Marginalia

• A difficult question is the internal structure of each knowledge area: The PMBOK® offers flow charts for the processes of each knowledge area. And these flow charts follow the pattern of init, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close. But there are interdependencies between the processes of different knowledge areas: For being able to estimate the costs (= knowledge area «cost») you have to estimate the activity resources (knowledge area «time»). Hence one need a big picture of the sequence of all processes. myPmps offers such an integrated big picture in form of a sequential survey.

(IV) The Knowledge Areas

The PMBOK® contains Knowledge Areas of Project Management which are clusters of different project management processes: Each project management process fullfills a more general purpose and concerns a specific project management subject. These topics are grouping the processes and are constituting these Knowledge Areas:

Project Integration Management

Task of the Project Integration Management is to describe and organize all "[...] processes and activities needed to identify, combine, unify, and coordinate the various process and project management activities within the Project Management Process Groups": Rawly spoken one has to initiate a project, one has to plan the project, one has to execute the planned activities, one has to monitor and control the activities and results, and finally one has to close the project. And in all those phases one has to fullfill tasks concerning different aspects, which must be integrated into the big picture. Hence "Integration[...] is making choices about where to concentrate resources and effort on any given day, anticipating potential issues, dealing with these issues before the becomecritical, and coordinating work for the overall project good" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 77).

Project Scope Management

Task of the Project Scope Management is "[...] to ensure, that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully". In other words: The project Scope Management shall warrant that all of the required targets will be met and nothing more! A project target may be described indirectly as a feature of a result (product), but the intrinsic scope of the project itself is the work that must be done to create the product (comp. PMBOK3, p. 103).

Project Time Management

Task of the Project Time Management is to describe and execute all those "[...] processes required to accomplish timely completion of the project" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 123).

Project Cost Management

Task of the Project Cost Management is to describe and execute all those "[...] processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget" (comp. PMBOK3, p.157).

Project Quality Management

The Project Quality Management has to plan and execute all those "[...] activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken": the main target is to establish a "quality management system" containing processes and procedures of "quality planing, quality assurance, and quality control" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 179)

Project Human Resource Management

The Project Human Resource Management has the task to "[...] organize and manage the project team" . And member of the team is each person who has to follow the instructions of the project manager (in opposite of those people, who have to follow the instructions of an external company which itself is a seller of a solution bought by the project manager). This means, that " the project team is comprised of the people who have assigned roles and responsibilities for completing the project" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 199)

Project Communications Management

The Project Communications Management has to "[...] employ the processes to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information". The main task of those processes is "[...] to provide the critical links among people and information that are necessary for successful communications" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 221).

Project Risk Management

The Project Risk Management "[...] includes the processes concerned with conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, responses and monitoring and control a project": the main task of Project Risk Managment is "[...] to increase the probability and impact of positive events, and (to) decrease the probability and impact of events advers to the project" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 237).

(comp. PMBOK3, page 237)

Project Procurement Management

The Project Procurement Management "[...] includes the processes to purchase or acquire the products, services, or results needed from outside the project team to perform the work". An organization can either be the buyer or the seller of these products, services and so on. The procurement management includes the contract management and the change control processes "[...] required to administer contracts or purchase orders issued by authorized team members" (comp. PMBOK3, p. 269)

(comp. PMBOK3, page 269)