3 Project Management Process for a Project

To make a project successful a project manager must:

- Select appropriate process
- Use a definite approach
- Comply with requirements
- Balance the competing demand of scope, time, cost, quality, resource, and risk to produce a quality product.

Roll of project manager w.r.t PM Processes

A project manager, in collaboration with the project team, is always responsible for determining what process are appropriate, and appropriate degree of rigor for each process, for a given project.

Definition
A process is a set of interrelated actions and activities that are performed to achieve a pre-specified set pf product, result, or services.

The project processes are performed by the project team and generally fall into two categories

Project management Process:  These are associated with each other by their performance for an integrated purpose. The purpose is to initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close a project.

Product Oriented Process: Its focus is to specify and create project product. The product oriented processes are defined by project lifecycle, and depends on the application area.

3.1 Project Management Processes

Definition
The project management processes are discrete elements with well-defined interfaces.

In practice
The project management process overlap and interact with each other. The experienced practitioners of project management recognize there is more than one way to manage a project.

The specifics (Factors) for application of the project management processes
- Objectives that must be accomplished based on the complexity, risk, size, time frame, project teams experience, access to resources, amount of historical information, the organizations project management maturity, and industry and application area.

Application of PM processes
- Required process group and their constituent processes and are guide to apply appropriate project management knowledge and skills during the project.
- The application of the project management processes to a project is iterative and many processes are repeated and revised during the during the project.

Who apply the processes?
The project manager and the project team are responsible for determining what process from the process group will be employed, by whom, and the degree of rigor that will be applied to the execution of these processes to achieve project objective.

Plan-Do-Check-Act (defined by Shewhart, modified by Deming)

3.2 Project Management Process groups

Characteristic of the five process group
- These five process group has clear dependencies and are performed in the same sequence on each project.
- They are independent of application area or industry focus
- The individual process group and individual constituent processes are often iterated prior to completing the project.
- Constituent processes also can have interactions both within a process group and among processes groups.

 * Process groups are not project phases. All the process group processes would normally be repeated for each phases or subproject.

3.2.1 Initiating Process Group

Defines and authorizes the project or a project phase.
Develop project charter
Develop preliminary project scope statement

3.2.2 Planning Process Group

Defines and refines objectives, and plans the course of action required to attain the objectives and scope that the project was undertaken to address.

Develop project management plan
Scope planning
Scope definition
Create WBS
Activity Definition
Activity Sequencing
Activity Resource Estimating
Activity Duration Estimating
Schedule Development
Cost Estimation
Cost budgeting
Quality Planning
Human Resource Planning
Communication planning
Risk Management Planning
Risk Identification
Qualitative risk analysis
Quantitative risk analysis
Risk Response planning
Plan Purchase and Acquisitions
Plan contracting

3.2.3 Executing Process Group

Integrates people and other resources to carry out the project management plan for the project.

3.2.4 Monitoring process group

Regularly measures and monitors progress to identify variants from the project management plan so that corrective action can be taken when necessary to meet project objectives.
 
Monitor and control project work
Integrated Change Control
Scope verification
Scope Control
Schedule Control
Cost Control
Perform Quality Control
Manage Project Team
Performance Reporting
Manage Stakeholders
Risk Monitoring and control
Contract Administration

3.2.5 Closing process Group

Formalizes acceptance of the product, service or result and bring the project phase to an orderly end

Close Project
Contract Closure

3.3 Process Interactions

Output of one process generally becomes input to another process or is a deliverable of the project.

Process groups are overlapping activities that occur at varying level of intensity throughout the project.

The intensity pf the process are in the following order
Initiation process group ->planning process group -> Execution process group -> Monitoring and control process group -> Closing process group

3.4 Project Management Process Mapping

Refer the table in PMBOK

QA (Rita Mulcahy)

1. The project charter is created in which project management process group
A. Execution
B. Planning
C. Closing
D. Initiating

2. The person who should be in control of the project during the project management Planning is the
A. Project Manager
B. Team Member
C. Functional Manager
D. Sponsor

3. The high-level project schedule constraints have just been determined. What project management are you in?
A. Initiating
B. Planning
C. Executing
D. Monitoring and control

4. The project manager is making sure that the product of the project has been completed according to the project management plan. What part of the project management process he is in?
A. Planning
B. Executing
C. Monitoring and control
D. Closing

5. During a team meeting, a team member asks about the measurements that will be used on the project to judge performance. The team member feels that some of the measures related to activities assigned to him are not valid measurements. The project is BEST considered in what part of the project management process?
A. Closing
B. Monitoring and controlling
C. Executing
D. Initiating

A:
1 D
2 A
3 A
4 D
5 C