Functional Areas of Project Management

So far in this eBook, we have dealt with the organizational aspects of the project and the project life cycle, both of these ways of looking at projects can help you to appreciate the principles of project management. However, you can also look at project management from the perspective of the individual processes involved. These processes can be organized into functional areas, for example: managing the scope, managing the costs, managing the schedule, managing risk, etc.

PMBOK® Functional Areas

The reason for doing this is that it allows complex high-level tasks to be broken down into smaller tasks, a common practice when learning something new. For example, when learning to drive you concentrate on specific tasks, such as gear changing, hill starts etc., before you drive on an interstate road or motorway.

Extending this approach to project management makes tasks easier to manage, resource, and control. Thinking about project management activities like scoping, scheduling, quality, and risk in isolation before trying to integrate them into a real project minimizes the potential for misinterpretation, and makes each area easier to understand. However, whilst these functional areas can be presented as being more or less self-contained, in practice they overlap and interact in a unique fashion that reflects the nature of a project.

Consequently, the functional areas are not meant to be prescriptive activities that are executed one after the other. You do not perform scoping, then scheduling, then costing, then quality control, etc. in sequence. You need to be continually reviewing each area as the project progresses and new information becomes available.

For example, looking at the scope management activity as something discrete makes sense because even if it is being done at the same time as one or more of the other processes it is always done in the same way. There is no need to do different types of scope management at different stages of the project because scope management is scope management no matter when you do it and no matter what else is happening at the same time.

The project management eBooks on this website include:

Managing the Project Team
This includes all of the processes used to put together, develop, and manage the project team. It also includes identifying what information needs to be communicated and to whom, in order to ensure that the right people get the right information at the right time.

Managing the Project Scope
This is the process by which the project manager defines the boundaries of the project and ensures that any changes to the original scope are carefully managed. It defines exactly what is included in the project and what is excluded.

Managing the Project Schedule
This involves making sure that things happen on time and keeping the project on schedule. It includes techniques to estimate how long things will take, to plan accordingly, and then to keep everything on track.

Managing the Project Budget
This involves keeping the project on budget and includes techniques for estimating costs planning and budgeting as well as monitoring and controlling the costs. Some of the materials and services required to complete the project may need to be obtained from outside suppliers. If this is the case then the project manager will also need an understanding of contract and supplier management.

Managing Project Quality
This ensures that the project meets its requirements and that the deliverables do what is expected of them.

Managing Project Risk
This involves the identification and evaluation of risk as well as planning responses to ensure that corrective action is taken if the risks materialize.

It would be much easier (although far less flexible) if it were possible to specify a simple linear path involving preparing, planning, doing and reviewing. Unfortunately, this approach is only possible in very simple projects and even then it falls apart as soon as something unexpected happens. Looking at project management in terms of it's functional area approach is far more flexible, but it does require that you are able to select the right tool at the right stage in the project and this requires judgment.

This judgment requires knowledge and experience, which is one reason why experienced project managers are always in high demand. It also underlines the importance of recording as much as possible about how projects are performing. This information can be used to analyze how and why projects have succeeded or failed in the past.

By definition a project is going to change something in the way that the organization works and this is something that needs to be explained to all of the project stakeholders in order to get them on board and then to keep them there. This is easier said than done and what makes the discipline of project management so complex is that in order to satisfy all stakeholder requirements you need to manage interactions across organizational and process boundaries.

Project Manager Integration Activities

A great deal of this management takes place at the boundary of the project and involves resources other than those that are controlled directly by the project manager. Consequently, a key part of project management is to gain commitment from others outside of the project to provide these resources as and when necessary. This is something that relies on highly developed interpersonal skills including persuasion and negotiation. Complex projects need more management tools and techniques than small projects and a project manager needs to know which tools to use and when.

Project Integration Management

The aim of every project manager should be to use the smallest number of project management tools and techniques possible to deliver the project objectives. Remember, project management must never become the focus of effort. It is always a means to an end, not an end in itself.

You may also be interested in:
Project Management Principles | Project Management Definition | Project Management Perspectives | Project Organization and Structure | Projects in a Matrix-Management Environment | Project Stakeholders Definition | Project Sponsor Definition | Project Life Cycle Definition | Functional Areas of Project Management.


Key Points

  • Project processes can be organized into functional areas, for example: Managing the Scope, Managing the Budget, Managing the Schedule, Managing Risk, etc.
  • Thinking about project management activities like scoping, scheduling, quality, and risk in isolation before trying to integrate them into a real/live project makes them easier to understand.
  • The Project Management eBooks on this website include: Managing the Project Scope, Managing the Project Schedule, Managing the Project Budget, Managing the Project Quality, Managing the Project Team, Managing the Project Communications, Managing the Project Risk, and Managing the Project Suppliers.
  • A great deal of this management takes place at the boundary of the project and involves resources other than those that are controlled directly by the project manager.
  • Project management must never become the focus of effort - it is always a means to an end, not an end in itself.

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