What is Integrated Project Management?

Integrated Project Management: This means managing the project objectives in an integrated way through harmonization of different activities or processes occurring within a project. The harmonization given by integrated project management facilitates coordination among the different project perspectives related to scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk to foster a whole view for better collaboration and reduced redundancy, hence successful outcomes of the project. Things we are going to look at in this article include what an integrated project management system entails, the components of an integrated project management plan, the integrated project planning and management cycle, the seven processes of project integration management, and the general importance of project integration management.

What is an Integrated Project Management System?

The integrated project management system reflects those tools, methodologies, and practices that integrate into one cohesive framework the many processes comprising project management. This is a system whereby all the components of managing a project are harmonious, enabling the teams to direct their efforts in a common direction toward the realization of project objectives.

Basic Components of Integrated Project Management System

• Collaboration Tools: Examples include team collaboration, communications with stakeholders and clients to keep all parties informed about project status.
• Project Management Software: Examples include Microsoft Project, Asana, and Trello. Project management software offers task management, timelines, resource allocation, and budgeting functionalities on an integrated basis.
• Standardized Processes: Follow standardized processes of project planning, execution, and control to make projects homogeneous.
• Performance Indicators: Most integrated systems have KPIs inside that show progress and measure success.
• Documentation: The centralized storage of data pertaining to all project documentation, plans, and reports assists in better management and makes the information more accessible.

Cumulatively, all these contribute to enabling an organization to bring in more transparency into their projects, make the workflows seamless, and undertake quicker and better decision-making processes.

What is an Integrated Project Management Plan?

An integrated project management plan is a document that integrates process groups and knowledge areas for guiding, governing, supervising, and controlling project activities. Integrated project management describes how to execute, monitor, and control the project; it provides the integration of scope, schedule, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, and procurement of all aspects of the projects in a coherent integrated framework.

Components of Integrated Project Management Plan

1. Scope Statement: It describes the limits and goals of the project, and deliverables that are expected from the project.
2. Work Breakdown Structure: In the WBS, the project deliverables are decomposed into small fragments, which are quite easy to deal with.
3. Schedule: It reflects the duration of each phase involved in the project, including milestones and deadlines.
4. Cost Management Plan: It estimates cost in addition to the procedures applied during budgeting.
5. Quality Management Plan: It stipulates quality criteria and standards that should characterize the deliverables of the project.
6. Resource Management Plan: It provides information on resources-human, physical, and financial-that are needed to undertake the project.
7. Risk Management Plan: It identifies all potential risks and describes their mitigation strategies.
8. Communication Plan: It details how information will be exchanged amongst stakeholders and team members.

A comprehensive integrated project management plan would help the project manager tie everything together-from what a stakeholder understands about a project’s objectives and deliverables to the tangible completion of the actual project itself.

Integrated Project Planning and Management Cycle

The integrated project planning and management cycle prescribes the phases in project management and integrates processes that ensure harmony and coordination of each project element. In general, included in this cycle are the following stages:

1. Initiating: This is the phase covering the definition of project goals, scope, and feasibility. Identification of stakeholders and development of a project charter that gives formality to the project occur here.
2. Planning: The integrated project management plan has to be developed during this stage. All aspects-compose scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, and risks-are defined and documented.
3. Implementation: The project team undertakes the activities identified in the plan. In this stage, communication and interaction between the working team are very important, as well as among other stakeholders.
4. Monitoring and Controlling: Continuous monitoring of the performance of the project puts the project to go as expected. The key performance indicators are checked out, and deviations from the plan are put right by corrective actions.
5. Closure: The project is complete; the deliverables are delivered to the customer. Wrap-up of project documentation and documentation of lessons learned for future use.

The integrated model for planning and managing a project puts much emphasis on the synchronization and coordination amongst all the processes that are involved in handling over of a project. This way, it ensures that all processes are working in tandem with each other towards the realization of the common goal.

