the right choice for you too.
The greatest technological benefit that The PM PrepCast™ gives you over other online courses is the fact that it is a podcast that you can choose to download. This means that you cannot only watch online but even better. You can save all 150 lessons on your tablet or on your phone! In that way, your PMP® training course is always in your pocket no matter where you are even if you are offline.
Preparing for your PMP® Exam has never been easier. Like I said, it’s the right choice! Please visit www.pm-prepcast.com for all the details.
And now, on with the show.
[01:16] Lesson Overview
Hello and welcome to The Project Management PrepCast™, the exam preparation course you can download to your phone. I am instructor, Cornelius Fichtner.
This lesson is an overview of the Project Integration Management knowledge area where we aim to accomplish a few things. First, we familiarize ourselves with the integrated nature of project management along with the roles and responsibilities of a project manager and the team. We then explore the different processes of Project Integration Management. We also examine key concepts where we look at why we have integration and then try to capture the main gist of what we do and what it is about.
We look at trends and emerging practices, which the PMBOK® Guide describes as good practices that are starting to become more prominent and prevalent on current projects. We cover tailoring considerations for integration management that a project manager should think about when adapting the project. To fulfill the particular needs of project stakeholders, organizations and the environment.
And lastly, we have Agile and adaptive perspectives to reflect upon and apply to Agile and adaptive project environments and development life cycles where change is prevalent and where teams handle work incrementally. These life cycles especially Agile have many of the aspects of integration built in.
[02:51] Two-Part Presentation
Project Integration Management is the first knowledge area in the PMBOK® Guide so this is most likely the first knowledge area overview lesson that you are watching. Let me just say, most of them are divided into the same two parts.
In Part 1, we provide an overview of the integration management knowledge area and its processes and start by describing some of the key concepts. And then in Part 2, we continue to look at key concepts and then proceed to discuss trends and emerging practices tailoring considerations, as well as Agile and adaptive perspectives that are described in the PMBOK® Guide.
[03:34] Follow Along on Pages: 69-74 and 673
And if you would like to following with this lesson then please open your PMBOK® Guide and turn to pages 69 to 74 which is the core material, and then also on page 673 which summarizes the key concepts.
[03:51] Project Integration Management
We begin with the definition of this knowledge area. Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the project management process groups.
What does this mean? In the PMBOK® Guide, you find over 45 processes telling you how to execute various aspects of your project, for instance, how to create a risk management plan or how to control your schedule. The processes sometimes seem rather scattered and unconnected. Yet somehow, you as the project manager must combine, unify and coordinate them. You have to bring them altogether much as a conductor does standing in front of the orchestra coordinating the musicians. Integration management helps you to do all these things.
Understanding integration management is not rocket science. On a conceptual level, the processes are easily understood and the PMBOK® Guide describes individual process relations to each other and the project. However from a practical point of view, it is actually much more difficult to execute them during a project. You not only need to learn the mechanics of project management that are explained in the various processes but you must also learn and master the art of project management.
[05:25] Lesson Exception
Speaking of art, we need to paint a picture before outlining the processes in this knowledge area and this is different than other overview lessons that you will see going forward. Other knowledge area over your lessons, they go directly to talking about the specific processes under the knowledge area at this point of the lesson. But since Project Integration Management is so central to our learning, we first want to paint the scene by discussing some key aspects of integration and why you need to pay attention to managing it on your project.
[06:02] Aspects of Integration
First and foremost, it is important to understand that on every project, integration is considered a central activity. Another way to describe it would be essential and vital since integration is how the whole project comes together. Therefore when you go through each process, you should understand the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for each process. Sometimes these are referred to as ITTO’s. And not simply memorize them. For your exam, you should understand why we use a process and its purpose.
As the project manager, you consolidate and integrate the many project management actions that are necessary for your project to succeed. What do we mean by that? Well you manage stakeholder expectations such that you may have to include and incorporate new needs into the project.
