Project Managementâ€™s nine Knowledge Areas

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Software Project Management (CS615)

LECTURE # 5

1. Introduction & Fundamentals

1.16

PM's nine Knowledge Areas

1. Project Integration Management

Project Integration Management includes the processes required to ensure that the

various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It involves making

tradeoffs among competing objectives and alternatives to meet or exceed stake-

holder needs.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project. Each

process generally occurs at least once in every project phase.

Project integration management comes into play when a cost estimate is needed

for a contingency plan, or when risks associated with various staffing alternatives

must be identified. However, for a project to be completed successfully,

integration must also occur in a number of other areas as well. For example:

The work of the project must be integrated with the ongoing operations of the

performing organization.

Product scope and project scope must be integrated.

One of the techniques used to both integrate the various processes and to measure

the performance of the project as it moves from initiation through to completion is

Earned Value Management (EVM).

Earned value is the amount of work completed, measured according to the

budgeted effort that the work was supposed to consume.

It is also called the budgeted cost of work performed.

As each task is completed, the number of person-months originally planned

for that task is added to the earned value of the project.

Earned value charts: An earned value chart has three curves:

The budgeted cost of the work scheduled.

The earned value.

The actual cost of the work performed so far.

2. Project Scope Management

Software Project Management (CS615)

Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the

project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the

project successfully. It is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what

is or is not included in the project.

The processes, tools, and techniques used to manage product scope vary by

application area and are usually defined as part of the project life cycle

A project generally results in a single product, but that product may include

subsidiary components, each with its own separate but interdependent product

scopes. For example, a new telephone system would generally include four

subsidiary components--hardware, software, training, and implementation.

Completion of the project scope is measured against the project plan, but

completion of the product scope is measured against the product requirements.

Both types of scope management must be well integrated to ensure that the work

of the project will result in delivery of the specified product.

3. Project Time Management

Project Time Management includes the processes required to ensure timely

completion of the project. The followings are major processes in developing the

project time schedule:

(a) Activity Definition--identifying the specific activities that must be

performed to produce the various project deliverables.

(b) Activity Sequencing--identifying and documenting interactivity

dependencies.

will be needed to complete individual activities.

(d) Schedule Development--analyzing activity sequences, activity durations,

and resource requirements to create the project schedule.

(e) Schedule Control--controlling changes to the project schedule.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project. Each

process generally occurs at least once in every project phase.

4. Project Cost Management

Software Project Management (CS615)

Project Cost Management includes the processes required to ensure that the

project is completed within the approved budget.

Resource Planning--determining what resources (people, equipment, materials)

and what quantities of each should be used to perform project activities.

Cost Estimating--developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs of the

resources needed to complete project activities.

Cost Budgeting--allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work

activities.

Cost Control--controlling changes to the project budget.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project. Each

process generally occurs at least once in every project phase.

5. Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management includes the processes required to ensure that the

project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It includes "all

activities of the overall management function that determine the quality policy,

objectives, and responsibilities and implements them by means such as quality

planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement, within the

quality system.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project. Each

process generally occurs at least once in every project phase.

Project quality management must address both the management of the project and

the product of the project. The generic term product is occasionally used, in

literature regarding quality, to refer to both goods and services.

6. Project Human Resource Management

Project Human Resource Management includes the processes required to make

the most effective use of the people involved with the project. It includes all the

project stakeholders--sponsors, customers, partners, and individual contributors

Following are some major processes:

Software Project Management (CS615)

Organizational Planning--identifying, documenting, and assigning project

roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.

Staff Acquisition--getting the human resources needed assigned to and

working on the project.

Team Development--developing individual and group competencies to

enhance project performance.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project.

There is a substantial body of literature about dealing with people in an

operational, ongoing context. Some of the many topics include:

Leading, communicating, negotiating, etc.

Key General Management Skills:

Delegating, motivating, coaching, mentoring, and other subjects related to

dealing with individuals.

Team building, dealing with conflict, and other subjects related to dealing

with groups.

Performance appraisal, recruitment, retention, labor relations, health and

safety regulations, and other subjects related to administering the human

resource function.

