Project Integration Management - Definition, Importance and It’s Steps

If you have worked on different projects or if you have managed many of them, you will agree on one thing for sure. No two projects are the same concerning timeline, budget and deliverables. Understanding this, to ensure that every project meets its objectives, many organizations do one thing in common. They use project integration management. 

Definition of Project Integration Management

Before proceeding further, you should know what is project integration management, isn’t it? It is nothing but a standard practice. It encompasses the coordination of all elements of a project. It involves everything right from task delegation, communicating with stakeholders and resource management. The good thing about this practice is that it takes a holistic approach to Project Management. When retaining the big picture in mind, it permits you to execute projects. The main purpose of integration management is to help teams meet predefined goals. It does it by ensuring the smooth running of processes.

You should know about project integration management processes. Particularly, you should use it when there are communications between different teams and processes. Let us consider that projects in your organization face scheduling conflicts. Even, at times, they might face competing objectives. In these cases, project integration management will help make schedule or cost trade-offs. In turn, your team can meet the expectations of stakeholders by completing the project.

You can understand this concept better with an example. Let us consider that the marketing team in your organization needs data from the sales team. The former needs it from the latter for producing a report to stakeholders. Here, project integration management will help with ensuring that the data from the latter is rightly handed off to the former. Even, it will ensure that the deliverables meet the needs.

Importance of Project Integration Management:

Not all projects are simple. In fact, in most instances, it is hard to manage projects. Even, by nature, some projects are complex. As a Project Manager, you will have to manage a lot of things. Examples include stakeholders, changes, risks, resources, quality, scope, cost and schedule.

Keeping track of all these things and knowing how one factor can have an impact on the other can be highly challenging. Nevertheless, if it is not done rightly, it can play a key role in affecting the progression of the process. For instance, as a Project Manager, let us consider that you cannot understand how a scope change can impact your resource requirements, costs and schedule. In this case, it will be hard for you to carry out change management. In turn, you might not have the people you need. Even, there are chances of delay in the delivery of your project. Otherwise, you can go beyond the project budget. One of these three or even all three can happen.

In the same way, decisions about your project can impact the other projects and even other areas of your business. For instance, for your project, you might need a software engineer from some other team for a short period. To handle this type of situation, project integration management is important. The same software engineer you need might be busy with some other project. But, when there is project integration management in place, you can easily identify conflicts in advance. Even, you can understand how to resolve them. For these reasons, project integration management is important for any organization. Particularly, it is helpful for organizations dealing with many projects.

Steps in Project Integration Management:

You know the importance of project integration management. But, for implementing it in your organization, you should be aware of the procedures to follow. Here are the details of seven steps to follow in implementing project integration management:

1. Create a Project Charter

In general, in any project, the creation of the project charter is the first step. The reason is that this document will provide details about the key stakeholders involved in the project. This official document provides details about the Project Manager and reads its deliverables. The other details you can find from this document are the cost estimation, time frame, goals of the project and the list of stakeholders. With this document, it will be easier for Project Managers like you to lead the entire project. To create the project charter, your organization will need to outline the business goals in alignment with the project goals. Even, the organization should identify the scope and risks involved in the project. A forecast of the cost/profit ratio is important.

2. Development of a Project Management Plan

The creation of the project integration management plan is the second step in this process. From this plan, you should be able to understand how the different processes can work together. As a result, they should ensure better productivity and efficiency. The project plan should define the project definition, resources, schedule, budget and objectives. Most importantly, it should explain the approach you will be following to get the project done. It should also assess the risks involved in the project. In simple words, it is a formal document that should help you execute, control and guide the project to success.

As a Project Manager, you will be responsible for making this plan. This document will have a consolidation of other plans like procurement management plan, communication management, human resource management, process improvement, quality management, cost and scope management plan. It will encompass baselines for the project. Examples include scope baseline, performance and schedule baseline. It will not be possible to change the baseline unless and until it is done through a formal change request. In this second step in the processes of project integration management, kickoff meetings should be held. Of course, the meetings should be held once the planning phase is over and you are getting into the project execution. The execution is yet to happen. It will let the key stakeholders know their project responsibilities.

3. Direction and Management of Project Work:

This is the project execution phase, where as a Project Manager, you will support and lead the team to implement the project. With your direction, the team will start executing the tasks at this project integration management phase. It is the phase where the project starts slowly yet steadily.

4. Manage Project Knowledge

In this step of project integration management, Project Managers use the available information. Even, they get additional or new information to achieve the goals of the business. This step makes sure that every member of the team knows what they should know and when they need it. The knowledge gained during the project implementation will expand the intellectual wealth. It will increase the value of knowledge exchange and motivate innovation within the organization.

5. Keep Track of and Control Project Work

Project integration management tries to ensure that there is a balance in all the areas of the project. Examples of the areas include stakeholders, procurement, risk, personnel, quality, budget, scope, time and communication. To make sure of compliance with the Project Management plan,  it is important to keep an eye on the project work. As a Project Manager, you will have to regularly carry out earned value analysis for identifying the project schedule and budget. The project will remain operational when these things are monitored. Most importantly, they should be monitored for compliance with the project charter.

6. Integrated Change Control

The life of the project can span with change control. In this iterative process, the scope, goals and project plan are integral assets. Never put the basic project goal to risk with revisions made during the process. Rather, you should take corrective actions when any change takes you away from the project goal. To minimize the chances of scope creep, it is better to request and document any changes via an official process. As a Project Manager, it is better to appoint members of a control board. They will help you evaluate change requests. In turn, the next steps can be accordingly framed.

7. Project Closure

Now, you are almost reaching the end of the project integration management processes. By this time, you should have achieved the product deliverables and goals. Does it mean that you have done the project management activities? Unfortunately, it is not yet over. At this stage, you will have to conduct a post-project review. In turn, you can get a chance to reflect on the unachieved and achieved things of the project. Even, from this evaluation, you can how to make integration better the next time.

Also, at this phase, you should conclude any integration-related tasks. Examples include archiving change documents and canceling recurring meetings.  

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Conclusion:

Each step in project integration management has defined outputs and purposes. Let us consider that you walk through your project integration management through these steps. When you do this,  you can gain deeper insight into the best course of action. You can gain insight into each phase of the project. Let us consider that you ensure clear documentation during these processes. In turn, you can clearly communicate the reasoning behind the plans. In short, project integration management will be beneficial for everyone involved in the project. They may be stakeholders, the Project Manager or the team members.