Project Integration Management
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge the various chronological that the project undergoes is known as the process group and besides this the knowledge area occurs throughout the entire process groups. This process groups are generally horizontal in nature whereas the knowledge areas are vertical in nature (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). The major reason for considering all this as the core technical subject matter is because of the reason that they are associated with bringing the projects to life. The report would be associated with discussing about the implementation of a new software for the super market in order to manage the various business activities. Below are the 10 Project Management Knowledge area that are to be used so as to implement the new project:
In this knowledge area the tasks of the projects are included which are associated with holding the entire project together (Todorovi? et al., 2015). All this tasks are integrated so as to form a unified one. The major activities of this knowledge area includes the following:
- Development of the project charter: This is one of the processes that is included in the Initiation phase. The development of the project charter helps in the initiation of the project along with helping in authorizing the project manager (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The project charter for the new software would be deloped.
- Development of project management plan: This type of plans are generally considered to be the primary guiding document that is used by the project managers. This also acts as a supporting document for the end results of the planning phase. This is used for the purpose of ensuring the fact that the project has a successful outcome. The project plan is generally distributed amongst the stakeholders and the project sponsors, so as to get it approved by them.
- Directing and managing the project work: This process is generally associated with encompassing the productions that the project deliverables are having (Hornstein, 2015). This is to be done by the project manager who would be making sure that the project is going on in accordance to the plan.
- Management of the project knowledge: It is observed that most of projects requires the acquisition of some extra knowledge along with the knowledge provided. So there is a need of active management which would help in ensuring the fact that the project is completed successfully within the assigned budget and time.
- Monitoring and controlling of the project work: in this step the necessary works are done that are needed for monitoring the activities of the project along with performing an earned value analysis which is followed by providing of the project status reports and identification of the various potential changes occurring in a project (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017).
- Performing of the integrated change control: The change control process is carried out in this step. In this step all the changes are managed irrespective of the type of change that is taking place.
- Project closure :This is the step that includes the necessary tasks required for the purpose of closing of the project or the project phases.
In this knowledge area the scope of the project is included which generally refers to the work that is done so as to complete the project. Due to the reason that the scope changes when a project is being implemented, acts as one of the major reason for the changes taking place in the project. So it is very essential that the boundaries of the project are defined at the time of outset of the project and along with this the boundaries are also to be monitored. For completing the works the minimum scope is to be included. Some of eth major steps in this knowledge area includes the following:
- Plan Scope management: This is a part of the project management plan. This cannot be considered as a standalone document but is considered to be a section of the management plan (Todorovi? et al., 2015). The major objectives are to be determined that is developing the new software.
- Collection of the requirements: Assembling and itemization of the detailed requirements is done. All th requirements of the software are to be collected.
- Defining the scope: In this step the scope of the statement is to be provided in a comprehensive way so as to reduce the risks related to the project.
- Creating of the WBS: This is the graphical or the table format breakdown of the various works associated with the project (Crawford, 2014). WBS would be created so as to assign proper time for each of the task.
- Validation of the scope: The deliverables of the project are to be validated which means it is to be approved by the recipient. This is done in the monitoring and the controlling process and this includes the formal acceptance of the deliverables once they are submitted.
- Controlling of the scope: In this step the scope statement is to be revisited so as to put light upon the work of the project which have been completed and also on the current state of the project.
The most time consuming section is this the Project schedule management. At the time of making plans it is the responsibility of the project managers to divide the tasks and schedule the tasks as well. Earned value management is associated with the determination of the status of the project at regular intervals. This is mainly due to the reason that the changes in the project also includes the changes in the schedule, which is to be restructured and the entire plan needs to be updated.
- Plan Schedule Management. This mainly consists of the information like the process of creating the schedule and how aggressive it is going to be and under what conditions is it going to change (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
- Define Activities. In this step categorization of the tasks takes place and in accordance to the PMBOK this process is entirely different from the process of creating the WBS within the Scope Management knowledge area. In this step a list of task is provided which defines the entire project.
- Sequence Activities. In this step all the tasks are “sequenced”. Which means they are organized according to their order and the relationships that exists between the tasks.
- Estimate Activity Durations. By making use of the resource list, the time that is needed for individual task is estimated.
- Develop Schedule. In this step the network diagram is produced at first that helps in understanding the critical path every task. After this the graphical bar chart schedule is formed which consists of the activities that were plotted in the early stages. In the final step the usage of the resources are plotted along with which the movement of the tasks also takes place so as to make flatten usage of the resources (Hornstein, 2015).
- Control Schedule. In this step the analysis of the Earned value is done at regular intervals so as to determine if the project is ahead or behind schedule
The budget of the project generally acts as a sensitive part of the project. It is always suggested to have a comfortable budget which also requires a lot of cushion. Rigorous estimating techniques are to be used so as to establish the budget. Besides this monitoring should also be done so as to ensure that there is no unnecessary changes.
- Plan Cost Management. It is essential to establish the Cost Management Plan which might include the methodologies, which would be used for establishing the project budget the criteria for changes, and procedures of controlling (Heldman, 2018). The cost required for each of the phase is to be determined in this step so as to have an appropriate amount assigned for the project.
- Estimate Costs. This step includes the estimation of the cost required for completing individual tasks by considering the various aspects like labour, resources needed and many more. All this are to be planned properly so as to make sure that there is no occurrence of budget overrun.
- Determine Budget. In this step rolling up all the budgets related to the tasks are done in order to form the final project budget.
- Control Costs.Conducting of the Earned value analysis is done at regular intervals of the project so as to determine the status of the project.