Most of this material is directly applicable to leading and managing people on

projects, and the project manager and project management team should be

familiar with it. However, they must also be sensitive as to how this knowledge is

applied on the project. For example:

Project Human Resource Management includes the processes required to make

the most effective use of the people involved with the project. It includes all the

project stakeholders--sponsors, customers, partners, and individual contributors.

Major processes include:

Organizational Planning--identifying, documenting, and assigning project

roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.

Staff Acquisition--getting the human resources needed assigned to and

working on the project.

Team Development--developing individual and group competencies to

enhance project performance.

Software Project Management (CS615)

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project.

7. Project Communications Management

Project Communications Management includes the processes required to ensure

timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and ultimate

disposition of project information. It provides the critical links among people,

ideas, and information that are necessary for success. Everyone involved in the

project must be prepared to send and receive communications, and must

understand how the communications in which they are involved as individuals

affect the project as a whole.

Major processes include:

Communications

Planning--determining

the

information

and

communications needs of the stakeholders: who needs what information,

when they will need it, and how it will be given to them.

Information Distribution--making needed information available to project

stakeholders in a timely manner.

Performance Reporting--collecting and disseminating performance

information. This includes status reporting, progress measurement, and

forecasting.

Administrative Closure--generating, gathering, and disseminating

information to formalize a phase or project completion.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project. Each

process generally occurs at least once in every project phase.

Communicating is a broader subject and involves a substantial body of knowledge

that is not unique to the project context. For example:

Sender-receiver models--feedback loops, barriers to communications, etc.

Choice of media--when to communicate in writing versus when to

communicate orally, when to write an informal memo versus when to write a

formal report, etc.

Writing style--active versus passive voice, sentence structure, word choice,

etc.

Presentation techniques--body language, design of visual aids, etc.

Meeting management techniques--preparing an agenda, dealing with

conflict, etc.

Software Project Management (CS615)

8. Project Risk management

Project Risk management is the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and

responding to project risk. It includes maximizing the probability and

consequences of positive events and minimizing the probability and consequences

of adverse events to project objectives.

Risk Management Planning--deciding how to approach and plan the risk

management activities for a project.

Risk Identification--determining which risks might affect the project and

documenting their characteristics.

Qualitative Risk Analysis--performing a qualitative analysis of risks and

conditions to prioritize their effects on project objectives.

Quantitative Risk Analysis--measuring the probability and consequences of

risks and estimating their implications for project objectives.

Risk Response Planning--developing procedures and techniques to enhance

opportunities and reduce threats to the project's objectives.

Risk Monitoring and Control--monitoring residual risks, identifying new

risks, executing risk reduction plans, and evaluating their effectiveness

throughout the project life cycle.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas. Each process generally occurs at least once in every project.

9. Project Procurement Management

Project Procurement Management includes the processes required to acquire

goods and services, to attain project scope, from outside the performing

organization. For simplicity, goods and services, whether one or many, will

generally be referred to as a product.

An overview of the major processes includes:

Procurement Planning--determining what to procure and when.

Solicitation Planning--documenting product requirements and identifying

potential sources.

Solicitation--obtaining quotations, bids, offers, or proposals, as appropriate.

Source Selection--choosing from among potential sellers.

Contract Administration--managing the relationship with the seller.

Contract Closeout--completion and settlement of the contract, including

resolution of any open items.

These processes interact with each other and with the processes in the other

knowledge areas as well. Each process may involve effort from one or more

individuals or groups of individuals, based on the needs of the project

Software Project Management (CS615)

Project Procurement Management is discussed from the perspective of the buyer

in the buyer-seller relationship. The buyer-seller relationship can exist at many

levels on one project. Depending on the application area, the seller may be called

a subcontractor, a vendor, or a supplier.

The seller will typically manage its work as a project. In such cases:

The buyer becomes the customer, and is thus a key stakeholder for the seller.

The seller's project management team must be concerned with all the

processes of project management, not just with those of this knowledge area.

The terms and conditions of the contract become a key input to many of the

seller's processes. The contract may actually contain the input (e.g., major

deliverables, key milestones, cost objectives), or it may limit the project

team's options (e.g., buyer approval of staffing decisions is often required on

design projects).

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