Chapter 3:
The Project Management Process
Groups
Information Technology Project
Management, 9th Edition
Note: See the text itself for full
citations.
Learning Objectives
Describe the five project management (PM)
process groups, the typical level of activity for
each, and the interactions among them
Understand how the PM process groups relate
to the PM knowledge areas
Discuss how organizations develop information
technology PM methodologies to meet their
needs
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth
Sixth Edition
Edition Copyright 2019 2
Learning Objectives (continued)
Review a case study of an organization
applying the project management process
groups to manage an information
technology project; describe outputs of
each process group; and understand the
contribution that effective project initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring and
controlling, and closing make to project
success
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 3
Learning Objectives (continued)
Review a case study of the same project
managed with an agile focus and compare
the key differences between an agile
approach and a predictive approach
Describe several templates for creating
documents for each process group
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 4
Project Management (PM) Process
Groups
Project management can be viewed as a number
of interlinked/related processes
A process is a series of actions directed toward a
particular result
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 5
Project Management (PM) Process
Groups
The project management process groups include:
◦ Initiating processes
◦ Planning processes
◦ Executing processes
◦ Monitoring and controlling processes
◦ Closing processes
Process groups can be applied to each phase of
the project or to the entire project
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 6
Process Groups and Project
Phases
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 7
Initiating processes
Defining and authorizing the project
Prepare project charter
Register stakeholder
Determine if the project is worth continuing, should
be redirected, or canceled
May take place at the beginning of each phase
Reexamine the business need for the project
during every phase of the project life cycle
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 8
Planning processes
Scope management plan
◦ Define the work that needs to be done (requirements)
Schedule management plan
◦ Schedule activities related to the work
Cost management plan
◦ Estimate cost for performing the work
Quality management plan
◦ Product meets written specifications and intended use
Procurement management plan
◦ Decide what resource to procure to accomplish the work
Revise plan during each phase for changes
◦ Ensure that the project addresses organization needs
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 9
Execution processes
Acquiring project team and resources to carry out
various plans and various tasks
Produce product, services, or results of the project
or phase
Perform quality assurance
Manage stakeholder expectation
Conduct procurement
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 10
Monitoring and controlling
processes
Measure progress against all plans
Take corrective actions when there is deviation
Ensure that progress meet project objectives
Ensure that the project meets stakeholders’ needs
and quality standards
Reporting performance to stakeholders
Stakeholder can identify any necessary changes
to keep project on track
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 11
Planning, Execution & Control
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 12
Closing processes
End the project efficiently
Archiving project files
Closing out contracts
Document lessons learned
Receiving formal acceptance of the delivered work
from customers
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 13
Percentage of Time Spent on Each
Process Group
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 14
Process Output (outcomes)
Group
initiation Complete project character, complete a business case (the need for
the project)
planning Complete project scope, schedule, cost, quality, procurement plans
Work breakdown structure (WBS)
Revise plans, Ensure the plans address organization need
Execution Take the actions necessary to complete the work described in planning
(e.g. purchase HW and SW, develop and install SW), deliver the actual
work of the project, perform quality assurance
Monitoring & Monitor deviations from the plan, take corrective actions to mach
controlling progress with the plan, measure progress toward project objectives,
ensure that deliverable are being completed and objectives are being
met in terms of scope, cost, time, and quality, complete a performance
report
Closing Gain acceptance for project results, products, and services
Report lessons learned
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 15
Mapping the Process Groups to the
Knowledge Areas
You can map the main activities of each PM
process group into the ten knowledge areas using
the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition
◦ Note that there are activities from each knowledge area
under the planning process groups
◦ Table 3-1 provides a big-picture view of the relationships
among the 49 project management activities, the process
groups in which they are typically completed, and the
knowledge areas into which they fit
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 16
Developing an IT Project
Management Methodology
Just as projects are unique, so are approaches to
project management
A methodology describes how things should be done.