Seven Processes of Project Integration Management

These seven processes, with respect to project integration management, form the very foundation on which a project manager should architect the entire work process, hence allowing different sub-components of the project to work in tandem with each other. The processes associated with such have been defined by the Project Management Institute as:

• Development of the Project Charter: This is the process of developing a document that approves and authorizes the project, by stating its objectives and the scope of the project in question; it also helps identify the stakeholders. This is the vision of the project, which will be useful for reference throughout its life cycle.
• Develop Project Management Plan: The process that integrates all subsidiary plans and lays down the overall direction of the project on how the project shall be executed, monitored, and controlled, while ensuring that all aspects of the project are coordinated.
• Direct and Manage Project Work: The implementation of the project management plan involves the mobilization of people and resources, managing stakeholder engagement in the right direction. In this phase, good communication and leadership are quite crucial for the accomplishment of tasks planned.
• Monitor and Control Project Work: It involves the tracking of reviews and control of project progress and performance. This secures the realization of project objectives, while at the same time swift remedies are brought to any issues.
• Perform Integrated Change Control: Honestly, change will occur on all projects. This process provides for analyzing and documenting changes to project scope, project schedule, and costs to make sure the changes are recorded accurately.
• Close Project or Phase: Formal closure of the project or phase includes obtaining stakeholder acceptance of deliverables and documentation of lessons learned and archiving of project documents.
• Integrated Change Control: Changes can come from anywhere at any time in the project life cycle which affects the original plan. This process includes reviewing changes, determining impact of, and making sure proper documentation and approval occur.

By utilizing these seven processes, the project manager will ensure that all aspects of the project are integrated and pointing toward the objectives of the project.

Importance of Project Integration Management

One aspect on which one can never stress enough is project integration management. In the world of project management, this stands as the backbone by considering a number of key benefits including but not limited to:

1. Improved Coordination: It integrates all components together, whereby through Project Integration Management, the different teams and sets of stakeholders shall work in harmony with each other. This would reduce any misunderstandings and the associated risk of project failure.
2. Improved Efficiency: There won’t be any duplications of effort, and hence a synchronized approach will ensure more judicious use of resources and performance of activities. This efficiency can drastically cut project timelines and costs.
3. Risk Mitigation: In an integrated project management system, risks can be better identified and assessed. Keeping in mind the interaction among the different elements of a project, project managers can devise more realistic risk management strategies.
4. Increased Transparency: all the processes involved in a project will be documented and integrated. For this reason, the stakeholders will have an overview concerning the progress of the projects, the challenges faced, and changes. This will cultivate confidence, consequently enabling informed decisions to be made.
5. Organizational Goals: Integrated project management ensures that projects are focused toward organizational goals. In this case, a project manager is also able to comprehend how every project contributes towards the overall goals of organizations and thereby plans accordingly.
6. Continuous Improvement: The integrated approach builds on learning from every given project. Documentation of lessons learnt and best practices contributes to an improvement in project management capabilities of organizations over time.
7. Improved Stakeholder Satisfaction: Once all the factors are engaged in a project and managed properly, their expectations come into view. That perhaps leads to more satisfaction, opening up avenues for better relationships and possibly future collaborations.

Integrated project management is when a general approach is stressed wherein the importance of coordination and alignment of all the processes regarding the project are emphasized. Therefore, an integrated project management system shall help an organization in the development of an appropriate comprehensive project management plan that would help bring efficiency into the outcomes of the projects.

Understanding the integrated project planning and management cycle, and also the seven processes of project integration management, is very important to enhance the success of a project manager amidst a modern and dynamic business environment. Benefits derived from effective project integration management add not only to the success of individual projects but also to that of the success and sustainability of the organization.

In other words, integrated project management focuses not only on improving performance in projects, but also on creating a culture within organizations in respect of collaboration, continuous improvement, and strategic alignment. It is therefore something essential to the practice of effective project management.