Project Planning Process Group – Part 4

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About this lesson

The project management planning processes integrate with each other to create all components of the project plan.  There are 24 project management planning processes. Part 4.

Quick reference

Project Planning Process Group – Part 4

The project management planning processes integrate with each other to create all components of the project plan.  There are 24 project management planning processes.

When to use

Once a project has been initiated it needs to be planned.  Projects that are very large or that are adaptive at the time of initiation will often go through a significant replan at the beginning of each phase of the project life cycle.  Of course whenever a project change is approved, the team must execute the appropriate planning processes to address the change.  

Instructions 

Planning Process Group

“Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve.” PMBOK® Guide

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017 Figure Part 2, 2-1, Page 562 and Glossary definition, Page 713.   

Every project needs to be planned.  Due to the unique nature of the project goal, objective or results, projects are full of uncertainty.  The particular set of deliverables, resources, timing and business environmental factors associated with each process requires a unique project plan.  All ten project management knowledge areas contribute to the development of the overall project management plan through the knowledge management plan.

There are 24 processes in the Planning group of project management processes.  Four of those processes are addressed in this course module and the other twenty are addressed in other modules.  The four in this module are: Plan Cost Management, Estimate Costs, Plan Resource Management, and Estimate Activity Resources.

Plan Cost Management (7.1)

“The process of defining how the project costs will be estimated, budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Cost Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process creates an approach for how cost is to be managed on the project, but not the actual creation of the budget.  For instance, if the organization will be using Earned Value Management (EVM), this process would set the parameters and guidance for the Cost Account Managers who actually plan and track project cost progress.  The cost management plan is a component of the project management plan.

Inputs:

  • Project Charter
  • Project Management Plan
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgement
  • Data Analysis
  • Meetings

Outputs:

  • Cost Management Plan

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 7-3, Page 235 and Glossary definition, Page 713.

Estimate Costs (7.2)

“The process of developing an approximation of the monetary resources needed to complete project work.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Cost Mgmt Knowledge Area

Estimate the financial resources required to complete each project activity.  This process often is an iterative process.  The initial estimate, sometimes referred to as a rough order of magnitude, will have a high degree of uncertainty, often exceeding +/- 25%.  As the project progresses, the estimates are refined and become more accurate.  The estimates will normally be in units of monetary currency, although they are occasionally created in the units of hours of work that are then converted into money.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgment
  • Analogous Estimating
  • Parametric Estimating
  • Bottom-up Estimating
  • Three Point Estimating
  • Data Analysis
  • Decision Making
  • Project Management Information System

Outputs: 

  • Cost Estimates
  • Basis of Estimates
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 7-5, Page 240 and Glossary definition, Page 706.

Plan Resource Management (9.1)

“The process of defining how to estimate, acquire, manage, and utilize physical and team resources.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                 Resource Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process clarifies for the project team and stakeholders the physical resources to be used by the project and the team members.  Projects are implemented by people, often applying physical resources to proejct activities.  In this process the way those people and resources will join the project and leave the project are identified.  Also it will plan the way the project team will operate.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Project Charter
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Data Representation
  • Organizational Theory
  • Expert Judgment
  • Meetings

Outputs: 

  • Resource Management Plan
  • Team Charter
  • Project Documents Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 9-3, Page 313 and Glossary definition, Page 713.

Estimate Activity Resources (9.2)

“The process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material, equipment and supplies necessary to perform each work.” PMBOK® Guide

Planning Process Group                                       Resource Mgmt Knowledge Area

This process is often confused with the Estimate Costs and Estimate Activity Duration processes.  In this process, the type of resource that is required to do the type of activity is determined.  The emphasis is on selecting the resource type.  The other processes will estimate the amount and timing of those resources.

Inputs:

  • Project Management Plan
  • Project Documents
  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets

Tools and Techniques:

  • Expert Judgment
  • Analogous Estimating
  • Parametric Estimating
  • Bottom-up Estimating
  • Meetings
  • Data Analysis
  • Project Management Information System

Outputs: 

  • Resource Estimates
  • Basis of Estimates
  • Resource Breakdown Structure
  • Project Document Updates

Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition, Project Management Institute, Inc., 2017, Figure 9-6, Page 321 and Glossary definition, Page 706. PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 Let's talk some more about Project Managment Processes in
  • 00:09 the Project Planning Process group.
  • 00:11 Now this is part four of six, and in this one, we'll focus on cost and
  • 00:15 resource planning.
  • 00:19 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines the plan cost
  • 00:23 management process as process of defining how the project costs will be estimated,
  • 00:28 budgeted, managed, monitored, and controlled.
  • 00:32 The inputs are the project charter and the project management plan.
  • 00:35 And it uses the enterprise environmental factors, and
  • 00:38 organizational process assets again.
  • 00:40 A similar set of inputs that we've seen on the other management planning processes.
  • 00:45 The output is the cost management plan,
  • 00:47 which is incorporated into the project management plan.
  • 00:50 Tools and techniques are expert judgement, data analysis, and meetings.
  • 00:54 Again, these are the similar tools we've seen for
  • 00:57 the other knowledge management processes.
  • 01:00 The next process is, estimate costs.
  • 01:03 The Project Management Body of Knowledge,
  • 01:05 the PMBOK Guide, defines this as the process of developing an approximation
  • 01:10 of the monetary resources needed to complete project work.
  • 01:14 The inputs are the project management plan and the project documents.
  • 01:19 In addition, we again will use the enterprise environmental factors, and
  • 01:22 organizational process assets.
  • 01:24 The outputs are the cost estimates and
  • 01:27 the basis of those estimates that are part of the project documents.
  • 01:31 And while we're at it, let's just update the other project documents.
  • 01:35 Finally, tools and techniques used will be many of the same estimating tools that
  • 01:39 we've already mentioned with respect to schedule estimates.
  • 01:42 And it includes analagous, parametric, bottom-up, and three-point estimating.
  • 01:47 And, of course, we still have expert judgement, data analysis, meetings, and
  • 01:50 decision making.
  • 01:52 Our new one that is added this time is the project management information system.
  • 01:57 Let's continue with our focus on cost management with
  • 02:00 the resource management processes.
  • 02:02 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide,
  • 02:05 defines the process of plan resource management as the process of defining how
  • 02:10 to estimate, aquire, managing, and utilize physical and team resources.
  • 02:15 The inputs for this process are the project managing plan,
  • 02:17 project charter, and project documents.
  • 02:20 And, of course, this process uses the enterprise environmental factors, and
  • 02:24 organizational process assets.
  • 02:26 The outputs of this process is the resource management plan that will also be
  • 02:31 incorporated into the project management plan.
  • 02:34 In addition, there's the output of the team charter, now,
  • 02:37 not to be confused with a project charter.
  • 02:40 The team charter is between the team members, and
  • 02:43 it covers how the team will be interacting with each other.
  • 02:46 This normally becomes a project document.
  • 02:48 Finally, this process is likely to lead to some updates
  • 02:52 to several of the other project documents, especially the schedule or risk documents.
  • 02:57 The tools and techniques used in this process are fairly generic,
  • 03:01 although we do have some classic people management approaches.
  • 03:04 These include expert judgement, data representation, meetings, and
  • 03:08 the new one, organizational theory.
  • 03:12 The last process in this lesson is also an estimating process.
  • 03:15 The process is estimate activity resources.
  • 03:19 The Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBOK Guide, defines this process as
  • 03:23 the process of estimating team resources and the type and quantities of material,
  • 03:28 equipment and supplies necessary to perform project work.
  • 03:33 The goal of this process is then to determine how many units
  • 03:36 of whatever resources are used will be required to complete each task.
  • 03:41 The inputs of this process are the project management plan, and project documents.
  • 03:46 You can bet that some of those documents are defining
  • 03:48 all the activities that are needed to do the tasks.
  • 03:51 And, of course, there are the normal inputs of enterprise environmental
  • 03:54 factors, and organizational process assets.
  • 03:57 The outputs are the resource breakdown structure, and
  • 04:00 the activity resource estimates, and, of course, the basis of those estimates.
  • 04:05 Also, there are likely to be some updates to the project documents.
  • 04:09 The tools and techniques for
  • 04:10 this process are slightly different than the other estimating processes.
  • 04:14 In particular, there's no three-point estimate or decision-making.
  • 04:18 However, there's still expert judgment, analogous estimating,
  • 04:21 bottom-up estimating, parametric estimating, data analysis meetings, and
  • 04:26 the project management information system.
  • 04:30 So those are the processes in which we focus on cost and
  • 04:33 resources while doing our project planning.
  • 04:36 Well, now let's take a look at some of the other planning processes.

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