The Project Integration Management questions on the PMP® certification exam address critical project management functions that ensure coordination of the various elements of the project. As the PMBOK® Guide explains the processes focus on integration activities designed to ensure project success; therefore, integration characteristics involve unification, consolidation, communication, and integrative activities. Project Integration Management involves making decisions about resource use, trade-offs among competing objectives and alternatives, and managing the interdependencies between the ten knowledge areas. It addresses project initiation with the development of a project charter, project plan development, direct and manage the project work, monitoring and controlling the project work, integrated change control, and closing the project. These six processes not only interact with one another but also interact with processes in the other nine knowledge areas. It is important to note PMI®’s view that integration occurs in other areas as well. For example, project scope and product scope need to be integrated, project work needs to be integrated with other ongoing work of the organization, and deliverables from various technical specialties need integration.
The Project Integration Management questions are relatively straightforward. Most people find them to be fairly easy. But because they cover so much material, including all five process groups, you do need to study them carefully to become familiar with PMI®’s terminology and perspectives. PMBOK® Guide Figure 4-1 provides an overview of the structure of Project Integration Management. Know this chart thoroughly.
Following is a list of the major Project Integration Management topics. Use it to help focus your study efforts on the areas most likely to appear on the exam.
Project, program, and portfolio definitions
Project management definition
Project life cycle
Project management office
Project process groups
Business case
Project statement of work
Develop project charter
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets
Project management information system (PMIS)
Facilitation techniques
Analytical techniques
Expert judgment
Project management plan
Direct and manage project work
Key management reviews
Corrective and preventive action
Deliverables
Work performance information
Meetings
Project baselines
Subsidiary plans
Standards and regulations
Monitor and control project work
Validated changes
Forecasts
Integrated change control
Change requests
Change control meetings
Change control procedures
Change management plan
Configuration management plan
Change log
Approved change requests
Close project or phase
Administrative closure procedure
Accepted deliverables
Product, service, or result transition
Lessons learned
INSTRUCTIONS: Note the most suitable answer for each multiple-choice question in the appropriate space on the answer sheet.
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The business case is used to provide the necessary information to determine whether or not a project is worth its investment. It is used to justify the project and typically contains a cost-benefit analysis and a business need. [Initiating]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 69
Performing integrated change control consists of coordinating and managing changes across the project. Activities that occur within the context of perform integrated change control include: validate scope, control scope, control schedule, control costs, perform quality assurance, control quality, manage the project team, control communications, control risks, conduct procurements, control procurements, manage stakeholder engagement, and control stakeholder engagement. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 94–95
Meetings are a tool and technique used in direct and manage project work. Meetings tend to be one of three types: information exchange; brainstorming, option evaluation, or design; or decision making. A best practice is to not combine the types of meetings and prepare for them with a well-defined agenda, purpose, objective, and time frame. They should be documented using minutes and action items. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 84
The project charter documents the business needs, assumptions, constraints, understanding of the customer needs and high-level requirements and what the new product, service, or result is to satisfy. It is the document used to formally authorize the project. [Initiating]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 71
The content of the project management plan is primarily influenced by the application area [in this case drug development] and complexity of the project. The size of the plan is typically commensurate with the size and complexity of the project. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 74
The project management plan must be updated changes to subsidary plans and baselines subject to formal change control processes. Those changes must be communicated to appropriate stakeholders in a timely manner. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 100
Although the project charter cannot stop conflicts from arising, it can provide a framework to help resolve them, because it describes the project manager’s authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. [Initiating]
Meredith and Mantel 2012, 228; PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 71–72
EVA quantifies the value a company provides to its investors and seeks to determine if a company is creating or destroying value to its shareholders. It is calculated by subtracting the expected return, (represented by the capital charge), from the actual return that a company generates, (represented by net operating profit after taxes). [Initiating]
Cohen and Graham 2001, 217
Meeting management is an example of a facilitation technique used in developing the project charter as meetings may be held with key stakeholders and subject matter experts. Other facilitation techniques used to guide preparation of the charter are brainstorming, problem solving, and conflict resolution. [Initiating]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 71
While all of the answers apply to the direct and manage project work process, the key benefit is that it involves providing overall management of the work of the project, encompassing the other answers listed. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 79
While you are managing a different type of project, the organization has managed projects before and therefore may have as part of its organizational process assets a project management template, which sets forth guidelines and criteria to tailor the organization’s processes to satisfy specific needs of the project. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 75
The project statement of work is a useful document as it describes the products, services, or results the project is to deliver. It references the business need, product scope description, and the strategic plan. [Initiating and Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 68, 78
Standardized guidelines and work instructions are an organizational process asset to consider as the project management plan is developed. They include guidelines and criteria to tailor the organization’s set of standard processes to satisfy the specific needs of the project. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 75
The change control board’s powers and responsibilities should be well defined and agreed upon by key stakeholders. On some projects, multiple change control boards may exist with different areas of responsibility. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 96
The items listed are part of these systems, a tool and technique in both processes. [Executing and Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 84, 92
Change requests may include corrective actions, preventive actions, defect repairs, or updates. Updates are changes to formally controlled project documents or plans to reflect modified or additional content. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 85
