The components of a project management plan

One of the things that seems to confuse the heck out of my students is understanding how the project management plan is assembled and what are all of the components that are included. 

Most people know that the project plan is comprised of subsidiary plans, but they don’t really know which they are – or – how it is that these plans roll up into the overall project management plan.

So lets start with the facts, the Project Management Plan is comprised of a number of subsidiary plans and project baselines;

The most important subsidiary plans:

1. Scope Management Plan - This plan establishes how we handle all of the subsequent scope processes including defining, monitoring and controlling scope and eventually working with the customer to validate the scope (deliverables)
2. Requirements Management Plan - If you don’t have the requirements done just right on your project it is likely your project will be a dud. This plan makes sure that we work with the customer to analyze, document and manage the requirements properly
3. Schedule Management Plan - All projects manage schedule a bit differently, so in this plan we will establish the standards for how we are going to develop and control the schedule for OUR project.
4. Cost Management Plan - Show me the money! Or Rather show me how you are going to plan, structure and control the money on your project and I’ll show you the Cost Management Plan!
5. Quality Management Plan - In this plan we are going to lay out the quality policy of the organization as well as the methods and standards and measurements we’ll use to achieve quality. If the company doesn’t have a quality policy we’ll make one just for our project.
6. Resource Management Plan - Resources are not just humans! Buildings, materials and infrastructure also need to be managed so in the Resource management plan we’ll document how we will categorize, manage and control our resources throughout the project life-cycle.
7. Communication Management Plan - Studies show PMs spend 90% of their time in some form of communication so it makes sense that we have a plan for this area that shows how, when and by which people the project information will be distributed, stored and even disposed of.
8. Risk Management Plan - In a word, Risk is UNCERTAINTY. We don’t like uncertainty so we have the Risk management plan to help us identify, analyze and plan for risk events.
9. Procurement Management Plan - Should we make the stuff in house? OR should we go outside the company to buy it. This is the major question we answer in the Procurement management plan as we plan for acquiring goods and services.
10. Stakeholder Engagement Plan - Stakeholders can really impact our project depending upon their power in the organization and how interested they are in the project so in the Stakeholder engagement plan we look at these factors and then plan on how to engage these people accordingly.

Baselines:

1. Scope Baseline - The scope baseline is comprised of the Work Breakdown Structure, The Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary and the Scope Statement
2. Schedule Baseline - The scope baseline is comprised of the Work Breakdown Structure, The Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary and the Scope Statement
3. Cost Baseline - This is the approved time elapsed budget we use to manage cost on our project continually comparing planned vs. actuals and looking for variances

Now, here is what you need to know if you are studying for the PMP exam.  All of these components all roll up into the process of Develop Project Management Plan process.  And it makes sense right?  Because the project management plan should have all these things within it.  So make sure that you know a brief understanding of what each of the components are and make sure that you understand that they all roll up into the process of Develop Project Management Plan.  What does that mean roll up?  It refers to the ITTOs.  Each one of these components is OUTPUT from a planning process.  But every single one of them becomes an input to the Development Project Management Plan process. 

To understand exactly how these items roll up you may want to watch this instructional video.  This video is just a sample of what my live virtual coaching classes are like.  Try to attend one of my free webinars if you get a chance.

Cheers.

Coach Dan