For example when a new requirement, risk or stakeholder comes along, you may need to accommodate, combine and adjust things on the project. Another aspect involves integrating the project into existing operations. The product, service or results that the project delivers must be incorporated into the ongoing operations of your organization. With all those points in mind, we are now going to take a moment to consider a few more aspects of integration.
[07:33] Process Coverage
Four of the processes in this knowledge area, we’ll describe these in more detail later on. Begin at the very start of the project and end with its closing. They are Direct and Management Project Work, Manage Project Knowledge, Monitor and Control Project Work, as well as Perform Integrated Change Control. They are ongoing processes where we make sure that the project moves through all the stages from initiation to closure.
The project manager and the project management team have to make decisions on a day-to-day basis to execute the project in a way that ultimately delivers the agreed-to result.
[08:18] No Short Cuts
Another good rule of thumb is that we as the project managers simply cannot take shortcuts in coordinating these processes. The project manager must perform all of the processes and cannot remove or skip a project management process here or there just because it looks like they are not necessary.
For example, it may be prevalent or a strong desire in your company that a project builds a product in-house and does not use vendors. However, this doesn’t mean that you can simply forego and cut out Project Procurement Management. You should at least perform your due diligence and go through the plan procurement management process in Project Procurement Management in the knowledge area. You need to do that properly in order to come to an appropriate make-or-buy decision. This means that the idea is that the project management team tailors the processes and decides how much and to what depth each is used.
In this example here after the team goes through the make-versus-buy analysis and decision then the team can decide how much or how little of the remaining procurement processes are really required on the project. You can’t just cut them out without looking at them.
[9:42] Role & Responsibility
Here’s a question for you: When it comes to roles and responsibilities in integration management, who do you think is responsible? Well although the team may have some role to play especially in fast-changing project environments, it is good for team members to contribute and play their part. However, this here, integration, is so critical and integral to the project that the project manager is responsible with help from the project team for the processes and ultimately accountable for the processes being completed correctly.
The accountability cannot be delegated or transferred. Integration is the job of you, the project manager. The project manager may have members of the team who manage other knowledge areas such as schedule, cost, risk, procurement, and so on but it is important for the project manager to oversee all these knowledge areas in integration.
[10:44] Process Interactions
There is another important note about project processes and their interactions. If you look at the PMBOK® Guide, you may be under the impression that project management is a neat and orderly thing. However, anyone with minimal project experience knows project management is not as clear-cut.
In real life, processes interact with each other in many more ways than is shown in the PMBOK® Guide. In the Guide, it looks like we have a nice jigsaw puzzle. But in real life, each project is like a town with buildings, roads, vehicles, people, shops and cinemas where all of them interact with each other in countless and sometimes unpredictable ways. The PMBOK® Guide tries to make you aware of this.
[11:31] Data Flow Diagrams
You can get a feel for the buildings, roads and vehicles by looking at the data flow diagram in the PMBOK® Guide. There’s one for each process that shows how the processes interact with each other.
This example here is of a data flow diagram for the Develop Project Management Plan process in integration. However, you must understand that the data flow diagrams do not depict all process interactions and data flow among the processes in detail. The processes may be presented here as unique and separate processes with defined interphases while in practice they intersect and interact in many more ways.
The number of iterations through a process and interactions among other processes vary from project to project. Remember, the PMBOK® Guide is just a guide. It does not claim to contain every bit of project management know-how. It is though what you need to know to pass your exam.
[12:36] Integration Management Process
After this review of the key aspects, we will proceed to look more closely at the seven processes that make up Project Integration Management. In the individual lessons of the appropriate process, we will discuss each of them in detail. Right now our goal is to provide you with a high-level understanding.
The first process is Develop Project Charter. This is the process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
The second process is Develop Project Management Plan. That’s the process of defining, preparing and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan.
That’s followed by the Direct and Manage Project Work process, the process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project’s objectives.
The next process is Manage Project Knowledge. That’s the process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project’s objectives and contribute to organizational learning.