A change control system is a collection of formal, documented procedures that define the process used to control change and approve or reject changes to project documents, deliverables, or baselines. It includes the paperwork, tracking systems, and approval levels necessary to authorize changes. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 96
The project management plan describes how the project will be executed and monitored and controlled. While it contains a number of subsidiary plans, it also contains other items including information on key management reviews for contents, their extent, and timing to address open issues and pending decisions. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 77
Executing is where the majority of the budget is spent because this is the process where all of the resources (people, material, etc.) are applied to the activities and tasks in the project management plan. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 56
The project statement of work describes in a narrative form the products, services, or results that the project will deliver. It references the product scope description as well as the business needs and the strategic plan. [Initiating]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 68
Rolling wave planning provides progressive detailing of the work to be accomplished throughout the life of the project, indicating that planning and documentation are iterative and ongoing processes. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 45 and 560
Integrated change control requires maintaining the integrity of baselines by releasing only approved changes into project products, services, or results. It also ensures that changes to product scope are reflected in the project scope definition. This is done by coordinating changes across the entire project. [Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 94 and 99–100
A project is completed when its objectives have been achieved or when they are recognized as being unachievable and the project is terminated. In this case, the end will occur when the product is finished. Thus, the concept of temporary applies to the project life cycle—not the product life cycle. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 3–4
In closing the project, it is necessary to ensure that the project work is completed, and the project has met its objectives. Since project scope is measured against the project management plan, the project manager then reviews the scope baseline to ensure completion. [Closing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 101
Scope, time, and cost are examples of project baselines to be part of the project management plan.
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 76
Most deliverables are tangible, such as buildings or roads, but intangible deliverables also can be provided. Work performance data are collected during direct and manage project work and is passed on to the controlling processes of each process area for further analysis. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 84–85
When you volunteered, you signed a confidentiality statement so you could not disclose what was under way on this activity. Now the Standard has been issued, and to stay in alignment with PMI®’s best practices, you need to issue a change request based on corrective action to realign the performance of the work of your project with your project management plan. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 85
When the project manager is selected and assigned to the project during initiation, several of the usual start-up tasks for a project are simplified. In addition, becoming involved with project activities from the beginning helps the project manager to understand where the project fits within the organization in terms of its priority relative to other projects and the ongoing work of the organization. [Initiating]
Meredith and Mantel 2012, 101; PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 67
Closure includes collecting project records, ensuring that the records accurately reflect final specifications, analyzing project or phase success and effectiveness, and archiving such information for future use. Each phase of the project should be properly closed while important project information is still available. [Closing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 100–101
Work performance data are the raw observations and measurements identified during activities performed to carry out the work of the project. Other examples are the reported percent of work physically completed, quality and technical performance measures, number of defects, actual costs, and actual durations. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 59
Project management processes and product-oriented management processes must be integrated throughout the project’s life cycle, given their close relationship. In some cases, it is difficult to distinguish between the two. For example, knowing how the project will be created aids in determining the project’s scope. However, the project life cycle is independent from that of the product. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 38–39
Documentation that the completed deliverables have been accepted is prepared as an output of validate scope. The close project or phase procedures provides a listing of necessary activities, including: confirmation that the project has met sponsor, customer, and other stakeholder requirements; satisfaction and validation that the completion and exit criteria have been met; the transfer of deliverables to the next phase or to production/operations has been accomplished; and activities to collect, audit, and archive project information and gather lessons learned have been addressed. [Closing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 100–103
The project charter should be issued by a project initiator or sponsor who formally authorizes the project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. The project charter should not be issued by the project manager, although, the project manager can assist in its development. [Initiating]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 71
The change request should detail the nature of the change and its effect on the project. Documentation is critical to provide a record of the change and who approved it, in case differences of opinion arise later. A change request is an output from the direct and manage project work process and an input to the perform integrated change control process. [Executing and Monitoring and Controlling]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 85, 97
The question is an example of an overlapping relationship between phases. It is used to compress the schedule through fast tracking as an example. By overlapping phases more resources may be needed, risks may increase, and more rework may result if a significant phase progresses before accurate information is available from the previous phase. [Executing]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 42–43
If the product to be delivered is well understood, a predictive life cycle or one that is fully plan driven is recommended. The project’s scope, time, and cost to deliver it are determined in the project life cycle as early as possible. [Planning]
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 44–45
A thorough review of the work packages will provide a complete accounting of the physical progress achieved on the project. This is the first step in attempting to improve performance. [Closing]
Cleland and Ireland 2007, 365–375
Using a formal, documented approach to change management reduces the level of misunderstanding or uncertainty regarding the nature of the change and its impact on cost and schedule. For large projects, change control boards are recommended. [Monitoring and Controlling]
Meredith and Mantel 2012, 500
As long as the new stakeholders agree with the project’s business case, the work should continue. However, if any of the other events occur, termination should be considered. [Closing]
Cleland and Ireland 2007, 365–375
A configuration management plan is part of a project management plan to document how configuration management will be performed on the project.
PMI®, PMBOK® Guide, 2013, 77