Structure of the PMBOK® Guide Model

Figure 3.2 shows a high-level view of the five major life cycle process groups defined by the PMBOK® Guide. The high-level groupings are as follows:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and controlling
• Closing

The flow arrows in Figure 3.2 imply that the five major phases are executed somewhat serially; however, the actual workflow is more iterative and complex than represented by this high-level diagram. In operation the planning cycle is iterative until a final agreed upon version is approved. During execution the theme is “work the plan,” however the plan is also iterating through a change control process managed inside the Monitoring and Control (M&C) process. Also, the M&C process is designed to surround the four core work activity groups as a formal control shell. In this role it is designed to ensure that the project goals are being met through each of the stages. Embedded within these higher-level groups are 49 defined processes that represent fundamental management elements required to execute the project.

The role of each process (stage) group is summarized as follows:

• Initiating: Outlines the activities required to develop the initial view and authorize the project or a project phase.
• Planning: Attempts to outline the activities required to produce a formal project plan contain­ing objectives, scope, budget, schedule, and other relevant information useful in guiding the ongoing effort.
• Executing: Uses the project work plan as a guiding reference to integrate human and other resources in carrying out project objectives.
• Monitoring and controlling: This process group of activities measures and monitors progress to identify plan variances and take appropriate corrective action.
• Closing: Includes a group of activities required to formally shut down the project and document acceptance of the result.

The life cycle process described in the PMBOK® Guide requires that the proposed project be formally evaluated on its business merits, approved by management, formally initiated, and then undergo a detailed planning cycle prior to commencing execution. Within each life cycle step there is a coordinated management process designed to ensure that the project produces the

planned results. Once the appropriate stakeholders and management have approved the project plan, the subsequent execution phase would focus on doing what the plan defines (nothing more and nothing less). Overseeing the execution phase and all other phases is an active monitoring and control process designed to periodically review actual status and take appropriate action to correct identified deviations. After all the defined project requirements are produced, the closing process finalizes all remaining project documentation and captures relevant lessons learned that are used to improve future efforts. When examined from this high-level perspective, the project model is a deceptively simple structure, but be aware that this simple view hides significant real-world chal­lenges in executing the defined processes.

Scattered through the five process groups are 10 knowledge areas (KAs) and 49 associated defined management processes. The 10 KAs are summarized below with a brief description for each (PMI, 2017, pp. 22-23):

1. Scope—includes the activities necessary to produce a description of the work required to complete the project successfully.
2. Schedule—includes the processes related to manage timely completion of the project.
3. Cost—includes the processes related to plan, estimate, budget, fund, manage, and control costs.
4. Quality—includes the processes required to assure that the project will satisfy the opera­tional objectives for which it was formed and within the organization’s policy goals. This includes processes for quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
5. Resources—include the processes to identify, acquire, and manage resources needed for the project.
6. Communications—includes the processes related to ensure timely and appropriate timely information distribution and management related to the project.
7. Risk—includes the processes related to identifying and managing various risk aspects of the project.
8. Procurement—includes the processes required to purchase products and services for external sources.
9. Stakeholders—includes the processes required to identify and manage the individuals, groups, or organizations that can impact the project.
10. Integration—includes the processes and activities needed to integrate all of the other nine KAs into a cohesive and unified plan that is supported by the project stakeholders.

Embedded in each of the KAs lower-level process descriptions are the related inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs that drive each process. From this overall set of process specifications, the PMBOK provides a good high-level definitional roadmap for project management. However, this is not designed to be a cook book prescription to carry the project manager (PM) through all the somewhat abstractly defined steps. Rather it is a general knowledge model structure to provide guidance from which a specific project model can be constructed to fit unique project require­ments. Experience and training are required to turn this standard model view into a specific operational project management tool and process.

1. Initiation

This process group is involved with the activities required to define and authorize the project or a phase. One of the most important aspects of the Initiation process is the evaluation of the vision from a goal alignment perspective. In other words, how does the vision support organizational goals? The decision to approve a project must also consider it in competition with other such proposals based on factors such as resource constraints, risks, technical capabilities, and so on. After consideration of these factors by management, formal approval to move the project into a more detailed and formal planning phase is signaled by the issuance of a formal Charter. This step outlines the basic approval of the project and the constraints under which it is to be governed. The model defines that a PM is formally named at this point to move the effort forward. Project Charters represent the formal authorization step and it formally signifies that management is behind the project.