The fifth process is Monitor and Control Project Work, the process of tracking, reviewing and reporting overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined by the project management plan.
Then we have Perform Integrated Change Control. This is the process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents and the project management plan and communicating the decision.
And then finally, we have Close Project of Phase. Its purpose is to finalize all activities for the project, phase or contract.
[14:53] Process and Process Groups
And here is how the seven processes from this knowledge area mapped to the various process groups: Develop Project Charter is part of the Initiating process group. Develop Project Management Plan is in planning. Well no real surprise here. The plan is in planning, well that makes sense.
Next we have Direct and Management Project Work, as well Manage Project Knowledge. Both processes are part of Executing. They are in this process group because for once, you are not just doing project management work but you are actually doing some real work on the project deliverables.
It should also come as no shock that both Monitor and Control Project Work, as well as Perform Integrated Change Control are part of the Monitoring and Controlling process group. And lastly as you would expect, Close Project or Phase is part of the Closing process group.
And here is one last piece of trivia: Close Project or Phase is the only closing process anywhere in the PMBOK® Guide. No other process falls under closing. You can see that Project Integration Management is unique. It has seven processes, at least one is found in each of the five process groups that makes integration management the only knowledge area that has one process in each of the five process groups.
Think of these seven processes as the lead chair in the sections in the orchestra, each playing their parts at just the right time as conducted by you, the conductor, the project manager. For instance, the second process in integration is Develop Project Management Plan. This particular process is leading the planning process section of the orchestra. Moreover, the responsibility of the process is to ensure that all the other 23 processes in our analogy, all the woodwinds in this planning process group are properly coordinated and executed.
Also what you see here is probably the most colorful slide that we have anywhere in the PrepCast. It looks like we have managed to squeeze every single color that we use for highlighting onto one single screen. Whew! Let’s move on.
[17:24] Project Charter
The first process in Project Integration Management is Develop Project Charter. The project charter is often the first document on a project. The charter is a document that formally authorizes a project. It presents the project manager to authority to apply organizational resources to the project. In other words, the project manager is named in the charter. This could be you and it confirms that you are now allowed to spend resources. It authorizes you to spend time and money, and even higher people for the team.
Also important to know is the fact that the project manager should be assigned prior to the start of planning and preferably as you are creating this charter. The Project Charter is a very important project document and you must understand its purpose for the exam. That’s why we have a separate lesson just on the Project Charter where we look at the details.
[18:22] Planning Process Group
After developing the charter, which is part of Project Initiation, is the big planning process group. Planning tells us what we have to do and sets the expectations of our stakeholders.
What is the goal of all these planning? Well from a project point of view, the goal is to define what we need to deliver and how we are going to deliver it. What we deliver is primarily defined in the product scope but also in the budget where we say how much it costs in the schedule where we provide the timeline for delivery and in the quality management plan where we define degree of adherence to the specifications and the requirements where we describe the grade of the product.
The how is the defined in all our various other plans, which create the project scope. For instance, the resource management plan describes the processes to follow, to assemble a team of specialists who can deliver the project. This plan could say that our preference is assigning internal resources and only after we have exhausted those resources should we look at hiring external consultants. It also says that we need to employ three new engineers for project-specific research and design.
After completing the processes in the Planning process group, we should have a solid understanding of our project and product. Thanks to all the plans that were developed and integrated into the project management plan.
[19:58] Project Management Plan
So defining the ‘what’ and ‘how’ is done during planning and the output of all the planning is the project management plan. We have a separate lesson on just the project management plan but for now let me just say that in some processes, the project management plan is a newly created output. Other knowledge area processes may be updating the existing plan or adding a new subsidiary plan.
The Project Management Plan is not a single document. Instead it is a collage of integrated subsidiary plans like the Resource Management Plan and the Quality Management Plan, as well as other important documents for the project. In addition, it is probably the single most important document on the project and that makes it extremely important for your exam.
