Business Project Management

How To Develop Project Management Plan?

Develop Project Management Plan

Without a proper Project Management plan in place, clients will be subject to chaotic management, unclear objectives, a lack of sufficient resources, and reliance on unrealistic planning that involves significant risks that result in low-quality deliverables derived from high expenditures.

Earned Value Management (Planned Value, Earned Value, Actual Cost, etc.) are used too to monitor the plan established at the beginning of the project

Definition of Develop Project Management Plan

Develop Project Management Plan is the process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan.

The key benefit of this process is the production of a comprehensive document that defines the basis of all project work & how the work will be performed

This process is carried out once or at predefined project points. The project management plan may either be a summary or a detailed strategy.

The project management plan should be baselined (Scope, time, and cost). so that the project execution can be measured and compared to those references and performance can be managed. The Project Management Plan can be updated as many times as necessary. There is no formal process needed at this time. However, once it is centered, it can only be changed via the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

Develop Project Management Plan Inputs

1.Project Charter:

  • Project Team uses the project charter as a starting point for the initial project planning in construction management process.
  • The project charter should define the high-level information that will be elaborated.

2.Outputs from other processes:

  • Subsidiary plans and baselines that are output from other planning processes are inputs to this process
  • Changes to these documents may necessitate updates to the project management plan

3. Enterprise Environmental Factors

  • Government and environmental regulations
  • Industry standards
  • Labor conditions in the market
  • Organizational structure and management policies of the performing organization
  • Facilities in which the project will be performed
  • Existing company systems and software that the project will use

4. Organizational Process Assets

  • Standards, processes, procedures, and policies
  • Project files and lessons learned from previous projects
  • Templates for project plan and other project documents
  • Change control procedures
  • Historical information and lessons learned repository

Develop Project Management Plan Tools & Techniques

1.Expert Judgment

Individuals or groups with specialized knowledge of or training such as (Tailoring, develop additional components, determine resources and skill level, define Configuration Management, prioritize work on the project and ensure resources are appropriately allocated).

2.Data Gathering

Brain Storming: Attendees include the project team members although other subject matter experts (SMEs) or stakeholders may also participate
Checklists: May guide the project manager to develop the plan or may help to verify that all the required information is included in the project management plan
Focus Groups: bring together stakeholders to discuss the project management approach and the integration of the different components of the project management plan
Interviews: Interviews are used to obtain specific information from stakeholders to develop the project management plan or any component plan or project document

3.Interpersonal and Team Skills

Conflict Management: It may be necessary to bring diverse stakeholders into alignment on all aspects of the project management plan.
Facilitation: ensures effective participation, consideration of all ideas, mutual understanding among participants, buy-in from all participants, and follow-up on actions and agreements achieved.
Meeting Management: It is necessary to ensure that the numerous meetings that are necessary to develop, unify, and agree on the project management plan are well run.
Meetings: are used to discuss the project approach, determine how work will be executed to accomplish the project objectives and establish the way the project will be monitored and controlled. The project kick-off meeting is usually associated with the end of planning (like MEP Planning) and the start of executing.

Develop Project Management Plan Outputs

Project Management Plan

The Project Management Plan is an “integration” of baselines (such as scope, schedule, and cost) and subsidiary management plans (such as Scope Management Plan, Schedule Management Plan, Cost Management Plan, Risk Management Plan example in construction, etc.) from other planning processes. It may also include Change Management Plan, Configuration Management Plan, Performance Measurement Baseline, project life cycle chosen for the project, development approach (waterfall, agile, hybrid, etc.), and management review points.

Subsidiary management plans:

  • Scope management plan
  • Requirements management plan
  • Schedule management plan
  • Cost management plan
  • Quality management plan
  • Resource management plan
  • Communications management plan
  • Risk management plan
  • Procurement management plan
  • Stakeholder engagement plan

Baselines:

  • Scope baseline
  • Schedule baseline
  • Cost baseline

Additional components:

  • Change management plan
  • Configuration management plan
  • Performance measurement baseline
  • Project life cycle
  • Development approach
  • Management reviews

Recommended Resources

Advanced PMP Questions & Answers

See Also
Develop Project Charter
Critical Path Management