CHAPTER 2
Integration Management

By the PMBOK® Guide standard, there are ten disciplines or knowledge areas of project management. Integration management is the key knowledge area where all the pieces of your project are knitted together. This means coordinating all the many moving parts that go into building the deliverables for the customer.

Since changes on a project often have a ripple effect impacting many areas, integration management is where the important Perform Integrated Change Control process is done. Because project selection is part of integration management, key cost concepts used in choosing projects are covered here also.

Integration management is also very important for the PMP® and CAPM® Exams. Wrapping your brain around the six processes covered in this chapter will pay a double dividend on your test: first, by preparing you for the integration management questions, and second, by providing a high-level model of the PMBOK® Guide structure. This will help you with questions on the other knowledge areas, which flow down from integration management per the waterfall model.

Integration management is a tough part of the PMI certification exams. For extra help toward your exam, six PMP® Test Tip sidebars are provided here, one for each integration process.

Q1. What is project integration management?

A1. Of all the PMI knowledge areas, integration management is in many ways the most important.

Tying together all the many people, artifacts, and actions skillfully is what makes projects succeed, and that’s what the integration processes are all about. This is the only knowledge area to cover the complete project from start—Develop Project Charter—to finish—Close Project or Phase. It’s also the only knowledge area to span all five PMI process groups (see Chapter 1, Q&A 11). Integration management is also where change control for the project is handled, in the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

Three of the six integration processes set the stage for many of the processes in the other knowledge areas. So let’s start with those three first in the following Q&A.

Q2. Which three integration management processes are “high level”?

A2. Three integration processes are high level, meaning that they do on a general level what several later processes will do on a detailed or “drill down” level: Develop Project Management Plan, Direct and Manage Project Work, and Monitor and Control Project Work. By definition, the outputs they create will be used as inputs—and in some cases as models—for the outputs that the detail-level processes will create.

These three high-level integration processes are as follows:

1. Develop Project Management Plan is the first of 24 planning processes. It’s where the PM creates the high-level project management plan and coordinates the creation of the subsidiary components of the plan. It is followed by 23 detail-level planning processes, each creating subsidiary components and artifacts that all become part of the overall plan. Two examples follow:

• Plan Risk Management, where the risk management plan will be created

• Plan Quality Management, where the quality management plan will be created.

2. Direct and Manage Project Work creates the project deliverables and the work performance data. These outputs are used in many of the later processes, not just in the executing process group but throughout all five process groups.

3. Monitor and Control Project Work is the high-level process where the PM provides oversight on the project. Like Develop Project Management Plan, this process is followed by many detail-level controlling processes. Two examples follow:

• Control Schedule

• Control Risks.

To help see the high-level processes versus the detail-level processes governed by them, take a moment here to look at Appendix A: “Study Sheet for the Processes Covered on the PMP® Exam.”

Q3. Why is Develop the Project Management Plan not as straightforward as its name implies?

A3. The name Develop the Project Management Plan sounds like this is where the entire plan is created. But the initial output is only a rough outline of the detailed planning to be done later (in the subsequent planning processes). A better name for this process might be “Develop the Preliminary Project Management Plan,” since it’s about creating the outline and early components, not the full plan. This is an important point to keep in mind for the PMP® Test.

And since it’s part of integration management, another important part of this process is weaving all the later pieces of the project management plan together as they are developed and keeping them all updated and in sync. By the PMI model, a couple of subsidiary plans also are developed in this process.

Q4. Why is it crucial to have a project charter to start off a project?

A4. Working without a charter is considered flying blind, and if you’ve ever worked without one, chances are you have been burned by not having key project facts in a single document for all the stakeholders as a reference point.

Created in the first of the 47 PMI processes, Develop Project Charter, this document becomes an early blueprint of what the project will be all about and the business needs driving it. The charter also authorizes the PM to request resources for the project, names the sponsor, and provides a high-level summary of the project’s expected deliverables. Often included also are milestone dates, cost estimates, and key risks that will need to be managed to ensure project success.

For a list of the top 20 elements in a project charter and other details, see Chapter 1, Q&As 5–7.

Q5. What are the outputs of the Direct and Manage Project Work Process?

A5. It’s not obvious from the process name, but two outputs are created:

• Deliverables. This is the process whereby the project deliverables are created for the customer. Think of it as the part of each work day when you are wearing your “manager hat,” proactively leading your team and directing the workflow. Simply put, the output is the deliverables.

• Work Performance Data. These are the raw data about how your project is performing against the plan:

o Is the project on schedule?

o Is the project on budget?

o How much (how many, or what percentage) of the project’s deliverables has been created so far?

These data are the raw input for controlling costs, especially by the technique of earned value management (EVM; see Chapter 6, Q&As 19–43).

Q6. How does the Monitor and Control Project Work process go hand-in-hand with the Direct and Manage Project Work process?

A6. The late great John Lennon sang, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Many PMs can relate! We rush into work wearing our manager hats, wanting to carry out our day’s plans (Direct and Manage Project Work). But we often are hit with problems, bugs, issues, changes, and surprise meetings instead.

This is when we switch to our problem hats and jump into the Monitor and Control Project Work process. This is the high-level process in which PMs monitor their projects, looking for areas they need to control and correct.

In the pattern that we’ve seen several times in this knowledge area, this sets the stage for several later detail-level processes. Again, they all fall under the integration management process, but this time in the “monitoring and controlling” column. Here are few examples:

• Control Schedule (monitor and control time management)

• Control Costs (monitor and control cost management)

• Control Risks (monitor and control risk management)

• And so on down the column, all the way through Control Stakeholder Engagement.

Q7. What’s the single best way to prevent scope creep?

A7. The key to preventing scope creep is the Perform Integrated Change Control process. Scope creep is considered one of the biggest dangers to project success. Setting up a strong change control system early on in your planning will help control all changes that can affect the deliverables and scope of your project—that is, prevent scope creep.

A good integrated change control process is one that has teeth. Although any change request should be treated as potentially valid, a good change control system must be capable of denying changes, not just rubber-stamping and documenting them.

I can recommend the benefits of a strong change control system from firsthand experience. I led the implementation and management of a change management system for a large brokerage in Manhattan that controlled all software changes for thousands of projects. There was very little scope creep, because every planned change required electronic signatures by approvers designated for that project.

Q8. What steps or details are required for closing out a project (i.e., the Close Project or Phase process)?

A8. Most seasoned PMs have seen what can go wrong when a project is not closed out properly. It’s considered a best practice to go the extra mile at close-out and not just rush to the next project. Some standard close-out responsibilities include the following:

• When turning over the deliverables, be sure to obtain all necessary signoffs from your client, sponsor, and other stakeholders.

• Complete all required close-out paperwork.

• Make all final updates to the project plan and related artifacts.

• Take the time to capture final lessons learned from the project.

• Turn over your lessons learned and final project plans and artifacts to your company’s PMO, so they can be used as historical information for future projects.