Course: MGT 1201 Project Management

Semester: June 2024

Lecturer: Ms Jayashiry Morgan
 Chapter 4:
The Five Process Groups: From
Initiation to Closure
 Learning Outcomes
By the end of this session, students should be able to:

1. Define each of the five process groups: initiating, planning,

executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.
2. Identify the key activities and deliverables associated with
each process group.
3. Describe the sequential flow and interdependencies between
the process groups throughout the project lifecycle.
Project Management Process Groups
 Project Management Processes
• It is a set of interrelated actions and activities performed & effectively
managed to create a predefined product, service or results.
• Project Mgmt. process groups are grouped into 5 categories:- Initiating,
Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and Closing.
• Each process has inputs, tools & techniques which are used to get the
pre-specified output.
• It is globally applicable whether in India or in any country of world and
across all the industries like software development, power generation etc.
• Generally good and standard Engineering practices are followed.
• Process groups are not project life cycle process.
1. Initiating Process Group
 1. Initiating Process Group
• It is a process performed to define a new project or a new phase of an
existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.
• Initial scope is defined & initial financial resources are committed.
• Internal and external stakeholders the overall outcome of the project are
identified.
• Purpose of this group is to align the stakeholder’s expectation with the
project objectives.
• The project charter is prepared by Project sponsor or Project initiator with
the help of project Stakeholders.
• The project manager will be assigned.
 1. Initiating Process Group
• This all information is captured in the project charter and stakeholder
register, These will act as a medium of communication for stakeholder and
project manager & its team, that is why these two are the major
deliverables of this process group.
• When the project charter is approved, the project becomes officially
authorized.
• Project manager responsibilities comes into effect after the project
authorized/approved. He is given the authority to apply organizational
resources to the subsequent project activities.
2. Planning Process Group
 2. Planning Process Group
• Defining & refining objectives & selecting the best of the alternative
courses of action to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken
to address.
• As more project information or characteristics are gathered and
understood, additional planning will likely be required, This progressive
detailing of the project management plan is called progressive
elaboration, indicating that planning and documentation are iterative and
ongoing activities.
• The Project Management Plan is the major deliverable of this process
group.
• Project plans may be same for all groups or different groups.
3. Executing Process Group
 3. Executing Process Group
• Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project
management plan to satisfy the project specifications.
• This Process Group involves coordinating people and resources, Managing
stakeholder expectations, as well as integrating and performing the
activities of the project in accordance with the project management plan.
• Due to Bid management, testing , procurement etc, a large portion of the
project’s budget will be spend.
• During project execution, results may require planning updates & Re-
baselining (approved changes may be due to project deviation, new risk
etc).
4. Monitoring & Controlling Process
Group
4. Monitoring & Controlling Process Group
• Those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and
performance. Performance is measured & analyzed at regular intervals of
time.
• This process helps in identifying the areas where changes in the plan are
required like estimation of man hours; Inputs from concerned engineering
disciplines etc.
• Every variance from Project Management Plan is recorded, analyzed and
shared with Client and Top administration. This helps in adhering the
performance of team and project according to the required deliverables.
• Process helps in monitoring Efforts, Cost, Time & Resources.
• It helps project manager in configuration management.
5. Closing Process Group
 5. Closing Process Group
• Process performed to finalize all activities across all process groups to
formally close the project or phase. It verifies that the defined process are
completed or not in all process groups so as to complete the project.
• It also establish the premature closure of the project. It obtains
acceptance by the client or sponsor to formally close the project or phase.
• It concludes with post project analysis writing. A review has to be written
and handed over to client or to PMO to add in OPA’s. It helps in recording
impacts of tailoring to any process i.e. analization of change in process
inputs.
• Project team members and Project manager will write assessments,
releases project resources and handover all the relevant document to his
counterpart or client.
 Process Interactions
➢These process groups are linked by the result they produce-the result or outcome of one
often becomes an input to another.
▪ In each phase, monitoring and controlling is done simultaneously.
 Process Interactions
▪ Most processes are iterative & repetitive in nature.
➢The process management processes are presented as discrete elements with well
defined interfaces but in reality, they overlap and interact with each other.
Knowledge Areas
Benefits of Using the PMBoK Knowledge Areas

• Improved organization
• Project transparency
• Effective control
 #1 Improved organization

The PMBoK knowledge areas tell you, pretty comprehensively, what

you should be doing throughout the lifecycle of your project. They
signpost you to key documentation that should be completed and
to which tools and techniques can help.
 #2 Project Transparency

Using documents such as the project charter and project plan helps bring
clarity to the project. The project charter details the intended project
objective, project scope, and key project deliverables so everyone should be
clear on what the project is trying to achieve, and how.

