Part 2: Exploring the Project Management Knowledge Areas

Project Cost Management The Project Cost Management Knowledge Area focuses on costs and budgets. Planning Cost Management: Planning Estimate Costs and Budgets: Planning Budget: Planning Control Costs and Monitoring and Controlling. This area will establish budgets and budget estimates, as well as monitor the costs to ensure the project remains within the budget. The sooner you agree on the scope of your project, the easier it is to estimate costs. This practice has the advantage of allowing costs to be easily controlled early in the project. While this Knowledge Area focuses on the cost of resources, it is important to consider other costs. Consider ongoing maintenance and support costs for software and equipment that might be transferred to the operations group at project’s end. These processes may require multiple people depending on the complexity of your project. For example, the finance manager might not be familiar with the staffing management plan. Therefore, the project manager will need to bring a staff member who is knowledgeable about these resources to help with the activities. This Knowledge Area uses two techniques to help you choose among the alternatives and improve your project’s progress: value engineering and life cycle costing. When comparing or choosing between alternatives, the life cycle costing method considers all costs together (such as acquisition, operations and disposal). The value engineering technique optimizes life cycle costs and helps improve project schedules, profits and quality. In a nutshell value engineering is about optimizing project performance and cost. It primarily focuses on eliminating unnecessary costs. The project manager can identify elements that are not adding value by looking at the project’s performance and specific activities. This will allow him to make cost-savings. These techniques can improve decision-making, reduce costs, shorten activity durations, and improve quality of deliverables. Additional financial analysis is required for certain areas to predict project performance. This can be done using techniques such as payback analysis and return on investment. Project Quality Management: This Knowledge Area focuses on three processes: Plan Quality Management, Perform Quality Assurance, Executing Control Quality and Monitoring and Controlling. The Project Quality Management Knowledge Area ensures that the project meets all requirements. This Knowledge Area is focused on product quality and the quality of project management processes. These processes monitor overall performance, compare project results to the quality standards established in the project-planning process, and ensure that customers receive the product, service or result they ordered. Project Human Resource Management: This Knowledge Area covers four processes: Plan Human Resource Management, Planning Acquire Project Teams: Executing Develop Project Teams: Executing Manage Project Teams: Project Human Resource Management includes all aspects of people management, including coaching, conflict resolution, performance appraisals, and leading. These processes ensure that the project is managed effectively.