PMBOK® Guide 6th Ed Processes Explained with Ricardo Vargas!

Introduction to PMBOK 6th Edition

In this section, the speaker introduces the PMBOK 6th edition and explains why he is presenting it in a different way.

Understanding the PMBOK Guide

• The PMBOK guide is a thick reference guide that can be difficult to understand.

• The speaker will present the guide in a different way, starting with part two of the guide.

• Part two covers the ANSI standard of project management and is the core of what he will be discussing.

Simplifying Project Management with PMBOK 6th Edition

In this section, the speaker explains how he will simplify project management using PMBOK 6th edition.

Reading Part Two of PMBOK Guide

• The speaker recommends reading part two of the guide in a different way.

• Chapters four through thirteen cover ten knowledge areas.

• He suggests reading chapter four (integration) and chapter thirteen (stakeholder management) together.

General Concepts in Project Management

In this section, the speaker discusses general concepts in project management covered in chapters one through three of PMBOK 6th edition.

Chapter One: What is a Project?

• Chapter one covers general concepts such as what constitutes a project and what is project management.

Chapter Two: Organizational Structure

• Chapter two covers organizational structure and how it changes depending on how much leverage you give to projects.

Chapter Three: Project Manager Competencies

• Chapter three covers competencies of project managers, including discussion on the PMI talent triangle.

Knowledge Areas in Project Management

In this section, the speaker discusses knowledge areas covered in chapters four through thirteen of PMBOK 6th edition.

Ten Knowledge Areas

• Chapters four through thirteen cover ten knowledge areas.

• The speaker emphasizes that these areas are interconnected and should be approached as such.

Initiating a Project

In this section, the speaker discusses the initiating process of a project.

Developing a Project Charter

• The first step in initiating a project is developing a project charter.

• The project charter is like a birth certificate for the project and outlines basic conditions, including the name of the project manager.

Identifying Stakeholders

• In parallel to developing the project charter, stakeholders must be identified.

• A stakeholder is any person or entity with an interest in the project, positive or negative.

Planning a Project

In this section, the speaker discusses planning a project after it has been initiated.

Understanding Planning Processes

• Planning processes help understand how to plan for a project.

• These processes include understanding what pieces need to be in place to ensure success.

Stakeholder Management

In this section, the speaker discusses stakeholder management in more detail.

Chapter Four: Integration (4.1)

• Chapter four covers integration and includes stakeholder management (13.1).

• Stakeholder management involves identifying stakeholders and revisiting the project charter as needed.

• This process goes both ways and allows for flexibility throughout the life of the project.

Integration and Project Management Plan

In this section, the speaker explains the importance of integration in project management and how it connects the different areas. The speaker also discusses the process of developing a project management plan.

Integration in Project Management

• Integration is the glue that connects the nine areas of project management.

• Its purpose is to balance scope, risk, and cost to produce desired results.

• The development of a project management plan involves working on different areas.

Developing a Project Management Plan

• Planning for scope management is crucial to define how you will manage your project's scope.

• Collecting requirements involves understanding what work needs to be done and what functional, technical, and activity requirements are necessary.

• Shaping the scope statement combines these requirements into one document that reflects your project's scope.

• Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) breaks down your project into smaller manageable pieces of work.

Planned Schedule Management

• After defining what needs to be done, planned schedule management helps understand how much time is needed for each activity.

• It involves setting rules for calculating durations, using tools for planning, and determining precision levels.

Defining Activities

In this section, the speaker discusses defining activities as part of developing a project management plan.

Defining Activities

• Defining activities is an essential step in delivering your work.

• It involves creating a WBS and defining activities that need to be accomplished to deliver your work.

Understanding Project Planning

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of understanding project planning and how to approach it.

Importance of Understanding Project Planning

• The process of project planning is fluid and not rigid. It involves revisiting tasks and making adjustments as needed.

