Developing the Project Management Plan

You wouldn’t go about building a house, creating a new piece of software, or launching any project without a project plan, right? The project management plan, however, is more than how the work will be done: it’s how the project will be done. That’s right, the project management plan defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and then closed. It’s a plan on how to manage, coordinate, and integrate all the different knowledge areas and processes within a project. It’s multifaceted. Figure 4-2 shows the process necessary before the project management plan can be developed. Think of all the things a project manager and the project team will decide within the project plan that need to be documented:

Figure 4-2. It’s a logical approach to get to the project management planning phase.