Project Integration Management

Project Integration Management - Definition, Processes, Templates

Thanks for your interest in Project Integration Management (PMBOK®). You find hereafter the definition and the processes involved in Project Integration Management, plus free downloadable templates (links a little further down on this page). I developed the templates over time from real life documents.

The most important document in Project Integrations Management is the Project Management Plan itself with the Project Charter. The Project Management Plan is prepared by the project manager and describes how the project shall be accomplished. It is created during the project initiating phase and is developed further during the project planning phase. Later changes and updates are possible in compliance with the applicable procedures.

The Project Management Plan includes the

  • Project Charter,
  • Project Definition,
  • Project Objectives,
  • Budget,
  • Project Schedule,
  • Resources needed to accomplish the project,
  • Management Approach,
  • Further Management Plans, and
  • The initial Risk Assessment.

Project Integration Management Definition (PMI)

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 the project management context, integration includes characteristics of unification, consolidation, communication, and integrative actions that are crucial to controlled project execution through completion, successfully managing stakeholder expectations, and meeting requirements.
Project integration management includes making choices about resource allocation, making trade-offs among competing objectives and alternatives, and managing the inter dependencies among the project management knowledge areas. The project management processes are usually presented as discrete processes with defined interfaces while, in practice, they overlap and interact in ways that cannot be completely detailed in the PMBOK® Guide.

Project Integration Management Processes (PMI)

project integration managementDevelop Project Charter

Develop project charter is the process of developing a document that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.

Create Project Management Plan

Create project management plan is the process of defining, preparing, and coordinating all plan components and consolidating them into an integrated project management plan.

Direct and Manage Project Work

Direct and manage project work is the process of leading and performing the work defined in the project management plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project's objectives.

Manage Project Knowledge

Manage project knowledge is the process of using existing knowledge and creating new knowledge to achieve the project's objectives and contribute to organizational learning.

Monitor and Control Project Work

Monitor and control project work is the process of tracking, reviewing, and reporting overall progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan.

Perform Integrated Change Control

Perform integrated change control is the process of reviewing all change requests; approving changes and managing changes to deliverables, organizational process assets, project documents, and the project management plan; and communicating the decisions.

Close Project or Phase

Close project or phase is the process of finalizing all activities for the project, phase, or the contract.

Download Area Project Integration Management Templates

What is Project Integration Management?

In project management a variety of different management areas are to be covered. These range from finance to HR, purchasing and quality, to others. Often these areas are represented by departments and their leaders. Thereby each department and each departmental manager can have own procedures and rules. These are not always compatible with those of other departments and can be characterized by different goals. As a result, compromises must be made and alternatives worked out to ultimately meet the expectations of the project sponsor and the various legitimate stakeholders. Project integration management therefore aims to identify, harmonize and coordinate these in the best interest of the project and thus to ensure the most efficient cooperation in order to achieve the agreed project goals.

How to Implement Project Integration Management

At the beginning of a new project, the various deliverables and expected results have to be defined. These are written down in the project charter.

Project Charter

The project charter is a document issued by the project sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. Unlike other documents, the project charter usually does not change during the project life cycle.

Scope of Work Statement

The previously defined deliverables are now further defined in the scope statement and it is specified exactly what is included in the scope of works and what is excluded. Normally, criteria are also established as to which criteria the deliverables must comply in order to be recognized as having been fulfilled.

Project Management Plan

Now the team can start writing the actual project management plan. This is not a one-time conclusive process, as the project management plan contains various components and other plans, which are only gradually created, added and, if necessary, revised. The above aforementioned documents become part of the project management plan. The project management plan includes other management plans such as the scope management plan, the cost management plan, the quality management plan, the process improvement plan, the resource management plan, the communications management plan, the procurement management plan, and so on. Furthermore, the project management plan contains the three important baselines, which are scope baseline, cost baseline and the schedule baseline. These plans and baselines will be created gradually according to their own processes.

Direct and Manage Project Work

It is now time to define responsibilities and start the execution of the actual project works. The ultimate goal is to carry out the project without friction losses and as smooth as possible while adhering to the previously defined provisions. However, there is hardly a project in which no problems, contradictions or the like occur. These are processed and resolved according to the change management process.