• Developing a schedule is an important part of project planning. A schedule can be displayed in various ways, such as a Gantt chart or network diagram.

• After developing a schedule, it's important to estimate costs and develop a budget for the project.

• Planning quality management is another crucial aspect of project planning. It involves determining what quality standards need to be met for the project.

Resource Management

• Resource management involves incorporating materials, equipment, and human resources into the project plan.

• Planning resource management includes determining how resources will be recruited or acquired and establishing rules for managing them.

• Estimating activity resources is an important step in resource management. This involves identifying what resources are needed for each task in the project plan.

Cost Management

• After identifying activities and estimating costs, it's important to plan cost management. This includes establishing rules for spending money on the project.

• Developing a budget and understanding how money will be spent over time are also key components of cost management.

Quality Management

• Planning quality management involves determining what quality standards need to be met for the project.

• Establishing rules for managing quality throughout the duration of the project is also crucial.

Overall, understanding all aspects of project planning - including resource management, cost management, and quality management - is essential for successfully completing a project.

Resource Management

In this section, the speaker explains how resources are related to time and cost. He gives an example of how adding more workers can reduce the time taken to complete a task.

Planning Phase

• Most tasks are effort-driven, meaning that adding more resources reduces the time taken up to a certain level.

• Costs are intimately linked to resources and time.

• Communication management is a key part of planning. A communication plan should be created that outlines what needs to be communicated, who it needs to be communicated to, where it will take place, when it will happen, how much it will cost and how it will be done.

• Risk management is another important area in the planning phase. The first step is identifying risks with stakeholders and then determining risk tolerance levels.

Risk Management

• After identifying risks, both qualitative and quantitative risk analysis should be conducted. Qualitative analysis involves using a scale (low-medium-high), while quantitative analysis involves calculating probability and impact mathematically.

• Once risks have been identified and analyzed, potential responses should be planned for each risk. This could involve buying insurance or changing parts of the scope or putting more financial reserves in place.

Stakeholder Management

• Stakeholder management is also important in project management. It involves identifying stakeholders, understanding their needs and expectations, managing their engagement throughout the project lifecycle and ensuring they are satisfied with the outcome.

• Effective stakeholder management can help ensure project success by reducing misunderstandings or conflicts between stakeholders.

Conclusion

• Planning for resource management, communication management, risk management and stakeholder management are all critical components of project planning. By taking the time to plan for these areas, project managers can increase the likelihood of success and reduce the risk of failure.

Planning Process

In this section, the speaker discusses the planning process for a project and emphasizes the importance of understanding the integrated impact of responses. The speaker also talks about procurement plans, stakeholder engagement, and communication planning.

Understanding Integrated Impact

• It is important to understand the integrated impact of your response.

• The planning process exists to support you in understanding what you need to do.

• You need to understand what you need to buy or make for your procurement plan.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Planning

• Stakeholder engagement involves identifying stakeholders and grouping them based on their influence and power.

• Communication planning and stakeholder engagement are twins because most communication reinforces stakeholder engagement.

• Communication planning involves creating special communication for stakeholders who require it.

Execution and Monitoring Process

In this section, the speaker discusses execution and monitoring processes for a project. The speaker highlights that these two processes work together, with execution being a fluid process that requires constant monitoring.

Execution Process

• Execution and monitoring processes work together.

• You don't execute everything before checking if everything is fine.

• Directing and managing work is done by resources defined for activities.

Monitoring Process

• Manage project knowledge involves registering lessons learned from project work.

• Lessons learned are valuable knowledge that should be registered.

Supporting Processes

In this section, the speaker discusses supporting processes for a project, including quality management and resource acquisition.

Quality Management

• Manage quality involves managing the results of planned quality.

• Plan quality sets how your quality will be.

Resource Acquisition

• Resources are acquired here because this is where you hire new team members, buy materials, and buy things.

• This process is done as late as possible because resources are expensive.

