What happens if a project fails to meet its deadlines and exceeds its budget? Of course, it tarnishes the reputation of the organization as well as project managers. Managing a project is a challenging task that requires a clear strategy to successfully deliver it. Therefore, Developing a Project Management Plan is critical to completing the project on schedule and effectively delivering it. It assists in avoiding the waste of time, money, and resources. A solid Project Management Plan is the best defense of project managers against the common pitfalls that cause projects to fail.
What Is A Project Management Plan?
A Project Management Plan is a formal, authorized document that specifies how a project will be carried out, monitored, and managed. It includes baselines, subsidiary management plans, and other planning documents. This document is used to outline the method that the project team uses to deliver the intended project management scope of the project. A Project Management Plan is important since it includes a comprehensive framework of project goals, processes for achieving them, and steps for measuring and reporting the project. It also covers techniques for conveying information and the people involved in it. Furthermore, it defines the basis of all project activity and serves as a reference tool for making decisions in a project.
Inputs of Develop Project Management Plan Process
The following are inputs of Develop Project Management Plan process:
Project charter
A project charter is a formal document that specifies the project’s goals and objectives, as well as the roles and responsibilities of those participating in it. It also identifies the primary stakeholders and establishes the project manager’s authority at the start of the project plan.
Outputs from Other Planning Processes
Several key parameters (scope, cost, schedule) are combined with subsidiary plans (risk management plan, cost management plan) from other planning processes to create the project management plan.
Enterprise Environmental Factors
Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) are policies, practices, procedures, and regulations that exist both within and outside the organization and have an influence on the project.
External enterprise environmental factors are:
- Finance and market conditions
- External political conditions
- Government regulations
- Industry standards
- Legal restrictions
Internal enterprise environmental factors are:
- Infrastructure
- Internal political conditions
- Organizational structure
- Existing resources
- Organizational culture
Organization Process Assets
Organizational process assets can be anything acquired by the organization that can be used to manage the project. Some examples of Organization Process Assets are
Organizational standard processes, standardized guidelines, templates, configuration management knowledge bases, financial databases, process measurement databases, lessons learned knowledge bases, and project files from previous projects.
Tools and Techniques involved in Develop Project Management Plan Process
The following are Tools and Techniques involved in Develop Project Management Plan process:
Expert Judgement
Expert Judgement is a technique in which judgement is provided based on a specific set of criteria and/or competence gained in specific knowledge. Any group or individual with specific education, information, ability, experience, or training provides such expertise.
Data Gathering
Brainstorming: The brainstorming approach is used to gather ideas and solutions for the project management plan. It includes project team members, subject matter experts, and stakeholders.
Checklists: Most firms have standard checklists readily available based on their expertise or utilize industry checklists. It is used to ensure that all the necessary information is included in the project management plan.
Focus Groups: Gathering project stakeholders to discuss the project management strategy and the integration of the various project management plan components.
Interviews: Interviews are used to gather essential information from stakeholders to create the project management plan, component plan, or project document.
Interpersonal and team skills
Conflict Management: Conflict Management is employed to bring diverse stakeholders on board in all aspects of the project management plan.
Facilitation: The facilitation technique ensures that all individuals engaged with the project participate effectively and are on the same page.
Meeting management: Meeting management is required to ensure that the meeting is required to agree on and develop the project management plan.
Meetings
Meetings are conducted by project managers to discuss the project approach, identify how the project work will be carried out to achieve the project objectives, and create a strategy to monitor and control the project.
Outputs of Develop Project Management Plan Process
Project management plan
The output of Develop Project Management Plan Process is a project management plan. It is an integration of baselines and subsidiary management plans.
Baselines include scope baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline
The following are some of the subsidiary management plans
- Scope management plan.
- Requirements management plan.
- Quality management plan.
- Resource management plan.
- Communications management plan.
- Risk management plan.
- Schedule management plan.
- Stakeholder management plan
- Cost management plan.
Summing up
A proper Project Management Plan is the foundation of successful project delivery. It precisely specifies the scope of your project, as well as the processes and procedures involved in delivery, which assist project managers in achieving the desired results. Therefore, they should have knowledge in developing an effective Project Management Plan.
PMI has released the seventh edition of the PMBOK Guide. PMBOK initially concentrated on processes, inputs, tools, techniques, and outputs. The PMBOK 7 standard, on the other hand, concentrates on eight performance domains and twelve project management delivery principles. These assist project managers in producing valuable results. Candidates studying for the PMP Certification Exam can use both the PMBOK 6th and 7th editions. As process groups and knowledge areas in the PMBOK Guide-sixth edition is still employed in managing projects both the editions assist aspiring project professionals to ace PMP Exam.
