Integrating your project management deliverables

Have you ever tried doing one of those gigantic 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzles with the tiny, teeny pieces? It can take a long time to get the pieces to fit perfectly and reveal the final, magnificent result.

But you can speed things up if you have a strategy.  I place all the pieces on the table and sort them into piles.  I work with the edge pieces first, creating some structure for the puzzle before working on the rest using pieces of similar colors or patterns.

Integrating your project management deliverables is similar. There are many pieces of the project puzzle, and sorting information into various “puzzle piles” can help create a structure that will facilitate control of your project.

Project deliverables that should be integrated start with:

• The Project Charter
• The Project Plan
• The Change Control documentation and Status Reports
• The Closure Report

The Project Charter is your initiation phase document.  It provides the basic information needed to start the project, including an initial scope, risk assessment, and time and cost estimates.  It also gives you authorization to progress to the next phase, which is planning.  Consider how your project’s pieces will fit together when developing your scope, assumptions, and initial estimates.

The Project Plan is your planning phase document.  It guides the way your project work will be performed.  It also provides the baseline against which the project’s progress will be measured.  It should ensure all elements of your plan are integrated.  For example, the potential of spending money to address a risk should be present in two places—first, the risk plan, and second, the cost management plan. When your project requires integration with another, ensure both plans are discussed and agreed upon.  You can then progress to the next phase, which is execution.

Status Reports are completed regularly during the “execution” and “monitoring and control” phases.  Once work is underway, status reports provide a timely, iterative review of progress against the Project Plan.  The data that goes into the Status Reports will be accurate and timely only if your plans are properly integrated. The schedule should be up-to-date and include all control and stakeholder deliverables mentioned in other project planning documents. All deliverables should have acceptance criteria quantified in a Quality Plan. If you are procuring goods for the project, the tender process tasks should be reflected in the schedule, the quality plan, and the cost management plan.

When all of the project work has been done, you progress to the next phase, closure.  The Closure Report is your end-of-project phase document.  It provides information necessary to finalize and complete the project, bringing it to an orderly conclusion.  Ensure that the lessons learned from the integrated project effort are documented.

By ensuring you create the basic project management deliverables and that activities that cross from one plan to another are captured and in sync, you can confirm that each phase of your project is managed in an authorized and controlled way. This allows you to more easily put the puzzle pieces together and ensure the end result is magnificent.