Review of the Process relationships of the project

Initiation involves a single sub-process, authorization, which is the decision to start the next phase of the project.

Planning processes

Planning is important for a project because the project contains something that has not been done before. Naturally, planning involves relatively many processes. However, it should not be assumed that project management is basically planning. Planning efforts should be measured against the objectives of the project and the usefulness of the information obtained.

Recall that it is necessary to distinguish between the goals of the project and the goals of the project product, which is understood as products (or services) created or produced as a result of the project.

Product goals are the properties and functions that the product of the project must have.
Project goals are the work that needs to be done to produce a product with specified properties.

The relationships between the planning processes are presented in Fig. 3.
During the execution of the project, these processes are repeated many times. Changes can affect the purpose of the project, its budget, resources, etc. In addition, project planning is not an exact science. Different project teams can develop different plans for the same project. And project management packs can create different schedules for work with the same raw data.

Some of the planning processes have clear logical and informational relationships and are performed in the same order in almost all projects. So, for example, you should first determine what work the project consists of, and only then calculate the timing and cost of the project. These basic processes are performed several times during each phase of the project.

In addition to these basic planning processes, there are a number of auxiliary processes, the need for which depends heavily on the nature of a particular project:

quality planning – determining which quality standards to use in the project and how to achieve these standards;
organization planning – identify, document, and assign roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships in the organization.
appointment of personnel - the appointment of human resources for the implementation of project work;
interaction planning – identify the information flows and interactions required by project participants.
risk identification – identify and document risk events that may affect the project;
risk assessment — assessment of the probabilities of occurrence of risk events, their characteristics and impact on the project;
response design – identify the necessary actions to prevent risks and respond to threatening events;
supply planning – determining what, how and when should be delivered;
preparation of conditions – development of supply requirements and identification of potential suppliers.

The relationships between the auxiliary subprocesses, as well as their very presence, largely depend on the nature of the project.

Execution and control processes

Execution refers to the processes of implementing the plan. Project performance should be regularly measured and analysed in order to identify deviations from the planned plan and assess their impact on the project. Regular measurement of project parameters and identification of emerging deviations further also refers to execution processes and is referred to as performance monitoring. Performance monitoring should be carried out on all parameters included in the project plan.
As in planning, execution processes (Fig. 4) can be divided into basic and auxiliary.

The main ones include the process of implementing the project plan.

Among the auxiliary processes we note:

performance accounting - preparation and distribution of information necessary for project participants with the required periodicity;
quality assurance – regular evaluation of project performance in order to confirm compliance with accepted quality standards;
preparation of proposals – collection of recommendations, feedback, suggestions, applications, etc .;
selection of suppliers — evaluation of proposals, selection of suppliers and contractors and award of contracts;
contract control — monitoring of the performance of contracts by suppliers and contractors;
development of the project team — professional development of the project team members.

Analysis Processes

Analysis processes include both plan analysis and project execution analysis.

Plan analysis refers to determining whether a project execution plan meets the requirements and expectations of project participants. It is expressed in the assessment of the indicators of the plan by the team and other project participants. At the planning stage, the result of the plan analysis may be a decision on the need to change the initial conditions and draw up a new version of the plan, or the adoption of the developed version as a basic project plan, which later serves as the basis for measuring performance. In the following presentation, the plan analysis is not singled out as a separate group of processes, but is included in the group of planning processes, making this group of processes inherently iterative. Thus, the processes of analysis are further understood as the processes of analysis of execution.

Execution analysis processes are designed to assess the status and predict the success of a project according to criteria and constraints defined during the planning phase. Due to the uniqueness of the projects, these criteria are not universal, but for most projects, the main limitations and success criteria include the goals, timing, quality and cost of the project. In the case of a negative forecast, a decision is made on the need for corrective actions, the choice of which is carried out in the processes of change management.

Analysis processes can also be divided into basic and auxiliary.

The main ones include those analysis processes that are directly related to the objectives of the project and the indicators that characterize the success of the project:

timing analysis — determining whether the actual and projected timelines for the execution of project operations correspond to the directive or planned ones;
cost analysis – determining the compliance of the actual and projected cost of operations and phases of the project with the directive or planned ones;
quality analysis – monitoring of the results in order to check them for compliance with the accepted quality standards and determine ways to eliminate the causes of undesirable results of the project quality;
confirmation of goals is the process of formal acceptance of the results of the project by its participants (investors, consumers, etc.).

Auxiliary analysis processes are associated with the analysis of factors affecting the goals and criteria for the success of the project. These processes include:

performance evaluation – analysis of performance and distribution of project information in order to provide project participants with data on how resources are used to achieve project objectives;
resource analysis – determine whether actual and predicted resource utilization and performance match planned capacity, and analyze whether actual material consumption matches planned values.
The analysis processes do not include interaction analysis to optimize information processing procedures, contract performance analysis for timely changes and dispute prevention, and a number of other processes that are not regular (like interaction analysis) or form part of the included processes (like contract analysis).

As a result of the analysis, either a decision is made to continue the implementation of the project according to the previously planned plan, or the need for corrective actions is determined.

Management Processes

Project execution management is the identification and application of the necessary control actions for the successful implementation of the project. If the implementation of the project occurs in accordance with the planned plan, then the management is actually reduced to execution - bringing to the project participants the planned tasks and monitoring their implementation. We have incorporated these processes into our execution processes.

Another thing is if in the process of implementation there were deviations, the analysis of which showed that it is necessary to determine and apply corrective influences. In this case, it is necessary to find the optimal corrective effects, adjust the plan of the remaining work and coordinate the planned changes with all project participants. So, management processes are designed to define, agree, and make the necessary changes to the project plan. Such management processes are often referred to as change management and are initiated by analysis processes .

The main management processes found in almost every project include:

overall change management – identifying, agreeing, approving and accepting corrective actions and coordinating changes throughout the project;
resource management — make changes to the composition and assignment of resources to project work;
goal management — adjustment of project objectives based on the results of analysis processes;
quality management – development of measures to eliminate the causes of unsatisfactory performance.
Among the auxiliary management processes, we note:
risk management – reacting to events and changing risks during the implementation of the project;
contract management – coordination of work of (sub)contractors, adjustment of contracts, conflict resolution.

Completion processes

Completion Process Relationships
The completion of the project is accompanied by the following processes :

closure of contracts – completion and closing of contracts, including the resolution of all disputes that have arisen;
administrative completion – preparation, collection and distribution of information necessary for the formal completion of the project.
Methods and technologies for the implementation of these processes, their integration constitute the essence of project management. Please note that all these processes are applicable to projects of any nature - and to construction, and to information, and to any other. However, there are also significant differences in the management of projects of various types. It should also be noted that the successful implementation of the project management system is associated with a certain organizational restructuring and with the introduction of specialized software tools. The listed issues, as well as specialized methods for solving individual project management tasks, technology, experience and implementation problems will be disclosed in subsequent publications.