Uses of Project Integration Management - Essay Example

Project Integration Management Table of Contents Introduction 3 Project Integration Management 3 Uses of Project Integration Management 4 Non-uses ofthe Project Integration Management 6 Misuses of Project Integration Management 7 The Shard Tower as an example 7 Conclusion 8 Reference List 9 Introduction A project is a temporary venture, which an organization undertakes to develop a new or unique product or service, where as the project management is the efficient use of knowledge, resources and technology to successfully complete a particular project within the stipulated time. The processes involved in managing a project can be defined in the light of project management knowledge areas. These knowledge areas are, a) Project integration management, b) project Scope management, c) Project time management, d) Project cost management, e) Project quality management, f) Human resource management, g) Project communications management, h) Project risk management and i) Procurement management. This paper discusses about the process of project integration management. It includes details of its structure, its traditional uses and misuses along with certain drawbacks. Areas like developing project plans, execution of project plans and change management are also included in the study. The Shard tower of London has been used as an example of a successful project management (PMI, 2013). Project Integration Management The primary goal of the project integration management is to establish coordination between all the elements of the project. It involves taking strategic decisions to make tradeoffs between different objectives and options, so as to meet the stakeholder’s interest in a resource efficient way. The PMBOK guide breaks down the integration management further into six steps, which are explained below (PMI, 2013). Project Charter Development: The details of the project are included in the project charter. It is an official document which gives authority to the management to proceed on the project and employ necessary recourses of the company in the project activities. Project Management Plan: The entire project is broken down into several subsidiary plans which are then coordinated and integrated to be a part of the whole project management plan. Directing and Managing the project work: It defines managing the work force and leading them to work on the predefined plans, so as to achieve the primary objective. Monitoring and Controlling: This process keeps track of the progress and performance, and reporting accordingly. This step acts as a control mechanism; if the progress deviates from the plan then immediately the process is stopped and necessary amendments are made in order to make sure that the progress goes in the desired direction. Integrated Change Control: All the necessary changes required in the process are managed in this step. It includes review of all the change requests, approval of the required changes and managing the changes in the project assets, planning and internal communication. Closing the Project/Phase: It involves finalizing of all the subsidiary processes and plans, which results in formal completion of the project. Although the PMBOK guidelines state the above process, but Meredith and Mantel (2012) argued that there is no thumb rule for project management. Every project is different and thus each of them require individualistic approach, by proper study of the available skills and knowledge, required resources, costs involved, impact on the organization. The project management team needs to assess the involved processes as well as the project environment in order to make sure that the implementation of all the processes are done according to the desired planning. Some projects are divided into developmental phases, and each of them requires different levels of rigor. The project manager must determine the amount of time and workforce required in each of those phases. Verzuh (2011) further added that the integration plan involves the management of interaction of several processes, like cost estimation for contingency plans gets integrated with the project cost and time management. The deliverables of the projects often interact with the ongoing operation processes in order to develop long term strategic plans. The integration plan also makes sure that the project activities are progressing in a consistent manner and all the project documents maintained properly (Verzuh, 2011). Uses of Project Integration Management Wysocki (2011) in his article suggested that one of the primary uses of project integration management is to approach the stakeholders for financial funding by developing the project charter. The project charter explains the project scope and outcome, preliminary distribution of roles and responsibilities, authority of project managers. Apart from the project charter, this knowledge area is also used to define the reasons of the project undertaking, the probable constraints, the primary objectives, the solutions to the imminent problems and it also identifies all the stakeholders associated with the project. In short, the documentation process of the project integration management has the sole purpose of officially stating the details of the project to the stake holders and the project managers. The stakeholders need to be convinced for funding of resources and the project managers need to have the proper authority to use the resources (Wysocki, 2011). Heldman (2011) mentioned that the project charter and the documentation only points out the objectives, however in order to reach the objectives, the planning must be executed. The project management plan is divided into several small phases or activities. These activities are then identified and allocated to different teams for their execution. Gido (2011) contrasted that the planning and execution alone is not sufficient for the successful completion of the project. The project managers should also need to make sure that the organizational progress is on the right track. In order to ensure that the integration process is progressing as per planning, the Integration management has included the monitoring and controlling step (PMI, 2013). The monitoring makes sure if the progress or the project activities are progressing as planned, if there are certain deviations the controlling phase comes into play to make the necessary amendments in the plan. The Integration management is thus used to avoid project failure and increase in project cost. Carmichael (2010) highlighted some challenges involving integration management. One of the primary challenges is making tradeoff between different option and opinions. The project managers often stand in front of an impasse where he is needed to make a decision between different ways of attaining project objectives; each of them may incur different costs and require different time. Gido and Clements (2012) also added that the managers must make the trade off keeping in mind the stakeholder’s benefits. He also added that the integration management is also used to manage any changes made to the initial project plan. Before taking any decision on making changes, the project managers gather inputs like initial planning, current level of performance, list of change requests, internal environment of the organization, and the project assets. The inputs are then analyzed by the project managers and required judgments are made. The changes are reflected