Develop a Project Management Plan

00:01 This module covers the developed project management plan process from the Project Integration Management Knowledge Area.

00:09 It's very important for the exam because it covers the development of the project management plan and as we know, planning is absolutely essential for good project management.

00:20 The difficulty is low because you've probably done this already before, and memorization is medium because there's some things you may not have heard of before.

00:28 So pay particular attention to the development of the project management plan.

00:34 This is the project integration management knowledge area with all six of its processes outlined there.

00:41 We can see that the developed project management plan is the single Planning process and this particular knowledge area.

00:51 In relation to the domain tasks that this particular knowledge area supports, it's Planning Task nine, which is developed the Change Management Plan by defining how changes will be addressed and controlled in order to track and manage change.

01:07 What isn't an exact domain task alignment? Because this process covers all of the planning processes and doesn't directly map back to a domain task in the examination content outline.

01:21 The key themes of the developed project management plan process are always and without exception.

01:28 Prepare an appropriate plan or plans to guide the work you are going to do. Now what is appropriate for you and your project may be different to somebody else's project as well.

01:40 The key to successful project management is appropriate levels of Planning.

01:44 Not too much.

01:45 Not too little.

01:48 The other key theme is that the project management plan and all of its subsidiary documents and baselines, well, they are all an essential element of project success when done appropriately.

02:01 So let's start by looking at the inputs into the developed project management plan process. The first is our project charter.

02:09 Remember, the project charter is the single output from the developed project charter process. So we must have that first.

02:18 The other inputs are, well, all the other outputs from all the other Planning processes. This is all the other iterations of all the other plans, the baselines, the registers that we create, they all become inputs here.

02:32 This isn't a discrete process, it's a highly iterative process.

02:37 We may produce a first iteration or very draft project management plan and then as the other Planning processes are completed, we include that work in the further development and further iterations of our project management plan.

02:52 Other inputs that may be useful to us as appropriate things like enterprise environmental factors.

02:59 This could be such things as the organizational culture of risk.

03:03 Do we take lots of risks and therefore do little Planning? Or are we very risk adverse and do lots of Planning? Wider enterprise environmental factors include other industry regulations about the amount and type of Planning that we must do before proceeding.

03:19 Relevant organizational process assets that we may choose to use include our project management methodology and perhaps we have a blank template for a project management plan.

03:32 So we take these inputs and to these inputs, we apply where appropriate, the following tools and techniques.

03:39 The first being expert judgment.

03:41 And remember that you are an expert.

03:44 Your project team members are experts.

03:46 The project sponsor and client are experts and any other consultants that you choose to use to help you develop your project management plan are all experts.

03:56 And in order to get information from these experts, you will use a variety of facilitation techniques.

04:03 These could be meetings where you go over all the possible things that could be in your project management plan and decide which will be included and which will be excluded.

04:12 They could be brainstorming techniques to facilitate some lateral thinking and out of the box thinking they could be formal workshops where somebody guides the participants through development of elements of the project management plan.

04:27 You will be the ultimate judge, of which tools and techniques are useful to you, your project and the development of your particular project management plan.

04:36 So once we've taken the possible inputs that may be useful to us and applied the tools and techniques appropriately, we will then develop our particular project management plan and that is the sole output from the developed project management plan process.

04:51 The project management plan itself goes on to be an input into many, many, many other Planning processes and also some executing processes as well.

05:02 So the project management plan.

05:06 Is what we're going to use when we're doing work to check the work that we're doing against what we plan to do, so without it, we don't know if we're on track or not, and that's why we prepare a project management plan.

05:19 The project management plan itself can be summary and small, or it could be very detailed.

05:26 It all depends on the size and complexity of the projects that you are doing this.

05:31 The main thing is here we use our project management plan to detect variants, and if we detect variance between what we plan to do and what we're actually doing, we act.

05:43 According to our project management plan to either change what we're planning to do or what we're actually doing to ensure that at all time, the project stays on track, and that's a key part of successful project management at all times in a project what you plan to do, which is captured in the project management plan and what you're actually doing, the executing work must match.

06:05 And once again, if you find variance between the two, you must either change what you plan to do or what you are actually doing via your approved change control process.

06:17 So your project management plan will also spell out how changes are assessed and how decisions are made on any part of your project management plan or what you're doing.

06:28 So the Change Management Plan is a very important subsidiary plan of the Project Management Plan.

06:36 As we've discussed, the project management plan could be summary or detailed.

06:40 And what about the contents of the Project Management Plan? Well, the contents can include any or all of the following, if appropriate.

06:48 So the Project Management Plan can include a scope management plan, a schedule management plan, cost management plan, quality management plan, process improvement plan, human resource plan, staffing management plan Communications Management Plan Risk Management Plan Change Management Plan Configuration Management Plan Requirements Management Plan Procurement Management Plan Contract Management Plan.

07:14 All of those are outputs from their respective Planning processes.

07:18 The other elements of the project management plan can include a milestone list.

07:22 These are the significant schedule milestones that we must meet.

07:26 They can include the resource calendar, the scope baseline, the schedule baseline, the cost baseline, maybe even a quality baseline may also include the stakeholder management plan and Risk Register.

07:39 So in summary.

07:41 Always start your project management with the appropriate level of Planning and record this in your particular project management plan because remember, your project management plan should always reflect the size and complexity of the projects that you are doing.

07:58 And in conclusion, what we've covered is the developed project management plan process from the project integration knowledge area, and this has covered the development of the Project Management Plan, all of its subsidiary plans and baselines.