2. Planning

This process group relates to the activities required to produce a formal project plan containing speci­fied deliverable objectives, budget, schedule, and other relevant information to guide the subsequent ongoing effort. The principal goal of the Planning phase is to produce an accurate, measurable, and workable project plan that has considered the impact of all KAs. This particular phase consumes the second highest amount of resources in the life cycle and its goal is to lay out a path for execution that can be reasonably achieved. The key output from this phase is a formal project plan outlining not only the scope, schedule, and budget for the project but also how the project will deal with Integrating the other areas of Quality, Human Resources, Communications, Risks, and Procurement.

A great deal of formal documentation is produced in the various planning activities. First, each of the nine operational KAs would be defined in a related management plan outlining how that aspect of the project was to be managed. The most well-known examples of this would be the scope, cost, and schedule management plans; however, there would be similar plans for all of the KAs. Through an iterative process, each of the KA plans would be meshed (integrated) with the others until they are compatible with each other (i.e., HR, cost, schedule, risk, procurement, quality, etc.). The formal term for this is an Integrated Project Plan and the resulting planning documentation includes all the respective KA views for the project. This integrated plan would then be presented to management for approval. If approved, it establishes a baseline plan used to compare project status going forward. As changes in any of the KA elements occur the related artifacts would be updated so that the project plan remains a living document throughout the life cycle. This is an important concept—a static plan is considered wall covering.

3. Execution

This process group uses the project plan as a guiding reference to integrate all work activities into production of the project objectives. The actual project deliverables are produced in the execution phase. During this cycle, the PM has responsibilities including coordination of resources, team management, quality assurance, and project plan oversight. The initially approved project plan seldom, if ever, goes exactly according to the original vision. For this reason, it will be necessary to deal with unplanned variances, along with new work created by change requests that are approved by the project board. Another important activity is to communicate actual project results called work performance data. The ultimate execution goal is to deliver the desired result within the planned time and budget.

Formal management documents produced during this activity group relate heavily to per­formance data related to quality assurance, human resources, procurement, schedule and cost tracking. The project management mantra for execution is to “work the plan” and influence results. This means to use management skill to influence a successful completion to the effort as defined by the plan. Formal management documents produced during this activity group relate heavily to status information regarding quality assurance, human resources, procurement, schedule and cost tracking, and formal information distribution to stakeholders.

4. Monitoring and Controlling

As suggested by the title of this activity, there is a strong orientation toward control based on proj­ect performance results compared to the approved baseline plan values. From these measurement activities, corrective actions are defined. In addition to this, there are formal activities related to scope verification from the customer viewpoint and operation of an integrated change control process designed to ensure that changes to the plan are handled.

Monitoring and Control transcends the full project life cycle and has the goal of proactively guiding the project toward successful completion. As unplanned changes occur to schedule, scope, quality, or cost, the M&C processes work to determine how to react to the observed variance and move the effort back toward the approved targets. Much of this activity is driven by performance reporting, issues (deliverable variances or process issues), and the formal change management process. In addition, one of the most critical aspects of this phase is the risk monitoring process that involves monitoring various aspects of project risks including technical, quality, performance, management, organizational, and external events.

5. Closing

Formal project closing involves a group of activities required to formally shut down the project and document acceptance of the result. Also, this step completes the capture of lessons learned for use in future initiatives. It is widely noted that the closing phase gets the least attention; however, the guide model requires that all projects formally close out the activity, including both administrative and third-party relationship elements. The basic role of this phase is to leave the project adminis­tratively “clean” and to capture important lessons learned from the effort that can be shared with other projects. In regard to third-party agreements, it is necessary to view formal contractual clos­ing as vital. Failure to execute final vendor status for the project can open-up future liability for the organization if a supplier later makes claims for nonperformance. If this occurs at some later time, the project organization would then have to scramble to rebuild the status with old records (often poorly organized) and missing team members. Similarly, documentation of lessons learned during the project has been found to provide valuable insights for future projects.

Finally, a close-out meeting or team social event is important in order for the team to review the experience and hopefully see the positives in their experiences. Too often, a project team just walks away from the effort without receiving any feedback. This can leave the individual feeling that the effort was a waste of time and this negative attitude can carry over to the next project assignment.

Source: Gary Richardson L, Jackson Brad M. (2018), Project Management: Theory and Practice, Auerbach Publications; 3rd edition.