Introduction to Project Management

Unit 5

Unit 5

Project Management Process Groups

Structure: 5.1 Introduction Objectives 5.2 Project Planning and Scheduling 5.3 Feasibility Study on Project 5.4 Quality of a Project Management Process 5.5 Characteristic of a Project Team Members 5.6 Setting a Project Goals and Scope 5.7 Benefits of Successful Project Management Process 5.8 The Process Groups 5.9 Initiating Process Group 5.10 Planning Process Group 5.11 Executing Process Group 5.12 Monitoring and Control Process Group 5.13 Closing Process Group 5.14 Summary 5.15 Terminal Questions 5.16 Answers

5.1 Introduction
By now you must be familiar with the strategy in Project Management and Project Management Body of Knowledge. This unit familiarises you with Project Management Process groups. It also discusses about the quality of project management process and the characteristics that a project team must possess to meet the requirements of the project successfully. It also highlights the benefits of project management process. Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) organises project management processes into five groups known as the project management process groups. The lifecycle of a project can be broken down into five different phases or process groups. These five PMBoK Process Groups provide guidance in applying project knowledge and skills to organise the project from start to finish.

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Each group consists of one or more processes. This grouping helps in understanding the interaction between the various processes in project management. Learning Objectives After studying this unit, you will be able to: Plan, schedule and manage a project Clarify any doubts in the project by considering the goals and objectives of the project Perform a feasibility study on a project and generate a feasibility report Recognize the qualities project management must possess Identify the characteristics a project team must possess Derive the project goals and scope Elucidate the benefits of successful project management Compare the five generic project management process groups as per PMBoK. Asses the nine project management knowledge areas as per PMBoK. Analyze the generic inputs to and outputs (deliverables) from each process group. Define the generic interrelationships between project management processes.

5.2 Project Planning and Scheduling

Before a project is implemented, it is necessary to plan and define the specific objectives of the project. It is necessary to form a good composition of the team members who suit best to the project specifications. There are many situations where a particular member of the team will have many schedules and responsibilities1. In such a situation it is necessary to have good planning by the project manager to fix responsibilities based on the skills they possess. The most important step is to set the goals of the project and define and categorise them into related set of activities and responsibilities for each member participating in the project.

www.scribd.com/doc/8749110/Project-Management

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However, project scheduling is mainly concerned with estimating the amount of time and effort required to perform a particular task. It also defines a sequence of activities that has to be performed in a project. It determines the resources required for the smooth workflow of the project such as people, materials or any other equipment. Gantt charts are used as scheduling technique that represents time quantity. It is very important to clarify the nature of project before initiating it. This is accomplished by analysing the environment of the project. The essential constraints that are required for clarifying the nature of project are managing the resources, providing support for management, maintaining a proper balance between originality and implementation skills.

5.3 Feasibility Study on Project

Feasibility study on project defines the probabilities associated with it. Various measures are taken to identify whether a project is feasible or not. Initially, an analysis is performed to determine if the project meets all the requirements to proceed to next stage. However, when a feasibility of the project is to be examined, the following factors have to be taken into consideration: Cost: The project management team makes a cost analysis to ensure that the estimated costs of the project fall within the range set by the organization. However, there are certain factors that have to be considered while determining the costs of the projects. It includes the implications of the capital expenditure, the project costs, determining the effects of finances on the organization, determining the expenses required in the current year as well as the subsequent years. Timing: The project manager makes a timing analysis to ensure that the project meets its delivery date with the expected quality outcome. The timing phase of the project ensures that any legal or requirements from the government are complied on date. It also ensures that the finances are used by the company in the restricted period of time. Timing policies are also important for the operational concerns such as requirement of equipments or systems to meet the defined deadlines and specific procedures. Performance: The project manager fixes the job responsibilities to the members of the team based on the skill set they possess. It is vital to
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monitor the performance both technically and personally. It is necessary that the performance of the members participating in the project meet the standards as specified by the client as well as the organization internally.

