Hi,

as I promised, in this blog post I will explain Project Process Groups (according to PMI), and Knowledge Areas, and how suitable MS PROJECT 2010 is for those Process Groups and Knowledge Areas!

Project Process Groups are: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitor & Controlling and Closing.

In Initiating process group, you will make a decision which Project (or Projects) will you take. You should Develop Business Case, and after that, if you will decide to go on with the Project, you should Develop Project Charter. You have to reveal Assumptions, Stakeholders Expectations, Goals, Constraint, Global Risks etc. From my point of view, MS PROJECT 2010 is not suitable for this Process Group. Of course, you can use MS PROJECT 2010 as a central repository and you can put Project Charter and other documents in it.

Planning process group is crucial for successful Project. You need to plan EVERYTHING: Scope, Time, Costs, Quality, Human Resource, Communication, Risk and Procurement! MS PROJECT 2010 is VERY HELPFULL, and you should use it while you are planning your Project, but you CAN NOT DO EVERYTHING WITH IT! (For example: how will you plan the quality with MS PROJECT 2010?)

You can find in many books that MS PROJECT 2010 is very helpful in this Execution process group, and I think that is CORRECT. For example you can print To do lists, you can Mailing the task lists, etc.

In Monitor and Controlling process group you will: Monitor and control Project work, Perform Integrated Change Control, Verify Scope, Control Schedule, Control Costs, Control Quality, Report Performance, Monitor and Control Risks, etc. MS PROJECT 2010 is, again, very helpful here!

In Closing process group you can use MS PROJECT 2010 to Capture actual task duration Metrics, Capture Successful task Sequencing, and save a project as template, for further similar projects.

There are nine Knowledge Areas.

Integration Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is excellent for Develop Project Management Plan and Monitor and Control Project work
• MS PROJECT 2010 is good for Change Management plan (you can track all changes, but for whole change request process MS PROJECT 2010 is not enough)
• With MS PROJECT 2010 you can not  Develop Project Charter

Scope Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is excellent for Define Scope, Define WBS, and Control Scope
• With MS PROJECT 2010 you can not Collect Requirements

Time Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is excellent for Sequence Activities, Develop Schedule , and Control Schedule
• You can not Define Activities with  MS PROJECT 2010. It means  that MS PROJECT 2010 can not tell you which tasks you should have in your Project to meat the Project Objectives. However, if you have a template you can write the activities in a template and then simply import them to MS PROJECT 2010 . If you had a similar project and you have a template, then you can use it as a help when you are defining activities. The same thing is with Estimate Activity Resources, and Estimate Activity Durations.

Cost Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is excellent Excellent for Determine Budget, and Control Costs.
• Cost estimation is complex job and MS PROJECT 2010 is good as a help.

Quality Management

• Generally, MS PROJECT 2010 does not cover Quality management

Human Resource Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is good for Develop Human Resource Plan, Manage Project Team, but not for Acquire Project Team Process

Communication Management:

• MS PROJECT 2010 is excellent for Distribute Information, and Report Performance
• MS PROJECT 2010 is good for Plan Communication, and Manage Stakeholders expectation
• You can not use MS PROJECT 2010 for Identify Stakeholders Process

Risk Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is Good for Plan Risk Management, Identify Risks (some of them, not all), and Monitor and Control Risks (not all of them)
• Generally you can not Perform Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis with MS PROJECT 2010

Procurement Management

• MS PROJECT 2010 is, generally, excellent if you import the WBS from the Vendor

A lot of my colleagues told me that: „When I change something in MS PROJECT 2010, the whole schedule and resource and cost is ‘crashed’ and everything seems wrong”.

My answer is “DO YOU REALLY KNOW HOW TO USE MS PROJECT 2010??. TAKE YOUR TIME AND LEARN!!!”

MS PROJECT 2010 is strong and powerful tool, it can do a lot, but it can’t do everything, and it is is not a replacement for a proper project management.

If you don’t how to use it, do not use it, before you learn it!

Do not put data in MS PROJECT „for fun”. If you don’t have a reliable data, don’t put them in MS PROJECT 2010. If you do, you will have: „garbage in – garbage out”

Best Regards