Manage Project Knowledge

In the course of a project, there are many things that go well or not so well. Some things may not work as planned and urgently need new solutions, other things are going better than expected. These experiences and acquired knowledge are recorded as so-called "lessons learned" and it is to be ensured that all who are confronted with similar tasks are informed accordingly.

Monitor and Control Project Work

During the entire time, the execution of all work is to be monitored and controlled. First and foremost, care is taken to ensure that all specifications and quality requirements are complied with and that the limits set in terms of costs and schedules are not exceeded. Another important point is the observation of the development of known project risks, as well as new risk developments.

The project manager will accordingly collect appropriate data, record them and distribute the information in status reports to the respective stakeholders.

Perform Integrated Change Control

In almost all projects there is a need to change or adapt different things. These requirements can result from very different sources and be very diverse. However, the most common ones may be that timelines can not be met as planned, costs may be different than anticipated, changes in the scope may be required, etc. It is of great importance that such deviations are recognized in good time, that solutions are developed and approved according to their impact and extent.

Close Project or Phase

Many projects are divided into different phases. It is advantageous if every single phase as well as ultimately the project as a whole is evaluated according to various criteria and the individual phases or the project as a whole are closed and approved.

The reasons for that can be of different nature. One conceivable reason could be that projects are subdivided into phases to simplify planning, another can be related to project financing, or it may not be possible to verify the fulfillment of quality standards later on. It is also conceivable that the structural work of a building is completed and other craftsmen move in to continue with the interior and the previous work must be accepted and handed over. It can also be that the construction phase is entirely completed and now commissioning takes place.

35 Comments

  1. I’ve read some good stuff here. Certainly price bookmarking for revisiting.
    I surprise how so much effort you place to make this
    kind of fantastic informative site.

  2. Hi Mr. Marck Arnecke,

    Thank you very much for this template you share, I can figure it out now how to start and draft an exercise. I hope I can apply it on my next job.

  3. Thank you so much for sharing your expert knowledge and templates. This is so useful to me in my undergrad studies. Bless you.

  4. An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who was conducting
    a little homework on this. And he actually bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him…
    lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for
    the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending time to talk about this matter here on your website.

  5. Hi Marc

    Please l kindly need your assistance on template or an example of project plan
    Thanks
    Maxwell

  6. Just great info and design. Thanks for having them available for some of us that its to expensive to bying PMI guide of taking course. best regards.

  7. Thanks for sharing.
    Regarding Integration, and especially Project Charter, I noticed this Conflict paragraph. Never seen before, may be useful…
    Regarding related plans, more than included in PMBOK 5th Ed I believe, but interesting as well. Any template for the Improvement plan?

    Regards,

    Helene

  8. Dear Marc

    Thanks very much for these templates. I will make some of them available to my students so they can see how effective documentation is done. Well done!

  9. Wow… This will go all way to address my needs as I am studying Advanced Project Management, and the templates are spot on, and will me when I haveto write assignments requiring one to produce a these Project documents.

    Duke

  10. Marc,

    These templates are excellent! I am about to commence an IT project and was looking for a quicker way to generate the project documents. This will be of immense help. Thanks.

    Hayden

  11. These templates are great! How do I remove the “under review” watermark. When I go into MS Word/Watermarks, it does not have any effect. Thx!

  12. Thanks a lot for these templates. Got tired searching since everyone provides paid templates only these days.

  13. Hi Marc

    Thanks a million for this templates, am an operations manager of a small contract cleaning company and we have got a few contracts with the mines, and the templates really made me learn alot. I wish for you to maybe reply to my email so that we could keep intouch when ever i hit a big wall.

  14. It was a big assistance not only to me but to everyone who is in the middle of preparing project reports. I have gone through only a couple reports and it seems quite user friendly. I appreciate your knowledge and experience transfer and make it available to public.

  15. Hi Marc, I have problems to update the TOC in a few templates. I would be very grateful if you could help me, because the plans are already largely completed

    BR
    Joe

  16. A big thank you for the templates, I find them friendly and easy to follow. They have helped me a lot to my assignment

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