5.4 Quality of a Project Management Process

The various qualities that a good Project Management process should encompass are as listed below: Creativity: A good Project Management process should be creative that facilitates integrating various categories of the project into a unified structure. It should provide abilities to create enthusiasm and appeal in the process. Structure: The structure of the organisation will have a set of specifications, parameters, limitations as well as certain guidelines that has to be followed. The members of the organisations are expected to work effectively within the defined framework and structure of the organisation. Intuition: Intuition is very important part of maintaining a good Project Management process. It is that ability of understanding the uncertainties and the things forth coming without the use of any rational processes. It is the foundation of emotional intelligence. It is vital to have a stronger intuition that enables to sense what the other members are feeling and thinking. Knowledge: Knowledge is an important part of the Project Management process. It is required for the deeper understanding of the project with ease and also to delegate the technical aspects training to the other members participating in the project team. Commitment: The commitment of the project manager is responsible for holding the team together to pull the project to meet its delivery dates successfully. Commitment ensures that there are fixed allotted timings for every activity to be performed in the process. Being Considerate: Being considerate infers that a task allotted to the members of the team can be well completed in the allotted time. It ensures that no employee is heavily loaded with unnecessary work he is not responsible for. Thus, the loyalty and humbleness of the manager will further take the project team to meet its objectives defined.
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Versatility: The primary qualities of a Project Management process include flexibility to any kind of environment. It requires versatility that enables the project manager to change any decisions with respect to resources and other constraints quickly. Lightness: It complements the importance of the tasks as well as provides options to resolve them. This leads to strong team results and team maintenance. Discipline/focus: It is very essential to be self focused and disciplined to maintain the moralities and ethics of self and the company. Big picture, small actions: It is very essential for a good Project Management process to visualise things in a broader perspective. This leads to thinking in a wider range meanwhile paying attention to the details of the project. However, it requires good communication skills to interact with the team members in order to establish the clear expectations of the clients. It is required that the members of the team are also given the authority to make shared decisions regarding developing the project. It gives a clear picture of the people who are assigned to the specific tasks. Effective Project Management process adopts various customs and ways in order to correspond and share the relevant information such as conducting meetings and informal conversations with the relevant and concerned people such as with the other members of the team, the clients and other senior officials of the project. This requires that the manager of the project have good communication skills and believe in listening skills than talking skills.

Self Assessment Questions 1. ______________ is that ability of understanding the uncertainties and the things forth coming without the use of any rational processes 2. ____________ complements the importance of the tasks as well as provides options to resolve them

5.5 Characteristics of Project Team Members

A project manager is responsible for managing the various tasks and processes to meet the project delivery in the defined time. The various responsibilities of a project manger include2:
2

www.management-hub.com/project-manager-qualities.html -

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Planning: The project manager is responsible for defining the goals and objectives of the organisation. The project manager then communicates with the other members of the team regarding the objectives set and the tasks that has to be accomplished. Organising: Organising is an essential responsibility of the project manager. It ensures that the resources that are required to for smooth working of the project are well secured and organised. Thus, the organisation should be structured in such a way that the members of the team are motivated to perform their work. Controlling: The project manager should be able to monitor and control the process to keep track of the status of the work. It ensures that the progress, schedule, procedures and cost of the project are well monitor.

The success of the project is based on the efficiency of the team. However, the success of the project requires good monitoring skills, leadership skills, project planning skills. The project is said to be well programmed if it allows ability to meet the needs of the customers. Figure 5.1 shows process of project management.

On Budget

On Time

Degree of Quality

Figure 5.1: Process of Project Management

The accountability of delivering the product with the expected quality relies on all the members of the team with the following constraints described in the table 5.1 below are taken into consideration:

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Table 5.1: Quality Constraints

The successful completion of the project is not the sole responsibility of the project manager alone. However, it requires that the members participating in the team also play an effective role in meeting the success of the project delivery. The various characteristics of the team members of the project include: Clear understanding of the objectives of the project. Self understanding of the roles ad responsibilities of the project. Result orientation performance. Exhibit high degree of co-operation and trust.

The most important aspect in the process of managing the project includes delegation. Delegation facilitates the team to achieve the objectives of the project. It ensures that the members of the project achieve the outcome that is expected to carry out with the tasks that have been allocated, successfully. The members of the team should be enough workspace to make small decisions on their own, to take ownership of their work that motivates self progress in meeting the deadlines of the project. This helps the team members to plan various methods and procedures to follow on their own. Self Assessment Questions 3. ____________ responsibility of a project manager ensures that the resources that are required for smooth working of the project are well secured and organized.
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4. ___________ ensures that the objectives and goals are commissioned well to improve the quality of the product.