Quality of the project is considered to be one of the triple constrains of a project. Whenever a good quality project is needed it is essential to investment more time and cost. Due to this integral nature of the quality, it is essential to establish a quality level during the planning stage. This is to be specified in project management plan as well. After which the plan would be associated with dealing with the issues associated with the specification of the project (Papke-Shields & Boyer-Wright, 2017).
- Plan Quality Management. The Quality Management Plan Is considered to be a part of the project management plan. This is also considered to be a stand-alone document which consists of the specifications related to the quality of the product or the service.
- Manage Quality. This process is associated with ensuring the quality that the deliverables are having and this are to be inspected on a regular basis so as to ensure they are working as desired (Schwalbe, 2015).
- Control Quality. Inspection of the deliverables are done so as to make sure that the quality standards are confirmed.
Project Scope Management
The team associated with the project is one of the important factor responsible for the success of the project. When a good team is working in project then the chances of success increases a lot. This knowledge area is responsible for choosing the right team along with ensuring the satisfaction that they are having.
- Plan Resource Management. Human Resource Management Plan is associated with the identification of the roles or the positions that are generally required for completing the project. Besides this the identification of the minimum amount of requirements for this kind of roles is also done. The resources needed for the software is to be listed down.
- Estimate Activity Resources. This is done so as to make sure that the necessary resources are available, along with making sure that proper quantity of the resources are also estimated (Grover & Froese, 2016).
- Acquire Resources. This step mainly includes acquiring of the estimated resources.
- Develop Team. It is often seen that the project team requires training so as to develop the competencies that are necessary for completing the project, however it is also essential to develop a team environment and interaction between team members
- Manage Team. Management of the project team would help in ensuring the maximized production along with making sure that the team members are satistied.
- Control Resources. In this step the monitoring of the resources are done along with the evaluation of the performance so as to have maximized production (Niazi et al., 2016).
Another key factor of success is Communication with stakeholders, this communication helps in allowing the stakeholders to get satisfied even when unexpected changes occurs in the project. So it is important to have a communication plan developed which would be helping in keeping the stakeholders “in the loop”. Besides this it is also to be made sure that early communication is done whenever unexpected issues occur.
- Plan Communications Management. This plan helps in the identification of the requirements related to the communication of each stakeholder involves which includes the investor circulars, progress updates, and many more. This plan also helps in the identification of the specific communication processes that are needed for informing about the unexpected issues or project changes (Javed & Liu, 2017).
- Manage Communications. Communication are managed actively by placing the communication plan during the execution of the project. The communication is to be maintained in order to eliminate any kind of risk occurring due to lack of proper communication.
- Monitor Communications. In this step the status points of the project communications are to be reviewed and revised so as to initiate the communications plan (Behera, Mohanty, & Prakash, 2018).
Management of the project risks acts as one of the underrated section of project management. It is seen that most of the major risk are identified seldom and analysed within the project management plan.
- Plan Risk Management. The Risk Management Plan is associated with identifying the ways by which the risks would get itemized, categorized, and prioritized.
- Identify Risks. In this step the major risks associated with the project are determined and are to be placed in the risk register. In most of the cases the number of risk which are of significant precedence over all other risk is one or two so this risks are often treated with special attention. The possible risks that are to be faced after implementation of software is to be determined.
- Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis.After identification of the major risks they are categorized in accordance to their likelihood of occurrence, and their impact. After this the risks are ranked according to their priority (Ramazani & Jergeas, 2015).
- Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis. After ranking the risks according to their priority they are analysed numerically in accordance to their impact on the different aspects of the project.
- Plan Risk Responses. Drafting of the response plan is to be done for the risks which are of high priority so as to make sure that everyone associated with the project are aware of ways needed to respond to the risk if they occur (Too & Weaver, 2014).
- Implement Risk Responses. Implementation of the risk responses is done so as to mitigate the risks.
- Monitor Risks. Inspection of the risk register is doe at regular intervals and the risks which are mitigated are eliminated from the risk register.
There always exists some kind of outside procurement for all projects. Subcontractors can be hired so as to make the process more quickly or by having an expert. However this would lead to loss of control upon the quality, schedule, or other factors. This might also make the process of completing the project much more time consuming leading to schedule overrun along with budget overrun.
- Plan Procurement Management. Procurement Management Plan helps in the identification of the outside procurement that are needed by the project along with the identification of the parameters which would be procured by the hired contractors.
- Conduct Procurements. Hiring of the contractors would be involving the production of work statement along with the terms of reference, request for proposals.
- Control Procurements. It is essential to manage the contractors while the project is being executed along with being monitored so as to provide early warning in case of any kind of changes.
Stakeholders are considered to be the most important aspect of any project and it si possible to state that the successes of the project is achieved only if the stakeholders are satisfied with the deliverables of the project. It is essential to manage the stakeholders actively and they should also be addressed with in the project management plan.
- Identify Stakeholders. At the time of project initiation identification of the major stakeholders would be done along with establishing their major concerns.
- Plan Stakeholder Engagement. Stakeholder Management Plan would be creating a list of stakeholder which would be followed by the prioritization of their concerns and potential impacts that they would cause upon the project.
- Manage Stakeholder Engagement. It is essential to address the needs of the stakeholders during the execution phase and in addition to this the communication lines must be kept open.
- Monitor Stakeholder Engagement. The stakeholders are to be considered during the status intervals in order to determine the needs of the stakeholders and make any kind of changes if needed so as to satisfy them.
Conclusion:
The above report helps in concluding to the fact that all the project knowledge areas are to implement so as to make the software work according to the requirements of the supermarket. This software would be responsible for controlling all the activities going inside the organization like managing the sales, keeping track of the inventory and many more. The software that would be developed and implemented would be consisting of a risk management plan so as to eliminate any kind of risk. Besides this the entire project would be managed according the to the project plan so as to complete it within the assigned budget and time.
References:
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