Project Framework(Part-1)

Project Framework(Part-1)

A process is an important part of any project. And any project framework needs a process to be defined.

First, in order to understand Project Framework, let’s first look what project means. A project is a temporary effort to achieve a desired product/service. The key to a project is that it is temporary in nature with a fixed beginning and end. Not ongoing like Operations/Maintenance.

Project management is managing such endeavors as projects to achieve the desired result. A project framework is developed to manage such projects from beginning to the end which PMI-PMBOK(Project Management Institute- Project Management Body Of Knowledge) defines five process groups and thirteen knowledge areas.

The five process groups are

  1. Initiation
  2. Planning
  3. Execution
  4. Monitoring and Controlling
  5. Closing

Every project goes through all the phases defined above. When the project gets approved, it kicks off during initiation phase and goes through many tasks before entering into planning. Likewise, Planning takes care of all kinds of planning- scope, cost, time mainly(also called as triple constraints). Unless we have a great planning process and the project manager with the help of the team, Execution phase cannot go well. Monitoring and Controlling is a separate phase, but really it overlaps with all the rest of the phases. This phase/tasks is like a cop taking care of the people. All the time making sure, no risks are turning into issues and resolving issues quickly before impacting any of the triple constraints. Closing is when we close a project once the project is successfully deployed and enters into warranty phase.

And the ten(PMBOK 5th edition) knowledge areas are

  1. Integration Management
  2. Scope Management
  3. Time Management
  4. Cost Management
  5. Quality Management
  6. Human Resource management
  7. Communications management
  8. Risk Management
  9. Procurement Management
  10. Stakeholder Management(added newly in the 5th edition)

The entire project regardless of the size of the project, goes through all of the management areas, except the difference will be with regards to Human Resource and Procurement Management areas are touched lightly if the project is not heavily needing to hire new resources or procure new services. Integration Management ties up all the other knowledge areas into a cohesive whole, so the project is being managed as a whole even though managing as broken down structure/ tasks.

Project Framework entails many other topics, on how the PMO is organized, the difference between Project, Program, Porfolio, etc. We will cover those topics under next parts.

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