5.6 Setting a Project Goals and Scope

Defining and supporting the project scope is very essential part of the project management process. The objectives and scope of the project should be defined based on the shared decision by the senior members of the team. If the objectives of the project are not defined clearly to the team, it increases the probability of project failure Setting the goals ensures that the project benefits the organisation in terms of finance as well as the overall growth of the organisation. However, while fixing the objectives of the organisation various factors are taken into consideration. It should be: Specific: The specific of the definition of the project is an essential part of the process. This ensures that any member working in the project can push the project to meet its successful deadlines. Realistic: The goals and objectives of the project have to be set in such a way that they are achievable and are defined within the scope and provided funds. This ensures that the work allocated can be achieved in the defined time. It ensures that the dates and deadlines defined in the schedule are definite and realistic and ensures that it is possible to achieve the fixed targets. Measurable: A milestone can be used to define the assigned tasks that have to be delivered on the defined time. This ensures that the elements of the project are achieved successfully. Agreed upon: It is vital that before beginning with the process of life cycle of the project, all the end users and the stakeholders are satisfied and agree to the objectives defined in the project. Responsible: It should be able to identify responsibility for achieving the goals. It is vital that the job roles and responsibilities are assigned based on the skill set possessed by the employees.

Setting the project scope is an essential part of a project management process. Once the goals and the objectives of the project are set, the next task is to identify the scope of the project. However, when a scope has to be
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defined to a project, various factors have to be taken into considerations such as: The amount of effort that has to be put in the project assigned. The duration of the completion of the project. Financial commitments Duration and availability of the resources.

5.7 Benefits of Successful Project Management Process

The project management process deals with how a project is implemented from start to finish. It offers various benefits to the organisation which includes: Facilitates monitoring of the scheduled costs. Ensures that the time to market and time to profitability is reduced to an extent as required by the organisation. Monitors resources effectively. Prioritises the resources and the tasks allocated. Facilitates a plan to maintain solutions to anticipated problems. Provides co-ordination for various processes and identifies the various dependencies of the tasks.

Project Management process ensures that efficient work is produced in a minimum amount of time. This is possible by effectively planning the objectives which helps a great deal in saving time and money and coordinating the resources well. Project Management process ensures that the defined goals are achieved. It provides a structure that every member participating in the team has to adhere to. After completion of every phase of the project, it is important to document the requirements gathered in the application. Documenting the assigned tasks may include designing their documents, noting the installation steps, providing information of the hardware, grid location of the hardware, providing various versions of software used. The documentation also facilitates in maintaining information of how to support the application and how to keep the application secure by performing various proactive monitoring. Various updates and patches are also documented to keep the working environment more stable. Back up and retention policies are also
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documented that ensures that, in case of system crashes or any uncertainties, the data is available for recovery. The major benefits that an organisation can derive from the effective project Management Process are: Efficiency in delivery services: The effective project management process ensures that it provides various ways that can be followed by all the members participating in the team. It provides efficient delivery of the deliverables by eliminating most of the uncertainties in the project. Enhanced customer satisfaction: Effective management and delivery of the project ensures the clients are satisfied. It requires that the delivery of the project is made on the scheduled time and under the budget as fixed by the company both internally and externally by the clients. It facilitates the enhanced effectiveness in delivering the expected services by adopting various management strategies for implementing the project. Improved growth and development: It ensures that it motivates the members of the team to progress in work which facilitate both personal and professional growth. Flexibility: It enables a project to be flexible to various kinds of environment and situations. It holds good to various kinds and sizes of organisation such as small size organisation, mid sized and large organisation. Increased risk assessment: A good Project Management regularly monitors the status of the work. Controlling and reviewing is a major activity of a project management process. This ensures that the risks associated with the project are analysed and solved.

5.8 The Process Groups

A process is a set of interrelated activities which is performed to achieve a pre-specified product, result or service. Each process is characterised by a set of inputs, the applied tools and techniques and, the resulting outputs. Inputs are the prerequisites to start a project, output are the result of the process with which the process ends and tools and techniques are the methods applied on the entry criteria to achieve the required result.
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The project management process group refers particularly to the idea of a logical arrangement of the numerous project management processes as per the PMBoK guide. It is important to always utilise the processes for each project in the proper and predetermined order, as this sequential and repetitive pattern is likely to offer substantial benefits towards the organisation and can be applied to any application or life cycle. The lifecycle of project can be broken down into five different phases or process groups. These process groups provide guidance in applying project knowledge and skills to organise the project from start to finish. The process groups have inherent interactions between each other throughout the implementation of a project. Table 5.2 gives a brief idea about the five process groups.
Table 5.2: Details of Process Groups

Broadly, the process groups are likely deployed in the sequence listed as the project progresses. If a project goes off track, the project is re-planned. If a project faces severe problems, it may have to go back to the start of the project.
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The output of one process group in many cases becomes an input to the other. In the central process groups (planning, executing and controlling), all the links are looped, i.e, the links of these central process groups are iterated. Initially planning provides execution with a documented plan, and as the project progresses, planning provides documented updates to the plan. Figure.5.2 shows the links among process group in a phase.

