Bringing the PMBOK Guide to Life

A Companion for the Practicing Project Manager

Frank P. Saladis, Harold Kerzner

• Editorial: Wiley
• Año: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118276358
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Technologie et ingénierie
• Categoría: Ingénierie industrielle

Transform the PMBOK® Guide from a framework to a sharpened tool in your project manager's toolbox

In project management circles, it's often joked that "there's the right way, the wrong way, and the PMBOK® way" to manage projects. In truth, it's really about the methodology you choose. The PMBOK® Guide is a consensus-based standard that thousands of project management professionals find immensely valuable in the process of developing an effective methodology. But exactly how does a project manager take the information provided in the PMBOK® Guide and apply it most effectively and appropriately to an actual project environment? This book can be the answer. It is basically a "guide to the guide"—a road map to applying the tools of the PMBOK® Guide to your organization's or project's unique nature and requirements.

Bringing the PMBOK® Guide to Life: A Companion for the Practicing Project Manager builds a bridge between the PMBOK® Guide and the common needs of today's practicing project managers. It explains and elaborates on specific techniques, terms, and the application of tools that will enable project managers to effectively adapt the principles and processes described in the PMBOK® Guide to the practical world of project management.

Readers will find suggested approaches for the use of project management tools and techniques along with templates developed directly from information provided in the PMBOK® Guide. Suggestions and study tips are also included to assist in preparing for the PMP exam, and a Project Plan Accelerator (PPA) can be used with the PMBOK® Guide by project managers and project teams to develop plans that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of your team, your clients, and your sponsoring organization.

Written by two of the leading experts in the field, Bringing the PMBOK® to Life will help every project manager translate the PMBOK® Guide's tools and techniques into actionable, commonsense approaches to managing a project.

(PMI, PMBOK, PMP, and Project Management Professional are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Chapter One

Why Do Project Managers Need This Book?

The main purpose of this book is to create a connection between what is referred to as “the body of knowledge of project management,” the Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge^® (better known as the PMBOK^® Guide), and the needs of the practicing project manager. The book is not specific to any industry. It is intended to provide additional information regarding the processes associated with managing projects and offer the reader other perspectives about the discipline including a practical and useful explanation of many of the tools, techniques, and processes described in the PMBOK^® Guide. There are countless other books about project management that include suggested methodologies, templates, defined processes and procedures, and best practices—and many are excellent sources of reference. The focus of this book is on the practitioner, especially those who manage projects of moderate complexity.

This book is intended to make a direct connection between many of the terms and specific tools, techniques, inputs, and outputs described in the PMBOK^® Guide and the common needs of today’s practicing project managers. The objective is to provide a quick reference and a source of information that translates tools and techniques into useful templates, actionable steps, clarified processes, and common-sense approaches to managing a project.

The material and references in this are designed to be of interest to the newly appointed project manager as well as the seasoned professional. Experienced project managers may find the material helpful in further developing well-defined practices they are currently using, or the material may spark a new level of creativity and innovation that will take project management to a new level of efficiency. This book will help project managers and students of project management differentiate between generally practiced processes and those processes that are specific to a particular organization.

I have heard many people refer to the PMBOK^® Guide as the “PMI Way” or refer to project management methodology in terms of “the Right Way, the wrong way, and the “PMBOK^® way.” The PMBOK^® Guide does not suggest a right or wrong way and, in my opinion, there is no specific “PMI Way” or “PMBOK^® Way.” Everything in the PMBOK^® Guide originates from the knowledge of hundreds of project managers who have decided to share their experiences across a very broad spectrum of projects and industries. This shared knowledge has been organized into the nine knowledge areas and 5 processes which provide the basis for developing organizational project management methodologies. Simply stated, there are projects that are managed well and those that are not managed well regardless of preferred methodology. If the methodology was developed using logic, common sense and the basic principles of project management along with a connection to the organization’s culture, work ethic, business goals and capabilities then that would be the “right” methodology for the organization. Chances are that many of the project management steps and processes found in any organizational methodology can also be found in the PMBOK^® Guide or can be directly related to PMBOK^® Guide processes. I believe that most project managers will agree that in the discipline of, or if you prefer, the profession of project management the general principles are the same, regardless of what type of project is being managed. These general principles are then modified and combined with different approaches specific to the organization that can be used to achieve the common goals of on time completion, remaining within budget, and according to specifications. (there are other goals to consider but these are the goals most people associate with project success). The PMBOK^® Guide provides a solid framework for developing a methodology that would have a high probability of being accepted by the stakeholders of an organization. It may not provide the extreme levels of detail that may be needed to develop a complete methodology, but it does provide the project manager with a reference point developed through the experience of hundreds of project managers over many years.

The purpose of this book is to bridge the needs of the project manager with the vast stores of knowledge about project management and to encourage project managers to expand their knowledge about the profession, challenge some of the processes in place and develop newer, more efficient ways of managing projects in a world filled with complex projects and new opportunities. This book will, I hope, encourage more thought about how to manage projects more effectively and open up the creative minds of project managers who can widen the project management information highway.

THE PMBOK^® GUIDE, THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT, AND THE CONNECTION TO MANAGING PROJECTS

The PMBOK^® Guide is a collection of tools, techniques, and processes developed by project managers engaged in projects across every type of business and industry. Project managers have offered their time and their expertise voluntarily to produce a consensus-based standard for managing a project. It is a valuable source of information for project managers, project management professionals, and future project managers, regardless of discipline. The PMBOK^® Guide provides the basis for developing project management methodologies and can be found in the library of literally thousands of project management offices and practicing project managers. The challenge is to take the information provided in the PMBOK^® Guide and apply it most effectively and appropriately to an actual project environment. This book focuses on specific techniques, explanations of terms, and application of tools that will enable project managers to effectively adapt the principles and processes described in the PMBOK^® Guide to the practical world of project management. These techniques transform the PMBOK^® Guide from a framework and standards reference to a sharpened tool in the project manager’s toolbox.

