Datasheet

What Is a Project?
7
Executing
Monitoring and Controlling
Closing
A number of individual processes collectively make up each group. For example, the Initi-
ating process group includes two individual processes, Develop Project Charter and Develop
Preliminary Project Scope Statement.
These groups, along with their individual processes, make up the project management pro-
cess. A project starts off in the Initiating group and proceeds through each of the groups until
it is either completed successfully and closed out or cancelled.
Often during the course of a project, you’ll find that you need to revisit a pro-
cess group (most likely the Planning group) to update or add information that
changes assumptions made previously. Project management is an iterative
process in that you discover information as you get further along in a project.
This may require changes and tweaking to previous work to keep documents,
plans, and the work of the project on track with the goals.
Next let’s take a look at a high-level definition of each of the process groups.
Initiating
The Initiating process is where the project comes to life. Initiating officially
acknowledges that a project should begin. It also indicates that resources (both human and
financial) should be encumbered for the project. The project manager is usually named here
and is authorized to begin work on the project. The first project documentation gets created
in this group in the form of the project charter. This document describes the goals of the
project, the business reason or justification for the project, a high-level description of the
project’s product or service, and more. The following are some of the accomplishments for
this process group:
Determining the major goals of the project
Assigning the project manager
Documenting and publishing the project charter
Planning
The Planning process group is where a great deal of the project management work
of the project occurs. Here you’ll further define the goals of the project, discover and docu-
ment deliverables and requirements, formulate communication plans, highlight risks that may
occur on the project, determine quality metrics, and more. The Planning processes are critical
to the functions of the remaining process groups. In project management terms, Planning is
more than likely the most important process group of all. The accomplishments for this pro-
cess group include the following:
Documenting and publishing the project scope statement
Establishing a project budget
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