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3 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES FOR A PROJECT

or an iteration cycle. It is important to conduct a retrospective, lessons-learned session; assess team performance;
and update the organizational knowledge base during closing of an iteration cycle and during closing of a software
project. These activities can provide data for improving future performance.

3.8 Project Information

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Section 3.8 of the PMBOK Guide describes three kinds of project information: work performance data, work
performance information, and work performance reports. Data is transformed into information that is used to
prepare reports. According to the PMBOK Guide, this primary data is compared with other collected data elements,
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analyzed in context, and aggregated and transformed to become project information. The information can then be
communicated verbally or stored and distributed as reports in various document formats. Various kinds of data,
information, and reports for software projects are based on the life cycle model being used and are described in
Sections 6 through 13 of this Software Extension.

Data collected during a software project and the resulting information (including modules, components,
functions, and features implemented) can be used to predict attributes such as progress versus plan, and the cost
and delivery date of intermediate and final product deliveries.

Data and information can be collected and saved in an organizational database to provide a basis for estimating
future software projects that have similar characteristics (i.e., similar domains, customers, software developers,
and development tools). Care should be taken to ensure that the attributes of past and future projects are sufficiently
similar when using past performance data and information to estimate a future project.

3.9 Role of the Knowledge Areas

As indicated in Section 3.9 of the PMBOK Guide, the 47 project management processes identified in the
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PMBOK Guide are organized into ten separate Knowledge Areas. These ten Knowledge Areas are presented in
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Sections 4 through 13 of the PMBOK Guide and describe the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for most
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projects, most of the time. In a similar manner, the ten Knowledge Areas presented in Sections 4 through 13 of this
Software Extension describe the inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs for most software projects, most of the
time as adapted for different project life cycles within the continuum of software project life cycles.

44 ©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition
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