Chapter 3:

The Project Management Process Groups

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition Note: See the text itself for full citations

2 Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
•Describe the five project management process groups, the typical

level of activity for each, and the interactions among them

•Relate the project management process groups to the project management knowledge areas

•Discuss how organizations develop information technology (IT) project management methodologies to
meet their needs

•Review a case study of an organization applying the project management process groups to manage an
IT project, describe outputs of each process group, and understand the contribution that effective
initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing make to project success

3 Introduction
•Project management consists of 10 knowledge areas

•Integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholder
management

•Projects involve five project management process groups •Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and
controlling, and

closing
•Tailoring these process groups to meet individual project needs

increases the chance of success in managing projects

4 Project Management Process Groups (1 of 2)

•A process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result

•Project management can be viewed as a number of related processes

•Project management process groups •Initiating processes

•Planning processes
•Executing processes

•Monitoring and controlling processes •Closing processes

5 Project Management Process Groups (2 of 2) 6

1
5 Project Management Process Groups (2 of 2)
6 Mapping the Process Groups to the Knowledge Areas

•You can map the main activities of each PM process group into the ten knowledge areas using the
PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition

•Note that there are activities from each knowledge area under the planning process groups

•Table 3-1 provides a big-picture view of the relationships among the 49 project management activities,
the process groups in which they are typically completed, and the knowledge areas into which they fit

9 Developing an IT Project Management Methodology •Many organizations develop their own

internal IT project

management methodologies
•A methodology describes how things should be done •A standard describes what should be done

•Different project management methodologies •PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) •Agile

•Rational Unified Process (RUP)

•Six Sigma

10 What Went Right?

•Organizations that excel in project management complete 89

percent of their projects successfully compared to only 36 percent of

organizations that do not have good project management processes •PMI estimates that poor project
performance costs over $109 million

for every $1 billion invested in projects and programs •

•
11 Case Study: JWD Consulting’s Project Management Intranet

Site (Predictive Approach)

•This case study provides an example of what’s involved in initiating, planning, executing, controlling,
and closing an IT project

•You can download templates for creating your own project management documents from the companion
website for this text or the author’s site

•Note: this case study provides a big picture view of managing a project
12 13

•Later chapters provide detailed information on each knowledge

project
•Later chapters provide detailed information on each knowledge

area 12

13 Project Pre-Initiation and Initiation

•Initiating includes recognizing and starting a new project

•Right kinds of projects for the right reasons

•Strategic planning should serve as the foundation for deciding which

projects to pursue
•Expresses the vision, mission, goals, objectives, and strategies of

the organization
•Provides the basis for IT project planning

14 Pre-initiation Tasks

•It is good practice to lay the groundwork for a project before it officially starts

•Senior managers often perform several pre-initiation tasks •Determine the scope, time, and cost
constraints for the project •Identify the project sponsor
•Select the project manager

•Develop a business case for a project

•Meet with the project manager to review the process and expectations for managing the project

•Determine if the project should be divided into two or more smaller projects

••

15 Initiating (1 of 5)

16 Initiating (2 of 5)

17 Initiating (3 of 5)

18 Initiating (4 of 5)
•Drafting the project charter

•See Table 3-6 for an example •Holding a project kick-off meeting

•It’s good practice to hold a kick-off meeting at the beginning of a project so that stakeholders can meet
each other, review the goals of the project, and discuss future plans

• 19

20 21

19

20 Initiating (5 of 5)

21 Project Planning (1 of 3)
•The main purpose of project planning is to guide execution

•Every knowledge area includes planning information (see Table 3- 7)

•Key outputs included in the JWD project

•Team contract
•Project scope statement
•Work breakdown structure (WBS)
•Project schedule, in the form of a Gantt chart with all

dependencies and resources entered

•List of prioritized risks (part of a risk register)

•See sample documents

22 Project Planning (2 of 3)

23 Project Planning (3 of 3)

24 Project Execution
•Usually takes the most resources to perform

•Project managers must use their leadership skills to handle the many challenges that occur during project
execution

•Table 3-11 lists the knowledge areas, executing processes, and outputs of project execution

•Many project sponsors and customers focus on deliverables related to providing the products, services,
or results desired from the project

•It is equally important to document change requests and update planning documents

•A milestone report can help focus on completing major milestones

25 Project Monitoring and Controlling

•Involves measuring progress toward project objectives, monitoring
deviation from the plan, and taking correction actions
•Affects all other process groups and occurs during all phases of

the project life cycle

•Outputs include performance reports, change requests, and

updates to various plans •See Table 3-13

26 Project Closing

•Involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final products and services

27

26
•Involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final

products and services

•Even if projects are not completed, they should be closed out to learn from the past

•Outputs may include project files and lessons-learned reports •Also may include a final report and
presentation

27 Templates by Process Group

•Table 3-20 lists several templates used to prepare the documents

shown in this chapter and later chapters

•Download these and additional templates in one compressed file

from the Companion website for this text or from the author’s website.

28 Chapter Summary
•The five project management process groups are initiating,

planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing

•You can map the main activities of each process group to the ten

knowledge areas
•Some organizations develop their own information technology

project management methodologies

•The JWD Consulting case study provides an example of using the

process groups and shows several important project documents

•The second version of the same case study illustrates how to use Scrum, the leading agile method, to
manage the project