The project consists of many activities, processes and stakeholders that holding them together and working seamlessly to achieve common goals is a challenge. Many times different activities are to be performed at different places with the team members working at different geographical locations. Working in such a scenario require a binding force which can help collaboration between different departments and different team members and align them to achieve common goals of the project. Project integration management is such a knowledge area, which consists of all the processes which may ensure that the project team members and other stakeholders can work in a cohesive manner towards achieving the shared project objectives, as envisaged at the beginning of the project.
Index
What is Project Integration Management?
Project Integration Management is one of the ten project management knowledge areas which acts as a binding force and road map for the project team. It is the most crucial knowledge area since it consists of processes that help team members work together smoothly. It includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine and coordinate various processes and activities under the project. Project integration management is a high level work that requires the project manager to manage interdependencies among the other knowledge areas. These knowledge areas are suggested by Project Management Institute in their PMBOK Guide.
In other works, it is the coordination of all elements of a project, like activities, processes, stakeholders, resources, etc. so that the conflict between the different elements may be reduced or eliminated.
Benefits of Project Integration Management
There are numerous benefits of the project integration management, some of which are listed below:
(1) It ensures that the project deliverables are achieved timely.
(2) It provides a plan for managing the project.
(3) Project integration management limits the changes in the project.
(4) It ensures that proper knowledge is available and used by the project team members.
(5) It identifies and collects work performance.
(6) It monitors and controls work performance.
(7) Project integration management manages communications between project stakeholders.
(8) It effectively manages phase transition.
Seven Processes of Project Integration Management
The project integration management runs through all the phases or process groups of the project. There are seven processes involved in the project integration management which are tabulated as below:
Let us know about these in detail.
Develop Project Charter
This is the first step towards starting a project. Project charter is an official document in which the project goals, timelines, budgets deliverables and processes are mentioned. It also includes the name and contact details of all the key project stakeholders. It formally authorizes project and project manager. The project charter needs to be approved by the project sponsor.
Develop project charter is the process belongs to the ‘Initiating’ process group.
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
The main elements of a project charter are as follows:
- Description of project purpose, vision and initial scope.
- Business problems to be solved.
- Measurable project objectives.
- Project boundaries and key deliverables.
- Risks.
- Critical Success Factors.
- Details of key stakeholders and their responsibilities.
- Constraints and assumptions.
- Project exit criteria.
Develop Project Management Plan
It is the next process of project integration management. This process belongs to the planning process group and it is about defining, preparing, integrating and coordinating all the subsidiary plans and integrating them into a comprehensive project management plan.
The project management plan is a detailed plan which describes, how the project will be executed, monitored, controlled and closed. It contains of all the subsidiary plans and their baseline values. The project performance is measured against these baseline values. Subsidiary plans can be separated documents, particularly in large projects.
The project management plan contains the following:
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Direct and Manage Project Work
Direct and manager project work is the process of performing the works mentioned in the project management plan. This process belongs to the executing process group. In this process, the project manager and other team members actively participate in task management, stakeholder’s meetings, communication & coordination, reporting, resource management, etc. Every effort is done to complete the project within the baselines determined at the project planning phase.
Following activities are part of this process:
- Monitoring project plan
- Overall quality management
- Risk Management
- Scope and product change management
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Manage Project Knowledge
Manage project knowledge is the process of creating new knowledge to achieve project objectives and to contribute to the organization’s knowledge base for future. This process belongs to the ‘Executing’ process group. This process ensures that every team member knows what he/she needs to know and when he/she needs to know it. The newly acquired knowledge and expertise contributes to the knowledge base of the organization and is utilized in future projects.
Project knowledge can be classified into two types:
Explicit Knowledge: It is the information that can be easily documented and communicated.
Tactic knowledge: The expertise, experience, insights, etc. of a person are categorized as tactic knowledge. It is personal and hence it is difficult to communicate.
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Monitor and Control Project Work
This process belongs to ‘Monitoring & Control’ process group. This process is about tracking, reviewing and regulating the processes to meet the project objectives. The monitoring and control of the project work is very important to ensure the project is moving in the right track. The managers regularly perform ‘earned value analysis’ to determine the budget and schedule of the project.
The following activities come under ‘Monitor & Control Project Work’:
- Evaluating work performance
- Developing variance analysis
- Earned value management
The main challenge in monitor and control process is that the project manager has to manager both cost as well as time.
A project manager has to balance between time and cost. If the time of completion will be less, the cost of project will rise and the schedule variance will decrease. If the money is saved and cost is less, then the project time will increase and cost variance will decrease.
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Perform Integrated Change Control
Perform integrated change control is the process of reviewing all change requests, approving and managing changes to the project deliverables, project documents, project management plan and communicate the decisions to all the stakeholders. This process belongs to ‘monitor and control’ process group.
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Close Project or Phase
Close project or phase is the process belongs to ‘closing’ process group. Successful closure of a project is as important as its execution. In this process, all activities of the project or phase are finalized.
The inputs, tools and outputs of this process are as follows:
Conclusion
Project integration management is the most important knowledge area as it integrates all the project activities and processes of the project and acts as a binding force for all the stakeholders, so that they may act in a cohesive manner to achieve the common project goals. This knowledge area contains processes which belongs to all the process groups. The project team, therefore must pay close attention to implement all the processes of this knowledge area to successfully complete the project.
Read more: Know about Ten Project Management Knowledge Areas and Processes Involved
