INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

The integration management is the heart of project management and is

made up of the day-to-day processes the project manager relies upon to ensure
that all parts of the project work together. What you do in one area of the project
directly affects all the other areas of the project. Project integration management is
about the project manager making the best decisions for work, resources, project
issues, and all the logistics of the project so it is completed as planned. Project
integration management is undertaken specifically by the project manager. Project
integration management is also about making trade-offs between competing
objectives and alternatives. Competing objectives require negotiations, balance,
and lots and lots of aspirin.

PROCESSES OF INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT:

1. Create a Project Charter

All projects officially start with a project charter (a formal document that
authorizes the project to go forward in the organization and gives the project
manager authority over the project resources). What is so great about the
charter? It is the document that gives you, the project manager, the authority
to use resources to do the project work and authority over resources such as
equipment and facilities. It is a powerful document and needs to be signed
by someone with power in the organization. The project manager is assigned
to the project as early as possible, and ideally while the charter is still being
developed. The project manager needs to be assigned, without a doubt,
before the project moves into the project planning process group.

In many organizations, the project manager is the person writing the charter
but the charter cannot be signed by the project manager. Though the project
may be backed by the project customer, the project champion, or the
organization's project management office, the charter is officially backed by
a project initiator, typically called the project sponsor, a person with more
responsibility within the organization who can allocate funding and resources
for the project. In other words, the project manager cannot sign the charter
because he is not "powerful" enough within the organization to assign
resources and funds to his own project.

A project charter includes the following: (1) scope; (2) objectives and
deliverables; (3) project team members; (4) project risk; (5) benefits and
returns on investments; (6) budgets; and (7) business case.

The project charter may be updated. For example, the summary project
budget may be based on simple, rough order-of-magnitude estimates. As the
project moves deeper into planning, the estimates become clearer and more
precise. The more accurate estimates may cause the budget to change,
requiring the project charter to be modified to reflect the new information.

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 2. Develop a Project Management Plan

In a predictive project, you would not go about building a house, creating a

new piece of software, or launching any project without a project plan. The
project management plan, however, is more than how the work will be done;
it is how the project will be done. The project management plan defines how
the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and then closed. It is a
multifaceted plan on how to manage, coordinate, and integrate all the
different knowledge areas and processes within a project.

The steps to creating a project management methodology are as follows: (1)

meet with stakeholders to set project requirements, deliverables, and object-
tives; (2) define the project scope; (3) create a Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS) to delegate tasks and assign resources; (4) create project schedule; (5)
conduct a risk assessment and develop contingency plans; (6) come up with
a performance measurement baseline to assess project performance; and (7)
develop additional plans for any of the following: scope management, cost
management, resources management, change management, stakeholder
management, or risk management.

3. Direct and Manage Project Task

This is where the project manager manages the project and the project team
does the work. The project manager and the project team will go about
completing the promises made in the plan to deliver, document, measure,
and complete the project work. The project plan will communicate to the
project team, the stakeholders, management, and even to the vendors what
work happens next, how it begins, and how it will be measured for quality and
performance.

As the project work is implemented in predictive environments, the project

manager refers to the project plan to ensure that the work is meeting the
documented expectations, requirements, quality demands, target dates, and
more. The completion of the work is measured and then compared against
the cost, schedule, and scope baselines as documented in the project plan. If
there be discrepancies between the project work and the baselines, prompt
and accurate reactions are needed to adjust the slipping components of the
project.

Execution is all about creating project deliverables; project deliverables are

the products of the project, but they can also be components of the project
management plan. Deliverables are anything that the project team creates
or that the project acquires as a result of project execution. Though most
deliverables are things that the customer or stakeholders receive from the
project, not all deliverables are for the customer. For example, you might
need to purchase some equipment for the project in order to complete the
project work. The customer does not receive the equipment as a result of the
project; your organization retains that equipment as an asset. The equipment,
however, is considered a deliverable. Other deliverables can be data, lessons
learned, new skills required, or project documents.

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 Change requests, in predictive projects, are formal requests to change some
aspect of the project. Change requests are needed to change project
deliverables, make modifications to project documents and plans, or change
project baselines. Change requests are managed through integrated
change control. Change requests almost always stem from four aspects of a
project: schedule, cost, scope, and contract. However, change requests can
come from any area of the project, not just these four domains.

Issues are unexpected events that you must document and manage to
prevent them from causing risks or other problems within the project. Issues
are events that have happened, that reoccur, or that are going to happen
that will likely disrupt the project. When an issue occurs, the project manager
will document the issue in the issue log, assign an issue owner, and start
tracking the issue through its resolution. Each issue identified in the issue log
includes the following information: (1) date identified; (2) person identifying
the issue; (3) details about the issue; (4) summary of the issue; (5) prioritization;
(6) issue owner; (7) target resolution date; (8) current status; and (9) final
outcome.

Directing and managing the project work also require the project manage-
ment team to respond to conditions within the project. Risks, unlike issues, are
events that may happen in the project that can have positive or, more often,
negative results for the project. For example, consider a new immediate risk
that demands a response.