Many organizations develop their own project
management methodologies, especially for IT projects
Different organizations have different PM
methodologies
The PMBOK is a standard methodology that
describes best practice for should be done
Projects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2),
Agile, Rational Unified Process (RUP), and Six Sigma
provide different project management methodologies
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 17
JWD project
Job Well Done (JWD) is a consulting organization
JWD provides consulting services on PM to other
organizations
JWD aims to initiate a new Intranet site project
The site allows JWD to share its PM knowledge by
providing an exemplary process for managing its
projects
Projects goals
◦ allows JWD to work effectively
◦ Allows customers to access information
◦ Bringing in more business
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 18
Project Pre-initiation
It is good practice to lay the groundwork for a project before it
officially starts
Senior managers often perform several pre-initiation tasks:
◦ Determine the scope, time, and cost constraints for the project
◦ Identify the project sponsor
◦ Select the project manager
◦ Develop a business case for a project
◦ Meet with the project manager to review the process and
expectations for managing the project
◦ Determine if the project should be divided into two or more
smaller projects
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 19
JWD pre-initiation tasks
Project scope: Intranet system to provide consultants
and customers with valuable information on PM
Project time estimate: 6 months
Project cost estimate: $140,000
Project sponsor: Joe Fleming, also CEO
Project manger: Erica Bill, PMO director
Business case (see Table 3-2)
If there is a strong business case Joe & Erica will meet
to review the process and expectations for managing the
project, else the project would not continue
The project will not be divided in the case
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 20
Business case
Justify investing in the project and includes:
1. Introduction/background
2. Business objective
3. Current situation and problem statement
4. Critical assumptions and constraints
5. Analysis of options and recommendation
6. Preliminary project requirements
7. Budget estimate
8. Schedule estimate
9. Potential risk
10. exhibits
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 21
Initiating (1 of 5)
Knowledge Area Initiating Process Initiating Process
Project Integration Develop project charter Project charter
Management Assumption log
Project Stakeholder Identify stakeholders Stakeholder register
Management Change requests
Project management
plan updates
Source: PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition, 2017
Project documents
updates
Table 3-3 Project initiation knowledge areas, processes,
and outputs
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 22
Initiating (2 of 5)
Name Position Internal/ Project Contact Information
External Role
Joe CEO Internal Sponsor joe_fleming@jwdconsultin
Fleming [Link]
Erica Bell PMO Director Internal Project erica_bell@jwdconsulting.c
Manager om
Michael Senior Internal Team michael_chen@jwdconsulti
Chen Consultant Member [Link]
Kim Business External Advisor kim_phuong@[Link]
Phuong Analyst
Louise PR Director Internal Advisor louise_mills@jwdconsultin
Mills [Link]
Table 3-4 Stakeholder Register
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 23
Initiating (3 of 5)
Name Level of Level of Potential Management Strategies
Interest Influence
Joe High High Joe likes to stay on top of key projects and make
Fleming money. Have a lot of short, face-to-face
meetings and focus on achieving the
financial benefits of the
project.
Louise Low High Louise has a lot of things on her plate, and she
Mills does not seem excited about this project. She
may be looking at other job opportunities.
Show her how this project will help the
company and her resume.
