As a project manager it is important to have a comprehensive project management plan in place. This document describes how you will achieve realistic measurements, monitor and control the project as well as manage and close it successfully. The project management plan contains all the subplans and baselines you need to effectively manage each component of the project. It is an important project artifact and should be updated regularly as the project progresses.
A project management plan can be either summary oriented or detail oriented. The preliminary fact that it has summary content suggests that it will be elaborated over time as assumptions about the project become clearer.
Regardless of the situation the project management plan must always include approved baselines. A project management plan is always a document that needs to be approved. The people who will approve this document can be the Project Manager, Project Sponsor, functional manager, or project team. Contrary to popular belief, senior management and the customer are not among the people who will approve the project management plan.
The key outcome of the planning process group, in the traditional approach, was the project management plan. This plan would then create input to the execution, measurement, monitoring and controlling, and closing process groups. The process of developing a project management plan is conducted in the planning process group and integration management knowledge area.
Develop Project Management Plan Process
- Project charter
- Outputs from other processes
- Enterprise environmental factors
- Organizational process assets