PMI
HISTORY
Since
it's founding in 1969, Project Management Institute (PMI) has grown to be the
organization of choice for project management professionalism. PMI establishes
project management standards; and it provides seminars, educational programs, and
professional certification that organizations desire for their project leaders.
The PMBOK
(Project Management Body of Knowledge)
PMBOK
describes the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management.
This full
body of knowledge includes knowledge of proven, traditional practices, which
are widely applied, as well as knowledge of innovative and advanced practices,
which may be in more limited use. The full body of knowledge concerning project
management resides with the practitioners and academics who
apply and advance it.
Projects IT Web Application
in the Context of Project Management and the PMBOK
The
features of Projects IT support and automate the
processes of project management as defined in A Guide to the
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Furthermore,
Projects IT is unique in that it supports the as it integrates
with systems in place already that the client decides to retain. This provides
a truly customized system that is tried and true.
Projects
IT organizes projects into life-cycle phases. Because different
organizations use varying definitions of life cycles, and because in some cases
the definitions are project-dependent, Projects IT allows
users to create and configure the parameters that define life cycles using
their own terminology and concepts of phases. Companies and organizations can
use Projects IT Consulting and Software Services to accommodate any
organizational scheme. We use a combination of customized Web based software
and expertise to achieve success.
Users can
group resources by business unit, department, or any logical division, and can
also organize by skill set to identify resource
availability within areas of expertise. With Projects IT, project
managers and functional managers both use the same tool and access the same
data to request and assign resources to projects, reducing miscommunications.
Furthermore, the software supports individual company development standards
through use of process templates that incorporate predefined project information
and structure.
Projects IT PMBOK Process Mappings:
the Nine Knowledge Areas
The Project
Management Body of Knowledge identifies nine project
management knowledge areas. Listed below are the knowledge areas and associated
processes, along with the features of Projects IT that
support or automate those processes. (Note: The processes can also be
categorized by process group, indicated in parentheses next to process name.)
Project
Integration Management
Project Plan
Development (Planning Process)
Projects
IT supports creation of a project plan document by facilitating
creation of a project schedule, providing data on resource availability based
on project needs, and providing historical cost and schedule information. In
addition, the project plan and supporting details stored in Projects IT are made
available to other users.
Project
Plan Execution (Executing Process)
The
Projects IT development team center provides team members with a Web based
Collaboration
control center for sharing knowledge. Project managers can monitor and
distribute through team center many kinds of information, including action
items, status review meeting schedules, and key schedule items.
Overall
Change Control (Controlling Process)
A
successful change control procedure relies on effective lines of communication.
The
development team center supports change management by providing users with a
central Web-based notice board to post change requests and by providing instant
email access to the project team. Also, any changes to project schedules,
tasks, or deliverables are flagged. Projects IT also
differentiates goal start and finish dates from goal revisions made as the
project progresses.
Project
Scope Management
Project
Initiation (Initiating Process)
Projects
IT provides project managers, senior managers, and product approval
committee members with valuable project insight beginning at initiation.
Initiated projects are compared with historical projects to support go/no-go
decisions. A project charter document accessible through Projects IT provides
stakeholders with more detailed project information. In addition, quantitative
and qualitative project profiles can be created for any project to identify and
communicate constraints.
Scope
Planning (Planning Process)
To support
creation of a scope statement, Projects IT stores
historical cost and revenue data, generates reports enabling cost/benefit
analyses, enables powerful what-if analyses to identify alternatives, and makes
product information available to users across the integrated development
enterprise.
Scope
Definition (Planning Process)
Projects
IT users can create projects using preexisting templates
incorporating predefined work breakdown structures. Templates can be configured
to suit company protocols. Using multiple levels of detail, work can be defined
at the project, phase, step, high-level task, or deliverable level.
Scope
Verification (Executing Process)
After
deliverables are completed or partially completed, team members can link them
to Projects IT for review. Using the team center, formal reviews can be planned
and scheduled.
Scope
Change Control (Controlling Process)
Using the
team center, change requests are easily communicated. Performance data needed
to make scope change decisions is readily available.
Project
Time Management
Activity
Definition (Planning Process)
Users can
define activities using stored templates containing time and resource
requirements based on past performance. For projects created using templates,
the steps, deliverables, and milestones, as well as time, resource, and cost
information are automatically generated. The project manager can then configure
the generated plan to fit the needs of the current project.
Activity
Sequencing (Planning Process)
Using
custom properties, project managers can identify successors and predecessors of
steps and high-level tasks. Also project managers can identify critical events
as key schedule items that will be flagged if float is exceeded. Project team
members are instantly notified of slippage in the team center.
Activity
Duration Estimating (Planning Process)
Projects
IT supports estimating by comparing historical cycle-time data
against analysis of real-time resource availability. Project managers can
compare resource needs to current resource constraints and analyze the impact
of potential actions using what-if analyses. Also, key schedule items can be
assigned arange of possible results, so a warning
will alert team members if a schedule items actual cycle time falls outside
the tolerance range.
Schedule
Development (Planning Process)
Schedules
can be constructed using the mathematical analysis techniques of the PACE
product and cycle-time excellence) methodology, specifically designed to manage
product development projects. Cycle times of schedule items can be calculated
from process templates or entered manually. Resource data is available in real
time to allow construction of accurate schedules based on actual staffing
capabilities. Completed schedules can be viewed as overviews; overview charts,
high-level task lists, or lists of key schedule items, and can be filtered for
easy viewing.
