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Project management systems - PMBOK – part 1

PMBOK – part 1

Introduction

The next sections afford a brief summary of the PMBOK® covering some of its contents.

PMBOK® stands for the Project Management Body of Knowledge and is published as a guide by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

The comments here refer to ‘A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge’ (Third Edition).

It represents the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management.
These will be generally recognised as good practice.
It is revised at intervals and contains proven traditional practices that are widely applied as well emerging innovative practices.
The latter may be published or unpublished.

It is used as a foundation for professional qualifications approved by the Project Management Institute.

It is set out to cover:

  • The Project Management Framework
  • The Standard for Project Management of a Project
  • The Project Management Knowledge Areas

The Project Management Framework

This covers an introduction to the guide and briefly the characteristics of a project, operational work and strategic planning.
It provides a basic structure for the understanding of project management.

It describes key terms and the project life cycle and organization.

The Standard for Project Management of a Project

This section describes the project management processes needed for carrying out a project.
These are divided into 5 process groups and their underlying project management processes.

These are:

Initiating process group

This covers the authorisation needed to start a project.

This includes:

  • Development of a Project Charter
  • Development of a Project Scope Statement
Planning process group

This is used to plan and manage the project.

It includes:

  • Develop Project Management Plan
  • Scope planning
  • Scope definition
  • Create Work Breakdown Structure
  • Activity Definition
  • Activity sequencing
  • Activity Resource Estimating
  • Activity Duration Estimation
  • Schedule Development
  • Cost Estimating
  • Cost Budgeting
  • Quality Planning
  • Human Resource Planning
  • Communications Planning
  • Risk Management Planning
  • Risk Identification
  • Qualitative Risk Analysis
  • Quantitative Risk Analysis
  • Risk Response Planning
  • Plan Purchases and Acquisitions
  • Plan Contracting
Executing process group

This consists of the processes used to complete the work defined in the project management plan to achieve the project’s requirements.

It includes:

  • Direct and Manage Project Execution
  • Perform Quality Assurance
  • Acquire Project Team
  • Develop Project Team
  • Information Distribution
  • Request Seller Responses
  • Select Sellers
Monitoring and controlling process group

This group consists of those processes performed to observe project execution so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project.

It includes:

  • 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
Closing process group

This group includes the processes used to formally terminate all activities of a project or a project phase, hand off the completed product to others or close a cancelled project.

It includes:

  • Close Project
  • Contract Closure