Figure 5.2: Links Among Process Groups in a Phase

Though the process groups are discrete, one-time events, events do overlap and take place at different levels of activity across each phase in the project life cycle. Figure 5.3 illustrates this overlapping of process groups in a phase.

Figure 5.3: Overlap of Process Groups in a Phase Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 91

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Process Groups are not project phases Large or complex projects may be separated into phases or even into subprojects such as feasibility study, concept development, design, prototype, build, test and so on. All processes in a process group are normally repeated for each phase or subproject. Finally, a phase usually involves all the five process groups inside the phase, before that phase is closed to provide the input to the next phase. For example, before closing the design phase engineer should get the acceptance from the client on the design document, which defines the product description before starting the implementation phase. Repetition of the initiation process at the start of each phase helps to keep the project focused on the business needs. It also helps to check the viability of the business needs, so that if the business need is no longer viable or profitable, the project can be stopped. The actual inputs and outputs of a process group depend on the phase in which it is carried out. There are many overlaps in an actual project. For example, to successfully complete the planning process in a project phase, it provides the details of the work to be done in that phase, as well as some preliminary description of the work to be done in later phases. This progressive detail of the project plan is often called rolling wave planning. This indicates that planning is a repetitive and ongoing process. Process Interactions In every process group, the individual processes are linked by their inputs and outputs. By focusing on these links, PMBoK describes each process in of the following way: Inputs are documents or documental items that are acted upon. Outputs are documents or documental items that are a result of the process.

5.9 Initiating Process Group

The initiating process group does a certain minimum amount of work needed to seek an approval for formal initiation of a project. This involves conducting a feasibility study or assessing the need of a new product development.

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Table 5.3 describes the need to develop a product and some examples related to those needs:
Table 5.3: Needs to Develop a Product

The project management processes involved in the initiating process group are: Developing project charter: Project charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor. It formally authorises the existence of a project and provides the authority to the project manager to apply organisational resources to project activities. Developing the project charter is the process of documenting the business needs and the new product that is intended to satisfy those business needs. Developing preliminary project scope statement: A preliminary high level definition of the project is prepared using the project charter. The definition document includes the deliverable requirements, product requirements, boundaries of the project, methods of acceptance and high level scope control.

5.10 Planning Process Group

The planning process group and its constituent processes and interactions are used to plan and manage a successful project for the organisation.
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Planning is a major process group as it involves the process of doing something that has not been done before and forms the basis for carrying out the subsequent processes. Hence planning contains more processes than other process groups. Figure 5.4 illustrates the interrelationship among the various project planning processes.

Figure 5.4: Planning Process Group Sikkim Manipal University Page No.: 94

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Note: All the process interactions and data flow among the processes are not shown in the above figure 5.4. Though the planning process group has the largest number of processes, it is not necessarily the largest part of the project management. The amount of planning done is proportionate with the scope of the project and the usefulness of the information developed for project execution. Planning requires high intensity effort in the initial phase of the project, but remains an ongoing effort throughout the life of the project. Figure 5.5 illustrates the variation in the effort levels pertaining to planning.

Figure 5.5: Effort Expended in Planning through the Project Life Cycle

The Figure 5.5 shows the effort spent in planning through the project life cycle. All the planning processes involved in a project, form part of the planning process group. Moreover, the planning processes may be repeated before the completion of planning. For example, if the initial completion date of the project is not acceptable, project resources, cost or even scope may be redefined in order to reach an acceptable completion date. Planning is not specific, that is, two different teams can generate very different plans for the same project. The output of the planning process group is the Project Management Plan. The project management plan emphasises on exploring all aspects of the scope, technology, risks, costs, staffing, other resources and procurement.
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Changes approved during project execution require updates of the project management plan. Changes occur on three counts: New regulations imposed by statutory authorities. Errors in judgments and assumptions made while planning. Scope changes necessitated by the client. The project team involves all appropriate stakeholders through the planning processes, depending on their influence on the project and also on the outcomes of such influence. The stakeholders have skill and knowledge that influence in developing subsidiary plans and hence the project management plan. The project management processes involved in the planning process group are: Scope planning: This process creates a project scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, verified and controlled. Scope definition: This process develops a detailed project scope statement for future project decisions. Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): This process divides the major project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components. The scope statement is the input to this process. Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)3 improves the accuracy of cost, time and resource estimations. The success or failure of a project is largely determined by the degree of clarity in the scope statement, based on which the WBS is generated. Activity definition: This process identifies specific activities that need to be performed to produce the various project deliverables mentioned in the WBS. The input to this process is the WBS. The outputs are the activities list, activity attributes and the milestone list. Activity attributes for a scheduled activity include predecessor/successor activities, logical relationships, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints and assumptions.
3

