Initiating Process Group

Till now, we have covered articles on Project Management Framework, now on we shall go through in details about Project Management Process Groups , as by now we are clear there are 5 different Process groups those are

• Initiating Process Group
• Planning Process Group
• Executing Process Group
• Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
• Closing Process Group

We shall start with Initiating Process Group, in Project Management one of the key skills is the ability to initiate a project effectively.

Define the project, secure necessary financial resources, and setting communication in place with stakeholders are all important aspects of initiating a project.

The project is officially authorized when the project charter is approved by the sponsors.

Key high level inputs to Project Initiating group are

• Business, project Document and Agreements
• Project Management Plan
• Enterprise Environmental Factors
• Organizational Process Assets

Actions should be taken under this groups are

• Develop Project Charter and get approval
  • This assists Project Manager to define boundaries so objectives and Expectations are clear.
• Perform Stakeholder analysis
  • Identifying and quantifying all/major stakeholders who will be affected by the project during this process is very important as this will help in future to mitigate and communicate risks if any in future, also it is a good practice to start identifying risks during this exercise and propose implementation strategy.
• Perform Benefit Analysis
• Key deliverable to achieve project goal

Hope this information helps, next we shall focus on Planning Process Group.

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PMI’s Project Management Process Framework

Last article we covered about key factors that influence project management, please click here to view previous article. In this article, we shall cover about Process Framework, this is heart of PMP exam, understanding this, will help us understand next chapters going forward.

PMP Process framework is composed of Input, Tools and Techniques and Output.

A project management process takes a list of inputs and converts to specific output with use of tools and techniques. Every process of 49 different Processes is unique and performed to resolve a specific problem in the project. Please refer my earlier article on Processes, Knowledge area and Process groups.

Inputs : could be specific information or artifact, which may also be an output of some other process.

Tools and Techniques: are methods and practices to convert the inputs to outputs.

Outputs: could be documents, information, result or a product and this output of one process can be an input to other process.

Common Inputs: below are set of common inputs to each process, this will help us remember process inputs easily, this is been covered in previous article, influence on project management. Here, I am listing for the reference.

• Enterprise Environmental Factors
• Organizational Process assets
• Project Management Plan
• Work performance data
• Work performance Information.

Hope this information helps! Next we shall focus on each process groups one by one.

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Influence on Project Management

In Previous article we have covered key components useful in Project Monitoring and controlling about Work Performance data, Work Performance Information and Work Performance Reports, please click here to view the previous article.

In this article we shall cover about factors that influence project management these are Enterprise Environmental Factors(EEF), Organization Process Assets(OPA) and Organizational Systems.

Organization Process Asset (OPA): is the plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases specific to and is used by the performing organization. This is an Asset, that will always help organization positively.

OPA is further breaks down into main two

• Process, Policies e.g Quality policies and procedures, templates, guidelines, and tailoring.
• Knowledge base e.g. Lessons learned.

Enterprise environmental factor (EEF) : this refers to conditions, not under the control of the project team that influence or direct the project. These are the Factors which can affect the organization in positively or negatively.

EEF further divided into two categories

• Internal e.g. Organizational Culture, Infra, Geo distribution,
• External e.g. Market condition, Legal restrictions, financial considerations.

Organizational System: it determines power, competence, interests and political capabilities of people. this is further broken down into 3 categories.

• Management Elements
• Governance Framework and
• Organizational Structure types (this is defined based on Project Mangers Authority).

Hope this information helps!

In next blogs, shall continue with Project Management framework about PMI’s Process Framework, this is critical section to understand and clear PMP.

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Project Management Flow, Data and Information

In Previous article, we covered Project Development Life Cycle.Types of Project Development Life Cycle In this article we shall cover about Project Management flow, in this we shall cover about

• Work Performance Data
• Work Performance Information and
• Work Performance Reports.

Through Monitoring and Controlling part of project management, one can make out if the project is on track. For this we need status and progress reports of the project, these are called Work Performance Reports. Stakeholders are always interested to understand in Work Performance Reports which provides information about project health.

Examples of Work Performance Reports include status reports, progress reports, trends report, earned value report, variance report, etc.

Format of Work Performance Report may be Burn Down charts, Bar Charts, histogram etc.

Work performance data is the raw data identified during execution activities.
It is current status of various project parameters, like how much work is completed, how much time has elapsed,
and the cost so far.

Work performance information is the information that we derive with the help of work performance data; e.g. planned status, cost prediction etc.

So, main use of Work Performance Data and Information is to prepare Work Performance report, which can be communicated to stakeholders (Project team is an example of stakeholder).

Hope this information helps!

In next blogs, shall continue with Project Management framework (try to focus on Influence on Project Managment).

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Types of Project Development Life Cycle

Project Life cycle is used to gain better control over a large project and a clear focus on the deliverable.

This is done through the splitting up of the project into several phases,
each of which can be considered a mini-project in itself which involve all five process groups  (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing).

The hand-off from one phase to another is done at a stage or Phase-gate or Milestone or Kill-point, which is described in my previous article. please go through key components of project here.

Below is the comparison of Different Project Life cycles, I have tried to put under chart so it can be easily visualized and difference can be observed clearly.

