Develop project management plan and its importance (PMP)

Develop Project Management Plan and its importance in Project Management: In this module, you will get deep knowledge about develop project management plan and its importance, Develop project management plan process including Inputs, tools & techniques and Outputs based on latest edition of  PMBOK (Project Management body of knowledge) Guide and many more.


Develop Project Management Plan and its importance in Project Management


Introduction to Develop Project Management Plan

Develop Project Management Plan is the second planning process of Project Integration Management knowledge area which helps to define, prepare and coordinate all components of plan and consolidate them into integrated Project management plan.

Process Group
Knowledge Area
Planning
Project Integration Management

What is Develop Project Management Plan?

Develop project management plan and its importance (PMP)

The project management plan defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and closed. The Project Management Plan is a document formally approved and which is used to manage project execution. 

The project management plan may be either summary level or detailed. Each component plan is described to the extent required by the specific project. The project management plan should be robust enough to respond to an ever changing project environment.

The project management plan should be baselined; that is, it is necessary to define at least the project references for scope, time, and cost, so that the project execution can be measured and compared to those references and performance can be managed. Before the baselines are defined, the project management plan may be updated as many times as necessary. No formal process is required at that time. But, once it is baselined, it may only be changed through the Perform Integrated Change Control process. Consequently, change requests will be generated and decided upon whenever a change is requested.


What are the benefits of Develop Project Management Plan process?

 Project planning is an iterative and ongoing process throughout the project. If the actual results are seen, project plans are revised accordingly. Develop project management plan process is an important component of project management. 

The main criteria of such a document are to provide a comprehensive framework of what has to be achieved through the execution of the project, procedures to solve it, steps to measure and report the project and also as to how the information will be involved in it.

The purpose of a project management plan is to determine the project outcome, how a successful outcome will be achieved, who will be involved in the project, and how the project will be measured and communicated. 

Inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of the process Develop Project Management Plan

Develop project management plan and its importance (PMP)

What are the inputs of the process Develop Project Management Plan?

Develop Project Management Plan: Inputs

     1.     Project Charter

The project charter can be used by project team as a starting point for initial project planning. Project charter provides high level project description, project purpose, project objectives, success criteria, summary milestone schedule, resource preassigned, summary budget, list of key stakeholders and overall project risks. 

The type and amount of information in the project charter varies depending on the complexity of the project and the information known at the time of its creation. All these are key inputs to developing the component plans - Scope Management Plan, Schedule Management Plan, Cost Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, etc. - of the Project Management Plan.

     2.   Outputs from other processes

Subsidiary management plans (such as Scope Management Plan, Schedule Management Plan, Cost Management Plan, Resource Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, etc.) and baselines (such as scope baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline) from other planning processes are "integrated" to create the Project Management Plan. Changes to these documents may necessitate updates to the project management plan.

      3.   Enterprise environmental factors

The enterprise environmental factors that can influence the Develop Project Management plan process includes:
  • Governmental and environmental standards
  • Industry standards
  • Legal and regulatory requirements
  • Marketplace conditions
  • Organizational culture, structure and sustainability
  • Organizational facilities
  • Organizational governance framework
  • Infrastructure


      4.   Organizational process assets

The organizational process assets that can influence the Develop Project Management plan process includes:
  • Organizational standards, policies, procedures and processes
  • Change control procedures
  • Monitoring and reporting methods
  • Templates for project plan
  • Historical information and lessons learned repository

What are the tools and techniques used for Develop Project Management Plan?

Develop Project Management Plan: Tools & Techniques

1. Expert judgment

Expert judgment is used to assess inputs for developing project management plan. Such expertise comes from any group or individual with the appropriate technical knowledge and experience. 

Expertise is needed for tailoring project management processes to meet specific needs of the project. Also, experts help to determine additional components of the project management plan, resource requirements, tools and techniques, technical and management details, level of configuration management, change control appropriate for the project and to prioritize work on the project.

2. Data gathering

  • Brainstorming: When developing the project management plan, brainstorming is frequently used to gather ideas and solutions about the approach of the project. Attendees include the project team members although other subject matter experts (SMEs) or stakeholders may also participate.
  • Checklists: Checklists can be used to ensure that all required information is included in the project management plan. Many organizations have standardized checklists available based on their own experience or use checklists from the industry.
  • Focus groups: Focus groups bring together stakeholders to discuss the project management approach and the integration of the different components of the project management plan.
  • Interviews: Interviews are used to obtain specific information from stakeholders to develop the project management plan or any component plan or project document.


