BUS605: Strategic Project Management

The PMBOK Guide® views project integration management as one of the most important knowledge areas because it coordinates the other eight knowledge areas and all of the project management processes throughout the project life cycle. As Rita Mulcahy points out, it is the project team's responsibility to focus on completing the project work while the project sponsor should be protecting the project from unnecessary changes and loss of resources. However, the project manager or leader's role should be "to put all the pieces of the project together in a cohesive whole that gets the project done faster, cheaper, and with fewer resources while meeting project objectives". According to the PMBOK Guide®:

Integration, in the context of managing a project, is making choices about where to concentrate resources and effort on any given day, anticipating potential issues, dealing with these issues before they become critical, and coordinating work for the overall project good. The integration effort also involves making trade-offs among competing objectives and alternatives.

In many ways, integration is the job of the project manager. For example, let's say that you estimate that a database analyst assigned to your project will require two weeks to create a set of tables. However, right before the analyst is to begin her assigned task, she decides to take a job in another city. Your role as the project manager is to ensure that the project stays on track. This may entail recruiting another database analyst (human resource management), who will be paid a higher salary (cost management) and will now take four weeks (time management) to complete the assignment (Very few individuals are "plug and play". They will need time to assimilate in their new job and surroundings). Hopefully, their work will meet specific database design standards (quality management), but then this could all be overly optimistic (risk management). As you can see, project management processes and knowledge areas are interdependent. An experienced project manager knows there is no single way to manage a project. Project management knowledge, skills, and processes must be combined and applied in different ways in order to meet the project's goal and objectives.

Therefore, an understanding of the integrative nature of projects is especially critical in developing the project plan when all the knowledge areas and project and product-oriented processes must be brought together in order to produce a realistic and usable project plan. The PMBOK Guide® outlines seven processes for Project Integration Management:

1. Develop the project charter - The project charter is a document that formally authorizes the project and gives specific authority to the project manager to apply organizational resources to the project tasks or activities. In fact, the PMBOK Guide® stresses that a project cannot be started without a project charter. Although the project manager may not have been assigned when the business case was proposed, it is critical that he or she be named in the project charter.
2. Develop the preliminary scope statement - Think of the preliminary scope statement as the first iteration or draft of what the project must deliver. This may include project deliverables such as the project plan and the high-level features and functionality of the application system. The preliminary scope statement can be provided by the project sponsor or by having the project team interview key project stakeholders. At this point, the project team needs to "size" the project, i.e., is this a big project? Or a little project? Or something in between? Detailed features of the system (such as should the date be on the left or right hand side of the screen?) are not needed at this point. Those details will be specified when the project team completes the analysis of the detailed user requirements later on when implementing the SDLC. At this point, only enough detail is needed to plan the project activities in order to derive a project schedule and budget.
3. Develop the project management plan - The project management plan is a document that details how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled, and closed. Although the project plan may evolve and change over the course of the project life cycle, it becomes the day-to-day tool that outlines how the project goal and objectives will be met. All subsidiary plans such as a scope management plan, risk management plan, and communications plan are integrated into the project management plan.
4. Direct and manage project execution - The project manager accomplishes the project management plan by integrating all of the project processes into one coordinated effort. Here the project work is carried out to complete the project's scope.
5. Monitor and control project work - During the execution process, effort and resources will be expended to accomplish the project goal and objectives. Therefore, corrective actions may be necessary from time to time when the project's performance strays from the project management plan. On the other hand, preventive actions are sometimes necessary when the project team thinks or believes deviations from the project plan are likely. Corrective actions are reactive, while preventive actions are proactive. In addition, defect repair and rework may be necessary when project deliverables or processes do not meet quality standards.
6. Integrated change control - Change is inevitable during the entire project life cycle. Some approaches to project management and systems development embrace change, while other approaches may not embrace change as well. Regardless, change control processes must be in place so that all proposed changes can be documented, reviewed, and decided upon. Then corrective, preventive, or defect repairs can be made effectively and efficiently. In most circumstances, proposed changes will impact the project's scope, schedule, budget, and quality objectives. As a result, changes should be incorporated into the project management plan.
7. Close the project - As described in the previous section, this includes both administrative and contract closure procedures to ensure that closure is brought to the project or project phase. Regardless of whether a project ends as planned or prematurely, a project should be closed out using the close project process.

In the next section, you will learn how the project process groups and project integration knowledge area combine to create the project charter.