Refer Earned Value Management Tutorial Module 2 Work Breakdown Structure in PMI

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Activity sequencing: This process draws up a logical sequence of the scheduled activities based on the interdependency of the activities. This logical sequencing forms the basis of developing a real and achievable schedule for the project in the subsequent stage of planning. The inputs to this process are the activities list, activity attributes and milestone list, and the output is the project schedule network diagram. Activity resource estimating: This process estimates the type and quantity of resources required for each scheduled activity. The outputs of the activity definition process and resource availability are the inputs for this process. The outputs of this process are activity resource requirements and resource breakdown structure. Activity duration estimating: This process calculates the duration of each schedule activity (in terms of days or hours) using the activity resource requirements. The output of this process is the time duration for each activity. A person who is well versed with the nature of the activity is given the task of estimating the time duration. Schedule development: This process analyses the activity sequences, durations, resource requirements and schedule constraints. The start and end dates of the scheduled activities of the project are determined. The main inputs for this process are project network diagram, activities list, activity duration estimates and activity resource requirements. The output of this process is the project schedule. Cost estimating: This process carries out an approximation of the costs of the resources for each scheduled project activity. The main inputs are activities list, activity resources estimates and data on unit resource costs. Cost estimating tools and techniques are used to establish unit resource costs. The output of this process is the activity cost estimates. Cost budgeting: This process aggregates the estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish a cost baseline for measuring project performance. The main input is the activity cost estimates. When a project is contractual in nature, the contract will also be a main input to this process. In such cases, the cost estimating needs to be further extended into a pricing exercise. While cost estimating deals with assessing the cost of producing the product, pricing is the process of determining the rate at which the product or service is sold.
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Quality planning: This process identifies the quality standards relevant for the project and determines ways to meet those standards. This process is repeated with other planning processes. The main inputs to this process are the scope statement, quality policy, product specification and standards and regulations. The main outputs of this process are the quality management plan, quality baseline and quality checklists. Human resource planning: This process identifies project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships for the project team members. The main inputs are the activity resource requirements and the organisational process assets. The main outputs are the project organisation charts, roles and responsibilities and staffing management plan. Communications planning: This process determines the information and communication needs of the project stakeholders and also establishes an appropriate way to satisfy those needs. The nature and mode of communication differs from project to project. The main input is the project scope statement and the organisational process assets. Project communication plan is the output, which includes guidelines for project status meetings, e-meetings, e-mail and video-conferencing. Risk identification: This process identifies and records the risks that may affect the project. Risks are of two types: o Internal risks- Internal risks are those factors that can be controlled and influenced by the project team. For example, a critical construction aid like a very high capacity crane owned by the organisation which is planned to be deployed on the project but is not being available when it is needed due to repair works or the need to deploy it on another project External risksExternal risks are factors that are beyond the control of the project team. For example, escalation in the cost of materials.

The main inputs for this process are the risk management plan, project scope statement, project management plan and organisational process assets. The output is a risk register. The risk register contains the details of all identified risks with description, category, cause, probability of occurring, impacts on objectives, proposed responses and owners. This register is an important component of the project management plan.
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Qualitative risk analysis: This process prioritises the identified risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact. The main inputs for this risk analysis process are the risk register, project scope statement, risk management plan and the project management plan. The output of this is a risk register update. Quantitative risk analysis: This process numerically analyses the effects of identified risks on the overall project objectives. The inputs are the risk registers, the same as for quantitative risk analysis, but including their updates. The output is a risk register update. The techniques used for quantitative risk analysis are: o Sensitivity analysis o Expected monitory value analysis o Decision tree analysis o Risk Response Planning This process develops strategies to utilise opportunities and minimise threats to project objectives. The inputs are the risk register and the risk management plan. The output is a risk-related contractual agreement. Plan purchases and acquisitions: This process determines what, when and how to purchase and acquire. The main inputs are resource requirements, cost baseline, project scope statement and project management plan. The main outputs are procurement management plan, contract statement of work, make-or-buy decisions. This process includes identifying which project needs are best met by purchasing or acquiring outside the project organisation, and which project needs are accomplished by the project team during project execution. The former can be termed as outsourcing and the latter as departmental work. An outsourcing decision further necessitates selecting a buy option or a rent option. Plan contracting: This process prepares the need to support the bidding process and the seller-selection process. The main inputs to this process are contract Statement of Work (SOW), make-or-buy decisions, project procurement plan as well as risk register and risk-related contractual agreements. The outputs are procurement documents and evaluation criteria. Procurement document is the document given to prospective bidders for submitting their quotations.
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It should be noted that the inputs and outputs mentioned for each process are only the main ones. In many processes, the output also includes an update of the output of a previous process, immediately preceding that process or preceding by more than one notch. Accordingly, these updates also become inputs for subsequent processes. Only the main processes are highlighted for an understanding of the interrelationship between the processes. Self Assessment Questions 5. _____________ process identifies specific activities that need to be performed to produce the various project deliverables mentioned in the WBS _______________ develops a detailed project scope statement for future project decisions

