The Project Management Institute is a world-wide organization of project management professionals that was established in 1969 (www.pmi.org). It brings together more than 240,000 members in over 160 countries and is considered as the leading membership association for the project management profession.

Every now and then, PMI publishes a continuously improving set of common, industry-independent, management best practices in its “Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” (PMBoK).

The PMBoK is considered by most as a valuable must-have book for each project manager to build his project management skills and is the main book on which the PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam is based. We are keen on building our Project Managers’ skills by having them all PMP certified.

In its PMBoK, PMI identifies 5 overlapping/interacting Process Groups and 9 Knowledge Areas that must be present in each successful project. The Process Groups overlapping enables project fast-tracking and quicker delivery while keeping the process predictable and controlled.

• Initiating Process Group: Defines or authorizes the project or a project phase.

• Planning Process Group: Defines and refines objectives, and plans the course of action required to attain the objectives and scope that the project was undertaken to address.

• Executing Process Group: Integrates people and other resources to carry out the project management plan for the project.

• Monitoring and Controlling Process Group: Regularly measures and monitors progress to identify variances from the project management plan so that corrective action can be taken when necessary to meet project objectives.

• Closing Process Group: Formalizes acceptance of the product, service or result and brings the project or a project phase to an orderly end.

Following are the 9 Knowledge Areas defined in the PMBoK:

• Project Integration Management: Describes the processes and activities that integrate the various elements of project management, which are identified, defined, combined, unified and coordinated within the Project Management Process Groups. It consists of the Develop Project Charter, Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement, Develop Project Management Plan, Direct and Manage Project Execution, Monitor and Control Project Work, Integrated Change Control, and Close Project project management processes.

• Project Scope Management: Describes the processes involved in ascertaining that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. It consists of the Scope Planning, Scope Definition, Create WBS, Scope Verification, and Scope Control project management processes.

• Project Time Management: Describes the processes concerning the timely completion of the project. It consists of the Activity Definition, Activity Sequencing, Activity Resource Estimating, Activity Duration Estimating, Schedule Development, and Schedule Control project management processes.

• Project Cost Management: Describes the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so that the project is completed within the approved budget. It consists of the Cost Estimating, Cost Budgeting, and Cost Control project management processes.

• Project Quality Management: Describes the processes involved in assuring that the project will satisfy the objectives for which it was undertaken. It consists of the Quality Planning, Perform Quality Assurance, and Perform Quality Control project management processes.

• Project Human Resource Management: Describes the processes that organize and manage the project team. It consists of the Human Resource Planning, Acquire Project Team, Develop Project Team, and Manage Project Team project management processes.

• Project Communications Management: Describes the processes concerning the timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage and ultimate disposition of project information. It consists of the Communications Planning, Information Distribution, Performance Reporting, and Manage Stakeholders project management processes.

• Project Risk Management: Describes the processes concerned with conducting risk management on a project. It consists of the Risk Management Planning, Risk Identification, Qualitative Risk Analysis, Quantitative Risk Analysis, Risk Response Planning, and Risk Monitoring and Control project management processes.

• Project Procurement Management: Describes the processes that purchase or acquire products, services or results, as well as contract management processes. It consists of the Plan Purchases and Acquisitions, Plan Contracting, Request Seller Responses, Select Sellers, Contract Administration, and Contract Closure project management processes.