3.6 Summary

The section summarizes the framework defined by PMI's PMBOK V5. PMBOK gives an overview on the project management knowledge areas which are to be used during a project, independently from the chosen methodology.

Main project constraints are the same, be it a construction or a software developer project. The section summarizes which knowledge areas and their activities are having the highest influence on functionality, deadline, quality and costs. These are PMBOK's core knowledge areas: scope management to manage the decrease and increase of requirements, time management to enable to deliver in a timely manner, cost management to meet cost baselines and quality management to satisfy stakeholders' needs.

While mastering these knowledge areas are essential, facilitating knowledge areas have a high influence on expectations and on how effectively the resources are managed during a project. Without a proper, well performing staff, no successful projects can be delivered – this area governed by HR management. Communication is one of the most time consuming activities in a project, therefore have to be managed by using the best practices of Communication Management. Procurement of third party products and services can be expensive and can not be ad-hoc; a framework is therefore provided in Procurement Management knowledge area. Small risks can easily grow to unmanageable problems, which can be blockers of a project – risk management is therefore a continuous activity; overseeing and evaluating them is a must throughout the whole time line of the project.

All of the above have to come together, the project management team should deal with the above topics as dependent project areas; integration management provides the needed framework to have a well governed project managed by taking the deadline, costs, scope and quality as priorities and enables continuous improvement for the whole project staff.