Develop vs Manage

In this section, the speaker explains the difference between developing and managing a team. Developing a team involves making sure that all human resources work together as a team, while managing a team is more focused on operational aspects.

Key Points:

• Developing a team involves making sure that all human resources work together as a team.

• Managing a team is more focused on operational aspects such as managing daily work and handling situations when someone needs to take leave or is sick.

• Managing communications is an important part of executing your plan, which includes building meetings based on stakeholders you want to engage.

• Implementing risk responses involves taking actions related to plans such as buying insurance or changing something in the scope.

Conduct Procurement and Acquire Resources

This section covers two new processes for the PMBOK Guide sixth edition: conducting procurement and acquiring resources. The speaker explains how these two processes are connected.

Key Points:

• Conducting procurement involves making decisions about buying materials and conducting procurement processes based on how you plan your procurement.

• Acquiring resources often requires a procurement process, so it's presented separately but is essentially the same thing.

• These two processes are connected because most of the time, you need to buy materials before you can acquire resources.

Manage Stakeholder Engagement

In this section, the speaker discusses managing stakeholder engagement. They explain how identifying stakeholders, understanding their power and interests, creating communication plans, and managing engagement are all part of this process.

Key Points:

• Managing stakeholder engagement involves identifying stakeholders and understanding their power and interests.

• Creating communication plans helps manage communication with stakeholders.

• Managing stakeholder engagement means working with resistant groups if necessary by changing approaches or methods of communication.

Monitoring and Controlling

This section covers monitoring and controlling processes, which work together with the stakeholder engagement process. The speaker explains how these processes are important for managing changes in a project.

Key Points:

• Monitoring and controlling involves managing tasks, resources, and schedules to ensure that everything is working as planned.

• Integrated control change is an important process because projects will face changes that need to be managed.

• Integrated control change means working on everything related to the project, not just scope, time, cost, or quality.

Project Integration Management

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of project integration management and its various components.

Scope Control

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of validating and controlling scope in a project.

• Changes in scope can lead to changes in the project's direction, which is why it's important to control it.

• The focus here is on time and ensuring that everything stays within schedule.

• Cost control is also an essential part of managing a project.

Quality Control

• Quality control involves monitoring tasks related to changes in quality management.

• Most statistical processes are included in this component.

Resource Control

• This is a new process introduced in PMBOK fifth edition. It involves managing resources, including adding or reducing them as needed.

• Communication monitoring is also crucial since stakeholders may change during the process.

Risk Monitoring

• Risks can change at any time during a project, so it's important to monitor them closely.

• For example, if importing products, customs closing operations could increase the probability of late delivery.

Procurement Control

• Procurement control involves making payments for goods or services received through procurement processes.

Stakeholder Engagement Monitoring

• Managing stakeholder engagement requires constant monitoring since stakeholders may change during the process.

Overall, project integration management involves managing various components of a project simultaneously in a fluid and integrated way. It's important to monitor each component closely to ensure that everything stays on track.

Project Closing Process

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of the project closing process and how it is a mental process rather than a formal one. He explains that the closing process involves celebrating, handing out documents, and closing projects or phases.

The Closing Process

• After delivering the project to stakeholders, it's important to go through the closing process.

• The closing process involves integrating all work done and celebrating achievements.

• The old "closing procurement" process has been incorporated into the "close project or phase" process.

• The PMBOK guide now has 49 boxes plus three new ones for a total of 50.

Learning about Project Management

• To learn about project management in a simple way, visit the speaker's website and download his resources.

• With these resources and the PMBOK guide, you can understand logic and processes easily.

Agile vs. Waterfall

• Agile is more nimble than waterfall because everything can come back to be fixed.

• Don't waste time trying to follow every aspect of PMBOK; use it as a guideline to support your project.

Final Thoughts

• Remember that errors can occur on both sides of a project.

• Practice makes perfect when it comes to understanding project management.