6.

Activity 1: General Motors has developed automobile engines which can operate on gasoline mixed with ethanol produced from corn and is able to sell these automobiles in the market. Develop a sequence of stages that could have led them to decide to develop these automobile engines.

5.11 Executing Process Group

The executing process group is a group of processes which are used to actually execute the work defined in the project management plan. It involves coordinating with people and other resources, as well as integrating and performing the project activities in accordance with the project management plan. The project management processes involved in the executing process group are: Direct and Manage Project Execution: This is the process for implementing the project management plan. The project manager along with the project management team directs and manages the various technical and organisational interfaces that exist within the project in order to produce the deliverables as per the project management plan.

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The output is the deliverables mentioned in the project management plan. The work performance information generally covers the following: o Schedule progress showing status information. o Deliverables completed and not completed. o Extent to which quality standards are being met. o Cost authorised and incurred. o Estimate to complete the scheduled activities that are started. o Percentage of the work completed in-progress schedule activities. o Lessons learned posted to lessons learned knowledge base. o Resource utilisation detail. Tools and techniques utilised are the project management methodology and Project Management Information System (PMIS), which is an automated system used by the project management team to aid execution of the activities planned in the project management plan. Perform Quality Assurance: This is the process of applying the planned quality activities to ensure that the project employs all processes needed to meet the quality standards. The main inputs to this process are the quality management plan and the quality control measurements. The main outputs are the quality deliverables as per the project management plan and the recommended corrective actions. Acquire Project Team: This is the process for obtaining human resources required for the project. The main inputs for this process are the organisation chart, roles and responsibilities and the staff management plan. The main outputs are the staff assignments and resource availability. Staff assignment is done when appropriate people are assigned to work on the project and the time periods they work on the project are finalised. The techniques employed in executing process are the following: o o Pre-assignment: When a person is already identified to work on the project during the initial phase of the project. Negotiation: Project manager needs to negotiate with functional managers to ensure that the project receives suitable and competent staff. For example, functional managers may weigh the benefits and visibility of competing projects when determining where to assign exceptional performers. Hence, a good negotiating skill in this respect is an essential attribute of a project manager.
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Subcontracting: When in-house expertise or number of personnel required cannot be found in-house, it may be necessary to subcontract work. For example, consider piping layout drawings. A consulting company produces only the piping general arrangement drawing inhouse, and subcontracts the work of preparing isometrics and piping bill of materials to an outside agency. An outside consultant can also be hired to work within the premises of the organisation on contract for a predetermined time period. In such cases, more time and effort is expended to ensure proper communication with such outsourced personnel, in turn ensuring quality and timely outputs from them. Virtual team: This occurs when the organisation uses its own personnel located in its branch offices in different geographical locations to work in specific areas on the project.

Develop Project Team: This is the process of improving the relationship between team members to enhance project performance. The main inputs to this process are project staff assignments and resource availability. The output is team performance assessment. The dual aim of this process is to improve individual skills of team members and to improve feelings of trust and cohesiveness among team members through greater teamwork. Select Sellers: This process is for applying evaluation criteria for evaluating the bids leading to final selection of the seller. The inputs are the procurement management plan, evaluation criteria, bid document, proposal, qualified vendor list, risk-related contractual agreements and risk register. The outputs are selected sellers, contracts, and contract management plan.

