Integration Management – Develop Project Management Plan

Develop Project Management Plan is the second process under Project Integration Management knowledge area. The Project Management Plan is the master plan for all the other planning processes. Think of it as a folder which contains all the subsidiary plans.

Project Management Plan needs the Project Charter as the input. Reason? The Charter contains the baselines for scope, cost and schedule, as well as other high level requirements for risks, limitations and assumptions, business cases, etc. (Refer to Develop Project Charter).

The second input is all the outputs from the planning processes.  Besides all the management plans, other project documents should also be included in the master plan.

Again, enterprise environmental factors (EEF) and organisation process assets (OPA) serve as inputs into this second integration process. This is because, you will need the format for the plan which is already being used by the organisation as reference, previous project data as well as reporting format and reporting hierarchy amongst others.

The Tools and Techniques that is being used here is Expert Judgment.

The outcome of this process is the Project Management Plan.

Do not worry so much about the inputs and outputs of the processes. You might feel a bit overwhelmed as you go on, however, the moment you concentrate on the concept and objective of the process, the inputs and outputs will come easily to you. Focus on understanding why the process is created and how the objective can be achieved.

Remember, you know all these answers already. All you need to do is put on your PMI hat, and answer from PMI-world’s perspective.

There are 42 processes altogether under PMBOK 4th Edition. In applying PMI best practices as suggested, you might not be using all the forty-two processes described. You should tailor your project according to the feasibility and needs of your stakeholders and environment.

As a conclusion; The Project Management Plan needs inputs from the Project Charter and all the outputs from other planning processes based on Expert Judgment from respective subject matter experts and/or department according to the organisation’s OPA and EEF.