GEOG 871
Geospatial Technology Project Management

The Use of Project Management Knowledge Areas for Integration Management

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The Use of Project Management Knowledge Areas for Integration Management

To this point, we have worked through the core and facilitating project management knowledge areas as defined in Lesson 1 and described in detail in Lessons 3 through 8. Now, we will look at how project integration management coordinates all of these knowledge areas through the project's life cycle.

Integration management ties together components from all other project management knowledge areas: scope, cost, time, quality, risk, human resource, communication, and procurement management. Ultimately, this integration is focused on completing the project. During the planning stages, however, integration management is focused on crafting a viable project plan.

The project plan is a critical juncture through which projects pass. In creating the project plan, quantitative and qualitative information is integrated into a document describing how a project should progress. It puts processes in place to move through the implementation and close-out of a project. As these processes are executed, further integration is necessary to successfully complete the project.

The above scenario assumes a project goes as planned. If changes are introduced into a project, it is necessary to coordinate these modifications. Change control is another important aspect of integration management. In the project management framework outlined in this course, controlling a project and associated changes is not a knowledge area but a process, similar to initiating, planning, executing and closing, as discussed in Lesson 2.