Process Groups & Knowledge Areas

As described by the PMI in PMBOK guide, 4th edition is referred here, the project managers’ work is divided into 42 different processes. These processes are listed in a matrix structure of 5 process groups and 9 knowledge areas. In simple words that I read somewhere some time back, the knowledge areas define the different areas of project management which the project manager should have knowledge about. Whereas, the process groups are where the project manager applies his knowledge. For example, in the ‘project cost management’ knowledge area, the project manager should know how to manage the project cost by properly estimating the cost and making budget during ‘planning’ and later controlling the cost in ‘monitoring and controlling’ process groups.

The important thing to understand here is that these process groups and knowledge areas are continuously evolving with the progressive research in the field of project management. Project managers encounter new problems and find new solutions to tackle them. These solutions and their forming steps are later refined into processes which are placed under the matrix of process groups and knowledge areas. Following is the list of knowledge areas and process groups as listed in the 4th edition of PMBOK:

Process Groups

1. Initiating
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Monitoring & Controlling
5. Closing

Knowledge Areas

1. Project Integration Management
2. Project Scope Management
3. Project Time Management
4. Project Cost Management
5. Project Quality Management
6. Project Human Resources Management
7. Project Communications Management
8. Project Risk Management
9. Project Procurement Management
10. Project Stakeholder Management (newly added knowledge area in PMBOK guide 5th edition)

An easier way to remember these knowledge areas by heart, which I learnt from my teacher, is to remember this phrase ‘I Saw The Cute Quality Hens Commonly Rated PeacockS‘. The bold letters are the initial characters of all the knowledge areas in proper sequence. All these knowledge areas are discussed in detail in preceding articles.

Life Cycle

Life cycle is a generic term used to describe progression through the stages/phases during the development of anything. For example, a human life cycle could be defined as birth, childhood, teenage…marriage, kids…. and finally death. Similarly, almost everything we see and experience in our daily lives, has a life cycle. In terms of the project management, we have to know about the product and project life cycles.

Product Life Cycle

This life cycle starts from the conception of the product till its withdrawal/end of life. Every product goes through the stages of conception, design, manufacturing, marketing, sale and at the end, withdrawal. May it be a monochrome or CRT monitors replaced by LCD/LED or steam engines used in railways now replaced by diesel/electrical engines, etc., they all have a specific life cycle and this life cycle remains the same, most of the times, during different version/model releases. The question arises is that what does a product life cycle has to do with the project management? Answer to this question is that a product is always a result of one or more projects. A simple web site can be done as one project whereas a CRM development may require multiple projects. There may be separate projects for the requirement analysis and designing phase, for the development and testing phase, for the marketing and sales phase, etc.

Project Life Cycle

As per the basic definition of a project we learnt in ‘Project – A definition!‘, a project’s life cycle is from the inception (the start) of the project till the result is delivered or the project is, for some reason, terminated (the end). For a project to be done, you need to know two things;  a) what is to be done to get the result (technically called project life cycle) and b) how to do it or which SOPs to adopt to do it the best way (technically called project management methodology). For example, Agile is a methodology mostly adopted for engineering or IT related projects.

The selection of  project life cycle depends upon the industry you are doing the project for.  It helps you to understand the basic steps required to do the task for that particular industry in a standard way. For example, project life cycle for a software development project will include phases like design, coding, testing, installation and support. Similarly, project life cycle for a construction industry will have steps like feasibility report, planning, design, construction and maintenance work. If the size of a project is very large, even these steps of life cycle can be divided into smaller individual projects.