Project management and the processes included within it definition is actually a collection of knowledge from every business discipline, and that knowledge base is in a continuous state of growth. This knowledge encompasses what has been learned through years of managerial experience, studying human behavior, analyzing relationships between organizations, engaging in strategic planning, managing conflict, performing financial planning, and understanding organizational structure and overall organizational performance. The greater, more complex, project management body of knowledge is basically a repository of information and best practices gathered from and covering every aspect of business and organizational management. The PMBOK^® Guide organizes that knowledge in a logical format that is not intended to be viewed as a set of rules and regulations. It provides a basis for developing customized methods that will assist in meeting an organization’s project and strategic objectives through an effective project management process. The lessons learned from completed projects are documented and shared (whenever possible) through networking with other practitioners, articles, books, and other forms of knowledge transfer and are added to the larger body of knowledge in a continuous and ever expanding cycle.

THE FIRST STEP: UNDERSTANDING HOW THE PMBOK^® GUIDE WORKS

Many project managers consider the PMBOK^® Guide to be the method for managing projects and carry it around as if it were some type of project management law book that must be followed. They profess that failure to follow the PMBOK^® Guide will result in certain project failure and costly customer dissatisfaction. This type of thinking may result in a very inflexible approach to the management of the project and an attempt to force a technique or a process that is inappropriate for the project or that will cause unneeded work and possibly team frustration. This approach will, in many cases, result in resistance or even rejection of the PMBOK^® Guide by management and the project team.

The first step in bringing the PMBOK^® Guide to life is to understand that it is a guide (see Figure 1.1). The processes, tools, and techniques described in the document are meant to be considered and applied when appropriate. An inflexible attitude and approach in the use of the information provided in the PMBOK^® Guide may result in considerable resistance by the project team or other stakeholders, a perception of inflexibility among team members about the project manager, challenges about the process, and possibly some undesired assistance from upper management or the project sponsor. To prevent this, it is important for the project manager and team to develop an understanding of how the PMBOK^® Guide has been developed and structured and to review each input, tool and technique, and output within each process group described in each knowledge area and to understand their relationships and interdependencies during project planning and implementation:

Inputs. For all practical purposes, inputs are “things.” They are generally deliverables (tangible work outputs) and are, in many cases, the outputs of other business or project management processes. Let’s consider these to be nouns. They describe something tangible. These deliverables have specific names and were developed through the efforts of one or more people. It’s important to understand what these inputs are, why they are required, and where they originate. Referring to Figure 1.2, enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets are inputs to scope planning. Enterprise environmental factors include but are not limited to organizational culture, government standards, and infrastructure. Organi-zational Process assets include such items as policies, communication requirements, templates, project closure guidelines, and change control procedures. The project team should become aware of all environmental factors and organizational process assets that may affect the planning and control of the project. As an example, awareness of the organization’s approach to risk—risk averse or aggressive risk taker (an environmental factor)—will impact how a plan is developed and how decisions about critical project issues will be made. This example emphasizes the importance of having a thorough knowledge of all inputs to each process group.

Tools and techniques. These are the specific actions and supporting items that allow us to utilize the identified inputs required to meet project needs. To further explain the tools and techniques component of the process a simple analogy would be that these tools and techniques are what you would find in a project manager’s toolbox. They are a set of enablers and are used to shape and from the inputs into useful outputs when handled correctly. Consider tools and techniques to be input processors, very much like a blender or food processor in a kitchen. Once you have determined what your objective is—a cake, a tossed salad, or a special sauce—the appropriate inputs or “ingredients” are gathered. The reason why the inputs are needed should be clearly understood—you should know why they are being used. The inputs are processed using the selected tools or techniques to produce a desired result (the outputs). This is a relatively simple explanation, but the objective of a project methodology should be to keep it as simple as possible, use the appropriate tools (making sure you know how to use them) and avoid processes that will overwhelm the project team or cause confusion.

Outputs. The results produced through the use of the tools and techniques become outputs. Outputs become tangible items or deliverables that will be used as inputs to another process or will be finalized for handoff and use by the intended customer or stakeholder.

Figure 1.1 Project Management Life Cycle.

Figure 1.2 Process Flow for Scope Planning. PMBOK^® Guide—Third Edition.

The PMBOK^® Guide, through these processes, emphasizes that in the project environment, the customer is actually the next person in the process and not just the organization or entity that will receive and pay for the product of the project. The inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs create...

Índice

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Why Do Project Managers Need This Book?
• Chapter Two: The Big Picture
• Chapter Three: Project Plan SWOT Analysis
• Chapter Four: Developing a Project Methodology
• Chapter Five: Defining Project Success
• Chapter Six: Developing Performance Measures
• Chapter Seven: Monitoring and Control Simplified
• Chapter Eight: The Change Control Process
• Chapter Nine: Establishing Roles and Responsibilities
• Chapter Ten: Risk Management—A Project Imperative
• Chapter Eleven: A PMBOK® Guide Strategy for Success
• Chapter Twelve: Rapid Knowledge Development (RKD) For Project Managers: Tips, Tools, and Techniques
• Chapter Thirteen: Bringing the PMBOK® Guide to Life Through Templates
• References
• Index