5.12 Monitoring and Control Process Group

The monitoring and control process group consists of processes performed to observe project execution so that potential problems are identified in a timely manner and corrective actions are taken when necessary. These processes measure performance and compare with the performance deliverables planned, thus identifying variances from the project management plan. Changes to the project management plan need to be controlled and preemptive action recommended in anticipation of possible problems. Control emphasises that only approved changes are implemented. The project
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management processes involved in the monitoring and control process group are: Monitor and Control Project Work: This process collects measures and disseminates performance information. Monitoring work includes status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting. The aim of the process is to recommend corrective actions by comparing actual performance with project management plan and assessing the variances. The performance reports are made for scope, schedule, cost, resources, quality and risk. The inputs for this process are project management plan, work performance information, and rejected change requests. The outputs are recommended corrective and preventive actions, recommended defect repairs, requested changes and forecasts that predict the future status of the project and its future progress. This process covers all the other four process groups, and is hence carried out throughout the project life cycle. Integrated Change Control: This is an overall control process for influencing the factors that create changes, so as to make sure that the changes are advantageous. For example, change in schedule generally affects the cost, risk, quality and staffing functions. Hence, this process serves the important integrating function. A rejected request emerging from this process is fed back once again into the preceding process for a second review. Scope Verification: This process obtains stakeholders approval of the completed project scope and associated deliverables. Scope verification is primarily concerned with the acceptance of the deliverables. The main inputs are the WBS dictionary and deliverables produced by the Direct and Manage project execution process. The outputs are accepted deliverables; requested changes made during this process and recommended corrective actions. The requested changes and recommended corrective actions are again processed for review and disposition through the integrated change control process. For example, the scope of manufacturing a component is verified and accepted by a written protocol (document) of inspection and acceptance by client at the manufacturers works before dispatch. Scope Control: This process influences factors that create project scope changes and controls the impact of those changes. Again, this process assures that requested changes and recommendation for corrective actions
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are processed through the integrated change control process. The main input is the approved change requests. The main output is the updates of the project scope statement, WBS and project management plan. Schedule Control: This process influences the factors that create schedule changes, by determining whether there is a change in project schedule and manages the actual changes as they occur. It is a portion of the integrated change control process. The main input is the approved change requests. The main output is the updates of the project schedule model information used in the project, and the schedule baseline updates as applicable. Cost Control: This process influences the factors that create changes to the cost baseline, ensures that requested changes are agreed upon, and manages the actual changes. It searches out the causes of both positive and negative variances and is part of the integrated change control. The main input is the approved change requests that emanate from the integrated change control process. The outputs are cost estimates updates, cost baseline update, forecast of total cost of completion. Perform Quality Control: This process monitors specific project results to determine whether they comply with relevant quality standards and identifies ways to eliminate causes for unsatisfactory performance. Quality standards also include project processes apart from product goals. The main input is the approved change request / requests and the outputs are quality baseline update and recommended corrective / preventive actions/defect repairs Manage Project Team: This process tracks and appraises team member performance. The main inputs are organisations policies/procedures for rewarding employees, staffing management plan, roles and responsibilities and work performance information. The tools and techniques used are observation and conversation, conflict resolution, performance appraisals and counselling. The outputs are requested changes (staffing changes), recommended corrective actions (additional training, disciplinary actions, staffing changes). Performance Reporting: This process involves collection and dissemination of performance information to stakeholders. The performance information covers scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk and procurement. Reports can be comprehensive or on exception basis. The main inputs for this process are
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work performance information, performance measurements. The outputs are performance reports, forecasts of cost to complete, time to complete, requested changes, recommended corrective actions. Manage Stakeholders: This process manages communications to satisfy the needs of, and resolve with project stakeholders. The main input is the communication management plan and the main outputs are resolved issues and approved change requests, corrective actions. Actively managing stakeholders is necessary to prevent the likelihood of the project going off track by not attending to unresolved stakeholder issues. The project manager owns this process, maintains good and constructive working relationships with stakeholders. Risk Monitoring and Control: This process keeps track of the identified risks as well as analyses and plans for newly arising risks. Contingency reserves of cost or schedule are modified in accordance with the risks actually occurring. The main inputs are risk register and work performance information. The main outputs are recommended corrective, preventive actions and requested changes. Contract Administration: A contract is a binding relationship between buyer and seller. The legal nature of this relationship makes it imperative that both buyer and seller administer the contract to meet their respective obligations. When an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor executes a large project for a client, multiple contracts are dealt with different suppliers and contractors in order to fulfil obligations to the client. These are parts of the EPC contract with the client. In such a case, a key aspect of contract administration is managing interfaces among the various providers. An important component of contract administration is also the financial management component On account of the legal considerations, it is common for an organisation to have a contracts department which is separate from the project organisation. It is essential that the project manager and the project management team are acutely aware of the legal implications of actions taken while administering any contract. The dispute resolution mechanism is also an important clause in many contracts. In the interest of smooth project execution, disputes are settled between buyer and seller by mutual discussions. Transferring the dispute resolution to Arbitration or Court can lead to additional cost and project delay.
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Self Assessment Questions 7. ________________ obtains stakeholders approval of the completed project scope and associated deliverables. 8. ______________ process keeps track of the identified risks as well as analyses and plans for newly arising risks. 9. _____________ process involves collection and dissemination of performance information to stakeholders.

