Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme

Chapter 2. Understanding The Project Management Process Groups

Project management is organized common sense.

The PMI PMBOK Process Groups are not a project management life cycle; they are the building blocks of project management life cycles.

—Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D. President, Enterprise Information Insights, Inc.

CHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Explain the six basic questions that all valid project management methodologies must be able to answer

• Define the five Process Groups

• Define the nine Knowledge Areas

• Explain the dependency between the five Process Groups and nine Knowledge Areas

• Understand the basic concept of a project management life cycle

All of the project management life cycles (PMLCs) presented in Part II are constructed from the five Process Groups introduced in this chapter. The five Process Groups were originally defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in their standards guidelines called the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). PMBOK has become the de facto standard for the practice of project management worldwide. This book is compatible with the five Process Groups and the related nine Knowledge Areas of PMBOK. It is important that you understand the traditional processes and Knowledge Areas in detail because they are the basis of the project management models that you will learn about in Part II. This book extends its treatment beyond those traditional practices into the contemporary world of project management. ...