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Project Management: A Look at Its

Methodology from PMBOK Perspective
by

Ir. Noor Iziddin Abdullah bin Hj. Ghazali

Every successful project comple-

tion highly depends upon careful

execution of a well-structured and
detailed project plan. This plan will
be based on a collective agreement of
objectives, a well-designed implementation plan and well-defined goals.
The projects undertaken by appointed vendor/contractor will be
implemented by team members from
various areas, depending on the proposed solution. The team has extensive experience gained from handling
numerous types of projects.
All team selected for the project
will work closely with the assigned
Project Manager to ensure a smooth
and successful project implementation.

Figure 1: Key Project Success Factors

The approach and methodology in

Project Management is to deliver a totally integrated solution which meets
Clients initial business objectives
without compromising on fulfilling
the quality [1] expectation even under
time and budget constraints.

1. Key Project
Factors

Success

Faced with increasing competitive

pressures in rapidly changing and
technically challenging environments,
organisations must adopt flexible and
effective strategies and structures in
order to speed ever-higher quality
products and services to the market.
This may be achieved by improving
the Management Method Project

Management Methodology, which

addresses the key project success
factors shown in Figure 1.

2. Key Project Principals

On top of leveraging on the understanding and experiences in managing

the critical project success factors,
Figure 2 shows the key principals for
delivering effective project management services.
The success stories in delivering
high quality products and services are
strongly influenced by a sound belief
in the commitment to excellence.
The commitments to a client for the
project are:
Project Management Plan that
comprises input from personnel
with extensive project experience
and technical expertise to serve as
the blueprint for a successful and
strategic project implementation;
A suitably experienced team having
in-depth management and technical
skills developed over large base
projects;
Delivering quality products and
services even within time constraints;
Having a complete understanding
of the clients quality expectations
as the main focus in ensuring
continuous customer satisfaction;
A successful realisation of any brilliant
idea or endeavor is strongly influenced
by the successful execution of the plan.
These various projects need a
mature project management metho
dology for successful implementation; a methodology that is an ongoing improvement effort that leverages
on extensive experience and proven
(To be continued on page 17)

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best practices. It must be flexible yet

comprehensive enough to address the
unique stages of individual projects.
This is possible because the methodo
logy is applied at the individual stages
of each project.

This simple yet comprehensive

method comprises the following five
process groups,
Initiation
Planning
Execution

Monitoring and Control

Closure
which cover the nine knowledge areas:
Scope
Time
Quality
Cost
Communication
Human Resources
Risk
Procurement
Integration
as shown in Figure 3.

3. Details of Each Process

Group

Each process group consists of activities that can be executed and its corres
ponding deliverables. The methodo
logy is a best fit. This means that not all
activities may take place as it depends
on the complexity of the project. The
Project Manager assigned shall select
and execute the process group activities where it is best applied.
Figure 2: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
(Extracted from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey)

Figure 3: Process Groups in Nine Knowledge Areas [2]

a) Project Initiation
The Project Initiation stage defines
and authorises the project. The project
is formally recognised by the management and ready to mobilise.
A project kick-off meeting will be
held to set a common understanding
between appointed vendor/contractor and client. The project sponsors
and stakeholders will be invited to the
meeting to formalise the project definition.
After the project kick-off, the
Project Managers and other team
members from both the appointed
vendor/contractor and client will
conduct preliminary planning where
the high level project scope will
be confirmed and the project team
identified.
The Project Managers shall also
commence discussion on the contract terms and conditions. Depending on the completeness of information received, the contract can
either be finalised during the Initiation
stage or carry on until the planning
stage.

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b) Project Planning
The Project Planning defines and further refines the project
objectives and plans the activities that are required to meet
the scope of the project. The main output from this stage is the
Project Management Plan which will serve as a blueprint for
the team during project execution. In addition, this is the stage
where the requirement, schedule and other related plans are
built and submitted to the client before commencement of the
actual work.
It is crucial for all plans to be confirmed, especially for the
requirements, to ensure that the scope is agreed by all parties.
The contractual discussion will continue at this stage, if it
is not closed during Project Initiation. More often than not, the
discussions will be centered on the contract appendices, for e.g.
finalising the scope of work, bill of materials, warranty and
maintenance, and project schedule.

c) Project Execution
This stage consists of all the activities that are required to complete the work defined in the Project Management Plan and
other planning documents in order to meet the project requirements. The project managers will be responsible on team and
people coordination to ensure a successful execution. Any deviations from the signed-off plan agreed in the Planning stage
will be handled as change requests.

d) Project Monitoring and Control

This stage involves all the activities that will regularly assess
the project progress. It is also during this stage that the Project
Managers, together with the team members, will continuously
work to identify any deviations from the Project Management
Plan and other planning documents. Corrective and preventive
measures will be taken where necessary to quickly bring the
project back on track.

e) Project Closure
In Project Closure stage, the client formally accepts the product
or service that the project was undertaken for. The project
managers will work with the project team to ensure that the
project comes to an orderly end. A handover planning session
will be arranged for the project to be handed over to the Client
upon closure. n

References
[1] Quality Definition Based on ISO 9000s
Quality is meeting customer requirements.
[2] A Guide to Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK). Project Management
Institute (PMI): Newton Square, Pennsylvania
USA, 2000.

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