[20:48] Historical Files
Another important cornerstone of integration is learning from historical files. Why you may ask are we emphasizing old files? Well historical files are part of the Organizational Process Assets. Embedded in this are the files on lessons learned aptly part of the lessons learned register. The idea is that we integrate the lessons learned from previous projects into the activities that we perform on the current project leveraging the successes and failures of prior projects. It is a project management best practice to hold lessons learned meetings so that you can enable improvements of your own and future projects and to document these lessons by creating and maintaining a lessons learned register on your project.
These lessons and other historical files serve as an essential and helpful reference to understand how others have succeeded or struggled. Important outputs of the Close Project or Phase process are organizational process asset updates, which in future become part of the organization’s historical facts. Therefore, the cycle continues. Your own project experience serves as historical files and lessons from which other projects, future projects and other project managers can benefit.
[22:18] Knowledge Management
Managing knowledge is part of Project Integration Management. Knowledge Management, however, covers more than just the lessons learned and historical files that we just discussed. How the project acquires or creates the knowledge, how it transfers and how it uses this is vital. Knowledge is the foundation upon which you the project manager and your team stand as you go step by step through the project.
[22:45] Change Control System
To reduce chaos on a project, the PMBOK® Guide defines the requisites of an integrated change control system. It helps manage change to the project and product scope. The system whether it is manual or integrated computer system is called the Change Control System, which is a set of procedures that describes how modifications to the project deliverables and documentation are managed and controlled.
For example, if you want to add another bathroom to a house, you have to invoke this change control system in order to make the appropriate updates to the current configuration of your house.
[23:26] Configuration Management System
A major part of this system is the Configuration Management System, which is a collection of procedures used to track project artifacts and monitor and control changes to these artifacts. Items that are listed in the configuration management plan are tracked in the Configuration Management System and are referred to as under configuration control. For instance, if you build a house, the plans and drawings are probably under configuration control because they describe exactly what to build. They show how your house is laid out and configured.
[24:09] Integrated Change Control System
Both of these are parts of an integrated change control system. This is one of the major systems on a project because it controls change, which reduces the number of unplanned changes. One does not want chaos on the project where everyone and anyone can add or remove scope where nobody keeps track of who does what and why.
At its core, a change control system is very simple. If you want to make a change, fill out a form referred to as a change request. This form is to be reviewed more closely by subject matter experts who make a decision as the changes merits. If it is approved, we integrate it into the project. If it is denied, we give the originator a reason for denying it and that’s it in very basic terms.
Change requests, they should be in writing. Verbal change requests are too error prone. You can get this change request from internal sources like your stakeholders or from external sources such as government agencies or new laws. Some change requests like those resulting from government regulations are mandatory. Nevertheless, they must go through the integrated change control systems where their effect on the rest of the project is evaluated.
[25:31] Close Project or Phase
Finally after all the work on the project is complete, we have the Close Project or Phase process. This process is performed once at the end of every project, phase, procurement agreement and the completed project.
Expert judgment is needed during this process to make sure that nothing gets forgotten and that the project or phase is closed according to all the relevant standards and procedures that we should be following. We make our final updates and transition any deliverables onto the appropriate parties who could be inside or external to our organization.
Closing the project concludes our integration responsibilities, as well as other project manager duties. We lock the door to the project and pass on the keys.
[26:20] Takeaways
So what should you remember to take away from this first part of the lesson? At a basic level, you should know what processes make up Project Integration Management. It’s not just about memorizing the list of names of the processes in the knowledge area but understanding various concepts and the purpose and activities of each of the processes.
And as a general rule, exam questions on integration management tend to focus on the integrative nature of the processes. You should understand that you must follow the appropriate procedures such as performed integrated change control process to complete the project successfully.
And this concludes the first part of this Project Integration Management overview lesson.
Until next time.
[Music]
[End of presentation]
Please note that the transcript is provided for promotional purposes only. Transcripts are not provided for other PrepCast lessons.
OSP INTERNATIONAL LLC
OSP INTERNATIONAL LLC
Training for Project Management Professional (PMP)®, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®, and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®
