Main Processes Involved in Management 

Project Management Processes 

Let’s take a look at the five main project management Process Groups. This is a logical grouping of project management processes. Each of these groups is full of more detailed processes

Initiating 
This process group is about defining and authorising the project, and making that project valid in the organisation.  

Planning 
This process group is, of course, much more than just scheduling. It’s about: 

Executing 
This process group is about assigning the resources to the tasks to actually deliver the project via the plan we have created.  

Monitoring and Controlling 
This process group is about monitoring our progress, identifying the differences or variances from the project plan, and then looking at what corrective action we can implement to get back onto that plan. This involves forecasting the future based on the current trends. 

Closing 
This is about making sure the project really is finished and closed, and has provided the required business benefit. 

The Key Terms on the side provide you with the textbook definitions of the process groups. 

Interactions between Process Groups 

The Process Groups interact within each phase of a project life cycle. The number of iterations and interactions between processes varies based on the needs of the project. 

In a process-based approach, the output of one process generally becomes an input to another process or is a deliverable of the project or project phase. For example, a project management plan and project documents, such as the risk register, assumption log, etc., which are produced in the planning process grouping, are inputs to the executing process grouping where updates are made to associated artifacts. 

Initiating a project leads to the planning phase. After some planning (perhaps covering a 3 months period?) we start to execute the project.

Remember the iterative project management concept from Unit 1. After initiating, planning and starting to execute the project, we might find that we are ahead (or behind) our schedule. That might lead to some re-planning and some more execution. We monitor where we are in the project, and we keep executing the project. We control the project by making changes and replanning.