in the change log and updated in the project documents (Gido and Clements, 2012). Verzuh (2011) believed that closing the project is as important as the project activities itself. The project integration management is also used to finalize a project. This phase is used for formal completion of all the subsidiary activities and eventually the project as a whole. The project closure also provides new learning for the organization and it also relieves the organization of its resources which were associated with the project, so that they can be used further in new ventures. However, the PMBOK guideline (PMI, 2013) stated that before the final project closure, the project managers must ensure that all the phases are completed according to the plans and all the subsidiary objectives have been met. In case the project is terminated before the stipulated time or before reaching the primary objective, then the managers must produce a detailed documentation of the reasons of closure before the stakeholders. After the project has been officially closed, a project audit team analyses the success or failure of the project and generate new learning for the organization. Non-uses of the Project Integration Management According to Verzuh (2011) the project integration management has some limitations; it is only used for a specific range of requirements, i.e. it only coordinates several project activities for their seamless progress. However, certain aspects are beyond its domain, like it cannot ascertain the scope of the project. The integration management does not have the required tool to measure the activities or works required for completion of the project. Identifying the required activities is done by the work breakdown structure, which divides the project deliverables among the subsidiary activities. The PMBOK guideline (PMI, 2013) also states that the project integration management only creates the project charter, which states the authority of project managers and interests for stake holders, whereas creating the work break down structure requires documentations like, project scope statement and scope management plan. Integration management does not include any of these documents required. In short, the integration management cannot create scope, but it coordinates among the created scopes. Gido and Clements (2012) further added that the integration management sometimes is required to coordinate between two or more simultaneously running projects, however it becomes challenging if those projects are at different level of completion. The project integration management cannot control the progress of the projects, so its success is dependent on the success of other subsidiary projects or activities. Misuses of Project Integration Management Often it has been observed that projects have been segmented into various activities for reducing work complexities. However, this increases the complexities in the project integration process. According to Carmichael (2010), project integration can be misused by the project managers based on the objectives of an individual activity. In other words, when activities are divided, project managers tend to manipulate the integration process for achieving the objectives of their group rather than to put focus on the overall project mission. Verzuh, (2011) further added that project integration is primarily based on the scope and aims developed in the project planning process, however lack of alignment in the project activities and limited collaboration among the project team can create unprecedented scenarios for project integration. For instance, any unexpected changes in the project activity can disorganize the project integration and force the managerial authorities to change their work schedule or related activities. These factors have also been considered by Meredith and Mantel (2012) as manipulative tactics used by project team members for aligning the project schedule with their work process. The Shard Tower as an example The Shard Tower is considered as one of the most successful projects in the history of construction projects. The Shard Tower was completed within the scheduled timeline and the authorized budget, which alone makes it an exemplary construction. The project management team of the Shard towers was managed in a centralized structure where the entire operations were being headed by a single management body. The segmentation of the activities was developed on the basis of the work break down structure of the project (Robbins, 2014). The managerial body tried to reduce the internal conflicts in the work structure by providing limited authority to the team members and each team was assigned to a supervisor who was to report to the top management on daily basis. This ensured proper flow of communication and also automatically generated project integration as the decision making body was focused towards the end goal of the project. Also the regular co-ordination with each level of workers of the project kept the project team informed of the work progress that helped them in assessing the changes in work process in advance and realign their project integration process. Highlighting every work segment helped the project team in maintaining their project schedule and also helped in implementing the necessary changes keeping project integration system in the desired manner (Robbins, 2014). Conclusion The project integration management process has been designed so that all the other processes can coordinate and communicate among each other, in order to facilitate seamless progress of the entire project. It enables the project managers to work with multiple project portfolios and several methods of project selection, and long term project phases simultaneously. It also makes sure that all the processes are progressing according to the plan and at the same time it also makes room for rectification and improvement. However, there are certain limitations of the integration management process; one of them is that it cannot contribute to work break down and also it faces challenges when coordinating projects or phases are at different levels of progress. As the integration process acts as a linkage between several other processes, it is sometimes misused by the top hierarchy to achieve some short term goals of the group. The stakeholders should make sure that the integration process is managed properly and ethically as it is a major determinant of the project’s success (PMI, 2013). Reference List Carmichael, D. G., 2010. Project planning, and control. 5/e. Taylor & Francis. Canada. Gido, J., 2011. Successful Project Management. 5/e. Cengage Learning. Boston. Gido, J. and Clements, J. P., 2012. Successful Project Management. 5/e. London: McGraw-Hill Education. Heldman, K., 2011. Project Management JumpStart. 3/e. Sybex. New York. Meredith, J.R. and Mantel, S.J., 2012. Project Management: A Managerial Approach. 8/e. Wiley. New York. PMI. 2013. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide). 5/e. Project Management Institute, Inc. Pennsylvania. pp.63-105. Robbins, T., 2014. Shard becomes London’s eyeful tower. [online] Available at: [Accessed 19 November 2014] Verzuh, E., 2011. The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management. 4/e. Wiley. New York. Wysocki, R., 2011. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, and Extreme. 6/e. John Wiley & Sons Inc. New Jersey. Young, T., 2010. Successful Project Management. 5/e. Leadership Press. New York. Read More