Project management term paper

According to CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) model, the project may be divided into four basic steps: initiating, planning, executing, and closing; control is the fifth step which is done in parallel with other steps. This model is successfully used for project management, and one should note that the phases of a project mean distinct intervals and can be clearly seen in the course of the project (West & Boehm 2004). At the same time, during the whole project or during its smaller parts (or even phases) one can single out a number of similar processes which also have a starting and ending point, though some of the can be repeated several times. Another branch of research, program management, deals with these phenomena which are referred to as process groups.

Program management is the act of creating and managing multiple projects, most of the projects are usually related to one another. The names of process groups resemble the names of project phases; however, one project phase or a larger part of the project may consist of several process groups. In some organizations typical project phases and process groups match each other but project phases and process groups are not similar. Figure 1 shows the diagram illustrating process groups.

Process groups may be repeated throughout the project and even throughout a phase. The PMBOK framework which is based on process groups suggest a model of 44 processes: initiating ”“ 2 processes, planning ”“ 21 process, executing ”“ 7 processes, monitoring and controlling ”“ 13 processes and finally, closing ”“ 2 processes (Project Management Institute 2000). Such structure allows to increase flexibility and allows to optimize the product or project in the process when it is being developed. Such approach is called “flexible product development”.

In the IT sphere, the instruments for realizing such approach are PMBOK model (Project Management Institute 2000) and Agile software development ”“ a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.



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