m4 02 Whatisprojmgt

Project integration management involves coordinating all of the other project manage- 1
ment knowledge areas throughout a project’s life cycle. This integration ensures that all
the elements of a project come together at the right times to complete a project success-
fully. According to the PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, six main processes are involved in
project integration management:
1. Developing the project charter involves working with stakeholders to create
the document that formally authorizes a project—the charter.
2. Developing the project management plan involves coordinating all planning
efforts to create a consistent, coherent document—the project management
plan.
3. Directing and managing project work involves carrying out the project
management plan by performing the activities included in it. The outputs of
this process are deliverables, work performance information, change
requests, project management plan updates, and project documents
updates.
4. Monitoring and controlling project work involves overseeing activities to
meet the performance objectives of the project. The outputs of this process
are change requests, project management plan updates, and project docu-
ments updates.
Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
Project Integration Management
5. Performing integrated change control involves identifying, evaluating, and

managing changes throughout the project life cycle. The outputs of this pro-
cess include change request status updates, project management plan
updates, and project documents updates.
6. Closing the project or phase involves finalizing all activities to formally close the
project or phase. Outputs of this process include final product, service, or result 2
transition and organizational process assets updates. Figure 4-1 summarizes
these processes and outputs, and shows when they occur in a typical project.
Initiating
Process: Develop project charter
Output: Project charter
Planning
Process: Develop project management plan
Output: Project management plan
Executing
Process: Direct and manage project work
Outputs: Deliverables, work performance data, change requests,
project management plan updates, project documents
updates
Monitoring and Controlling
Process: Monitor and control project work
Outputs: Change requests, project management plan updates,
project documents updates
Process: Perform integrated change control
Outputs: Approved change requests, change log, project management
plan updates, project documents updates
Closing
Process: Close project or phase
Outputs: Final product, service, or result transition;
organizational process assets updates
Project Start Project Finish
© Cengage Learning 2014
FIGURE 4-1 Project integration management summary
Many people consider project integration management the key to overall project success.
Someone must take responsibility for coordinating all of the people, plans, and work required
to complete a project. Someone must focus on the big picture of the project and steer the
project team toward successful completion. Someone must make the final decisions when
conflicts occur among project goals or people. Someone must communicate key project
information to top management. These responsibilities belong to the project manager, whose
chief means for accomplishing all these tasks is project integration management.
Chapter 4
Good project integration management is critical to providing stakeholder satisfaction.

Project integration management includes interface management, which involves identify-
ing and managing the points of interaction between various elements of a project. The
number of interfaces can increase exponentially as the number of people involved in a
project increases. Thus, one of the most important jobs of a project manager is to estab-
lish and maintain good communication and relationships across organizational interfaces.
The project manager must communicate well with all project stakeholders, including cus- 3
tomers, the project team, top management, other project managers, and opponents of the
project.
What happens when a project manager does not communicate well with all stake-
holders? In the chapter’s opening case, Nick Carson seemed to ignore a key stakeholder
for the DNA-sequencing instrument project—his top management. Nick was comfortable
working with other members of the project team, but he was not familiar with his new job
as project manager or the needs of the company’s top management. Nick continued to do
his old job of software developer and took on the added role of software integrator. He
mistakenly thought project integration management meant software integration manage-
ment and focused on the project’s technical problems. He totally ignored what project
integration management is really about—integrating the work of all of the people involved
in the project by focusing on good communication and relationship management. Recall
that project management is applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet proj-
ect requirements, while also meeting or exceeding stakeholder needs and expectations.
Nick did not take the time to find out what top management expected from him as the
project manager; he assumed that completing the project on time and within budget was
sufficient to make them happy. Yes, top management should have made its expectations
more clear, but Nick should have taken the initiative to get the guidance he needed.
In addition to not understanding project integration management, Nick did not use
holistic or systems thinking (see Chapter 2). He burrowed into the technical details of his
particular project. He did not stop to think about what it meant to be the project manager,
how this project related to other projects in the organization, or top management’s expec-
tations of him and his team.
Project integration management must occur within the context of the entire organiza-
tion, not just within a particular project. The project manager must integrate the work of
the project with the ongoing operations of the organization. In the opening case, Nick’s
company was negotiating a potential buyout with a larger company. Consequently, top
management needed to know when the DNA-sequencing instrument would be ready, how
big the market was for the product, and if the company had enough in-house staff to con-
tinue to manage projects like this one in the future. Top management wanted to see a
project management plan and a schedule to help monitor the project’s progress and show
the potential buyer what was happening. When top managers tried to talk to Nick about
these issues, he soon returned to discussing the technical details of the project. Even
though Nick was very bright, he had no experience or real interest in many of the com-
pany’s business aspects. Project managers must always view their projects in the context
of the changing needs of their organizations and respond to requests from top manage-
ment. Likewise, top management must keep project managers informed of major issues
that could affect their projects and strive to make processes consistent throughout their
organization.
Project Integration Management
WHAT WENT WRONG?

The Airbus A380 megajet project was two years behind schedule in October 2006, caus-
ing Airbus’ parent company to face an expected loss of $6.1 billion over the next four
years. Why? The project suffered from severe integration management problems, or
“integration disintegration. … [W]hen pre-assembled bundles containing hundreds of
miles of cabin wiring were delivered from a German factory to the assembly line in
France, workers discovered that the bundles, called harnesses, didn’t fit properly into the
4
plane. Assembly slowed to a near-standstill, as workers tried to pull the bundles apart and
re-thread them through the fuselage. Now Airbus will have to go back to the drawing
board and redesign the wiring system.”1
How did this lack of integration occur? At the end of 2000, just as Airbus was giving
the go-ahead to the A380 project, the company announced that it was completing the
process of transforming itself into an integrated corporation. Since its founding in 1970,
Airbus had operated as a loose consortium of aerospace companies in several countries,
including France, Germany, Britain, and Spain. The company wanted to integrate all of
its operations into one cohesive business. Unfortunately, that integration was much eas-
ier said than done and caused major problems on the A380 project. For example, the
Toulouse assembly plant used the latest version of a sophisticated design software tool
called CATIA, but the design center at the Hamburg factory used an earlier version—a
completely different system dating from the 1980s. As a result, design specifications
could not flow easily back and forth between the two systems. Airbus’s top managers
should have made it a priority to have all sites use the latest software, but they didn’t,
resulting in a project disaster.
Following a standard process for managing projects can help prevent some of the typ-
ical problems new and experienced project managers face, including communicating with
and managing stakeholders. Before organizations begin projects, however, they should go
through a formal process to decide what projects to pursue.
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PROJECT SELECTION

Successful leaders look at the big picture or strategic plan of the organization to determine
what types of projects will provide the most value. Some may argue that project managers
should not be involved in strategic planning and project selection because top manage-
ment is usually responsible for these types of business decisions. But successful organiza-
tions know that project managers can provide valuable insight into the project selection
process.
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning involves determining long-term objectives by analyzing the strengths
and weaknesses of an organization, studying opportunities and threats in the business
environment, predicting future trends, and projecting the need for new products and ser-
vices. Strategic planning provides important information to help organizations identify and
then select potential projects.

m4 02 Whatisprojmgt

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

m4 02 Whatisprojmgt

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

m4 02 Whatisprojmgt

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Project integration management involves coordinating all of the other project manage- 1

5. Performing integrated change control involves identifying, evaluating, and

© Cengage Learning 2014

FIGURE 4-1 Project integration management summary

Good project integration management is critical to providing stakeholder satisfaction.

WHAT WENT WRONG?

STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PROJECT SELECTION

You might also like