4. Manage Project knowledge

The idea is that when you manage a project, you will rely on your existing
knowledge, but you may also learn new things to manage the project better.
Managing project knowledge is not just about documenting information, but
creating organized lessons learned to share openly in the current project,
future projects, and in operations to support the solution the project creates.

There are two types of knowledge you will need to know about: explicit
knowledge and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is the knowledge that
can be quickly and easily expressed through conversations, documentation,
figures, or numbers. Tacit Knowledge, on the other hand, is the knowledge
that is more difficult to express, because it is personal beliefs, values,
knowledge gained from experience, and "know-how" when doing a task.
Though it is tempting to lump this process into lessons learned, it involves more
than just documenting what has been learned in the project. Lessons learned
is more explicit knowledge because it is easily codified, but lessons learned
often lacks the deeper understanding that tacit (implied) knowledge
provides. Tacit knowledge is more difficult to communicate through lessons
learned, but it may be expressed by working alongside an experienced
project team member or through in-depth training.

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 5. Monitor and Control Project Tasks

As soon as a project begins, the project management monitoring and con-

trolling processes also begin. These processes monitor all the other processes
within the project to ensure that they are being done according to plan and
according to the performing organization's practices, and to ensure that a
limited number of defects enters the project. Monitoring and controlling the
project is not a one-time or random event. It is important for the project
management team to continue to monitor the project and not to assume
that all is well simply because the project work is being completed. By
constantly monitoring the project, you confirm that the project work is being
done properly and that if the work is flawed, you can prepare a response.
Monitoring and controlling is also concerned with results. For example, a
defect repair review follows a defect repair to ensure that the repair is
accurate and that the project work may continue.

There are three approaches to this process: (1) preventive action (an action
performed to reduce the negative impact of project risks); (2) corrective
action (an action performed to bring the future project performance back in
line with the project plan); and (3) defect repair (an action to repair or
replace a document project defect).

6. Perform Integrated Change Control

Project managers must try to protect the project scope from changes in a
predictive environment. Management, team members, customers, and other
stakeholders are going to want changes to the project deliverables. Changes
to the product often stem from the customer. Changes may also stem from
suggestions of the stakeholders such as small, innocent changes that bloom
into additional time and costs. Finally, changes may come from the project
team. It is important to note that change decisions may be verbally
conveyed, but these should always be documented and entered into the
project's change management system.

Use a change control log to document all changes requests, including which
one were approved, the associated costs and resources, and how they
impact the project timelines. Smooth integration of change requests to
current project activities is crucial for the success of the overall project.

7. Close out the Project

Closing the project or phase means that the project manager confirms that
all of the needed activities within the other process groups have been
completed and that the project deliverables have been handed over to the
customer. If a project is terminated for any reason, the project manager
should still close the project to account for the work that has been performed
on the project and to learn why the project may have failed.

You can close the entire project or, in larger projects, you can close just a
phase of the project. The process of closing the project or phase is about
finalizing everything in the project and ensuring that there are no loose ends,

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 that everyone has the information they need, and that the project is officially
done. The project manager documents everyone who is involved in the
project closure: team members, vendors, management, the sponsor, and
often the project customer. Part of this documentation defines each person's
role and related responsibility to close out the project. Consider a large
construction project. Lots of people are involved in the formal closing
proceedings, so documentation explaining who will be needed, what they
will be doing, and when they will be doing it makes great sense for the
project manager.

Project closure involves processes such as: holding a final stakeholder

meeting, conducting a formal review of the project, closing the contract,
and organizing and achieving project materials for future use.

The goal of project closure is to get formal acceptance of the project

deliverables. Formal acceptance means that the project customer or sponsor
agrees that the deliverable provided is in alignment with the project scope
and that it is acceptable. A formal documentation of project acceptance,
such as a project certificate of closure or a project closure sign-off, is needed
to confirm that the project deliverable has been transferred from the project
manager to the recipient of the project.

Importance of Project Integration Management:

Projects are often dynamic and complex, involving multiple teams and
organizational processes. To ensure all elements are working cohesively toward the
end goal, project integration management is necessary. The PIM provides coordi-
nation and organization throughout the entire project. PIM is like an instruction
manual you can use to help steer the project in the right direction and make sure all
the processes are in sync, as the project moves from phase to phase, it ensures the
outputs and documents are in order for the next phase to g smoothly. The PIM
ensures everyone understands their responsibilities. With PIM, all stakeholders and
team members will have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. By
monitoring the project diligently, you will be able to address questions from teams or
stakeholders if there are any points of confusion or issues. The PIM keeps project on
track. PIM keeps project on track to meet the deadline and budget. It also keeps
the project aligned with the project management plan in order to get the promised
results or returns. PIM helps you resolve conflicts or changes while minimizing the
impact on the overall project. The PIM maintains smooth communication with
stakeholders. Integrated project management ensures stakeholders are kept up to
date on project progress. It allows you to create a system for communication with
stakeholders regarding project changes, whether they are approved or not. It also
emphasizes the importance of holding a final meeting after the project is completed
to get closure. And, the PIM makes decisions more clear. Each step in project
management has defined purposes and outputs. By walking through all the steps,
you will able to gain deeper insight into the best course of action for each project
phase. Creating through project documentation will also allow you to clearly
communicate the reasoning behind the plans.

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