5th Edition PMBOK® Guide—Process 4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Jerome Rowley

1. Direct and Manage Project Work–Purpose

This is the third of the six processes in the Integration Knowledge Area, and it is located in the Executing Process Group.

It is the process of leading and performing the project work that was defined in the Project Management Plan (the output of 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan), and implements changes that were approved in process 4.4 Perform Integrated Change Control (in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group). So it is fed into by the process that precedes it AND the one that follows it.

2. Direct and Manage Project Work—Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs (overview)

Here is a chart summarizing the inputs, tools & techniques, and outputs of the process.

The two inputs Project Management Plan and Approved Change requests have been described in the paragraph in section 1. The other inputs are the generic EEFs and OPAs.

4.3 DIRECT AND MANAGE PROJECT WORK
INPUTS
1. Project Management Plan In particular, those subsidiary management plans in the following areas

  • Scope management plan
  • Requirements management plan
  • Schedule management plan
  • Cost management plan
  • Stakeholder management plan
2. Approved Change Requests This is an output of process 4.4 Perform Integrated Change Control, and may be either

  • Defect repair
  • Corrective action
  • Preventive action
3. EEFs
  • Company and customer culture
  • Infrastructure (facilities, equipment)
  • Personnel administration (performance reviews, hiring/firing guidelines, and training records)
  • Stakeholder risk tolerances (allowable cost overrun %, for example)
  • Project Management Information System (PMIS) (e.g., Microsoft Project, Primavera)
4. OPAs
  • Guidelines, work instructions
  • Communications requirements
  • Issue and defect management procedures, database (historical
  • Process measurement database (collection of measurement data on processes and products)
  • Project files from previous projects (performance measurement baselines, risk registers, lessons learned)
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
1. Expert Judgment Expertise for directing and managing work comes from:

  • Various units within the organization
  • Consultants and subject matter experts (SMEs)
  • Stakeholders (including external such as customers and suppliers, and internal such as sponsors)
  • Professional and technical associations
2. Project Management Information System (PMIS) Specific tools in PMIS used are:

  • Scheduling tools
  • Work authorization systems
  • Configuration management system
  • Information collection and distribution system
  • Automated gathering and reporting of KPI (key performance indicators)
3. Meetings Three types of meetings are:

  • Information exchange
  • Brainstorming
  • Decision making
OUTPUTS
1. Deliverables Tangible components completed to meet project objectives.
2. Work performance data Raw observations and measurements of identified during activities performed to carry out the project work.

  • Percentage work completed
  • Key performance indicators
  • Technical performance measures
  • Start and finish dates of scheduled activities
  • Number of change requests
  • Number of defects
  • Actual costs, actual durations
3. Change requests
  • Defect repair (modifies nonconforming product)
  • Corrective action (realigns performance with project management plan)
  • Preventive action (ensures future performance aligns with project management plan)
  • Updates (changes to project documents that reflects changes to project)
4. Project Management Plan updates Can include changes to performance baselines, one of the 9 knowledge area-related management plans that make up the Project Management Plan, or the two subsidiary plans of

  • Requirements management plan
  • Process management plan
5. Project documents updates
  • Requirements documentation
  • Project logs (issues, assumptions)
  • Risk register
  • Stakeholder register

In the next post, I will discuss what activities are done in this process with the tools & techniques mentioned above. The post after that will discuss the outputs, particularly the change requests, because managing these is the key to keeping your project under control.

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One Response

  1. Shahryar's avatar
    Shahryar, on July 4, 2017 at 5:35 pm said:

    You said: “4.4 Perform Integrated Change Control (in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group),” but shouldn’t that be “4.5”?

    Reply

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