It also lays out the roles and responsibilities of business stakeholders and
the project team so everyone knows who’s accountable for what.
 #3 Effective control

There are a number of project management knowledge areas that

focus on monitoring and control. Whether that’s project schedule
or cost management, or making sure you’ve detailed the change
control process as part of your project integration management,
they’ve got you covered here too.
Here’s a look at the five PM knowledge areas
we will cover in the next section:

• Project Integration Management

• Project Scope Management
• Project Schedule Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Stakeholder Management
#1 Project Integration Management

Project integration management is the coordination

of all project elements. This includes things like:

• Coordinating tasks
• Managing and evaluating resources
• Communicating with stakeholders
• Managing conflicts
• Balancing competing requests
 #2 Project Scope Management
Statistics concerning project duration make for even worse reporting — only
29% of projects run on time. This usually relates to managing the scope of
the project.

This knowledge area is critical, as scope creep — adding work that isn’t
authorized as a part of the project scope — is a real issue in projects and
affects the project timeline and budget, and the ability to effectively manage
resources. There are, of course, occasions where the project scope does
need to change mid-project which is why it’s so important to have an
effective change control process.
 #3 Project Schedule Management
During the planning phase of the project lifecycle, the project manager has to create the
project schedule. This involves taking the agreed project scope and breaking it down into
a task list to be completed over time.

For each task the project manager has to agree on a start and finish date. You’ll then
need to order the tasks by working out the relationships between the tasks and whether
any are dependent on each other.

Understanding how long each task will take and the relationship between them, helps to
identify those tasks where there’s some wiggle room as to when they’re delivered and
those which are on the critical path. Tasks on the critical path have to be delivered on
time or the whole project timeline is affected.

Earned value analysis is conducted during the project execution phase to determine if
the project is on track to deliver within budget and schedule.
 #4 Project Cost Management

Cost management is critical to keeping your project within budget. Only 43% of
projects are delivered within budget. Happily, as a knowledge area it’s one of the
simplest to understand. There are no acronyms and no fancy analysis tools. It’s just a
case of:

• Estimating the cost of the project tasks

• Determining the project budget based on your identified costs
• Controlling costs throughout the project lifecycle
 #5 Project Stakeholder Management
During the project initiation phase, you should spend a significant amount of
time identifying and analyzing project stakeholders. This analysis should
include plotting key stakeholders on an influence vs. interest matrix to
determine your key supporters and also those who are less keen.
What about the other 5 PMBoK
knowledge areas?
 #6 Project Quality Management

The desired quality of the output can have a significant influence on

project time and cost. It’s important to decide the quality level and
standards during the project initiation phase.
 #7 Project Resources Management

Good resource management is one of the most challenging areas of

project management.
#8 Project Communications Management

Having identified your stakeholders, you need to build a plan to

communicate effectively with them through the project lifecycle.
During project execution you’ll be putting your communications plan
into action and monitoring it to make sure it’s making a difference.
Internal communication is crucial.
 #9 Project Risk Management
This knowledge area is about the identification, prioritization, and mitigation of
risks. You’ll need to capture all identified risks in the project risk register.
Struggling for inspiration? Write down scope creep, project delay, and going
over budget. It happens in over 50% of projects.
 #10 Project Procurement Management

This is about planning when, and how, the project would procure
resources or services to support the project. The rest of the knowledge
area details how to conduct and control the procurement process.
 Watch This Video

Video Link: Click Here

Additional Knowledge: Click Here

 Class Activity
• This is a pair activity
• Each pair to select one process group and one PMBok
knowledge area (from the last 5).
• Use the whiteboard to write down your understanding
and findings on this topic.
• Other pairs to evaluate your findings.