Change. What happens when it happens.

Changes will occur anytime during project execution.

A change that happens can be related to resources, schedule and/or scope of the project. Every time a change happens, it has to be managed across the famous triple constraint. These constraints are usually depicted as a triangle.

A change could be either a corrective action, a preventive action, a defect repair or an update. Whatever the change reasons are, they must be documented and go through the Change Control Board. This action belongs to the Perform Integrated Change Control process under the Monitoring and Control Process Group.

 

From PMBOK Guide 4th Edition (page 98): A change control board is responsible for meeting (Change Control Meeting) and reviewing the change requests and approving or rejecting those change requests.

Whether the decision by the board is to accept or reject the change, it has to be documented and communicated to the stakeholders. This is to ensure information is distributed and subsequently actions, if needed be, could be taken.

All approved change requests will be implemented under the Direct & Manage Project Execution Group.

Approved changed requests will make impact on one or more of the following:

• new or revised cost estimates
• change in activity sequences
• schedule changes
• resource requirements
• revised manpower
• additional risks; which will require new analysis and response alternatives

Any changes will result in updates to project documents and project management plan.

From your experience, what other things will be impacted when a change happens?

Project Baselines

There are three important baselines that we need to know about. They are:

• Scope Baseline
• Cost Baseline
• Schedule Baseline

All three baselines are recognised as the Performance Measurement Baseline.
These three baselines are determined early in the project lifecycle. They are defined during the initiation of the project and described (or recorded) in the Project Charter.
As the project goes into execution, monitoring is being done to see if the project is;

• within the scope?
• within budget?
• within schedule

These questions are answered by comparing the current status of the project against the three baselines. The result derived from the raw data collected from these three aspects will determine the performance of the project. They will provide the information whether the project is

• meeting the stakeholders’ expectations?
• spending the right amount of money?
• completing in the allocated time?

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.

Integration Management: Develop Project Charter

Let’s talk about Integration Management. If you remember Integration Management is the first Knowledge Area in PMBOK Guide (4th Edition). There are 6 Process Groups that goes under Integration Management. The are:

In one of my earlier post, I have explain how Project Charter exists in every project. Only, most of the time, a lot of its contents are scattered across the project network. Today, we are going to look at this first process group in Integration Management knowledge area closely. We are going to see what is needed to get the Project Charter recognised and agreed upon amongst the project members.

According to PMBOK Guide (4th Edition), all process groups will have their own inputs, tools and techniques, and finally; outputs. To develop a charter these are the information required:

Statement of Work (SOW) is a narrative description of the product deliveries. It is developed from the business needs, scope of work and strategic plan of the organisation’s strategic goals. For internal projects, the SOW is prepared by the project initiator, while for external projects, it is received from the customer.

Business Case is merely the justification to proceed with the project. It is influenced by several factors; market demand, organisational need, customer request, technological advance, legal requirement, ecological impact or social need.

Contract can be one of the input especially when the project is external.

EEF is Enterprise Environmental Factors which include but not limited to industry standards or organisation infrastructure. OPA is Organisational Process Assets; this refers to templates or historical documents which already exist in the organisation. OPA also refers to lessons learned from previous projects.

The tools and techniques that is required to produce the project charter is Expert Judgment. The expertise is provided by specific individuals or a group of professionals with the required knowledge of specific areas. This can come from variety of sources, not limited to:

• other unit or department in the organisation
• consultants
• stakeholders
• professional and technical associations
• Industry group
• Subject matter experts
• Project Management Office (PMO), etc.

The output for this process is obviously the Project Charter. It documents the business needs, current understanding of customer’s needs, and the description of the products or services that is intended to be delivered.