Chapter 3: Examining the Project Management Processes

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Overview

Did you ever have one of those Junior Scientist Chemistry Kits when you were a kid? These kits had recipes for different reactions, formulas, and experiments. You could make smoke, sparks, smells, and iridescent colors if you followed the step-by-step directions. Of course, if you were a 'real scientist' you'd experiment and things could go haywire. One small change, an uncalculated variable, or a mistaken catalyst could cause your whole experiment to literally blow up in your face.

Sounds like project management, doesn't it?

All of the different elements in project management are integrated. The cost, time, scope, cultural achievability, technical achievability, and more are all related and interdependent. A small change, delay, decision (or lack thereof) can amplify into serious problems further down the project timeline.

Project management, unlike those Junior Scientist Chemistry Kits, doesn't come with exact step-by-step directions. It is a fluid process with general guidelines, stakeholder requirements, and you leading the project to reach the customer requirements. In this chapter, we'll talk about how all of the different parts of a project are interrelated. Specifically, we'll discuss the project processes and their interactions, the ability to customize the project processes, and how all of this business works towards your current project of passing the PMP examination.

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