Project Management Knowledge Areas slideshow prototype

Project Stakeholder Management

Project Procurement Management

Project Risk Management

Project Communication Management

Project Resource Management

Project Quality Management

Project Cost Management

Project Time/ Schedule Management

Project Scope Management

Project Integration Management

10 Project Management Knowledge Areas

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PMBOK® Definition: Project Integration Management includes the processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups. In simpler terms: This knowledge area is about a project manager being able to master and combine all ten of the PMBOK knowledge areas.

Project Integration Management

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Imagine you’re hosting 12 friends for dinner. There are countless tasks you need to coordinate, from choosing the menu to buying ingredients to cooking the food… and that’s just preparation! As the host, you need to manage every task carefully to make sure the dinner goes smoothly. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Projects are complex sets of many, many tasks, and keeping everything moving smoothly is critical to successful project management.
• A project manager who can integrate all aspects of a project, from a project charter to a scope statement, will have an easier time keeping a team on track and functioning as a unit.

Project Integration Management in Practice

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Project Scope Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about staying laser focused on the end result of a project, and ensuring that you only complete the work that is absolutely necessary (and agreed upon at the start of a project) to get there.

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Imagine that you are embarking on the project of adopting a dog. You set out to the animal shelter, and when you get there, your roommate wants to get two dogs. The original project was to adopt one dog — a second dog is out of scope! As fun as it would be to have two dogs, you only have the budget and time to take care of one. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Project Scope Management is essential to ensuring that all of a project is delivered on time, within the agreed upon budget, and without unnecessary work.
• If you don’t carefully manage project scope, it’s easy for a project to get off track and expensive.

Project Scope Management in Practice

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Project Time/Schedule Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Schedule Management includes the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about managing all of the work it takes to keep a project progressing on the timeline that was set at the beginning of the project. It’s about proactively communicating with your team to keep them on track and getting your team back on track if they get off schedule.

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Have you ever been stuck in the waiting room of a doctor’s office? If you have an appointment at the end of the day, chances are you’ll start late. That’s because if just one person is late for their appointment earlier in the day, the rest of the doctor’s schedule has to shift! Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• One small time adjustment can cause the entire project timeline to shift. While it’s important to be flexible when unexpected challenges arise, you also want to keep the team on track to complete your project in time (and without forcing everyone to rush!).

Project Time/Schedule Management in Practice

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Project Cost Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so the project can be completed within the approved budget. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about planning and managing your finances to keep a project from going over budget. This includes managing material resources and human resources.

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Imagine you’re planning a birthday party for your friend, and you know you have $200 to spend on food and party supplies. You head to the party store for hats, plates, and cups, but when you get to the store, you see an incredible piñata — and you know you’re friend loves piñatas. You buy the hats, plates, piñata, and you pick up a few extra party items. Before you know it, your bill at check out is $125, and you haven’t even bought food yet. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• A project has a defined budget, and that budget must be managed carefully to ensure that there is enough money to successfully complete the project.

Project Costs Management in Practice

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Project Quality Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Quality Management includes the processes for incorporating the organization’s quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project and product quality requirements, in order to meet stakeholders’ expectations. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about making sure the entire project — from planning to execution to evaluation — is of a quality that aligns with the standards of both the company and the stakeholders.

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Imagine you’re a baker making 1,000 cupcakes for a wedding. Before you make the batch of 1,000, you’ll probably make a few tester cupcakes and share them with the wedding party. Why? You want to make sure that they like the taste and design of the cupcakes before you spend the time and money making 1,000. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Agreeing upon quality standards at the start of a project will ensure that your final deliverables are satisfactory to customers and important project stakeholders

Project Quality Management in Practice

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Project Resource Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Resource Management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about managing the human resources and material resources necessary to successfully completion of your project. Resource management can range from hiring and training people to ensuring that you secure meeting rooms for your project team.

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Imagine you’re organizing a bachelor party, and you want to involve the groomsmen in planning. You ask Jerome to find a concert to attend, Jason will research restaurants, and Aadit will find a hotel. However, one month before the party, you check in and realize no one has started any research. While it’s easy to be frustrated, managing the team to stay on track was your role. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• The project team is one of your most important resources — without them, nothing will be accomplished.
• Without the proper material resources, even the best team will struggle to be effective.

Project Resource Management in Practice

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Project Communication Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Communications Management includes the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is the work of communicating project updates, changes, and/or progress to multiple interested parties (such as employees, managers, and customers).

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You’re planning a brunch for your birthday and you decide to make a Facebook event for the party. When you go to add friends to the event, you realize that half the people you wanted to invite don’t use Facebook anymore. You decide reach out to a handful of friends via text, but you have to call Justine, because she never checks her text messages. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Project Communications Management is about making sure that everyone related to a project is getting the information they need in a timely manner and through a communication channel that resonates with them. If communications are unclear or last-minute, it’s easy for mistakes to happen.

Project Communication Management in Practice

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Project Risk Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Risk Management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is about identifying, mitigating, and responding any threats to the completion of a project. Broken tools, lack of clarity around the scope of the project, or loss of team members are all examples of risks to successful project completion.

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You run a small flower shop, and your first employee, Sansa, built your website from scratch. You asked Sansa to update the website with your newest arrangement, but yesterday, Sansa won the lottery and she told you she’s quitting. While that’s great for Sansa, now you have no idea how to update your website. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Project Risk Management aims to identify and remove all of the risks to your project. While some risks are difficult to remove completely, the goal is to make sure that no single issue can prevent your project from being successful.

Project Risk Management in Practice

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Project Procurement Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Procurement Management includes the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team. In simpler terms: This Knowledge Area is the work of making sure your team has all of the external resources they need to complete their project. This can involve purchasing equipment for your team or contracting with other companies to complete some portion of the project work.

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Imagine you are the project manager for a construction company and you just won a large new contract to build an office building. You need to knock down the old building, and you don’t have enough bulldozers to complete the job. Instead of buying a new bulldozer for $170,000, you decide to lease one for $15,000 a month. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• Often times, you will need resources that are external to your organization in order to successfully complete a project. Project Procurement Management is about making sure those external resource are procured in a timely and effective manner, using the contract type most beneficial to your organization.

Project Procurement Management in Practice

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Project Stakeholder Management

PMBOK® Definition: Project Stakeholder Management includes the processes required to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution. In simpler terms: A stakeholder is anyone who is impacted or could be impacted by your project. This Knowledge Area is about identifying stakeholders and their needs, planning how you will involve them in your project, and managing relationships for successful execution.

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You’re a graphic designer and you’re creating a new logo for a juice company. You create a draft of three logos, and share it with the juice company. They love the first logo, but they want to test all three with customers. Customers overwhelmingly preferred the third logo, so the juice company ultimately chooses the third logo as well. Why is this Knowledge Area important?

• As a project manager, you want to align your project deliverables with the expectations of your most important stakeholders.
• Stakeholders can also provide feedback on the direction of the project, they can offer solutions to challenges you are experiencing, and they can be important resources in executing a project.

Project Stakeholder Management in Practice