Introduction to Project Management Knowledge Areas

Legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi once said, ‘Leaders aren’t born, they are made.’ And the saying couldn’t be truer. Project Managers are essentially leaders who lead a team and provide the necessary resources to accomplish a goal. Well, leading a team has never been an easy task, be it a kindergarten soccer team or a team of top scientists working on a space project. Thanks to the origin of project management concepts and studies in the previous century, now we have access to so many resources on all aspects of project management.

Project Management Institute (PMI) is a prestigious and one of the most widely recognized governing bodies in the study of project management. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK ^® GUIDE) is a publication of PMI, which serves as a fundamental resource for project management in any industry.  

PMBOK is an essential textbook for anyone looking to get a PMI certification and it can also greatly benefit you if you want to learn about project management principles. The emerging technologies, rapid market changes, and new approaches have been pushing professions to evolve and project management is not immune to change. PMBOK in its seventh edition has incorporated all the developmental changes that intend to meet the changing requirements of project management while keeping intact the core principles.

The Project Management Knowledge Areas are some of the essential components of project management offered by PMBOK. There are 10 project management knowledge areas one needs to be acquainted with to understand project management concepts. They are the frameworks on which the management processes are constructed.

Read more about the PMBOK Guide and Project Management Certification.

 And in this blog let us discuss each of the project management knowledge areas in detail.

1) Project Integration Management
2) Project Scope Management
3) Project Schedule Management
4) Project Cost Management
5) Project Quality Management
6) Project Resource Management
7) Project Communications Management
8) Project Risk Management
9) Project Procurement Management
10) Project Stakeholders Management

Project Integration Management

Project Integration, as the name suggests is a broad spectrum under which all the management process for the projects are included and forms a single entity. To understand the essential principles of project integration management, we need to know the different phases of a project.

The initiation phase – is the beginning of the process, wherein an initial report is drafted and the objective, stakeholders, etc. are defined.

The planning phase – is the phase of extensive planning for the project to take place. A project management plan is drafted which includes the communication plan, resource allocation, scope, etc.

Execution phase – here the actual project takes place according to the project management plan.

Monitoring and controlling phase – continuous monitoring of the project is essential to make sure the goal sets are aligned with the final objective and defects and scope creeps are controlled.

Closing phase – this signals the completion of the project, after which the project is handed over to the next team in line or the customer.

Project integration management covers all the project management knowledge areas. It combines all the individual processes and tasks into a single project and establishes a well-defined goal. It focuses more on the big-picture, with its broad scope it can be referred back at every stage of the project.

Project Scope Management

Defining the scope is an important aspect of project management. The scope of a project encompasses the requirement for the project, the goals, and its missions. In real life, the stakeholder’s needs and requirements will keep changing as the project progresses. Hence scope creeps are common occurrences in projects.

Project scope management defines the amount of work that needs to be done to deliver the project. And it will help manage any deviation from the project goals and objectives. Here are some of the things to keep in mind while implementing project scope management,

- Planning the scope

- Collecting the requirements

- Defining the scope

- Creating a Work Breakdown structure

- Validating the scope

- Controlling the scope

Project Time Management

The time frame for each task in a project must be included in the project management plan. Some might overestimate the timeline of the entire project and some might underestimate it. Many things depend on the completion time of the project, as they usually consist of a large number of tasks and different teams or individuals working on them. The team members might also be required to work in different shifts and locations.

Considering all these factors are very important to implement effective time management. Project time management will throw light on which task will be scheduled or prioritized and how the resources will be managed throughout the project. This will help avoid unnecessary crashes and delays. Effective project time management will ensure that all the processes are synchronized and do not interfere with using the resources and follow the specified sequence for completion.

Here are some of the benefits of having project time management,

Project time management will help reduce the stress associated with working on deadlines.

Since all the activities are pre-planned along with their timelines. There will be no need for new approvals or meetings, hence will result in increased productivity.

Sticking to the deadline of individual tasks will help finish the project on time.

Since planning each task will save a lot of time for ad-hoc requirements and tasks. It saves money.

Project Cost Management

Project cost management provides knowledge on the estimation techniques to calculate the total amount required to run the project.  Cost efficiency is one of the most desirable aspects of the project management system. No one wants to spend more money than they have to. So keeping the budges low and at a reasonable level is important to get approvals from the stakeholders.

Project cost management is not just estimating the total anticipated budget of the project, it involves continuous monitoring of the ongoing costs of carrying out each task, finding out the outlier, and bringing the budget in control if the quoted figure is treading out of control.

Here are the important steps involved in project cost management,

Cost Management Planning – in this stage a plan is created that determines the methods and procedures for estimating the budgets. It involves planning, managing, expense, and control of project costs.

