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3 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Involving the sponsors, customers, and other stakeholders during initiation creates a shared understanding of
success criteria, reduces the overhead of involvement, and generally improves deliverable acceptance, customer
satisfaction, and other stakeholder satisfaction.

Initiating processes may be performed at the organizational, program, or portfolio level and therefore, would
be outside of the project’s level of control. For example, prior to commencing a project, the need for high-level 3
requirements may be documented as part of a larger organizational initiative. A process of evaluating alternatives
may be utilized to determine the feasibility of the new undertaking. Clear descriptions of the project objectives may
be developed, including the reasons why a specific project is the best alternative to satisfy the requirements. The
documentation for this decision may also contain the initial project scope statement, deliverables, project duration,
and a forecast of the resources for the organization’s investment analysis. As part of the Initiating processes, the
project manager is given the authority to apply organizational resources to the subsequent project activities.

3.4 Planning Process Group

The Planning Process Group consists of those processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort,
define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives. The Planning
processes develop the project management plan and the project documents that will be used to carry out the
project. The complex nature of project management may require the use of repeated feedback loops for additional
analysis. As more project information or characteristics are gathered and understood, additional planning will
likely be required. Significant changes occurring throughout the project life cycle trigger a need to revisit one
or more of the planning processes and possibly some of the initiating processes. This progressive detailing of
the project management plan is called progressive elaboration, indicating that planning and documentation are
iterative and ongoing activities. The key benefit of this Process Group is to delineate the strategy and tactics as
well as the course of action or path to successfully complete the project or phase. When the Planning Process
Group is well managed, it is much easier to get stakeholder buy-in and engagement. These processes express
how this will be done, setting the route to the desired objective.

The project management plan and project documents developed as outputs from the Planning Process Group
will explore all aspects of the scope, time, cost, quality, communications, human resources, risks, procurements,
and stakeholder engagement.

®
©2013 Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – Fifth Edition 55

Licensed To: Jorge Diego Fuentes Sanchez PMI MemberID: 2399412
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