Project Management Plans vs Project Documents

Project Management Plans vs Project Documents

For PMP exam, one should know the difference between the Project Management Plans and Project Documents. It helps a lot in answering questions on the exam. Go through it several times and then you will be automatically well versed with Project Management Plans and Project Documents.

Project Management Plan: 
1. All baselines:
         a. Scope baseline – Scope baseline contains Scope Statement, WBS, WBS Dictionary
         b. Schedule baseline – This is the approved schedule
         c. Cost baseline – This is the time phased project budget
2. All management plans:
         a. Scope management plan – This describes how we will plan, implement, validate and control scope.
         b. Requirements management plan – This describes how we will manage requirements throughout the project including changes to the requirement.
         c. Schedule management plan – This describes how we will plan, implement, and control schedule. 
         d. Cost management plan – This describes procedures for cost estimation, budgeting and controlling costs.
         e. Quality management plan – This describes how Quality Policy will be implemented and how Manage Quality and Control Quality will be performed.
         f. Resource Management plan – This describes Roles and Responsibilities, Project organization chart and Staffing management plan
         g. Communications management plan – This describes communication requirements of the stakeholders, communication methods and communication technology.
         h. Risk management plan – This describes the approach and methodology we will use for risk management processes, time and budget, roles and responsibilities for risk activities, risk category, tracking system, probability and impact matrix.
         i. Procurement management plan – This describes the procedure for conducting, controlling and closing procurement
         j. Stakeholder engagement plan – This describes strategies to ensure appropriate engagement of the stakeholders.
         k. Configuration management plan – This describes how configuration management will be performed. It defines those items that are configurable, those that require formal change control, and the process for controlling changes to such items.
         l. Change management plan – This is focused on identifying, documenting and controlling changes to the project and the project baselines.
         m. Performance measurement baseline – This is the combination of Scope baseline, Cost baseline and Schedule baseline
         n. Project lifecycle description – This is a series of phases that a project passes through. 
         o. Development Approach – This describes what approach is finalized – Predictive, Incremental & Itertative and Adaptive.

Project Documents: All other documents resulted from initiation and planning but not placed under project management plan and documents resulting from execution and monitoring & controlling:
1. Activity Attributes – This contains detailed information about each activity
2. Activity List – This contains the list of all activities.
3. Assumption log – This contains the assumption we have made during project execution.
4. Basis of estimates – This contains the information based upon which we made the estimates.
5. Change log – This contains all changes requested in the project.
6. Cost estimates – This contains the estimation of cost of activities
7. Cost forecasts – This contains the prediction of costs to complete the project.
8. Duration estimates – This contains the estimation of duration of activities.
9. Issue log – This contains the list of ongoing and closed issues.
10. Lessons learned register – This contains the information gained during the project execution.
11. Milestone list – Milestone is the last activity of each phase. It contains the list of all such milestones.
12. Physical resource assignments – This contains the materials, supplies, locations and other physical resources used on the project.
13. Project calendars – It indicates the days, dates and time the project team is working or planned to be working.
14. Project communications – This contains the information that is distributed to the stakeholders during project.
15. Project schedule – This contains start and end dates, milestones that must be met to complete project on time.
16. Project schedule network diagram – This contains the sequence of the activities being performed on the project.
17. Project scope statement – This contains what all work is required to be done on the project.
18. Project team assignments – This contains the information of who all are working over the project and over what.
19. Quality control measurements – This is the measurement which is generated after deliverables are inspected.
20. Quality metrics – It is the description of the attributes of the product or project.
21. Quality report – This is the report which includes quality management issues escalated by the team; recommendations for improvements and corrective action recommendations.
22. Requirements documentation – This contains all requirements which describes how each requirement meets the business needs of the project.
23. Requirements traceability matrix – This contains the information that links product requirements from their origin to the deliverables that satisfy them.
24. Resource breakdown structure – Resources are organized in the hierarchical fashion and are broken down into categories types for better management of resources.
25. Resource calendar – This indicates the days, dates and time a particular resource (human resources/machines/etc.) will work.
26. Resource requirements – This contains the type, quantity, and skills required by the resources on the project.
27. Risk register – It contains all risks identified on the project.
28. Risk report – This is a summary of project risks and opportunities, the latest status of treatment actions, and an indication of trends in the incidence of risks.
29. Schedule data – This contains all project specific schedule information.
30. Schedule forecasts – This is the estimates of future schedule based on information and knowledge available at the time the schedule is calculated.
31. Stakeholder register – This contains the list of all stakeholders.
32. Team charter – This is the document that describes team direction, ground rules, etc.
33. Test and evaluation documents – This contains the overall structure and objectives of the Test & Evaluation for the project.

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