Schedule Control
(Controlling Process)
Project managers manage
the schedule against goal dates and report progress by percentage completed.
Slipped items are flagged for easy identification. Changed schedule items are
also flagged to alert team members. Completed schedule items show variances
between goals and actual Project Cost Management
Resource
Planning (Planning Process)
Projects
IT provides powerful enterprise resource management. Project managers
plan schedules based on resource needs and capacities. They may request
specific resources if they wish. Functional managers assign resources to
projects using a group structure that contains resource names and skill sets.
Project managers can view resource constraints based on the availability of the
skills they need and see the effects of possible changes in the plan.
Cost
Estimating (Planning Process)
Cost
estimates for projects can be derived from templates or entered manually.
Costs can
be entered as a whole value, a single value, or broken out over a time period.
Because only a Web browser is needed to create custom properties, Projects ITs cost data can be customized
to reflect a multitude of cost models.
Cost
Budgeting (Planning Process)
As with
cost estimating, Projects ITs
custom properties allow any cost baselines to be collected and measured
against.
Cost
Control (Controlling Process)
With the
cost structure defined in Projects IT, custom charts can be instantly created
to gather data on project cost, to measure performance against other projects.
Then through the development team center, updates can be communicated and
corrective action taken.
Project
Quality
Quality
Planning (Planning Process)
Projects
IT provides critical data for quality planning. Using custom
reporting on the fly, Projects IT can
instantly create charts for use in cost/benefit analysis and benchmarking. The
entire project team can then access the quality management plan.
Quality
Assurance (Executing Process)
Quality
assurance teams can use Projects IT as a
roadmap for project planning, management, and communication. Quality teams can
collect project performance data and gain access to deliverables, and then use
the team center to review project communications and report quality issues.
Quality
Control (Controlling Process)
Quality
control can be done through Projects IT by
creating and scoring QA checklists. The data is accessible in real time by
project managers, the project team, and the quality assurance team.
Project
Human Resource Management
Organizational
Planning (Planning Process)
Project
managers can define resource needs by high-level skill set, specific skill set,
or a pecific resource. In planning the project,
project managers can also view any resource constraints based on defined needs
and see the effects of making changes to the plan.
Staff
Acquisition (Planning Process)
Projects
IT greatly facilitates the process of staff acquisition. Project
managers define staffing needs into the future, based on project plan templates
configured for their projects, perform what-if analyses, and transmit resource
requests. Functional managers then view resource needs against present and
future capacity and assign resources to projects. To further support these
functions Projects IT also provides resource charts to identify capacity constraints and
to
perform gap analysis, enabling planning for future
needs.
Team
Development (Executing Process)
The
development team center provides teams with a Web-based collaboration vehicle
to create a cohesive project organization. Instant email access to team
members, as well as posted notices, a project calendar, and a summary of
critical information, help team members to communicate regardless of geographic
location.
Project
Communications Management
Communications Planning (Planning
Process)
Using
Projects IT simplifies communication requirements by making critical project
information accessible through a Web browser and by providing a Web space for
team collaboration.
Information Distribution
(Executing Process)
The team
center is the ideal method for information retrieval and distribution. Team
center provides links to critical project information, displays team notices
and meeting times, and provides instant email access to core team members.
Performance
Reporting (Controlling Process)
Projects IT reports performance by
indicating percentage of the project completed and the active phase in the life
cycle. These two measures give the project team an accurate snapshot of
progress made against project goals. Program managers, senior managers, and
product approval committee members can view projects graphically as they move
through the life cycle to make better business decisions based on up-to-date
facts.
Administrative Closure
(Closing Process)
Because
Projects IT stores goal, current plan, and actual data for start, finish ,and
cycle time, lessons-learned data is always available and accurate. In addition,
Projects IT supports creation of custom properties, so metrics can be
collected on a user-defined basis.
Project
Risk Management
Risk Identification
(Planning Process)
Using
Projects IT project profiles, risk can be identified and calculated with an
online scorecard incorporation user-defined questions, response sets, and
response values. Scorecards can also be subdivided, so risks can be
categorized. Also, risk properties can be created and associated with the
project, a phase, step, or deliverable to record specific risks associated with
a schedule item.
Risk Quantification (Planning
Process)
Projects
IT compares and charts risk data derived from scorecards against data
such as revenue, cost, and slippage. Because charts can be configured or
created on the fly, risk data is analyzed in a number of ways depending on
needs of the organization.
Risk
Response Development (Planning Process)
Based on
risks defined in Projects IT, project managers can develop risk responses by
performing what-if analyses, recording contingencies in custom property fields,
and constructing a risk management plan and linking it to Projects IT.
Risk
Response Control (Controlling Process)
As risks
occur, the team center becomes a tool for communicating workarounds and changes
in the project plan. Because the team center provides a central location for
project information, it is an excellent means for keeping all team members up
to date on risk responses.
Project
Management Procurement
Procurement
Planning (Planning Process)
Projects IT generates gap analysis charts that identify areas of resource constraints and show when outsourcing will be required.