Organizational Structures

It is very important for a project manager to understand the type of organization, he is going to work in, before he starts planning for the project. This is so much emphasized upon as organizational structure/type can have a significant impact on the project planning and execution. There are following three types of organizations:

1. Functional: This is the most commonly found structure in organizations. such organizations are grouped in different departments based on their functionality, for example, accounts, logistics, administration, human resource, sales, marketing, etc. Projects in such organizations are done in a ‘silo’. What this means is that project manager and the team are all from the same department and the information about the project remains within the boundaries of the department. The team works on the project along with the normal departmental work. If help or information from another department is needed then a request is sent to the head of the department who communicates the request to the other department head. Project managers have little or almost no authority in such organizations as the project team reports to related  supervisors, hence, not many chances to prove your skills as a project manager, so no career path in project management. Since the project team has to work on their normal departmental work as well, so their interest in the project is not up to the mark which results in very less interest in the project.
2. Projectized: As the name suggests, this organization is grouped by projects headed by the project managers and their teams. The team reports to the project manager directly so the project manager is most authoritative in this kind of an organization. Most of the vendors selling services are projectized organizations. Since the team members are hired and assigned on the basis of projects, their loyalty with the projects is maximum. Unlike functional organizations, the teams have ‘no home’ to return to after the project completion. Besides its advantages, less efficient use of resources and duplication of facilities and job functions are among the top disadvantages. This means that each project, for example, might have a separate accountant to work only on that particular project, thus duplicating the job function and facility in every project individually. Since his idle time cannot be allocated to any other project, this results in less efficient use of resources.
3. Matrix: This is an attempt to combine the best features of both functional and projectized organizations thus enhancing the strength of an organization working. Here, there are project managers and functional managers. The resources are under the functional managers which are allocated to a project before its start, only for that particular duration. This results in having two bosses of the team; the project manager & the functional manager. Communication and reporting goes from team members to both the bosses. Because of the two bosses, the project management becomes complex and requires properly implemented policies and procedures to run the things smoothly. The resources are maximum utilized as compared to projectized organizations. Since there is a lot of coordination between the project and functional managers, there is more support for the project from functional areas. The matrix can be strong or weak depending upon the authority and role of the project manager. Power rests with the project manager in strong matrix. In weak matrix, functional manager has the overall authority and the project manager is merely a coordinator or expediter. Expediter is primarily like an assistant for coordination and cannot make or enforce decisions. Coordinator is similar to the expediter but with an exception of having some power to make certain level decisions and have some authority. Merging strong and weak matrix, results in a balanced matrix where the power is shared between the functional and the project managers.

What is Project Management?

Now that you have learnt what a project is, the next logical question would be ‘what is meant by managing a project?’. If project can be considered a problem and its result is a solution to the problem then managing it is to adopt the best suitable way, out of many, to reach the solution by addressing the problem. In the simplest possible words, the project management is knowing all your options and choosing the best as per your limitations (environmental, financial, logistical, etc.) to solve your problems. These limitation are called ‘constraints’ in project management terms.

Project management is an art and a science at the same time. It has both professional and social aspects, that is why people with better social skills become better project managers. There is no doubt about technical knowledge of project management being the prerequisite for a project manager but the equal importance of social skills can be judged by that fact that during a project’s life cycle, the project manager spends 90% of his time in managing communications and dealing with the project team, management, customers, cross functional departments, end users, etc. collectively known as stakeholders. So I believe that the basic skill that you need to build, before learning the project management professionally, is social skill and that’s the very essence of project management.

Project – A definition!

The first thing is to know what is a project, before learning to manage one. The way I like to define a project is “a set of activities having a definite BEGINNING and END with a UNIQUE RESULT”.

If a project is repeated regularly by keeping most of the attributes same, it becomes an operation. An example can be a setup of a soda drink plant for the first time is a project. The manufacturing of the first batch of soda drinks is also a project. But after that, everyday’s production becomes an operation that has a similar result every time it is performed. So, even an operation when performed for the first time is a project.

The project is ‘Temporary’ in nature as it has a start and an end in a specified time period. Project being temporary doesn’t mean that it is of a short duration. The duration of a project can be as short as a week, for example, and as long as multiple years. Constructing a new room in the house is a project which could be completed in a week or so depending upon the planning, budget, resources, etc., whereas, construction of a 50 stories high rise building could take years. An important thing to understand here is that a construction company involved in the construction of different buildings considers them as individual projects as they result in a different product every time after a specific start and end. The company’s internal departments like procurement, debris disposal, logistics, etc. however are running similar operations just on different sites.

So a project is anything with a start and an end which makes it temporary and it has a unique result which can be a product or a service.