Cost Estimation – here the cost is estimated for each task involved in the project. Like estimation of labor, equipment, material, etc.

Budget Determining – in this process all the separate budget estimations are integrated into a single budget known as the project budget.

Cost Control – this is the analysis of how the project budget is spent and the status of the budget at any particular stage of the project.

Project Quality Management

The delivery of a project with quality is of utmost importance for any organization. While project quality is determined by a lot of factors, it is mainly influenced by project cost and project timeline. The more money and time is spent the better will the quality of the project. Unfortunately, almost all the projects are carried out with some or the other restriction. Hence this area of knowledge focuses on achieving quality within the range of available resources.

Project quality is achieved over time with the consistency of the process. By understanding the expectations of the stakeholders, and working alongside the team with an achievable timeline and cost-efficient processes, you can deliver a great product every time. The project quality management includes,

Quality Management Planning – this process involves creating a document that contains the specifications of the product to meet the standard of quality.

Quality Management – it consists of the specifications of the quality of the deliverables, which should be regularly monitored.

Quality Control – this process is to make sure that the quality of the deliverables meets the expectation.

Project Resource Management

Time and resources are the two most important aspects to be considered in a project. Efficiently managing these two will lighten half of the burden of a project manager. There is no use in having a huge amount of resources if there is no skilled person to work with them. So project resource management focuses on finding the right people with the right amount of skillset to work on the project.

The role of project managers is not just scheduling resources for a set of employees, they are responsible for the growth of their team members, bridging the knowledge gap they might face in a project, and creating opportunities for their team to better utilize their skills.

Here are some of the main functions of project resource management,

Resource management planning involves a document that defines all the resource requirements of a project. For the most part, this plan involves managing human resources. It analysis the project team’s roles, responsibilities, and ability to perform the tasks involved in the project.

Activity resource estimation is carried out to make sure all the resources to carry out the project are identified and the cost is estimated for the resources.

Resource acquisition is about acquiring the resources for the project.

Team development is creating a team of skilled and qualified individuals and giving necessary training if there are any special requirements. Interaction among the team members is important to building a good team.

Team management is monitoring and managing the team so that the member carry out their roles efficiently and deliver a quality product.

Resource control is carried out by monitoring how the resources are utilized at every stage of the project.

Project Communication Management

Communication is the key aspect of running a successful project. The project requires a vast amount of communication with different modes, schedules, and audiences. The project manager is responsible for managing and controlling the communication flow, and it is important not to cause information overload. And there are the important functions a project manager should perform,

Communication management planning: The communication plan should contain the entire communication requirement for a project, its frequency, modes, and audiences.

Communication management: This is the implementation stage of the communication plan.

Communication monitoring: This is monitoring and revising the communication plan to adapt to the changing needs.

Project Risk Management

Every project comes with its risks. And there might also be unforeseen risks from uncontrollable external factors. This knowledge area specializes in providing a mechanism to mitigate the risks and bring the project back on track. While no one can predict everything that can go wrong with a project, having a project risk management system will minimize the damages through constant monitoring and evaluation.  

A successful project manager should be able to carry out these risk-management tasks,

- Risk management planning
- Risk Identification
- Qualitative risk analysis
- Quantitative risk analysis
- Risk response planning
- Risk response implementation
- Risk monitoring

Project Procurement Management

Some projects might require resources from a third party or a vendor, even team members might have to be outsourced. And these factors need to be considered while drafting a project management plan and need to be integrated with the in-house activities for smooth functioning.

Working with a third-party, vendor, or outsourcing agency needs to be thought through in terms of budget too. And clear steps outlining the operation need to be done. Here are the main components of project procurement management,

- Procurement Management Planning outlines the project needs and set of parameters to hire specialists.

- Procurement conducting is the process of searching, interviewing, and hiring specialists from outsourced agencies.

- Procurement control is monitoring and managing the contracts and communicating with them regarding the changes in requirements.

Project Stakeholder Management

Stakeholders are the immediate customers to whom the project is delivered. And it is them who decide the success and failure of the project. While everyone interested in the project can be identified as a stakeholder at different stages of the project, the ultimate stakeholder is the one who initiates the project, specifies its needs, regulates the functions, and finally ascertains its success.

Here are the main components of project stakeholder management,

- Stakeholder identification

- Stakeholder engagement planning

- Stakeholder engagement management

- Monitoring the stakeholder engagement.

Conclusion

PMP certification is a globally recognized and internationally accredited project management certification for professionals. And it is aligned with PMBOK® v7, so if you are a professional trying to get a PMP certification, you must be well versed in the concepts in PMBOK.

You should consider PMP Certification Training by Sprintzeal if you want industry-standard training and professional guidance.

Sprintzeal is ATO (Accredited Training Organization) providing quality professional certification training.