Ch6. Project Integration Management — The Art of Holding Everything Together

What Is Integration Management?

Project integration management is the discipline of coordinating and aligning all project processes and knowledge areas — scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, and more — so they work as one.

Core role:
A scope change → what is the impact on schedule and cost?
A risk materializes → how does it affect quality and stakeholders?
→ Seeing the whole picture is the PM's most essential skill

The Project Charter

What the Charter Does

The project charter = the project's birth certificate

Contents:
- Project purpose and business justification
- Measurable objectives and success criteria
- High-level requirements
- High-level risks
- Summary budget
- Milestone schedule
- PM authority and responsibilities
- Sponsor signature

→ Sponsor signature = official authorization = permission to use resources

Problems When There Is No Charter

- PM authority is ambiguous → hard to get team cooperation
- No scope baseline → scope creep expands without limit
- No success criteria → no way to decide when to close the project

The Project Management Plan

The master document that integrates all subsidiary plans:

Scope Management Plan + Schedule Management Plan + Cost Management Plan
+ Quality Management Plan + Resource Management Plan + Communications Plan
+ Risk Management Plan + Procurement Management Plan
= Project Management Plan

→ Establishes baselines (scope, schedule, cost)
→ All future changes are measured against these baselines

Integrated Change Control

The Change Control Process

Change request received
    ↓
Change request form completed (formal documentation)
    ↓
Impact analysis (scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk)
    ↓
Change Control Board (CCB) review → Approved / Rejected / Deferred
    ↓
If approved: update project plan + notify stakeholders
If rejected: notify requester with reason

Core Principles of Change Control

Every change must be documented:
→ Verbal change requests do not exist (Non-existent)
→ Even "small changes" require an impact analysis

Baseline protection:
→ Only approved changes may update the baseline
→ Unauthorized scope additions = scope creep

Directing and Managing Project Work

Key activities during the Executing phase:

Directing work:
- Assign work packages from the WBS
- Allocate resources and provide direction

Managing progress:
- Compare actual progress against the plan
- Analyze variances → take corrective action

Verifying deliverable quality:
- Define acceptance criteria upfront
- Review completeness of each deliverable

Project Knowledge Management

Explicit knowledge: documented information
→ Process documents, lessons learned repository, technical specifications

Tacit knowledge: expertise that lives in people's heads
→ Shared through interviews, workshops, and mentoring

Lessons learned management:
→ Must be documented at project close
→ Stored as organizational process assets
→ Reused on future projects

Core Integration Management Tools

Meeting types:
- Kickoff meeting: form the team, align on goals
- Status meeting: check progress, remove obstacles
- Lessons learned meeting: analyze successes and failures at close

Project Management Information System (PMIS):
- Jira, MS Project, Asana, and similar platforms
- Integrated environment for planning, executing, and reporting

Project charter = official authorization + PM authority (requires sponsor signature) Every change must be documented → CCB review → baseline updated Integration management = coordinating and connecting all knowledge areas Lessons learned documentation = organizational asset reused on future projects