5.13 Closing Process Group

The closing process group is a set processes performed at the end of a project. This process group comprises the following process: Close Project: This process finalises all activities across all process groups to formally close a project or project phase. This is therefore a part of integration management. After closing, the project is transferred to the project owner. Hence, this process establishes procedures to coordinate activities for verifying and documenting the project deliverables, formalise acceptance of the deliverables by the owner. The two procedures developed for this process are: Contract Closure Procedure: All contract agreements entered into the project are settled and closed by this procedure. For each contract, the activities to be completed are product verification and acceptance by seller, settlement of all payments due to supplier, obtaining of all suppliers warranty/guarantee documents, a no-claim certificate from seller and any other closure documents stipulated in the contract. Administrative Closure Procedure: This procedure includes integrated activities needed to collect project records, analysis of project success or failure, gather lessons learned, and archive project information for future use by the organisation. The main inputs for this process are contract documentation and work performance information. The main output is the project closure report (inhouse or to be shared with the client) and a signed product acceptance protocol from the client. Self Assessment Questions 10. All contract agreements entered into the project are settled and closed by ___________ procedure.
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Activity 2: A software company took up a project to design and deliver a software product for a small telecommunication start-up. The software company followed the steps given below to successfully complete the project: They defined the business need, assigned the project manager and project team. They created a plan to accomplish the project and maintain the plan throughout the life of the project. They made coordinating teams and resources to carry out the plans and produce the deliverables. They ensured that the project objectives were met by performing activities like measuring progress against plan, holding status meeting and so on. They brought the project to a successful end and formally turned over the project deliverables to the telecommunication company. Relate the above mentioned steps to the various process groups in project management.

5.14 Summary
Feasibility study on project defines the probabilities associated with it. Various measures are taken to identify whether a project is feasible or not. A project manager is responsible for managing the various tasks and processes to meet the project delivery in the defined time. The successful completion of the project is not the sole responsibility of the project manager alone. However, it requires that the members participating in the team also play an effective role in meeting the success of the project delivery. The five project management process groups under which all the 44 project management processes mentioned in PMBoK are categorised. These are the Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing process groups. The process groups are generally deployed in the sequence listed as the project progresses. In an event if a project goes off course or if the project is in severe troubles, the project is re-planned or restarted respectively. Initiating process group authorises the project or a project phase. Planning process group plans the course of action to attain the scope and objectives
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of the project. The objectives can get redefined in this process group. Executing process group integrates people and other resources to carry out the project management plan for the project. Controlling process group measures and monitors the progress to identify variances from the project management plan in order to take corrective action. These corrective actions may require retracing the previous made plans. Closing process group formalises acceptance of the final product of the project and brings the project to an orderly end.

5.15 Terminal Questions

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are the characteristics that a project team must possess to successfully meet the requirements of the project? List the benefits that project management process offers to an organization. List the project management processes involved in the planning process group. Write a note on monitoring and controlling process group of Project management process. Describe the closing process group of project management process.

5.16 Answers
Answers to Self Assessment Questions 1. Intuition 2. Lightness 3. Organising 4. Building commissioning 5. Activity definition 6. Scope definition 7. Scope verifications 8. Risk monitoring and control 9. Performance reporting 10. Contract closure

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Answers to Terminal Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Refer Section 5.5 Refer Section 5.7 Refer Section 5.10 Refer Section 5.12 Refer Section 5.13

References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. www.projectsmart.co.uk/top-10-qualities-project-manager.html www.projectsmart.co.uk/top-10-qualities-of-an-excellent-manager.html Essential Managers: Project Management -Andy Bruce and Ken Langdon The Project Manager's Desk Reference - James P. Lewis www.articledashboard.com Introduction to project management - Page 60 Gido J., & Clements J. P. (2009) Successful project management (4th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.

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