PROJECT PLANNING

Project Planning



Project Planning

Introduction

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in the USA.PMI publishes A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), which describes project management practices that are common to "most projects, most of the time." PMI also offers multiple certifications. The Project Management Institute defines a total of 44 project processes that describe activities throughout a project's life cycle. One of the most prominent of the process groups is project planning, evident in that nearly half of the processes occur in this group(Lewis 2006).

Analysis

In order to understand how the Project Management Institute (PMI) recommends that projects be run it is necessary to understand the project management life cycle. The project management life cycle is the framework around which project management activities are structured. It is a key concept in formal project management according to PMI. In this paper the structure and function of the project management life cyle is introduced along with a number of related terms that are commonly confused. (Albert 2004) 

Life Cycle

The term ”life cycle” implies two things: that a process is perpetual and that the sequence of events is obligatory or uni-directional. A typical life cycle is depicted below. There is no beginning or end to a life cycle and the sequence of events cannot change. A seed cannot go directly to being a mature plant nor revert back to the blossom stage(Harrison 2004). 

The Project Management Life Cycle

The term “life cycle” is misleading, because it is neither a perpetual circle of events nor is the sequence of events rigidly fixed. There are five stages to the project management life cycle: The five stages usually occur in sequence. If the project is relatively simple and there is no need to rethink or re-plan the project, the sequence of stages may be as simple as that depicted above(Albert 2004). If there are problems with the original project plan, then the controlling function leads back to planning. Execution may be delayed while additional planning takes place or may continue during re-planning. The new or modified project plan is then executed. During execution controlling processes are undertaken to ensure that the correct work results are being achieved. Below is a project management life cycle that has been forced by problems to return to planning. During large complex projects it is often necessary to return to planning several times. In this case, the project management life cycle can become very complex with multiple repeats of planning and even initiating processes. Below is an illustration of a complex project management life cycle involving multiple returns to the drawing board. (Bjarne 2007) 

In order to understand project management according to PMI, it is necessary to understand the boundaries between the project-management-life-cycle stages or process groups. For example, it is necessary to know when initiating is over and what documents must be ready in order to begin execution. In order to understand the boundaries between the stages, it is necessary to know what management activities (called processes) are included within each of the stages (called process groups). 

Planning

The planning of projects is thoroughly described from the point of view of different knowledge areas ...