Table 3-5 Stakeholder Management Strategy
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 24
Initiating (4 of 5)
Drafting the project charter
◦ See Table 3-6 for an example
Holding a project kick-off meeting
◦ It’s good practice to hold a kick-off meeting at the
beginning of a project so that stakeholders can meet
each other, review the goals of the project, and discuss
future plans
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 25
Project charter
1. Project title
2. Start date and end date
3. Budget information
4. Project manger
5. Project objectives
6. Main project success criteria
7. Approach
8. Roles and responsibilities
9. Sign off (signature of all of stakeholders)
10. comments
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 26
Project Charters and Kick-off
Meetings
See Table 3-6 for an example of a charter
Charters are normally short and include key
project information and stakeholder signatures
It’s good practice to hold a kick-off meeting at the
beginning of a project so that stakeholders can
meet each other, review the goals of the project,
and discuss future plans
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 27
Initiating (5 of 5)
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 28
Project Planning (1 of 3)
The main purpose of project planning is to guide
execution
◦ Every knowledge area includes planning information (see
Table 3-7)
Key outputs included in the JWD project
◦ Team contract
◦ Project scope statement
◦ Work breakdown structure (WBS)
◦ Project schedule, in the form of a Gantt chart with all
dependencies and resources entered
◦ List of prioritized risks (part of a risk register)
See sample documents
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 29
Scope statement
1. Project title, date of statement, prepared by who
2. Project summary and justification
3. Product characteristics and requirements
4. Summary of project deliverable
5. Project success criteria
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 30
Project Planning (2 of 3)
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 31
Project Planning (3 of 3)
Ranking Potential Risk
1 Lack of inputs from internal consultants
2 Lack of inputs from client representatives
3 Security of new system
4 Outsourcing/purchasing for the article retrieval and Ask the Expert features
5 Outsourcing/purchasing for processing online payment transactions
6 Organizing the templates and examples in a useful fashion
7 Providing an efficient search feature
8 Getting good feedback from Michael Chen and other senior consultants
9 Effectively promoting the new system
10 Realizing the benefits of the new system within one year
Table 3-10 List of Prioritized Risks
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 32
Project Execution
Usually takes the most resources to perform
◦ Project managers must use their leadership skills to
handle the many challenges that occur during project
execution
Table 3-11 lists the knowledge areas, executing
processes, and outputs of project execution
◦ Many project sponsors and customers focus on
deliverables related to providing the products, services,
or results desired from the project
◦ It is equally important to document change requests and
update planning documents
A milestone report can help focus on completing
major milestones
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 33
Project Monitoring and Controlling
Involves measuring progress toward project
objectives, monitoring deviation from the plan, and
taking correction actions
◦ Affects all other process groups and occurs during all
phases of the project life cycle
Outputs include performance reports, change
requests, and updates to various plans
◦ See Table 3-13
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 34
Project Closing
Involves gaining stakeholder and customer
acceptance of the final products and services
◦ Even if projects are not completed, they should be closed
out to learn from the past
Outputs may include project files and
lessons-learned reports
◦ Also may include a final report and presentation
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 35
Case Study 2: JWD Consulting’s
Project Management Intranet Site
(Agile Approach)
An agile project team typically uses several
iterations or deliveries of software instead of
waiting until the end of the project to provide one
product
◦ Teams do not normally make a snap decision about
whether to manage a project using an agile approach or
not
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 36
Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and
Ceremonies (1 of 5)
Product owner: person responsible for the business
value of the project and for deciding what work to do and
in what order, as documented in the product backlog
ScrumMaster: person who ensures that the team is
productive, facilitates the daily Scrum, enables close
cooperation across all roles and functions, and removes
barriers that prevent the team from being effective
Scrum team or development team: cross-functional team
of five to nine people who organize themselves and the
work to produce the desired results for each sprint,
which normally lasts two to four weeks
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 37
Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and
Ceremonies (2 of 5)
An artifact is a useful object created by people
Scrum artifacts
◦ Product backlog: list of features prioritized by business
value
◦ Sprint backlog: highest-priority items from the product
backlog to be completed within a sprint
◦ Burndown chart: shows the cumulative work remaining in
a sprint on a day-by-day basis
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 38
Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and
Ceremonies (3 of 5)
Scrum ceremonies