• Example of Predictive Life cycle is Waterfall model.
• Example of Iterative Life cycle is a year or longer duration project will have three(a few) months iterations. And, each iteration will execute Planning, Analysis, Design, Code, testing phases, and deliver the result at the end of the iteration. Delivered iteration may not be useful as product, but can be shown as progress towards making of a final product.
• Example of Incremental life cycle is deliverable produced through series of iterations, eg. 10 things to develop to complete a project, we do it one by one and each stage is useful as product.
• Example of Adaptive life cycle is mix of Iterative and Incremental. The deliverable is usable like incremental, but are open for feedback and refinements based on those feedback the refinements can be done either in iterations or we can follow a kanban or lean based approach.
• Examples of Hybrid (as mentioned it is combination of Predictive+Adaptive) hence examples are based on how Predictive an Adaptive is used.
  • Agile first then Predictive
  • Agile and predictive in parallel
  • Large Predictive smaller Agile
  • Large Agile small predictive.

Hope this information helps!

In next blogs, will continue with Project Management framework (try to focus on Project Flow key terms).

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Key components of Project

In Previous article we covered about Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle. In this and next article we shall go through Key components of Project and Development life cycle.Project Phases: a collections of logically related activities that produces one or more deliverable. In above image Start, Prepare and Organize, Execute and End is the project phases.

Phase Gate: Review to be done at each Project Phases, whether to continue or not to next phase. Above image each project phase is connected with Phase gate.

Process Group: Grouping of Project Management input, tools, techniques and outputs.

Knowledge Area: it is a Project Management area based on its knowledge requirement.

Next we shall cover in details about Development life cycle.

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Project life cycle vs. Product life cycle (PMP)

In Previous article we covered about Portfolio, Programs and Projects. In this article we shall go through the difference between Project Life Cycle and Product Life Cycle.

Project is subset of Product. Product can have multiple projects within.

Project Life Cycle:

• It is collection of phases project undergoes from beginning to end (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing)
• It depends on organization’s need and preference, that is defined in Project Execution Methodology (Scrum, Kanban, Agile, Waterfall etc.).

Product Life Cycle:

• It is the process a product goes through from when it is first introduced into the market until it declines or is removed from the market.
• It can be long and it includes multiple Projects throughout its life.

Key variables need to understand during this process is Stakeholder’s influence vs Cost.

Stakeholder influence and Cost of Project is highest at the start, while cost of changes or correction of errors is the highest nearing the end of the project.

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Portfolio, Programs and Projects (PMP)

In Previous article we covered about Project Management Overview in this article we shall covert about Portfolio, Programs and Projects.

Portfolio: from the diagram it is visible, portfolio is a collection of programs, sub portfolios and project managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives of an organization.

• Projects and Programs of portfolio may not be interdependent.
• A portfolio can be based on business objectives of an organization. E.g. for an IT company projects for Norwegian companies – to focus on Norwegian region or Automotive Portfolio to focus on Automotive sector.

Portfolio management refers to centralized management of one or more portfolios to achieve business and strategic objectives.

Program is a group of Projects, Operations, other work managed in coordinated way to obtain benefits which are not available via managing them individually.

• Programs are designed to deliver strategic benefits to the company this includes tangible ( increasing top line business) or intangible (improving work-life balance for the employees)
• Group of projects can be classified in Program when they add value by managing them together.

Program management is application of knowledge, skills, tools and technique to achieve program objectives which can not be achieved by managing them individually.

for definition of Project and Project Management please refer my previous articles.

In next blogs, will continue with Project Management framework.

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Project Management Overview (PMP)

In previous article we covered Project Introduction,in this article we will cover details about Project Management, here we will cover

• Project Management Definition as per PMI
• Project Management Methodology
• Value of Project Management.

Project Management Definition: Project Management is application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet project requirement. It is achieved through application of appropriate Project Management Process  identified for the project, with this Organization can execute project effectively and efficiently.

Project Management Methodology:

Project Management Methodology Follows(Click here for detailed Article)

• 5 Process Groups (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing)
• 10 Knowledge Areas (I, S, S, C, Q, R, C, R, P, S)
• 49 Processes

Project Management Methodology incorporates, Standard documentation, Standard Processes and approaches.

and it applies across Industries e.g. IT, Telecom, Oil and Gas etc.

Value of Project Management:

In next blogs, will continue with Project Management framework.

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PMP – Project Introduction

Earlier article we discussed about PMP Course overview, now in this article, we will focus on Project Introduction.

in this, we will cover

• Project Definition
• Project characteristics
• Project Examples
• Reasons why projects fail.

Definition of Project: According to PMI(Project Management Institute), Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique product, service or result.

Below are Project Characteristics:

• Projects are:
  • Performed by people with limited sources
  • Temporary in nature, executed once and completed
• Projects differ from operations as Operations are on going and repetitive, while Projects are temporary and unique.
• Projects have definite beginning and end.
• Project duration may vary from short to very long about 5 years+.
• Projects considered completed when
  • Defined objectives are met
  • Defined goals can not be met due to time, cost, or chosen tech.
  • Project requirement is changed or Legal /Contractual issues.

Below are examples of Projects

• Implementing new hotel management system.
• Renovating house.
• Building new residential society.
• Migrating a system to new technology.

Lets have a look at a few points why projects fail!

• Main reason for project failure is requirement are not clear/ambiguous
• Scope creep (keep on adding items to defined scope)
• Sponsors not actively involved and not directing properly.
• Frequent changes of the Project Managers.
• Lack of skills
• Deliverable not defined clearly.

Hope this helps!

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