3. Interpersonal and team skills

  • Facilitation: Ability to effectively guide a group event to a successful decision, solution, or conclusion is also known as facilitation. Facilitation ensures effective participation, consideration of all ideas, mutual understanding among participants (Project manager, team members and stakeholders), buy-in from all participants, and follow-up on actions and agreements achieved.
  • Conflict management: Conflict management technique is used to bring diverse stakeholders into collective agreement based on all aspects of the project management plan.
  • Meeting management: Meeting management ensures that the project is progressing according to the project management plan and numerous meetings that are necessary to develop, unify, and agree on the project management plan are well run.

4. Meetings

Meetings are held with key stakeholders and are mostly used to identify objectives of the project, success criteria, key deliverables, high-level requirements, summary milestones, and other summary information. Project managers conduct a project kick-off meeting at the end of the planning and the start of the project execution. 

For small projects, there is usually only one team that performs the planning and the execution whereas, for large projects, a project management team normally does the majority of the planning, and the remainder of the project team is brought on when the initial planning is complete, at the start of the development or implementation. Multiphase projects will typically include a kick-off meeting at the beginning of each phase.


What are the outputs of Develop Project Management Plan?

Develop Project Management Plan: Outputs

1. Project management plan

The project management plan is the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored and controlled, and closed. It integrates and consolidates all of the subsidiary management plans and baselines, and other information necessary to manage the project. The needs of the project determine which components of the project management plan are needed.

Project management plan components includes the following:

Subsidiary management plans:
·        Scope management plan: Establishes how the scope will be defined, developed, monitored, controlled, and validated.
·        Requirements management plan: Establishes how the requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed.
·        Schedule management plan: Establishes the criteria and the activities for developing, monitoring, and controlling the schedule.
·        Cost management plan: Establishes how the costs will be planned, structured, and controlled.
·        Quality management plan: Establishes how an organization´s quality policies, methodologies, and standards will be implemented in the project.
·        Resource management plan: Provides guidance on how project resources should be categorized, allocated, managed, and released.
·        Communications management plan: Establishes how, when, and by whom information about the project will be administered and disseminated.
·        Risk management plan: Establishes how the risk management activities will be structured and performed.
·        Procurement management plan: Establishes how the project team will acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organization.
·        Stakeholder engagement plan: Establishes how stakeholders will be engaged in project decisions and execution, according to their needs, interests, and impact.

Baselines:
·        Scope baseline: The approved version of a scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), and its associated WBS dictionary, which is used as a basis for comparison.
·        Schedule baseline: The approved version of the schedule model that is used as a basis for comparison to the actual results.
·        Cost baseline: The approved version of the time-phased project budget that is used as a basis for comparison to the actual results.

Additional components:
·        Change management plan: Describes how the change requests throughout the project will be formally authorized and incorporated.
·        Configuration management plan: Describes how the information about the items of the project (and which items) will be recorded and updated so that the product, service, or result of the project remains consistent and/or operative.
·        Performance measurement baseline: An integrated scope-schedule-cost plan for the project work against which project execution is compared to measure and manage performance.
·        Project life cycle: Describes the series of phases that a project passes through from its initiation to its closure.
·        Development approach: Describes the product, service, or result development approach, such as predictive, iterative, agile, or a hybrid model.
·        Management reviews: Identifies the points in the project when the project manager and relevant stakeholders will review the project progress to determine if performance is as expected, or if preventive or corrective actions are necessary.


Conclusion

Most hopefully, you would like this information, and this will be more beneficial for you. The information provided above about develop project management plan and its importance is an extremely important for any project.

Execution part cannot be started without developing a set of subsidiary plans and an integrated project management plan.

For free questions & answers on Project Integration Management knowledge area https://www.passpmpexamprep.com/practice-questions-on-integration-management

Next article will be on "Direct and Manage Project Work".

Share your views/questions about this script in the comment box below which would be highly appreciated and of course, you can also contact me on my email id: sdeepak222@gmail.com.
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