◦ Sprint planning session: meeting with the team to select
a set of work from the product backlog to deliver during a
sprint
◦ Daily Scrum: short meeting for the development team to
share progress and challenges and plan work for the day
◦ Sprint reviews: meeting in which the team demonstrates
to the product owner what it has completed during the
sprint
◦ Sprint retrospectives: meeting in which the team looks for
ways to improve the product and the process based on a
review of the actual performance of the development
team
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 39
Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and
Ceremonies (4 of 5)
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 40
Scrum Roles, Artifacts, and
Ceremonies (5 of 5)
Process Group Scrum Activity
Initiating
Determine roles
Decide how many sprints will compose each release and the scope of
software to deliver
Planning
Create product backlog
Create sprint backlog
Create release backlog
Plan work each day in the daily Scrum
Document stumbling blocks in a list
Executing
Complete tasks each day during sprints
Produce a shippable product at the end of each sprint
Information Technology Project Table 3-18 Unique Scrum activities by process group
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 41
Project Pre-Initiation and Initiation
Main differences between pre-initiation in this case
and the first case
◦ Determining roles and deciding what functionality would
be delivered as part of each release
◦ How many sprints will be required to complete a release
◦ How many releases of software to deliver
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 42
Planning (1 of 3)
Because Scrum implies that team members work
as a self-directed group, coached by the
ScrumMaster, a team charter should not be
necessary
Descriptions of work are identified in the product
and sprint backlogs
More detailed work is documented in technical
stories
Team must estimate a velocity or capacity for
each sprint
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 43
Planning (2 of 3)
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 44
Planning (3 of 3)
Product Backlog Sprint Backlog
1. User story templates, samples, and point person 1. User story templates, samples, and point person
2. WBS templates, samples, and point person 2. WBS templates, samples, and point person
3. Project schedule templates, samples, and point 3. Project schedule templates, samples, and point
person person
4. Ability to charge customers for some intranet 4. Ability to charge customers for some intranet
products and services products and services
5. Ability to collect user suggestions 5. Ability to collect user suggestions
6. Business case templates, samples, and point
person
7. Ask the Expert feature
8. Stakeholder management strategy templates,
samples, and point person
9. Risk register templates, samples, and point
person
10. Etc.
Table 3-19 Product and Sprint Backlogs
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 45
Executing
The most time and money should be spent on
executing
◦ Plans are implemented to create the desired product
Agile approach: team produces several iterations
of a potentially shippable product
◦ Users can access and make suggestions
Communications are different
◦ Project team meets every morning, physically or virtually
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 46
Monitoring and Controlling (1 of 2)
The two main tools for monitoring and controlling
in the Scrum framework
◦ Daily Scrum: held each morning to plan and
communicate work for the day and discuss any risks,
issues, or blockers
◦ Sprint review: work progress within a sprint can be
represented on a sprint board maintained by the
ScrumMaster
● Burndown chart: an important artifact used to graphically
display progress on each sprint
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 47
Monitoring and Controlling (2 of 2)
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 48
Closing
After the sprint review, the ScrumMaster leads a
sprint retrospective
◦ Team reflects on what happened during the sprint
Sprint retrospective is intended to answer two
fundamental questions
◦ What went well during the last sprint that we should
continue doing?
◦ What could we do differently to improve the product or
process?
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 49
Templates by Process Group
Table 3-20 lists several templates used to prepare
the documents shown in this chapter and later
chapters
◦ Download these and additional templates in one
compressed file from the Companion website for this text
or from the author’s website.
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 50
Advice for Young Professionals
Most organizations have templates for many
different kinds of documents
◦ Ask your boss, co-workers, and other colleagues for
templates
◦ If you don’t like the templates you find, look at other
sources
◦ If you can improve them, share your work with others
Templates are great, but completed templates
with good information are even more useful
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 51
Chapter Summary
The five project management process groups are
initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and
controlling, and closing
You can map the main activities of each process
group to the ten knowledge areas
Some organizations develop their own information
technology project management methodologies
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 52
Chapter Summary
The JWD Consulting case study provides an
example of using the process groups and shows
several important project documents
The second version of the same case study
illustrates how to use Scrum, the leading agile
method, to manage the project
Information Technology Project
Management, Ninth Edition Copyright 2019 53